Arts A La Rock'n Interview

Muddy Reds

Arts A La Carte - Tell us about your band and how you first got together. How long have you been together?

Muddy Reds - We all met through a series of fortunate encounters, sort of like stopping to relieve yourself on the side of the road and coming back with stickers in your socks. Some of them were too nasty to pull out. That all started sometime in 2008 or 2009, it’s hard to remember.



Arts A La Carte - What type of music do you perform? Who writes it? Who are the band members involved?

Muddy Reds - The simplest answer is: we’re a rock & roll band, and everyone contributes to the writing process. Auggie the dog hopped up on the piano and hit a honky-tonk chord while we were recording Katie Brown, and it was perfect.

Arts A La Carte -Who or what other bands influence you the most?

Muddy Reds - That’s a pretty long list for each of us. Where do they overlap? Musically, we all meet at the intersection of soul, blues, country, r&b, and rock & roll, but we’ll wander down side streets too. We read a lot and we listen to records every day. If it makes you want to cry or fight, it’s probably pretty solid.



Arts A La Carte - Does anyone manage you? Who are you biggest fans and supporters How do you do your promotions?

Muddy Reds - As far as management goes, we’re all on our own at the moment. We do everything ourselves, sort of like Creedence but you know how that ended up, so uhh... I think there are only a few patient souls who could tolerate working with us for more than a month. We’re really not very effective promoters because we’re a moody bunch and we like playing music more, so word of mouth is probably the most helpful thing.

Arts A La Carte - What venues have you played at? Out of all the places that you have played, which is the most memorable and why?

Muddy Reds - We’ve played all over LA - the Bootleg, The Mint, Silverlake Lounge, etc., etc., but the strangest things and the best shows tend to happen while you’re playing on the road. You're more receptive, and so by the laws of the universe, the weirdness finds you.



Arts A La Carte - Do you have any current CD's out or any new release coming out in the near future?

Muddy Reds - In October 2011 we released an EP called “Justle Hustle”, which was recorded live in a haunted house where we lived at the time– it’s a small collection of songs that we view as a transition into some pretty heavy new material, as far as the place it’s coming from. The new stuff should see the light of day, hopefully, later this year.

Arts A La Carte - Have you been involved in music festivals and if so, how was this experience.

Muddy Reds - Yeah, did a couple of local music festivals in Venice Beach and Lake Irvine. Seems like we always end up playing around noon though, which doesn’t agree with us very well. We’d like to do some more festivals, just give us a late spot and we’re on it.



Arts A La Carte - What have been your biggest challenges that you have faced as a band?

Muddy Reds - Playing shows before the sun goes down.



Arts A La Carte -Has your music been played on any radios or online radios?

Muddy Reds - Hope it’s been played on somebody’s radio! I don’t really know what stations we’ve been on, unless someone tells us about it. We’re not all that great at keeping up with things. I know that Flophouse played on 98.7 in LA this week, and I think we’ve played on a few college stations across the country. We’ve actually gotten some of the best exposure through online radio programs though, podcasts and that sort of thing. There’s a podcast out of Tennessee called ‘From the Burro’, and David, the podmaster or whatever you call it, has given us a lot of support. We had some airplay in London last year. Adam Carolla had us as featured artists on an episode of Film Vault with Michael Biehn as the guest host. That was nice. Hope he said some nice things about us.



Arts A La Carte - Where can people find out more information about your band?

Muddy Reds - Ask Jeeves