If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone either deny that they’re anything like their parents or wish that they weren’t, I’d own a lot of Manolo’s and Seat Belt Bags. What can I say? I’m weak. But I can’t say that I’d be getting a dime from Louis Prima Jr. The son of the legendary, “Swing King,” has been touring the country bringing his father’s music back to the forefront with a bit of an edge. I got the opportunity to talk to him today about this freshly finished debut record, his incredibly talented sons (we knew the genes were good, so no surprise there), and just what it means to him to perform his father’s music.<\/p>\n
CP:<\/strong> You started out playing rock and roll in a pretty successful band before you took a break. What inspired you to come back to the music industry and plau your father’s music?<\/em><\/p>\n LPJ:<\/strong> You know, every young person wants to do what\u2019s popular. I love rock, I\u2019ll always love it, and at the time it was just what I was into. But rock got a little depressing, grunge started, and I just felt a certain level of frustration with the music business in general. I took a break, but I came back. It\u2019s my first love. I loved my father’s music forever, and it just felt right to come back and perform it.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> I know that you\u2019ve commented previously that you didn\u2019t want hired guns as your band when you started this project. Has it taken a while to get a steady band together?<\/em><\/p>\n LPJ:<\/strong> It has definitely taken a while to get the right mix for the band. I\u2019ll never speak ill of anyone who has ever played with us, but it has taken a while to get the right band together. I guess it\u2019s been a bit of a long haul finding people who not only enjoy the music, but that love the whole show. I wanted to find people with a pure love of their art not just a paycheck. We\u2019ve really got that now. There\u2019s nine of us, and we\u2019ve been playing together for about a year and a half now. We travel together, and I think we all really genuinely enjoy each other\u2019s company.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> That sounds like the perfect fit, and like it fits the feel of your father\u2019s band.<\/em><\/p>\n LPJ:<\/strong> It\u2019s a great time. We have so much fun on stage. There\u2019s a lot of times when we\u2019ll make fun of each other on stage, and you know, with our show, nothing is scripted. That\u2019s just us having fun, and I truly enjoy that aspect of it.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Now that definitely sounds like your father\u2019s band. Did he always have the same energy at home? Was he the same person on and off stage?<\/em><\/p>\n LPJ:<\/strong> He absolutely was. He was every bit the person he was on stage in every aspect of his life. He was the guy who enjoyed life, and he enjoyed having fun. He was a great father, and he enjoyed having fun with his family. I can remember being on trips in the summer, and he\u2019d always stop for a fan. I can count on one hand the number of times I ever saw him upset.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Now you have a family of your own.<\/em><\/p>\n LPJ:<\/strong> I do. I have two little nightmares of my own now (laughs). No, they\u2019re great. I have two boys that are 17 and 13, and they\u2019re so talented. My oldest is an artist, and he is just so talented. It amazes me what he can take from pen to paper. He\u2019s incredible. And my youngest, he\u2019s a musician. He is the perfect example of someone who just has that raw talent. Anything he touches, drums, guitar, trumpet, he can play it. He\u2019s got just enough ego to be dangerous (laughs). I say that, and I\u2019m kidding of course, but it takes that confidence and that presence, and he just has it.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Do you try to pass on the experience you had with your dad to your kids? I know you guys used to tour with your dad a bit.<\/em><\/p>\n LPJ:<\/strong> We toured with my father in the summers a lot, and my kids will come out in the summer sometimes, but for the most part they\u2019re at home. I\u2019ll bring them out when it doesn\u2019t interfere with school and all that. We do still spend a lot of time together. Anytime I\u2019m home, I\u2019m spending time with my kids. And they\u2019ll come out to the local shows. Sometimes I\u2019ll have my youngest come up and play with me, and that\u2019s always a good time.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Now, what are you playing these days? Are you mostly doing your father\u2019s music, or more originals and current covers?<\/em><\/p>\n LPJ:<\/strong> We\u2019re still predominantly playing my father\u2019s music, but once we get steady, we\u2019ll incorporate some other originals and current songs. We actually just finished recording our first album, so there\u2019s a lot happening.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Congratulations! That\u2019s fantastic! When are you looking to release?<\/em><\/p>\n LPJ:<\/strong> I\u2019d like to release it as soon as possible\u2014 before Christmas if we can get it together.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Awesome. Is the album a lot of your father\u2019s material?<\/em><\/p>\n LPJ:<\/strong> Yes. My father had a fifty-year career, so there\u2019s a ton of material to choose from. I like to grab some of his material, some of the gems that people have never heard, or didn\u2019t know he did. I rearranged them to cater to my band. While we match his band in instrumentation, we also have the option for more technical computers backing us as well. We\u2019re louder, brasher, and faster than he was. But we\u2019ll always perform his music, and over time, we\u2019ll add more other stuff. That seems to be the direction we\u2019re heading in.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> That\u2019s so great to hear.<\/em><\/p>\n LPJ:<\/strong> Thank you. It\u2019s been a long time coming. It took a while, but I wanted to wait until I had the right guys in the band. Now we\u2019ve got them, and it\u2019s really great.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> I know it has to be tough to choose, but do you have a favorite song that you perform right now?<\/em><\/p>\n LPJ:<\/strong> You know, it changes by the month (laughs). I usually really like the new stuff that we\u2019ve just started doing. Right now though, I\u2019d have to say that I have three favorites from the album. \u201cOh Babe\u201d is a song my father did three versions of, and our arrangement is a combination of all three arrangements. My father used to love to feature all the members of his band, and I like to do the same. We also did a version of \u201cNight Train\u201d that\u2019s definitely on my favorite list right now. The sax player just killed it. Then the last one is \u201cI Wanna Be Like You,\u201d from The Jungle Book. It\u2019s so different, and so new. I really dig it right now.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> That\u2019s such a fun song. I\u2019m so excited to hear it! I never would\u2019ve expected that.<\/em><\/p>\n LPJ:<\/strong> Yeah, that\u2019s part of the fun. There are some people who know my father was King Louie, but then there are some who don\u2019t. But that movie is timeless. Everyone has seen it, so it\u2019s a fun song that everyone remembers and can connect to from watching it as a kid. I just wanted to put it in the right context musically.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Are there any new tunes on the album?<\/em><\/p>\n LPJ:<\/strong> It\u2019s mostly my father\u2019s music. There were songs that I had to put on there. I had to put \u201cGigolo\u201d and \u201cJump, Jive, and Wail\u201d on there. I love them. I really wanted people to hear what a musical genius my father was. You know, he did everything from the small combos in the 30\u2019s to 60\u2019s and 70\u2019s rock and roll. It\u2019s a fine mix of the originals and the unexpected.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Do you ever find it difficult to maintain your own persona while performing your father\u2019s music?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n LPJ:<\/strong> This is something I get asked a lot, and I\u2019ll put it this way. If I wasn\u2019t his son, I would still be a huge fan of him. I would still love his music, and I would still want to perform it. Performing is about giving people a chance to enjoy themselves and put the rest of the world away for an hour. In putting this together, my only goal was to not make it a tribute show and not call it that. I\u2019m myself. Sure, there are times when I sound like my father and I move like him, and I might even look like him. But I\u2019m still me. I have a drive and an energy to perform. I\u2019m not trying to be like him, but I am his son. We have some hereditary things that are just going to be similar. I\u2019ve never had an identity crisis about it or anything like that. It\u2019s a part of me.<\/em><\/p>\n And I also love that my band isn\u2019t trying to be someone else either. Sarah Spiegel isn\u2019t trying to be my mother, none of the other guys in the band are trying to be anyone from my father\u2019s band. Everyone is their own person just playing the music that they love their way. We all have the drive to be on stage, and it keeps me going. I was never battling that.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> What are you most looking forward to playing Anthology?<\/em><\/p>\n LPJ:<\/strong> I\u2019ve been wanting to play San Diego for a while now. We played Italian Fest back in October, and we got a great reception. We\u2019ve played everything at this point from small clubs to 4,000 seat outdoor shows. But my favorite place to play is in night clubs. The vibe just makes it easy to get people drawn into the show and engaged. I love to involve the audience, get them dancing. I want to make people forget about the entire world for one and a half hours and just have fun.<\/em><\/p>\n Be sure to bring your dancing shoes down on Saturday night, and check out Louis Prima Jr. and the Witnesses featuring Sarah Spiegel! In the mean time, feel free to practice your dance moves to our Louis Prima Sr. Spotify playlist!<\/p>\n Louis Prima Hits<\/a><\/p>\n WHAT: <\/em>Louis Prima Jr.<\/strong><\/em> An Interview with Louis Prima Jr. by: Casey Pukl If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone either deny that they’re anything like their parents or wish that they weren’t, I’d own a lot of Manolo’s and Seat Belt Bags. What can I say? I’m weak. But I can’t say that I’d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1442],"tags":[11512],"class_list":["post-4009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artists","tag-artist-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32971,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4009\/revisions\/32971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Screen-shot-2011-11-22-at-5.53.03-PM.png\" "\\"Louis")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nWHEN: <\/span>Saturday, November 26, 2011, 7:30pm <\/strong><\/em>
\nTICKETS: $10-$46 <\/span>Buy Tickets<\/a><\/em>
\nMORE INFO: <\/span>Artist Profile<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"