Forget about dubstep – this band will play you hugstep.
Royal Teeth, a six-member band of Louisianans, is performing at Spanish Moon on Friday night, and they’re bringing their unique genre of music with them.
“It’s hard to classify our music and we never have a great answer,” said drummer Josh Hefner. “So we created a new genre – hugstep.”
Royal Teeth formed about a year ago, but many of the band members have been playing together for longer. The group materialized from the remnants of a Lafayette-based alternative-rock band named Oh, Juliet!
With a blend of indie-pop and electro-dance music, Royal Teeth combines sounds to produce infectious music with audience interaction in mind.
“We like to bring a lot of energy to a crowd and make them feel like they’re a part of what we’re doing,” Hefner said.
Hefner said the band will go on “drum breaks” playing from within the crowd, and sometimes they’ll break out the big guns – a confetti cannon.
“Fun is the main word,” said Andrew Poe, the band’s keyboard and samples man. “We’re up there having fun and we want everyone in the audience to do the same.”
Poe said the band’s fun ran on and on at this year’s South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas.
“We were playing just about every day, if not a couple of times a day, and the crowd response was great,” Poe said.
Hefner said the band’s time at SXSW was a non-stop frenzy of fun, but the band did stop long enough to enter a contest. He said The Royal Teeth submitted a performance videotape for a contest sponsored by Nikon and Warner Brothers and won.
“They chose us and we got to play in the Warner Brothers music showcase, opening up for fun,” Hefner said.
Long distances have been an obstacle for the band, with half its members living in Lafayette and the other half living in New Orleans. Royal Teeth have persevered, however, turning their challenging spacial distribution into a strength with the use of technology.
Poe said the band conducts much of its creative process through e-mail. He said one of the band’s vocalists, Gary Larsen, will typically write a bare-bones acoustic song and then e-mail the progress to the rest of Royal Teeth. Band members then send back additions, revisions and suggestions before ultimately meeting in person to play.
“It’s cool to be able to work on it individually and together as a band,” Poe said.
The band released an EP, “Act Naturally,” in July and has busied themselves with playing live shows since, according to Hefner. Royal Teeth have played several venues in Baton Rouge including The Varsity, Spanish Moon and The Manship Theatre.
Hefner said the band is excited to play in Baton Rouge again Friday, especially because of the city’s location.
“Baton Rouge is a cool market, and with it being between Lafayette and New Orleans its kind of like a third hometown market for us,” Hefner said.
Hefner and Poe said the band has plans to tour the East Coast this summer and play with 2 Skinnee J’s and Fitz and The Tantrums. The two said they are thankful for the opportunity to play in more of the country and infect new fans with dance-inspiring hugstep.
“With our live shows we try to make it hard to stand still,” Poe said.
 
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Contact Josh Naquin at [email protected]