Featured Artist Interview: Mississippi Man

By Travis Woods

A blurry mix of everything from bluesy rock to ’60s psych-pop to gentle folk, L.A.’s Mississippi Man is a band that defies genre categorization, yet consistently entertains with soulful, hook-laden rock.  And you can catch them every Monday night in November at the Silverlake Lounge where the band is holding court with a free Monday night residency all month long.

Web in Front recently caught up with Mississippi Man guitarist/vocalist David Knight (who has also been contributing weekly residency diaries) to discuss the band’s residency, their 2009 EP, Snake Oil Salseman, and what 2010 holds for the band.

Web in Front: How’s the residency going so far?

David Knight: It’s going really well. We’ve already seen a huge growth in people coming just from the first night to the second. We’re really pleased with the lineups so far and we’re looking forward to some great bands in the next few weeks as well. I think people are really connecting with our music and hopefully seeing our vision as we see it. All we really want from the residency is for people to connect with our music and to make some new fans along the way.

WiF: How did the residency come together?  How did you go about selecting the support acts?

David: It had some hiccups, like any residency, but I think it turned out really well in terms of the lineups for each night. Unfortunately, we already had a band cancel on us last week but it really didn’t affect us too much. We selected the lineups mostly based from bands we really dig from LA and the surrounding areas. Granted, we had to be a bit careful because we didn’t want to book anyone too big since it’s our residency but we worked it out. A few personal favorites are What Laura Says from Arizona, The Fling from Long Beach, Olin & the Moon, and Shakey Graves, both from LA. We really enjoyed picking out the bands to play with us. I think it was one of the more fun, albeit frustrating, parts of planning the residency.

WiF: You’ve announced that you have two EPs coming out in 2010, along with a west coast tour.  Is the residency your way of working out any kinks to the new tunes?

David: Definitely part of it. Most of our live songs are newer so having a residency where we can showcase the songs to the crowd every week and gauge their reaction is pretty great. I’m sure it will help us decide what we want to put on the two EPs or if we need to change small parts of a few songs. For a newer band, we have quite a large repertoire of songs to pick from when we play live but right now we’re trying to play mostly newer stuff since we feel it’s a bit more mature as far as the songwriting and it’s more the direction we would like to go in the future. Our first EP had a few songs that we still like but a lot of it was us just experimenting and trying to find a sound that fit us and something that we could all relate to in an intimate fashion. The next two EPs will be much more cohesive sounding and I think people are really going to dig it.

WiF: What should people expect to hear each night?

David: Well, we’re trying to change up the setlist each night at least a small bit. We might even throw in a few covers in the upcoming weeks. But we have a few staples in the setlist that aren’t going to change. Every night is going to be a bit different though, in terms of our performance and depending on the energy that we can wring out of the crowd. We feed on the crowds energy, as I think a lot of bands do, and it seems like the more people that are into it, the better we perform.

Listen to “The Jester”

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WiF: You also released the Snake Oil Salesman EP earlier this year—will there be room for a full-length sometime in the near future?

David: Over the last six months or so we’ve been in talks with a few labels, nothing set in stone yet, but when we sign to a label that’s probably when we’ll put out a full-length. Right now, we don’t really see the point in doing a full-length since, without a label backing it, it would be harder to promote. Also, there’s so much new music coming out right now that if you don’t keep people’s attention by putting out new material every few months, it’s quite easy to lose your fanbase. I’ve personally seen it happen to bands that we are close with and, at the moment, we don’t have the fanbase it takes to sustain a full-length album.

WiF: Snake Oil Salesman, and your sound in general, is quite slippery-you can’t pin in down to a singular genre or style, as single song might spin from barroom blues to gentle folk to ’60s-styled Brit-pop.  How would you describe the band’s sound, and how did you strike upon it?

David: Like I said previously, our sound on the EP was a bit more searching than it will be on upcoming releases. We will still have all of those elements but they will be combined together to form a more cohesive product. So when we sign to a label and put out a full length, it will probably contain a couple of the songs from previous EPs that sound similar and then new material as well. We definitely want it to be an album where any song can be instantly recognized as our own. We don’t necessarily want to do what Devendra Banhart did and put out albums with songs from many different genres. Although Devendra can get away with it because his voice is so recognizable.

As far as our sound, we just took what we all listened to and tried to put our own spin on it. As far as I’m concerned, being unique nowadays just means that you found a way to inject a part of you into the music you create. Finding a way to put a spin on the music that you love, that’s unique. Rock n’ roll, folk, pop, it’s all been done before so from that perspective, nothing is really unique nowadays. Also, our sound is a bit different because we have two main songwriters who write instead of just one. That can make it a bit more difficult to produce a solid product but it produces greater results, in my opinion. I think we’re finally getting the hang of things and our newer stuff should be proof of that.

WiF: What’s the typical songwriting process for the band, especially with two songwriters?

David: Up until the last song we wrote, Luke and I would come up with some ideas together and we would work them out into an almost complete song. Then we would take them into rehearsal and show everyone and tell them our vision for it. The last song we wrote, however, we just had one idea that Luke had written and we decided to try and all write the song together in rehearsal. It wasn’t easy but we really liked the results so we may be doing more of that in the future.

WiF: How did Mississippi Man form?

David: We formed after Luke quit his old band and myself, Patrick, and Scott had just kicked out our singer. So we decided to jam and give it a try and it just worked out. “The Fight” was the first song we ever wrote and we still play that one live at every show. That was before our keyboardist, Santino, joined. Originally, Luke and I would switch off between playing guitar and keyboards but that took time when we played live and we decided it would be much easier if we got a full-time keyboard player. Luke was friends with Santino so we auditioned him and here we are.

WiF: As your residency month, and 2009, begin to wind down, what are the band’s goals for 2010?

David: Well, we have the two EPs planned tentatively for release in spring and summer. We have a west-coast tour planned for January where we will be playing shows everywhere up and down the coast. Not just the usual stops like San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. Then we plan on recording the EPs after that in either late January or early February. We might be signing to a label early next year as well which would mean limited runs of vinyl for both EPs. We will also most likely be playing SXSW and we are planning either a national tour for later in the year or even going to the UK for a month. A lot of touring next year.

November 16, 2009 | Filed Under Exclusive Features, Featured Artist Interviews, Music News 

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