In a musical hub like New Orleans, becoming the best in a certain genre is a tall order to fill. For native band and Voodoo act Tysson, the hunger to be the best is all that keeps them going.
Tysson formed as a five man band of young New Orleans musicians. The group wanted to create something separate from the members’ individual projects that could capture a new sound.
Lead singer and guitarist John Michael Rouchell had already seen national success with his previous endeavor MyNameIsJohnMichael. During that time, he performed at multiple festivals including Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza and last year’s Voodoo.
He gathered the artists he knew he wanted to work with and began building Tysson with the other members. Rouchell says while MyNameIsJohnMichael was fun, his full focus is now on Tysson and establishing a fan base for the band.
When the band first began earlier this year, each member still had other projects going on. Rouchell said over time members began to get busier with these other projects and two members left the band making it a trio.
Despite the setback, the remaining members of Tysson adjusted and continued to make music that ties every individual member’s musical background together. Drummer Alvin Ford said the music Tysson is making has “never been done before.”
Ford comes from a gospel and R&B background which is the credit for his soulful percussion skills. Rouchell uses his indie rock upbringing for many of his guitar parts and even incorporates a little pop music a la Justin Timberlake. Bassist Max Moran has played jazz music for much of his life and is a big fan of harder rock music. He uses this knowledge to better himself on all of the potential a bass has that is rarely utilized in music.
“We’re all from New Orleans so we take music very seriously,” Ford said. “We take that with pride and want to give the city another thing to be proud of.”
After its performance on the Carnival stage at Voodoo, Moran said the band feels a lot more comfortable with the work they’ve been doing recently. Rouchell agreed Tysson was nervous because it is a new band and it played an early afternoon show.
“It’s the day after Halloween and in the beginning [of the set], the crowd was a little thin.” Rouchell said. “By the end of the show it was thick with people and that made us feel great.”
Ford believes it’s the band’s relationship away from the music that will make them stand out from other musical genres. He said Tysson feeds off of its cohesive friendship to create good content. The members will talk about basketball or Kanye West’s latest media incident because they do “normal people things” together.
While Rouchell agreed that the band is a trio of friends first, he added that it is Tysson’s desire to be the best that truly drives the band.
“If we see a show and realize, for example, Usher’s band is killing us then we have to figure out how to beat them,” Rouchell said.
Tysson agreed that there is an internal fire to be great and because of that, the band members each other to perform to the best of its potential.
The trio is hoping to release its first EP in 2015.