Lost Dog Found

Who is Lost Dog Found? How you guys met and got started?

Band leader/guitarist Stevie Mac:
I wanted to make music that was grander in scale than what I was hearing on the radio and seeing played around the area. I had always been a fan of the 50s-era jump blues, and the swing revival era of the late 90s, both of those have an energy that is distinct and raw, but not all angst-ridden or schmaltzy. But I wanted it to rock; not heavy metal swing, but I’ve thought of it as music to house a mosh-pit of swing dancers. I had a handful of songs that fit my idea from my days when I was more focused on music publishing, and decided to create a “mini-big band” that would be led musically but not dominated by the guitar, the horn section would be a mix of New Orleans meets rock n’ roll, and the songs would be all original with a hint of debauchery. The last thing I wanted to do was cover songs; if we were going to become something we were going to have to do it with our own piss and vinegar.”

So with that “if you build it, they will come” attitude, an ad was placed on Craigslist for an upright bass player and a drummer. Original LDF bass player Jeff Moon, and drummer Kyle Pesonen met with Stevie in a rehearsal studio in San Rafael, CA, and after a rather mediocre rendition of “Rock This Town” and a few of Stevie’s original material, it was clear that there was something there, but nobody in the room could sing worth a lick.

I ran across a picture on Facebook of Chris Hudlow, who was one of my good friends from childhood. He was holding a saxophone and announcing he was graduating from Hayward State. We talked on the phone and met up in San Rafael, where he totally nailed the sound I was looking for from the get-go. He is an amazing singer, the best in the bay area if you ask me, and we get a bonus with him because he also fills in on the tenor saxophone during some of the tunes (and played all the tenor parts on our album.)

What's the meaning behind the band's name?

We went through a few names that just never stuck (Skin That Kitty was the closest). Stevie had a family blog way before Facebook came around under the name “Lost Dog Found” since 1997, and the boys in the band said “why not that?” “The meaning of the name I think rings true with everyone in the band; the original thought was that everyone in life is good at heart, and sometimes it takes awhile to find the thing that makes us tick to become who we are supposed to be. All of us in the band think this music is the thing we’ve been searching for, and it’s an amazing feeling to have ‘caught the dragon’ so to speak. We think it’s a horrible name for a swing band in actuality (aren’t we supposed to have a “big” or “boom” in the name?), but we’ve heard nothing but compliments from our fans about the name.”

What's your method at the time of writing a song?

With the exception of “Where Is Ray” and “Turn Me On” (written by Chris Hudlow), all of Lost Dog Found’s music is written and arranged by Stevie Mac. “Usually the song will just fall out of whatever instrument I happen to be playing at that moment. If I sit down to write a song, nothing good ever comes out. For me, the best songs come when I’m trying to offload some emotions, but a lot of times a song will spawn out of a single melody line. I’ll think about that melody line and what it’s trying to say content-wise musically, and I’ll often arrange the structure of the song in my head while I’m away from all my instruments. Sometimes I’ll sing additions or lyrics into a recorder so I don’t forget them. Some songs take an hour to write, others take a month. I never force it though, they’ll come out when they are ready.”

What are your music influences?

Obviously bands like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Brian Setzer Orchestra, but also lots of more traditional jazz names like Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, etc. Others you’d never think of, like Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughn, 80?s music. Benny Goodman’s “Sing Sing Sing” and the arrangement within probably influences our own style more than any other song.

The Jump Start Scandal. Can you tell us more about it? How was the recording and writing process? How you came out with the name?

Sure, it’s the third track on the album, and it’s a true story (and what I wanted to name the band, but we decided we didn’t want to explain the story every time someone asks how we got our band name.) Years ago there was a high school party outside of town that a car full of guys drove out to. The party was full of kids from another school, and they left the car hidden away on the side of the barn overnight. As the evening went on the bedrooms started filling up, and one couple snuck out to that car and had themselves a good ol’ time in it. When the boys went to leave for home the next morning, they found the interior of the car had been demolished, and apparently the romantic couple had turned on the radio at some point, because the battery was - VentsMagazine.com

Hearkening back to the Swing revival of the ‘90s, when groups like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, the Royal Crown Revue, Lee Press-On and the Nails, and the Brian Setzer Orchestra bubbled up from the underground scene, bringing tightly orchestrated big band jazz and vintage jump blues to a mainstream boil before simmering back down to a stylish subculture, Lost Dog Found is a mirthfully manic music-making machine that snaps, crackles ‘n’ pops with crispy charisma. The Bay Area band also sports the bass-slappin’, guitar-twangin’ rockabilly edge and punk attitude that marked the sizzling sounds of the aforementioned archival anarchists, with poundin’ percussion, steamin’ sax ‘n’ trippy trumpet rounding out their boisterous, badass blasts of sassy sonic symmetry, aurally augmented by vivacious vocals. Bandleader Steve Mac heads an outstanding outfit including Chris Hudlow, Nick Miller, Scott Yost, Kyle Pesonen, Randy Johnson, and Adam Borden, with guest gigs by bassist Jeff Moon and sultry songstress Jatossha Davis. The original compositions on their debut album The Jump Start Scandal include “Tear Up the Floor,” “Pop That Cap,” “Turn Me On,” and “Jump Back,” and every single tune is a jumpin’, jivin’ classic that will rock your 21st century jukebox till it steams at the seams. - Retrospectivemag.com

Lost Dog Found is a retro swing jump blues band, based in San Francisco, but guaranteed to raise a ruckus wherever they’re heard. Led by guitarist Stevie Mac, the band, all seven of them, let rip on their debut long player “The Jump Start Scandal”, which features an impressive track listing that’s comprised of no less than 11 original songs.

They begin with “Tear Up the Floor” with guitarist Mac and trumpeter Adam Borden combining beautifully to cook up a ‘50s noir setting for vocalist Chris Hudlow’s after hours delivery (he’ll solve the mystery and get the girl – but you know she’s going to turn out bad). It’s followed by the goodtime “50 Things I Love About a Woman”, which wisely turns out to be just about everything, and the slower “Turn Me On” offers clues as to why they were Jango’s number one indie blues band for a third of a year.

Swing revivals may come and go, but while there are bands out there as good as Lost Dog Found, it’s a genre that will continue to live, breathe and thrive. In fact, these guys would go down a storm on the UK Americana circuit, and I hope they make a trip over sooner rather than later. Until then we’ll just have to be satisfied with their record, and however much I’d love to see them do there thing live on a local stage, I know I’ve got the next best thing right here.
www.lostdogfound.com
www.facebook.com/ldfband
Rob F. - http://leicesterbangs.blogspot.co.uk/

Meet Lost Dog Found - a San Francisco based band whose energetic sound mixes swing with rockabilly. They joined Jango Airplay April 2011, and have since made it into the Top 10 several times. We interviewed them for our Jango Band of the Month series, and came to discover how they’d truly mastered the art of promoting themselves on internet radio & getting fans involved in their music. Find out how they connect with fans after a show, optimize their use of Jango Airplay analytics and why they bring a stuffed animal to their gigs - enjoy!

Describe Lost Dog Found's sound in one sentence?
A high energy, ultra-modern sounding melting pot of Swing, Jump Blues, New Orleans Soul, and Rockabilly.

When was Lost Dog Found formed and where?
Lost Dog Found formed in the San Francisco Bay Area in early 2010.

Name three people who have influenced your music, and tell us why? Living or dead.
We've always been huge fans of The Brian Setzer Orchestra obviously; the music is electric swing, truly. He was the first one to really have a big ol' horn section being led by an electric guitar, and their energy both in their recordings and live is just jaw-dropping. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is also a huge influence for us both musically and how they go about running the band; they have a great charm about the way their songs are presented that you can't help but like them, and they've shown Lost Dog Found that it is possible to get a huge sound out of a somewhat small horn section (we only have four horns, BBVD uses five). The Beatles are an easy one for us to point to as an influence as well; you could spend your life studying how they used melodies with different chord structures to create these magnificent songs that appealed to all-ages, not to mention their ground breaking recording techniques.

How do you connect with fans and get them involved in your music?
At every show we make sure we split up the room, and each band member gets a section to go around and personally thank each person for coming out to see us, and give them a free download card for our favorite song to play live (Locomotive, available for download here). The link on the card takes them directly to a page on our site where they can download the song, join our mailing list, like us on Facebook, and buy our album right there. The download cards are a great ice breaker to start a conversation with people who came to see you, and lets them know that you are a real person who does really appreciate their support. It's an honest way to build a supportive community around your music, and people want to see you do well when they actually know you.

An even better and funner approach is what we've done with Monty the Monkey, a stuffed animal who happens to be wearing a shriners cap and has become the band's official mascot. We began bringing him to shows, and having fans have their pictures taken with them. We'd take those pictures and put them up on a special section of our web site where those fans could go to the next day and see their pictures. It's a great conversation piece at the shows, we hope that people share the pictures with their friends, and it drives those fans over to our website where they will hopefully either join the mailing list or buy our album.

What do you like the most about Jango Airplay?
The analytics are really fantastic; it's a great tool knowing what age demographic your music resonates with, and what area of the nation/world you have struck a nerve in. I think we're up to fans in 60 countries now at this point; truly a world wide way to get your music out there to people who wouldn't have ever heard of you otherwise. We've more recently been using Jango.com as a temperature gauge for what songs we should be releasing off of our new album, "The Jump Start Scandal." The tracking of likes and paid plays gives us a "hit percentage" (dividing the number of likes by the number of plays) that is a tool we can't get anywhere else, and makes it - Jango.com