Name: The Rumble
Members: Second Chief Joseph Boudreaux Jr., Aurélien Barnes, José Maize Jr., TJ Norris, Ari Teitel, Andriu Yanovski, Trenton O’Neal
Nationality: American
Current release: The Rumble's debut album Live At The Maple Leaf Bar is out now. The album has been nominated for a Grammy - the results will come in on February 4th 2024.
Musical Recommendations: Lightning And Thunder - Golden Eagles; Handa Wanda - The Wild Magnolias

If you enjoyed this The Rumble interview and would like to stay up to date with the band's music, visit their informative website. They are also on Instagram, and Facebook.
 


For a while, it seemed as though the model of the bed room producer would replace bands altogether. Why do you like playing in a band rather than making music on your own?

We like playing in a band because you’re able to bounce ideas off of the other band members, and they can spark inspiration you just wouldn’t get on your own.

Music is collaborative by nature and the true magic happens with the interactions between band members as the songs grow and come into their own.

What, to you, are some of the greatest bands, and what makes them great?
    
Earth Wind And Fire, Duke Ellington Big Band, The Meters, Parliament Funkadelic. They all play to the strengths of all the individual members. You can clearly hear each individual character in every song, but they all work together seamlessly. With a different member, the whole character of the groove and song would change.



As for Earth Wind and Fire especially, the songwriting and commitment to the groove represents the best of black popular music and inspired countless generations of other artists.

Before you started making music together, did you in any form exchange concrete ideas, goals, or strategies? Generally speaking, what are your preferences when it comes to planning vs spontaneity in a collaboration?

In our case, we were especially intentional with our goals, strategies and ideas due to the nature of how we were formed. When we were all together in Cha Wa, we were dealing with immense frustration from numerous sources and our decision to start The Rumble stemmed directly from those frustrations.

Leaving was not an easy decision but because we did it with true and strong intentions everything we have achieved as The Rumble feels that much better.

There are many potential models for creativity, from live performances and jamming/producing in the same room together up to file sharing. Which of these do you prefer – and why?  

We love every aspect of creating and producing music. The way our music forms comes from countless sources, it may be from a groove that happened from a jam or it may start as a writing session with just one or two members.

But the way that the songs change and come to life all happen in the moment, whichever moment and in whatever context that may be.

How do your different characters add up to the band's sound and in which way is the end result – including live performances – different from the sum of its pieces?

In our band, our members all come from many different backgrounds, both musically and in life. The way we bring our different experiences into our band sound is a direct result of our shared musical experiences as well as our different musical backgrounds.

Our keyboard player, Andriu Yanovski plays in Boogie T.rio - a live electronic band.



Our trumpet player, Aurelien Barnes plays with Preservation Hall Jazz band.



And our bass player, TJ Morton plays with Maroon 5 when we’re not out with The Rumble.

We take all those experiences and try to bring them together and the intersection of these experiences combined with our home of New Orleans is where you’ll find The Rumble’s sound.

Is there a group consciousness, do you feel? How does it express itself?

The Rumbles’ group consciousness makes itself known every time we get on the bandstand and play together. We all enter a state of flow together and anything can happen once the first note is played at a show.

Tell me about a piece or album which shows the different aspects you each contribute to the process particularly clearly, please.

To narrow it down to one song we’d probably say “Golden Crown” is the one that most actively shows everyone’s musical personality and the versatility of the band.



The unison bassline played by guitar, bass, and clavinet show the strong foundation of our unit while the big horn line provides the flair and excitement that surrounds Chief Joseph’s Mardi Gras Indian informed Rap-style verse.

When those elements meet the open jam section for the solo, the harmonized chorus and the hip-hop influenced outro it pretty much sums up and highlights everybody’s strengths.

What is your sense of ownership like as part of the collective songwriting process? What is the balance between the lyrics, melodies and harmonies, and the groove in terms of your sound?

We take ownership very seriously in The Rumble, it was a big part of our decision to leave Cha Wa.

Everybody in the rumble is equally capable of writing a chorus, a groove, a melody, or any other part of the song. We try to form our songs organically and if anyone has an idea we always give it a try no matter what.

What tend to be the best songs in your opinion – those where you had a lot in common as a band or those where you had more differences? What happens when another musician take you outside of your comfort zone?

When we write for The Rumble as opposed to other projects, we typically try to write to the band’s strengths. It is one of the strong suits of having so many different individual outlets between the band members.

We definitely grow as a band whenever someone brings in a different style, but we try to keep it based in the sound and vibe that we have worked to curate.

What are your thoughts on the need for compromise vs standing by one's convictions? How did you resolve potential disagreements?

We have gone through ups and downs as a band, long arguments in longer van rides, and countless band meetings.

At the end of the day, we all love and care about The Rumble’s shared success, as well as all of the intertwined relationships that go into having a 7 piece band. Because of that commitment to the band to and to each other, we always find a way to work it out in the end.

Do any of the band's members also have solo projects? If so, how do these feeds into the band's creative process?

Like we mentioned before, everyone in the band has at least one if not multiple other projects that all influence the band in one way or another, pretty much only for the better.

Those other outlets give us the ability to laser focus on The Rumble as its own entity, and bring in all kinds of other experiences into the fray to always keep things fresh.

In a live situation, decisions between band members often work without words. From your experience and the performances of your current tour, what does this process feel like and how does it work?

Every decision on the bandstand comes from a place of trust. You have to trust your brothers (and sisters) on stage to have your back no matter what.

In our case, that trust is the foundation of our entire band. It allows us to take the music in a different direction every night if we want.

How has the interaction within the group changed over the years? How do you keep things surprising, playful and inspiring?

Everyone in the group is constantly growing as people and as musicians. Some of us are getting married, some of us are having kids, and all of us are growing by being apart of a growing band like The Rumble.

Every new experience that happens changes and shapes us and we bring that into everything we do, including The Rumble.

Have you worked with outside contributors - from sessions musicians via producers to other songwriters? How did this change, improve or challenge the established dynamic and how do you look back on that?

So far we have remained pretty insular in that regard, self-producing and writing all of our own music. We do have a few special collaborations planned for our next Studio Record which we’re excited about, but those are all as special guests or features rather than as writers or producers.

On the live record however, we did bring some special guests (Pedro Segundo on Percussion and Amari Ansari on Saxophone) to add to and fill out the sound. It was awesome bringing in new people and their own character into the mix.

Most bands eventually break up. What makes you stay together? What are essentials for a successful band?

The Rumble is like a diamond. It was formed by pressure and time.

If we can just always remember to look at the beautiful thing we have created and work to keep it polished, we too will be worth millions of dollars one day ;)