New Orleans and funk go hand in hand. When you think of that style of music, The Meters, Jimmy Smith and the like come to mind. One of the most happening funk outfits of the last 20 years from the Crescent City is Galactic. On the brink of their first visit to Australia, Robert Mercurio caught up with FasterLouder from the melting pot of music.
“We all finished school [in New Orleans] and that was an important part before we started touring,” Mercurio begins when asked about Galactic’s early days. “We were a college band and we were becoming popular in New Orleans in the early ‘90s. Before we decided to give it a strong effort we said, ‘Let’s all graduate, we don’t need to rush into this’. So we all waited, and some people took longer then others. I’m not going to name names, but some people took a year or so longer,” he laughs.
Since 1996, when Galactic took their first CD out on the road and attacked America, the band has been perennially on the road. At the commencement of their career they were rooted in New Orleans funk and definitely influenced by The Meters and the like. But they were known for their dynamic and outstanding live gigs.
“I was into funk and James Brown and the George Clinton Parliament stuff. In D.C. there is music called Go Go, which is indigenous to there, and I was really into people like Chuck Brown and that style of funk,” enthuses the bass guitarist. “I was not that familiar with New Orleans music like The Meters or Professor Longhair or the brass band music. But right when I came down here I instantly loved it and was sucked into the sound. I started diving head first into it. It’s a different kind of funk from James Brown. It’s more choppy and more sloppy and a little grittier. Not that one is better than another, but I had never heard this kind of stuff before.”
Galactic have shown in their half-dozen releases since the mid-‘90s that they are sublime when it comes to delivering the funk. You can jump into any of those records and they are simply party-starters. You definitely will not stay in your seat at a Galactic gig, or even at home when you hit the ‘Play’ button. We Love ‘Em Tonight, recorded in the historic Tipitina’s uptown in their hometown, is one place to sample what their live gigs are all about. Their live show set on that CD kicks off with Crazyhorse Mongoose which is a monster of a song to kick off a gig.
Galactic released a genre blending CD (quite possibly one of the best releases in 2007), entitled From The Corner To The Block, which incorporated the funk of the band with some of the best MCs around today. Since their vocalist The House Man had left the band due to some serious concerns for his health, the band had taken up with a number of people on stage. Some of these magical collaborations fed into their latest release.
“We had a long time vocalist with us – Theryl ‘House Man’ DeClouet – who was more of a soul singer. We had parted ways in 2004 and it came time to decide about our next album. So it was 2004 or 2005, and we tossed around a bunch of ideas. One idea that was floating around the band for years was us backing up a bunch of MCs. We were unsure whether we should do it right then, but we had a lot of friends who were great MCs and we just went with it. Why wait?
“We started making music and like half or two-thirds of the MCs are friends who we had already collaborated with live. So it was really easy to reach out to people like Lyrics Born and Chali 2na. They were very easy to work with. We started getting tracks back and we saw we could really make this into an album, so we kept on moving forward. The process was pretty long because Katrina hit in the middle of it and we were not able to record at our home studio in New Orleans. We could not live here and then the studio got condemned. So that put us off about 10 months. Also working to other people’s schedules made it a bit longer.”
But it was well worth the time and effort. With the aforementioned hip hop legends alongside talent like Boots Riley, Z-Trip and Gift of Gab, it’s a must-have release. On their tour, Galactic will be joined by Chali 2Na (Jurassic-5) and Boots Riley (The Coup), making for an exciting live combination.
Besides the non-stop touring, Galactic stay involved with projects helping their home of New Orleans re-build, such as The Tipitina’s Foundation. Let’s just hope the city can stay as strong as the music.
Galactic and guests bring their funk phenomenon to the following shows:
Tuesday 18 March – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
Friday 21 March – East Coast Blues & Roots Music Festival, Byron Bay
Saturday 22 March – Point Nepean Festival
Sunday 23 March – East Brunswick Club, Melbourne
