The band Jetlagger has been together for a little over a year and members Jonathan Loubiere (guitar), Johnny McAndrew (guitar), Ryan Roullard (bass), and Josh Nee (drums) say they fit right in with the mix of other local Baton Rouge bands in the area. In fact, for them it's not a competition; they just want to make music.
Jonathan Loubiere: I think we probably know a good portion of them, or have played in a significant portion of those bands. I don't know, its a very small tight knit scene I feel like. You know, but every year that goes by you get older and then new bands come in, and so I'm still finding out new bands and playing shows with kids that look like they may be young enough to be one of my children somehow.
Frank Barnett: Who are some of your major influences?
JL: I listen to a lot of R&B these days and somehow I always try and fit that in but it's always a bad idea.
Ryan Roullard: Yeah, the stuff I listen to has nothing to do with music that Jetlagger plays. Like, I'm into the Berlin school of electronic music which is early electronic music, from before you could even buy an electronic instrument these guys were making their own sequencers and synthesizers and stuff. I like weird rockabilly from the 50's early 60's.
FB: You mean like Buddy Holly?
RR: No I mean like weird stuff, like no-hit wonders that just like stumbled out of the woods into Sun Studio.
Johnny McAndrew: Oh, The Sonics and stuff.
RR: Well The Sonics certainly. Screamin' Jay Hawkins is one of my favorite vocalists ever. Ever!
FB: Never heard of that.
RR: Strongly recommend that you look it up.
FB: When did you guys first start playing music?
JM: My mom and dad played in a Fleetwood Mac cover band, amongst other cover bands that they played. Music was always around in my house and I probably started taking guitar seriously around the age of thirteen.
JL: I didn't start until high school. I think I picked up a guitar when I was 16. My dad never thought I would learn how to play it, and then somehow [I] did.
RR: I think I started at 19 on bass, and that was when I actually decided, "Okay, I'm going to pursue music more actively in my free time." I started real late.
JL: I didn't really start playing in bands until 2009-2010.
RR: Oh, really? I didn't know that about you.
FB: So are y'all from here?
JM: I am born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, yes sir. My mom's from New Orleans my dad's from Baton Rouge. I am a Southeastern Louisiana boy through and through.
JL: I was born in Franklin, Louisiana down south, but have been in Baton Rouge since 2002.
RR: I've been in Baton Rouge for almost two years now but I moved down from Seattle. And I lived there, and even north of Seattle, the northwest of the northwest for my entire life before I moved here.
JL: You know you...once you get to a certain age and have played with a lot of people you realize how hard it is to find people you can play with, and it's hard to describe. Even when everyone knows the same song, everyone plays it different. I feel like we've got a good thing going on and I just try and keep it going.
RR: It's worth it to take the time to find the right people. I mean, I know I would look for people who are good friends first, and maybe good musicians second. But if they're going to get along well and they're going to show up on time and put in what they need to put in - that's more important to me really than their level of musicianship. It's going to be a better experience for everybody, I think, if they get along to begin with.