At the beginning of our conversation and after thanking you warmly, I would like to inform us about how the band was created and who its’ members are.
The Hoodoo Tones: Firstly, thanks for your invitation! The Hoodoo Tones is a band founded in 2013 in northern France. In 8 years, our line-up changed a bit. We started with 2 guitar players, originally because the idea of creating a rock n’ roll band came from Kevin and his friend at university Clement. Because Clement left the band, we carried on playing as a trio with Ben at the stand-up bass and Julian at the drums. After Julian left, Mike (Michael) joined the band in 2017 and still hold the drums since that.
What are considered to be your most important influences?
The Hoodoo Tones: What a hard one! Influences come and go all the time. As a rockabilly band we’re inspired by the rock n’roll legends from the 50s but following their career after the glory days is such interesting. For instance, we take the entire career of Carl Perkins from Sun to Columbia and to the Dolly Masters to understand the way he made his swing. Then we do the same with other kinds of music even If we consider the Hoodoo Tones as stuck somewhere between the 50s and the 60s, taking some sounds, some notes or rhythms from both periods.
Above all, we have to say that the songs we write choose us and not the opposite! Chords, melodies, rhythm come like a blast sometimes as quick as we doesn’t have the time to think about it (laugh)!
In 2020, your new album entitled ”Still On The Run” was released. Do you want to talk us about it?
The Hoodoo Tones: “Still on the Run” (Rhythm Bomb Records) is our third album. First of all, we are proud to have released a third one in a global crisis and proud to try to make our sound alive since almost 10 years. That album proposes 12 original songs we calmly wrote between 2018 and 2020. In the recording sessions we tried to master our instruments the best way and to polish the vocals to do better that our second album. We also took care of the production in adding some overdubs we thought good for the songs in trying to not betrayed the raw aspect of our sound. In fact, we did it the way we are, without trying to be another band. Of course, people could think that The Hoodoo Tones didn’t take any risk but we have 12 songs we believe in, all are different and some are based on talented guests that we hosted at the Midnight studio (Crystal Dawn on “The Crystal’s Kick” and Alexis Bertein on “The Taste of Love”).
Could you tell as a few words about your previous albums?
The Hoodoo Tones: “Confession of a Loner” was released in 2016. As the first one, that album stays a good souvenir also because it’s thanks to that one that Ralph Brabant, owner of Rhythm Bomb Records, decided to sign the band ! If we got better in some ways since 2016, it shows that we lost a part of the spontaneity we had when we were younger (laugh)!
2 years later, we released “Here To Stay” which stays our toughest one. That one makes us remember that Michael did a crazy work in joining the band 3 weeks before we started to record it, can you believe it?!
In France, your home country, what is audience’s response about rock ‘n’ roll and rockabilly music?
The Hoodoo Tones: The French rockabilly scene is very rich with a lot of bands, events and a large audience of rockers. A lot of rockers are open-minded, try to make all kinds of rock n’ roll alive from roots rockabilly to teddy boy rock n’ roll. A lot of bands are creative as in the other countries around where we played. But because of some laws which promote the French language on radio and tv shows, rockabilly and rock n’ roll stay underground styles of music. For the biggest festivals of rock n’ roll which exist in France, no one can really expect more than a few thousands of people even if a lot of gigs are often crowdy and full of crazy fans!
How do you feel about returning to the live shows again?
The Hoodoo Tones: Coming back on stage is like breathing again for The Hoodoo Tones! That band was made to play live and we can say that we write songs only to share something with the public, everywhere we are booked.
We also felt this summer that people seem to need that kind of moments to feel good and forget their daily life a little.
What are your plans for the near future?
The Hoodoo Tones: Plans are the only way to make a band survive. That’s why we are currently writing songs to record a single this winter then a fourth album in spring 2022.
Where can we find you on the internet?
The Hoodoo Tones: Everyone can follow the band on Facebook and Instagram. You can get our albums on a lot of websites or listen to it on Spotify, Deezer or Itunes.
Thank you very much for the interview and will be glad to see you in Greece
The Hoodoo Tones: Thanks to you! We’d like to play in Greece one day for sure!
Costas Tzanidakis
