March 14, 2024 • 48 mins
On episode nine of the Between Bites podcast, Nina Compton and Larry Miller are joined by renowned New Orleans singer-songwriter Mia Borders.
Mia talks about her childhood musical inspirations, playing her first gig at Carrollton Station in 2006, and her day-of routine when preparing for a performance.
Hear more about Mia's progression as an artist and business owner, her love of woodworking, and her soon-to-be released album "Firewalker".
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
All right, welcome everybody to another edition of Between Bites
with Nina Compton, who is laughing at me for some reason.
I'm Larry Miller.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
That looks funny.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Well, I gotta I had to get it up under
the headphone is hey, get to the Pelicans game day.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Hat Okay, Larry, that's quite a half.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
It's it's reversible too. I'll show y'all later. It's a
shame we don't have a television show. We're joined today. Bye.
This is extremely cool for us personally and for you
getting to listen by singer and songwriter Mia Borders. Listen
to that voice being this close and hearing it in
the microphone.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yes, welcome, welcome, Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
It's good to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yes, you know it's I'll give you a funny story.
Before I moved here, we were doing an event myself
and Chef Chilly Chung Foundation. This was two thousand and fourteen,
ten years ago. Can you imagine?
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Oh yeah, and we had.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
An evening off and we went to the Blue Nile
and you performed, and I still have the video. I
think I might have put it on my Instagram, but
I'm like your voice is true specialist.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Before I moved and the next year, so before I
even knew about this space.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
I remember that that night haunts me for one reason why,
because I wear glasses on stage. I wear sunglasses. At
that point they were not prescription, and so I switched
from my sunglasses to my glasses, and you were right
in my line of sight, and.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
I lived come on.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
And then after.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
Fangirling all over you, was when I realized that Shirley
was standing next to you, and I was like, oh
my god, don't.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Love you just as much as I love her?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Yes, yes, Oh my god. And so that I just,
oh my god, surely I love you too.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
It was a beautiful night because we were just you know,
I tell people Neans has such an enchanting spirit that
when you come, it's just it just wraps its arms
around you. And we felt that sitting in the crowd,
just like yeah, just very happy feelings, you know, And
(02:27):
that was just like, I don't know, it's just something
about the city that, you know, the people really make
it what it is.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Yeah, the city has a spirit and a soul in
a way that not many other cities that I've traveled
to have.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
I have never it's there's nothing like it now.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Yeah, And it's good to hear that as a as
a local, because you know, I feel like I always
took it for granted, and then when I started leaving,
people would freak out and be like.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Oh, you're from New Orleans. That's great, and say, you
know what it really is?
Speaker 1 (02:56):
It is the Yeah, And that brings us up to
a point. When you went off to school, you didn't
go down the road.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
I did not.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
What was the culture shock Like.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
I went to boarding school in Connecticut, a very small
town called Watertown. Pretty much the only thing in that
town was our high school. There was a quote unquote
city down the road, Waterbury, and that was where the
mall was. That was where we hung out, and that's
where the brown people lived. So my school was international,
so there was there was a lot of culture that
(03:30):
I could embrace. You sort of had to seek it out.
My group of friends was very diverse. I was always
really happy about the clique that we formed.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
But you know, I came from a very.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
Very rich private school here in New Orleans, and so
there was a lot of that up there as well.
On a much higher level, Like you're talking about politicians, kids. Yeah,
Oh my god, I wish we had the Kennedys.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
And they don't say y'all. They do not that's different.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
No, that was the only time I really felt like
a country bump.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
It's amazing that jump up on you. I grew up
in this in Atlanta in the South, but I moved
to Miami Beach and there was one of me saying
y'all on that little island and everybody would just kind
of think it was it was like we react to
people with the British accent, like, oh my gosh, it's
so cool. So that was that was kind of maybe
(04:29):
that's why I like Miami so much. Atlanta was just
like every other dude.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
That's true.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
I definitely I definitely stood out up there, probably more
for being from New Orleans than anything else and performing.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
You obviously started to love music much earlier than that.
What were your first early memories of music and seeing
that you had this gift.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
Yeah, I mean, I'm just so spoiled being from here
and my dad dragging me to jazz Fest every and
I do mean dragging because as a small child, it
was not fun. It smells like horsepoop and we're obviously
not listening to music that I want to listen right,
and it's just so hot. But I was very lucky
(05:15):
to be exposed to the culture that I was at
such a young age Irma Thomas and there's a picture
of me on my mom's lap in front of the
Neville Brothers on stage, and it was just, you know,
you really take that stuff for granted. And then also
being in the private school system, music was a mandatory
part of our curriculum, which I'm really grateful for. Everyone
(05:38):
had to participate in the school musicals and the youth choir,
and for whatever reason, people's parents came up to me
and said, oh, you're really good.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
And it's like, how do you know that?
Speaker 4 (05:50):
We're all singing, like there're thirty of us, and they're like, no,
you know what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
It's like, oh, okay, well, I enjoy doing this.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
I've always been inclined to perform and draw attention to
myself in that way. And so then I started playing piano.
My grandmother made me have piano lessons because I wanted
to play guitar. She said it was a white man's instrument.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
She's way off base.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Oh yeah, So then I agreed to start piano and
then that eventually transitioned to guitar when she knew that
I was serious about it.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
So yeah, she paid for the lessons. I'll give her that.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Well, thank goodness she did, because it kindled that fire
and you kept going. If you only have one instrument
for the rest of your life that you can play.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
Not including voice, not including then it's guitar. Okay, yeah,
I'm really not good at piano.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
But how does that and that you judge yourself that way,
but you're also writing the music, how can you write it?
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (07:08):
I don't know. I'm asking because I.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
Really I'm I'm competent at drums, bass, I like I
would play those in front of people I have before keys. Nah,
I quit my lessons before we even started integrating the
left hand. It was Yeah, my my eight year old
niece has already leaps and bounds beyond where I was,
(07:33):
So she's going to join the band.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
One I was going to say, you got somebody to
call in a pin?
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah, So who else in your family's besides your niece?
Of course?
Speaker 4 (07:41):
In the like in music, well, my grandfather played the
trumpet in the army. That was how he served and
that's pretty much it. My abuela on my mom's side
sang a little bit, but not professionally. She was a
homemaker and in those days that was what you did
in Mexico, especially, so she never really got the chance
(08:03):
to pursue anything, mostly just singing in church and stuff.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
It was My dad's an.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Actor, so he performs in that way. But no, I'm
just the one that was always screaming and hollering it people.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
I wish I could do because every time I sing
to the dogs, when I sing I love you to
them and tell them about the other day when I
was singing to them when you're leaving.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Oh what when you said I love you.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I was singing to the dogs and Larry was leaving
I don't know way he was going somewhere, and he
opens the front door and I'm just spelting away to
the dogs.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
And oh yeah, and I said the neighbors. Neighbors are thinking,
what a nice sind off for me at the front door.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
I love you, And he's like, no, it's she's singing
to the dogs, not to me.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
Oh yeah, I've got a couple of songs that were
actually written for my dogs and not the person I
was dating at the time.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
What kind of dog?
Speaker 3 (09:04):
I had a pit bull?
Speaker 4 (09:05):
He passed away, I guess a year and a half
or almost two years ago.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Now he was sixteen. He had a good ride, that is.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
And now it's just me and my Maltese, who was
an accident. I wanted another pit but they're clo Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Sure they were quite a pair. And the Maltese is
now eighteen.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Wow, that's old.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
A Kirkland food brand. Yeah, it costco all the way.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Larry gets mad me because gets some ada. We he
his duties are grocery shopping and doing the laundry in
the household. And one day I came to feed the
dogs because they do the happy dance. They're like, wake
up in the morning and tails are wagging and I
pull it out and there's nothing, and they're looking at me,
(09:49):
like where the break. So I made some rice, I
put some scrambled eggs, and the bowls will clean. So
I just started cooking for them. Yeah, and Larry's I
stopped doing that because one day at the dry food
they're gonna be pissed. Oh yeah, so they are there.
I spoiled him every once in a while.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Yeah, I do that too.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Every once in a while he needs like a system reset.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Yeah, so he'll just get some some rice cooked with
with maybe a little boon.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
They deserve it, right, Yeah, they do well.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
We have Obviously, festival season is rapidly approaching on us.
When you play big festivals, and big meaning anything larger
than a than a club, what is the day of
preparation like for you.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
I tend to be very quiet in the morning. It's
not like I need to actively rest my voice because
I've just been sleeping all night, but there's some sort
of mental aspect of it. I like to be quiet
and calm, and then I'll start my warm ups, my
vocal warm ups in the shower, so I get the
(10:58):
steam and the heat, eat, and then I'm sort of
just doing my exercises pretty much from then until I
get to the gig. And then I'm not super chatty
beforehand because talking is what will really mess up your voice.
I think that turns some people off. Like my band knows,
you know, I'm sitting I'm engaged. It's not like I'm like.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Don't talk to me, but you know, I'm not as
chatty as I normally am.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
They're cool with that. But you know, you see fans.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
You and Kobe and.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Yeah, we've all got our z yeah. And then you know,
but you see fans before the show and they want
to chat and hug, and it's like, okay, I have
to go away from you now.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Yeah, yeah, I have to work.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
Yeah, I got my game face on. I've got my
work shirt. There's a button down, you know, if.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
I'm in a T shirt, let's Chatah, of course.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Did you ever do you remember your first time performing
in front of a large crowd and where was it?
Speaker 4 (12:02):
My first time that I really that I will say
it was like a first gig for me. It was
still in high school. It was my senior year. I
waited all four years. There were plenty of opportunities to perform,
but my stage fright and my anxiety have always gotten
the best of me in those situations. And so it
(12:23):
was spring semester. I performed two songs. One of my
strings was out of tune is just a nightmare. But
I got through it, and that was sort of when
I realized it that I can do it and I
want to continue doing it.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
And then I guess a.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
Year almost exactly a year later, I had my first
gig with my band at Carrollton Station. That was April fifteenth,
two thousand and six.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
So coming up on my eighteenth anniversary. Great, yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
And what do you do? Like for me, if I'm
speaking publicly, I guess still get nervous. Even though people think, oh,
you're doing great, I'm like, no, I'm terrified. Do you
I get that because some people are, They're fluid with it,
they're ready to go. But for me, I have to
excite myself up. And you know, sometimes if I'm speaking
(13:20):
a crowd, I try and move my eyes around so
people on thinking I'm reading from a script. What do
you do?
Speaker 4 (13:27):
There is a definite switch that gets flipped. Mia Borders
is not Mia. I am a fairly shy person. I'm
definitely an introvert. Unless you know, I'm around people that
I know my family, I'm the loud one and I'm
silly and you know. But that was always the hardest
(13:50):
part for me, and that was actually why I started
drinking as much as I did in the beginning of
my career, because I thought that that was what I
needed to sort of break down that wall was not
but I figure that out early on Thank God. But yeah,
it's just a it's a mental switch. You sort of
have to separate yourself because it's so uncomfortable selling yourself
(14:16):
in that way and be like, please like me, please like.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Me, please like me. Clap are you? Are you laughing
at my jokes?
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Not just the everyday occurrences that everybody else has in
those yeah, up elevated above everybody else, with everybody staring
only at you, with life, with.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
People dropping money to see it. Like, I have to
keep them engaged, not just during the songs, but in
between the songs, and so I sort of incorporate a
lot more personal stories and I try and keep people engaged.
You know, I do crowd work. I'll talk to people sometimes,
and that has made it a lot easier. I used
(14:54):
to throw up before every show man probably for the
first five or seven years of my career.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
It was just and you still kept pushing regular.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
Oh yeah, I mean, once I get on stage, once
I start singing that first note, I'm good. It's just
getting there that's so difficult. Sometimes it's gotten better thanks
to therapy and medication, for sure.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, Okay, So when we talk about
you know, the industry. Who are some of the people
that you admire and who is on your list, Like,
I would do anything to meet this person, play with them,
play with them.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Yeah. Well, Gladys Knight and I held hands once.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
That's pretty cool. Have you washed that?
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Unfortunately COVID ruined that, but yeah, it was. It was
a couple months after my grandmother passed and I bought
myself a front row seat to see Gladys Knight in
Lake Charles. I'm was the only person in the front row.
It was insane. I was also the only person under
the age of sixty. But I was just bawling my
(16:07):
eyes out and she saw me, and then you know,
she reached out her hand and was like, oh my god,
this is everything that I needed. I would love to
sing with her, that would be incredible. I think she's
in terms of who's still around from those days. She
sounds exactly the same, and that is so hard to
maintain that level of clarity and tone like she's She's
(16:31):
the benchmark for me personally. Yeah, I wish that I
could have met Bill Withers or seen him live. He's
a huge influence on me and my music too. And
Betty Davis yeah, so many of the good ones are
going right, and so I'm trying to I'm trying to
make more of an effort to see people live and
(16:53):
get out there and experience it, because it's hard when
when your job is playing concerts, it's hard to get
energized to go see drives.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah, Gladys Night, Yeah, she's I. We on Sundays at BABS,
we we play old school, so we put Smoky Robinson. Yes,
and the first Sunday, because you know, Sundays are just
more chill, just relax, laid back, and the cooks came
into like, oh, Chef, I love this music, and it
(17:24):
just became the thing where every Sunday we play that
station and it's just it's just, you know, so many
people from that era that just make beautiful, timeless music.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Yeah, that's true. I can listen to sixty Soul all constantly,
all the time.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
We were talking about like Deon Warwick, all of those
people that are just like you said, the same throughout.
Just when you hear those songs, it takes you back.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
It really does. Yeah. I wasn't even there, but I
feel like I was right.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
How would you describe what's the first word used when
someone says, oh, what is your music like? Exactly?
Speaker 3 (18:06):
It's hard, It's very hard.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
I usually say funky, okay, because that crosses all of
the other genres that we sort of touch on. Yeah,
there's the R and B, there's the soul, there's a
little bit of Americana, blues roots. But I think funk
is sort of the through line.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
All right, sounds I like funky because it's people like, oh,
what is funk like you?
Speaker 1 (18:33):
But it's the same problem. Actually, that's great. We're going
to steal that because people say, what kind of food
does need to cook? She's a woman from the Caribbean
who's trained in classic French Italian, lives around all this
great uh South Louisiana.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
I'm gonna say my food is funky, funky.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
It covers all.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
It keeps everybody engaged and interested. Speaking of food, what
are three of your favorite things from New Orleans? And
what is something that in your childhood that you can't
live without?
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Oh, man, food wise.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Yeah, three things from New Orleans. Let's see.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
Well, I recently learned that I'm allergic to almost everything
that I love, so that's a problem. A roast beef
po boy from from almost anywhere, Okay, but I mean
Parkway gets a shout out for sure. Domlisis gets another
shout out as well. Uh and also Adams Street Grocery
(19:34):
uptown in the wall.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Really good, boy.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Ok I haven't been there, but I will make sure
that we.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
It's it's very good, all right. Fried chicken, little dizzies.
Willie May's my grandmother.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
That was the only thing she could cook, right. Everything
else was not great.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
She used to boil steaks in a sautee pan with
an onion, like, here's your steak.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
And I was like. As I grew up, I was like, oh,
I don't like steak, and I had one. I was like,
oh my god, I love she betrayed me. She was
trying her best. And then one more.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
Let's see blue crab beignets a pet grocery.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
That's a good one. Those are really good.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Those are really good in their crab, for whatever reason,
is the only shellfish I can eat now, so I'll
go hard on.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
The Okay, that's fair, that's fair.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
And these unfortunate allergies they just popped up.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Some of them.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
I've known about it.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
I'm nervous for myself personally now, like wake up every
day stressing about crawfish.
Speaker 4 (20:39):
Hit around, like puberty or something. There was some sort
of shift there. I never really cared for shrimp. Maybe
it was because my grandma couldn't cook, so I wasn't
sad to lose that. And the only time I had lobster,
I was very disappointed that it didn't taste like a
gigantic crawfish, so I also wasn't sad.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
About that that would be awesome.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
I went to several crawfish boils with venadola in my
pocket because that's.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
How much I loved right.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
And the last time, I want to say, it was
like five years ago, and it's like, oh no, I
need my EpiPen.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
This has turned into some area.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Yeah, and then.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Yeah, don't do that. Just don't listen to anything I say. Healthwise.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
I'm allergic to gluten, which I had a feeling was
the case, and I do feel a lot better having
cut it out. And there are a lot more options
now than when I first heard about it, and I
just completely ignored them. Yeah, but most fortunately for me,
most of the foods that I grew up loving are
(21:43):
you know, gluten free. I'm Mexican. On one side, black
on the other. So there's a lot of rice and beans.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
I think the meal from my childhood that I love
the most is my boils recipe for Goddio, which is
usually a beef stew, but she was on a health
kick when I was a kid, and so she made
hers with ground turkey, and it's just a stew with
It's a tomato based stew. It's got potatoes and ground
(22:12):
turkey and onions and that's pretty much it. But it
just it tastes like El Paso and watt Is to me.
And I mean there's a whole bunch of human in it.
So once I once I smell that, I'm I'm right
back there.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
And what about Christmas?
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Christmas?
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Was that a big throw down?
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Thanksgiving in Mexico, Christmas was a big throw down. My
mom was one of eight and I'm one of twenty grandchildren,
and so we would all pile into my family's house
and wat is and just go hard, like maya, well,
I could throw down. She We have a cookbook of
all of her recipes that a cousin of mine had
her make when he got married, and then we all
(22:54):
stole it from him and like, oh.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Yeah, let me see that for a second.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
Yeah, so that was Christmas was always very very fun
and celebratory over there, and here in New Orleans, Thanksgiving
was my jam. I hosted for many years. I love
to cook. I don't get too many opportunities. We have
a much smaller family on this side. It's just me
and my brother and we have cousins. And my grandmother's
(23:22):
house was sort of the home base where I grew up,
and so she always hosted, and then I started hosting after.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
I love Thanksgiving and it's just an.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Excuse to eat.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
It's like Christmas, but without the responsibility of buying. Everybody gifts, right,
it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
So what is your favorite Thanksgiving items? So for me,
it's stuffing, a dress, dressing and that that is my
favorite things. What is yours?
Speaker 4 (23:49):
Okay, I've got a spin on dressing that's called Holiday
cast role just randomly, I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Beautiful.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Yeah, yeah, I'm.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
Make it with Buddha and chicken and it's sort of
just all thrown in there together. The Buddha is what
really gives it that like stuffing.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Consistency, and that sounds really.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
That that's the recipe.
Speaker 4 (24:17):
Yeah, yeah, these days it's you know, gluten free breadcrumbs.
But at that point you don't really notice it. And
it's what else do I put in there? Some paprikas
is what gives it a little bit of a that
smoky kick. Yeah, it's good.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
What about dessert? What kind of pie do you guys say?
For Thanksgiving?
Speaker 4 (24:38):
I am obsessed with apple pie. It's kind of a problem.
I'm only we always have at least two, and one
is for me. Everyone else can pick off of the
other one.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
I endorsed that message.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Yeah, and I actually I made a spin off of
Mylas apple pie recipe because hers was just there's so
much butter and sugar and it was just unnecessary. I
love her, but I come from a big family, and
I don't mean just the number. Let's put this down
a little bit, right, So I like to make her
(25:14):
apple pie, only allow myself to make it at holidays,
and the same thing for Thanksgiving. I'll make like a
pumpkin cheesecake, which is also only allowed then because I
will house it immediately.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
That sounds amazing. We were actually talking about Patti Labelle's
Sweet Potato Pie, which.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Is rumored to be supposed to be the best of
the best.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Yeah, so that's what I might be doing this year.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Okay try yeah, all right, go for it.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
I think you can pull it off too.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Oh man.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
So if they're in the the big world out there
of festivals, what is one that is on your wish
list that man, I would really like to be up
there tro in seventy six.
Speaker 4 (26:01):
Or oh man, that would be great. I mean, if
if I could go play Woodstock, that would be awesome.
The original certainly not when they tried to bring it back.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
Oh no, that was what a nightmare.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
That was a mess.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
But Newport Jazz would be great. That's it feels like
it's such a benchmark professionally, So I would love to
go up there and show them a little bit of
a little bit of what I do.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
But living in the Northeast, yeah, you could get hit
him with the y'all.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Oh yeah, or maybe we can edu this. So Lucia
Jazz Fest, I would love that's that's a beautiful. It
reminded me a lot of jazz Fest hair because it's
outside and it's open and you can you know, people
still bring like their coolers and everything, and they set
up for the whole day oh so it reminds me
a lot of when I moved there, Like that reminds
(26:57):
me of jazz Fest back.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
I'm a beach baby.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
I love them any islands, I accept.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Who's the most interesting you've had on your.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
Well, it's mostly just me and my friend asking each
other questions. Okay, it's called great question with me and
Kate obviously have to plug it now she's gonna get
mad at. Yes, we ask a little question, we ask
a big question. Little question can be like how do
you eat a sandwich that turned into something?
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Okay, so very seriously.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Good question because a lot of people have their ways.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Yeah, I'm very particular. I go around. I have to
go around in circle.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Even a burger.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Really it's crazy. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
I go straight ahead, like.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
I'm gonna have him cook a burger.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
And watch this go down and then you know, we
ask a big question, like is their life after death?
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Is there?
Speaker 4 (27:49):
I would say yes, I feel it. Being from New
Orleans is tough.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
To something like that. That's a good point.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
There are definitely some friendly ghosts in my house.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
I love that little question, big question.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Yes, we should have y'all on. Yeah, we had my
brother on he was a hot mess.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
He was ready, these are our first special guest and
he's like, yes, I'm about to embarrass.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Oh my god, go for it. That was the name
of the episode. Actually had to do it.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Yeah, you were great at like marketing and like those
one liners where you do it really well. Well, So
when it comes to not playing music, do you have
any hobbies.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
Or I actually love building furniture? Okay, yeah, I had
to stop for this past year. I was trying to
sell my house, but Louisiana insurance market failed me. Yeah,
nobody wants to pay yep, and I don't blame them.
I inherited my family house. It was just way too
(28:56):
big for me. But one of those rooms was a
dedicated you know, workspace to build bookshelves and other types
of furniture. I love redoing old things, and my grandmother
was on one hand, she was an arkivist.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
On the other hand, she was a hoarder.
Speaker 4 (29:14):
So there's a lot of old, legit, mid century modern pieces,
solid wood.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
I love working with stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (29:22):
So I'm you know, the silver lining to not selling
my house at this point is that I get to
get back to that stuff.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Yeah, that's great. It must be therapeutic.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
It really is.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
It's really rewarding to see something that I've built with
my own hands, and I've got nieces and nephews and
you know, they use the bookshelf that I built them
and they draw on it, and yeah, it's really cool.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
That's sweet.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
How'd you learn woodworking?
Speaker 3 (29:48):
It was born out of necessity.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
Really. We dealt with a lot of shoddy contractors after Katrina,
and so I spent a lot of time fixing their mistakes.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
And then that just sort of grew into well, let
me just start building my own stuff. And I need
a bookshelf. Why would I pay Ikia prices?
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Right right?
Speaker 4 (30:09):
I love Ikia, but yeah, let me let me put
my own spin on this and build something that is
actually going to work for me instead of working around
someone else's design.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
That's amazing. That is that's huge.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
It's fun.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Whenever anything breaks and it's I'm like, Larry, any please
help me.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
It's the worst because one time I poured liquid draina
down a sink and she thinks I'm a plumber. Now,
so it's it's the worst. Like some some circuit board
gets fried in one of the ovens and she thinks
I can rewire.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Break Like, Larry, can you please come over here, bring
your toolbox? We need this fix, and he's I can
just call the plumber.
Speaker 4 (30:50):
I've had to stop myself from doing that sort of
thing too, because I have a rental property and so
something will go wrong and.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Be like I'm on my way with my drill and everything.
He's like, no, just call someone's right.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Like, I can fix this, but I got to go
spend a thousand dollars at Low's. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Oh, Larry loves Lows to come on. If he says
I'm going to Low's, it's three hours, No, like.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
An hour and a half. No, it's you know what
the best was? It wasn't the best, but I went
to Load's. I don't know why I had to go.
I went to Low's this year at halftime in the
Super Bowl. Oh wow, it was like the rapture had
come and it was just me and like the three
employees were the only sinners left on her. But it
was amazing. It was just echoes and oh yeah, all
(31:34):
by yourself.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
No, I love it.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
No, I got to what Larry tries to hook me
in because he's like, I'm going to Low's do you
want to come? Yes, we can get some plants. And
I'm like okay, and then that's my little area.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Yeah, only the distress plants. Nina will only buy distress
because I.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Want to get I want to give them a happy home.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
Like you.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
We got some roses that were all distressed and they're
doing three years. Lah, they're doing well.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
Wow, everything I plant dies.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
That's that's actually one area where I can admit I'm
out of my depth.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Something somebody said the other day. I never thought of this.
It's not our fault. The plant is not performing up
to the level.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
Okay, blame it on my whole life.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
I thought it was my fault.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
It's a few instance, but I still I still try
to like bring them back to life, and when they survive,
I feel I feel really proud, like, yeah, I gave
you a good home. I saved you. Not everyone makes it,
but at least I try.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
Sure I've got one that's holding on for dear life.
A friend of mine got it for me when my
pit bull passed and she's like, don't worry, You're not
going to kill this and I was like, no, I can't.
I don't even know what it is, but it's holding on.
Two years later, it is struggling, but it's it's still
(32:54):
with me.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
That's great. I love that it's this nice one springtime
rolls around because then the weather's nice, the jazzmine comes out.
I guess that's my favorite part of the year, when
I tell Larry every night, put your windows down and
just try the neighborhood because everybody's jasmine is just perfuming. Yeah. Everything.
So my mom is coming later this month. Oh great,
(33:18):
And it's her first Springtime because she always comes in
the winter, in the winter, and she's from the Caribbean,
so she always calls the week before she is it's
going to be cold. I said, no, Mom, it's it's nice.
And then she gets here and it's the pole of
vortex and it's you know, twenty five degrees and she's
just oh man, bundled up. And it was last Mardi Girls.
(33:40):
She came and we had a couple of cold days
and she sat outside watching muses that night and I
have a picture. She's scarved, you know code this, you know,
the tea pot of hot tea, and she's just like
not moving, not trying to catch any throws.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
No there's nothing worse than a cold morning girl. As
a kid, that was just the worst.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Yeah, when you were you fired up for Marty Graus's
kid as a kid, Yes, for sure.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
We lived right around the corner from the parade route,
and so again our house was the hub, and it
was always just so much fun and families there and
cousins and you know, you just get to run around
the block and have a great time yelling. There's loud music, Yeah,
there's always good food.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:31):
And then I got older and I quit drinking and
was like, this is hitting different. But now with my
nieces and nephews, you know, you get to sort of
start over again and see it through their eyes.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
And that's neat because that was our first Marty Gras here.
We had all those windows along chop Toolis. I'm like,
oh my god, do we need to board up like
a storm? You know what's going to happen. I'd just
known the Marty Grass in my youth when we traveled
the town and the crazy yeah, and it was really
neat to see. And I don't drink either, so you
(35:05):
see some of the foolishness. But it really is a
family event, and that really is what was really pleasantly surprised.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
That's a lot of things.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
That's something that a lot of people don't often understand
when they're not from here, Like that's the first thing
they ask about is New Orleans and Marty gra and
how crazy people flashing?
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Right?
Speaker 4 (35:26):
Like no, no, no, someone flashed last year, I want
to say. And they're like a group of parents tackled her.
Oh my, like we don't do that here, right, bourbon right, Okay,
this is Napoleon Avenue. No, keep it right, no, no, no, no,
no no no. You see all these babies around here,
put them away.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Yeah, well, I think that's what people think. People think
it's crazy frat boys going, you know, just wild, and
it's not. In our first year when we moved that
we went to Zulu and we we would just I
don't think, I don't think we I think we caught
one coconut that year and we were just like this
is gold. And you know, we were walking back to
(36:09):
our car and we just saw in the neighborhood because
we went where did we watch it? By Brian's house? Yeah,
and just all the grills were out, kids were running around,
somebody was cooking, somebody had music on, yeah, and he
just thought it was just like a family cookout. And
it showed me that this is just I think people
(36:32):
have the misconception of what it really is. But it's
about families coming together and cooking and hanging out and
watching the parade together.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
Yeah, it's art and motion, and we celebrated accordingly.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
What's your favorite parade?
Speaker 3 (36:48):
Bachus?
Speaker 2 (36:49):
That was?
Speaker 4 (36:50):
That was always my favorite as a kid. My grandmother
and I, which I still can't believe because she had
to have been late seventies at the time, we would
walk from our house up to Saint Charles. There is
about seven blocks and we would sit on the steps
of Temple Sinai and we would watch Bacchus together. That
(37:11):
was the one night parade that she would take me
to because obviously at her age she was like, I'm
not hoofing it for you, calm down here. But it
was just us, and so she would take me every
year to Bacchus. I remember one year Jean Club and
Damn was Marshall.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
He was I love, I love wish y'all could.
Speaker 4 (37:35):
I had never felt any feelings like that before until
I saw Yell Clove and Damn and was like.
Speaker 3 (37:39):
Oh, I get it where I have. No, he's a
nut job, but he got kicked in the head one
too many times.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
For one year. One year he reigned as Bacchus.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
Yeah, sure did. And I have that bablloon in my house.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
How has the music industry changed in New Orleans from
when you started to now? So your first album released
two ten, We.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
Put on an EP in two thousand and seven, and
then the first full length album came out two thousand
and nine, and I would say, unfortunately, it's gotten more
competitive and less supportive when it comes to certain venues.
(38:35):
Tourism is great and it's how this city survives.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
You guys know that.
Speaker 4 (38:40):
But it also there's a double edged sword. People feel
like they are entitled to music when they come to
New Orleans. They don't have to pay when there's a
brass band playing on the corner right outside the club
where I'm playing inside, and so it's it's difficult, and
I think we are all as musicians sort of feeling
that pressure. I started with a full band.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
That was the only way I played.
Speaker 4 (39:07):
I never played solo because my anxiety was through the roof.
I would never do it, but out of necessity. My
shows have gotten smaller and smaller in certain venues because
clubs don't guarantee money, or they make you pay for.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
Tips or play for tips.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
Tipt arbitrage going on in the on Frenchman streets.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
Oh yeah, and I mean certain certain smaller festivals will
actually make you pay to play.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
They have all mostly have gone by the wayside.
Speaker 4 (39:41):
I think we put up enough of a ruckus that
that stopped. But seeing the state of the industry really
motivated me to get more involved on the business side.
So I did start an entertainment company, Third Coast Entertainment,
registered trademark. I nailed it, and so I put on
I put on some cases, and we have a Pride
(40:01):
festival in June. We're gonna expand to another festival in
the fall as well, specifically targeting marginalized musicians and musicians
from communities that are often overlooked and underpaid. Just trying
to get more music out there and getting actual significant
(40:24):
money into musician's pockets.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
That has been an ongoing thing for years.
Speaker 4 (40:30):
Yeah, and I mean, we're so lucky to be filled
to the brim with really high quality, talented musicians, but
it dilutes the pool.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
That's just the nature of the game.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
And so we are becoming more and more like a
New Yorker, Nashville or in LA where it's just tough to.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
Tough to be heard.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
Right. Yeah, So what's next for you for twenty twenty four?
Speaker 4 (40:58):
Twenty twenty four, I have a news. I have a
new album coming out at the end of August. I'm
very excited about it. It's called Firewalker, which is the
name of a song that I wrote with George porter Junior.
I actually wrote it for one of his albums, but
it didn't really fit the motif and so I took
(41:21):
it back. And so it's a lot of fun. We're
going to record at Marini Studios in about a month.
So right now I'm in my home studio every day,
probably over polishing the demos. At this point, I don't know,
I'm just type A. I have to be in control
of everything.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
I've got my.
Speaker 4 (41:42):
Spreadsheets, the schedule and what everybody's going to play and
when they're going to play it, and so this is
this is the part that I really enjoy, the pre
production and then yeah, I love being in the studio.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
On the demos you have, did you play all the instruments.
Speaker 4 (41:58):
Yes, wow, yeah, I mean there are some like software instruments,
but yeah, it's all me.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
That's pretty cool laying that down together. Have you ever
co written a song with somebody?
Speaker 3 (42:13):
I have.
Speaker 4 (42:13):
I've co written a couple of songs. There was one
with my original band member. He had a song that
was sort of unfinished. He wanted the female perspective, and
so I finished it with him. And then people have
reached out to me to ask me to write songs
for them. That's how I started working with George. He
reached out to a bunch of female singer songwriters and we,
(42:39):
you know, started up a really good relationship. So I
have a few songs on his album that came out
a couple of years ago, crying for Hope.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
And so is it a different anxiety it is now
that you have that instead of just saying I can't
write because I write something and then I cross it
out and I could never be finished.
Speaker 4 (43:01):
Yeah, writing is rewriting to this day. You know, the
songs that I play live, the live versions of what
we do are totally different from where they originally started.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
And that happened organically.
Speaker 4 (43:12):
Yeah, definitely, I found a really good group of musicians
who elevate what I write, and that's really important to me.
They listen to me, but they also know that I
want them to put their stamp on it, because you know,
I can give them the recipe, but you know I
(43:36):
want them to put their own.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
You know, if any of our cooks are listening, we're
going to give you the recipe, don't put it. But everyone.
Speaker 4 (43:49):
Every once in a while, there's you know, there's a
song and I will write the bassline note for note,
and my bassis nos to play it note for note.
And then there are other times where I'll just give
him the chord chart and I'll say, go crazy, like
do what you want to do. So there's mutual trust,
and that's really important to find, especially in musicians in
(44:10):
the studio.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
So let's say you've written a new song, the band
is practiced. How long does it take not necessarily them,
but how how old is a song before everybody is
entirely comfortable?
Speaker 3 (44:26):
Does it depend on this is a good question I
would have to ask them.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
But does it depend on the technical levels of things
you're doing in there?
Speaker 3 (44:36):
Or I think it it just this.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
Do you have somebody in the band who's not as
bright as the other ones you have to write. But
do you ever have to write a song not the
way you would have played it, but the way you
know somebody else is going to have to play.
Speaker 4 (44:53):
No, Okay, I there are some songs that I write
with my certain band members in mind, like although really
in this area, maybe they'll be a little bit more
uncomfortable in this other song. So I'll give them free
reign over here while holding them to a much stricter
standard over here.
Speaker 3 (45:10):
That's cool, But I think I don't know. It takes
a few times live to really gel.
Speaker 4 (45:21):
And I was very particular in the beginning. I didn't
play anything live until we had the recorded version, and
so I sort of let go of that a little bit.
So we've been playing a couple of these songs live.
Two of them we actually put out over Quarantine. We
recorded in our own home studios, and so we're going
to go in and polish them and add a little
(45:42):
more flare to them to sort of make them new.
But yeah, it takes a minute to get on board.
We often we're also busy. We don't necessarily have time
to rehearse before a gig, and so I'll give somebody
a new song and then we just play it for
the first time at the show on stage and just
sort of see what happens because the audience has never
(46:03):
heard of it. They don't know we mess up, right, right,
It's fine, do whatever you want, you know, so, I know.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
That you're very busy and you have a gig tonight,
right I do. Yeah, so we're gonna let you rest
your voice. Where can people find you? Where?
Speaker 1 (46:20):
On the regular?
Speaker 2 (46:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (46:21):
On the regular? Mia borders dot com has everything. Okay,
there's a mailing list. I'm notoriously flaky, so I'm not
I'm not going to overrun your mailbox with stuff. Maybe
once a month if I'm good. And then Facebook. I'm
on Facebook, Instagram. I technically have a TikTok, but you know,
(46:44):
it's mostly just to watch other people and then every
once in a while, I'm like, oh, I should post
a video.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
What's your favorite social media?
Speaker 4 (46:52):
Instagram is fun, it's just you know, visually sort of
just scroll through and hover first stuff. I get a
lot of like home renovation stuff on my algorithm, so
I'll just go down that rabbit home.
Speaker 1 (47:07):
It's so easy, but it is the worst when you
click on the one thing that you're just like, oh,
let me see you know how a wombat raises it,
and the everywhere nothing but yeah yeah sub Saharan animals
like in your feed and well man, thank you for
your time, thank you and your boys. Thank you today.
Speaker 2 (47:29):
It's a pleasure and we will hopefully be on your podcast.
We will prepared for the big questions.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
Yes men, borders dot com, thank you, thank you, everybody,
thank you, all but out word
All right, welcome everybody to another edition of Between Bites
with Nina Compton, who is laughing at me for some reason.
I'm Larry Miller.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
That looks funny.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Well, I gotta I had to get it up under
the headphone is hey, get to the Pelicans game day.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Hat Okay, Larry, that's quite a half.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
It's it's reversible too. I'll show y'all later. It's a
shame we don't have a television show. We're joined today. Bye.
This is extremely cool for us personally and for you
getting to listen by singer and songwriter Mia Borders. Listen
to that voice being this close and hearing it in
the microphone.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yes, welcome, welcome, Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
It's good to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yes, you know it's I'll give you a funny story.
Before I moved here, we were doing an event myself
and Chef Chilly Chung Foundation. This was two thousand and fourteen,
ten years ago. Can you imagine?
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Oh yeah, and we had.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
An evening off and we went to the Blue Nile
and you performed, and I still have the video. I
think I might have put it on my Instagram, but
I'm like your voice is true specialist.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Before I moved and the next year, so before I
even knew about this space.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
I remember that that night haunts me for one reason why,
because I wear glasses on stage. I wear sunglasses. At
that point they were not prescription, and so I switched
from my sunglasses to my glasses, and you were right
in my line of sight, and.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
I lived come on.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
And then after.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
Fangirling all over you, was when I realized that Shirley
was standing next to you, and I was like, oh
my god, don't.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Love you just as much as I love her?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Yes, yes, Oh my god. And so that I just,
oh my god, surely I love you too.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
It was a beautiful night because we were just you know,
I tell people Neans has such an enchanting spirit that
when you come, it's just it just wraps its arms
around you. And we felt that sitting in the crowd,
just like yeah, just very happy feelings, you know, And
(02:27):
that was just like, I don't know, it's just something
about the city that, you know, the people really make
it what it is.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Yeah, the city has a spirit and a soul in
a way that not many other cities that I've traveled
to have.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
I have never it's there's nothing like it now.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Yeah, And it's good to hear that as a as
a local, because you know, I feel like I always
took it for granted, and then when I started leaving,
people would freak out and be like.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Oh, you're from New Orleans. That's great, and say, you
know what it really is?
Speaker 1 (02:56):
It is the Yeah, And that brings us up to
a point. When you went off to school, you didn't
go down the road.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
I did not.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
What was the culture shock Like.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
I went to boarding school in Connecticut, a very small
town called Watertown. Pretty much the only thing in that
town was our high school. There was a quote unquote
city down the road, Waterbury, and that was where the
mall was. That was where we hung out, and that's
where the brown people lived. So my school was international,
so there was there was a lot of culture that
(03:30):
I could embrace. You sort of had to seek it out.
My group of friends was very diverse. I was always
really happy about the clique that we formed.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
But you know, I came from a very.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
Very rich private school here in New Orleans, and so
there was a lot of that up there as well.
On a much higher level, Like you're talking about politicians, kids. Yeah,
Oh my god, I wish we had the Kennedys.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
And they don't say y'all. They do not that's different.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
No, that was the only time I really felt like
a country bump.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
It's amazing that jump up on you. I grew up
in this in Atlanta in the South, but I moved
to Miami Beach and there was one of me saying
y'all on that little island and everybody would just kind
of think it was it was like we react to
people with the British accent, like, oh my gosh, it's
so cool. So that was that was kind of maybe
(04:29):
that's why I like Miami so much. Atlanta was just
like every other dude.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
That's true.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
I definitely I definitely stood out up there, probably more
for being from New Orleans than anything else and performing.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
You obviously started to love music much earlier than that.
What were your first early memories of music and seeing
that you had this gift.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
Yeah, I mean, I'm just so spoiled being from here
and my dad dragging me to jazz Fest every and
I do mean dragging because as a small child, it
was not fun. It smells like horsepoop and we're obviously
not listening to music that I want to listen right,
and it's just so hot. But I was very lucky
(05:15):
to be exposed to the culture that I was at
such a young age Irma Thomas and there's a picture
of me on my mom's lap in front of the
Neville Brothers on stage, and it was just, you know,
you really take that stuff for granted. And then also
being in the private school system, music was a mandatory
part of our curriculum, which I'm really grateful for. Everyone
(05:38):
had to participate in the school musicals and the youth choir,
and for whatever reason, people's parents came up to me
and said, oh, you're really good.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
And it's like, how do you know that?
Speaker 4 (05:50):
We're all singing, like there're thirty of us, and they're like, no,
you know what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
It's like, oh, okay, well, I enjoy doing this.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
I've always been inclined to perform and draw attention to
myself in that way. And so then I started playing piano.
My grandmother made me have piano lessons because I wanted
to play guitar. She said it was a white man's instrument.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
She's way off base.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Oh yeah, So then I agreed to start piano and
then that eventually transitioned to guitar when she knew that
I was serious about it.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
So yeah, she paid for the lessons. I'll give her that.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Well, thank goodness she did, because it kindled that fire
and you kept going. If you only have one instrument
for the rest of your life that you can play.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
Not including voice, not including then it's guitar. Okay, yeah,
I'm really not good at piano.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
But how does that and that you judge yourself that way,
but you're also writing the music, how can you write it?
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (07:08):
I don't know. I'm asking because I.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
Really I'm I'm competent at drums, bass, I like I
would play those in front of people I have before keys. Nah,
I quit my lessons before we even started integrating the
left hand. It was Yeah, my my eight year old
niece has already leaps and bounds beyond where I was,
(07:33):
So she's going to join the band.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
One I was going to say, you got somebody to
call in a pin?
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah, So who else in your family's besides your niece?
Of course?
Speaker 4 (07:41):
In the like in music, well, my grandfather played the
trumpet in the army. That was how he served and
that's pretty much it. My abuela on my mom's side
sang a little bit, but not professionally. She was a
homemaker and in those days that was what you did
in Mexico, especially, so she never really got the chance
(08:03):
to pursue anything, mostly just singing in church and stuff.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
It was My dad's an.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Actor, so he performs in that way. But no, I'm
just the one that was always screaming and hollering it people.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
I wish I could do because every time I sing
to the dogs, when I sing I love you to
them and tell them about the other day when I
was singing to them when you're leaving.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Oh what when you said I love you.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I was singing to the dogs and Larry was leaving
I don't know way he was going somewhere, and he
opens the front door and I'm just spelting away to
the dogs.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
And oh yeah, and I said the neighbors. Neighbors are thinking,
what a nice sind off for me at the front door.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
I love you, And he's like, no, it's she's singing
to the dogs, not to me.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
Oh yeah, I've got a couple of songs that were
actually written for my dogs and not the person I
was dating at the time.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
What kind of dog?
Speaker 3 (09:04):
I had a pit bull?
Speaker 4 (09:05):
He passed away, I guess a year and a half
or almost two years ago.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Now he was sixteen. He had a good ride, that is.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
And now it's just me and my Maltese, who was
an accident. I wanted another pit but they're clo Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Sure they were quite a pair. And the Maltese is
now eighteen.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Wow, that's old.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
A Kirkland food brand. Yeah, it costco all the way.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Larry gets mad me because gets some ada. We he
his duties are grocery shopping and doing the laundry in
the household. And one day I came to feed the
dogs because they do the happy dance. They're like, wake
up in the morning and tails are wagging and I
pull it out and there's nothing, and they're looking at me,
(09:49):
like where the break. So I made some rice, I
put some scrambled eggs, and the bowls will clean. So
I just started cooking for them. Yeah, and Larry's I
stopped doing that because one day at the dry food
they're gonna be pissed. Oh yeah, so they are there.
I spoiled him every once in a while.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Yeah, I do that too.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Every once in a while he needs like a system reset.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Yeah, so he'll just get some some rice cooked with
with maybe a little boon.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
They deserve it, right, Yeah, they do well.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
We have Obviously, festival season is rapidly approaching on us.
When you play big festivals, and big meaning anything larger
than a than a club, what is the day of
preparation like for you.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
I tend to be very quiet in the morning. It's
not like I need to actively rest my voice because
I've just been sleeping all night, but there's some sort
of mental aspect of it. I like to be quiet
and calm, and then I'll start my warm ups, my
vocal warm ups in the shower, so I get the
(10:58):
steam and the heat, eat, and then I'm sort of
just doing my exercises pretty much from then until I
get to the gig. And then I'm not super chatty
beforehand because talking is what will really mess up your voice.
I think that turns some people off. Like my band knows,
you know, I'm sitting I'm engaged. It's not like I'm like.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Don't talk to me, but you know, I'm not as
chatty as I normally am.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
They're cool with that. But you know, you see fans.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
You and Kobe and.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Yeah, we've all got our z yeah. And then you know,
but you see fans before the show and they want
to chat and hug, and it's like, okay, I have
to go away from you now.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Yeah, yeah, I have to work.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
Yeah, I got my game face on. I've got my
work shirt. There's a button down, you know, if.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
I'm in a T shirt, let's Chatah, of course.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Did you ever do you remember your first time performing
in front of a large crowd and where was it?
Speaker 4 (12:02):
My first time that I really that I will say
it was like a first gig for me. It was
still in high school. It was my senior year. I
waited all four years. There were plenty of opportunities to perform,
but my stage fright and my anxiety have always gotten
the best of me in those situations. And so it
(12:23):
was spring semester. I performed two songs. One of my
strings was out of tune is just a nightmare. But
I got through it, and that was sort of when
I realized it that I can do it and I
want to continue doing it.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
And then I guess a.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
Year almost exactly a year later, I had my first
gig with my band at Carrollton Station. That was April fifteenth,
two thousand and six.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
So coming up on my eighteenth anniversary. Great, yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
And what do you do? Like for me, if I'm
speaking publicly, I guess still get nervous. Even though people think, oh,
you're doing great, I'm like, no, I'm terrified. Do you
I get that because some people are, They're fluid with it,
they're ready to go. But for me, I have to
excite myself up. And you know, sometimes if I'm speaking
(13:20):
a crowd, I try and move my eyes around so
people on thinking I'm reading from a script. What do
you do?
Speaker 4 (13:27):
There is a definite switch that gets flipped. Mia Borders
is not Mia. I am a fairly shy person. I'm
definitely an introvert. Unless you know, I'm around people that
I know my family, I'm the loud one and I'm
silly and you know. But that was always the hardest
(13:50):
part for me, and that was actually why I started
drinking as much as I did in the beginning of
my career, because I thought that that was what I
needed to sort of break down that wall was not
but I figure that out early on Thank God. But yeah,
it's just a it's a mental switch. You sort of
have to separate yourself because it's so uncomfortable selling yourself
(14:16):
in that way and be like, please like me, please like.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Me, please like me. Clap are you? Are you laughing
at my jokes?
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Not just the everyday occurrences that everybody else has in
those yeah, up elevated above everybody else, with everybody staring
only at you, with life, with.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
People dropping money to see it. Like, I have to
keep them engaged, not just during the songs, but in
between the songs, and so I sort of incorporate a
lot more personal stories and I try and keep people engaged.
You know, I do crowd work. I'll talk to people sometimes,
and that has made it a lot easier. I used
(14:54):
to throw up before every show man probably for the
first five or seven years of my career.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
It was just and you still kept pushing regular.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
Oh yeah, I mean, once I get on stage, once
I start singing that first note, I'm good. It's just
getting there that's so difficult. Sometimes it's gotten better thanks
to therapy and medication, for sure.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, Okay, So when we talk about
you know, the industry. Who are some of the people
that you admire and who is on your list, Like,
I would do anything to meet this person, play with them,
play with them.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Yeah. Well, Gladys Knight and I held hands once.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
That's pretty cool. Have you washed that?
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Unfortunately COVID ruined that, but yeah, it was. It was
a couple months after my grandmother passed and I bought
myself a front row seat to see Gladys Knight in
Lake Charles. I'm was the only person in the front row.
It was insane. I was also the only person under
the age of sixty. But I was just bawling my
(16:07):
eyes out and she saw me, and then you know,
she reached out her hand and was like, oh my god,
this is everything that I needed. I would love to
sing with her, that would be incredible. I think she's
in terms of who's still around from those days. She
sounds exactly the same, and that is so hard to
maintain that level of clarity and tone like she's She's
(16:31):
the benchmark for me personally. Yeah, I wish that I
could have met Bill Withers or seen him live. He's
a huge influence on me and my music too. And
Betty Davis yeah, so many of the good ones are
going right, and so I'm trying to I'm trying to
make more of an effort to see people live and
(16:53):
get out there and experience it, because it's hard when
when your job is playing concerts, it's hard to get
energized to go see drives.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah, Gladys Night, Yeah, she's I. We on Sundays at BABS,
we we play old school, so we put Smoky Robinson. Yes,
and the first Sunday, because you know, Sundays are just
more chill, just relax, laid back, and the cooks came
into like, oh, Chef, I love this music, and it
(17:24):
just became the thing where every Sunday we play that
station and it's just it's just, you know, so many
people from that era that just make beautiful, timeless music.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Yeah, that's true. I can listen to sixty Soul all constantly,
all the time.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
We were talking about like Deon Warwick, all of those
people that are just like you said, the same throughout.
Just when you hear those songs, it takes you back.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
It really does. Yeah. I wasn't even there, but I
feel like I was right.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
How would you describe what's the first word used when
someone says, oh, what is your music like? Exactly?
Speaker 3 (18:06):
It's hard, It's very hard.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
I usually say funky, okay, because that crosses all of
the other genres that we sort of touch on. Yeah,
there's the R and B, there's the soul, there's a
little bit of Americana, blues roots. But I think funk
is sort of the through line.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
All right, sounds I like funky because it's people like, oh,
what is funk like you?
Speaker 1 (18:33):
But it's the same problem. Actually, that's great. We're going
to steal that because people say, what kind of food
does need to cook? She's a woman from the Caribbean
who's trained in classic French Italian, lives around all this
great uh South Louisiana.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
I'm gonna say my food is funky, funky.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
It covers all.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
It keeps everybody engaged and interested. Speaking of food, what
are three of your favorite things from New Orleans? And
what is something that in your childhood that you can't
live without?
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Oh, man, food wise.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Yeah, three things from New Orleans. Let's see.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
Well, I recently learned that I'm allergic to almost everything
that I love, so that's a problem. A roast beef
po boy from from almost anywhere, Okay, but I mean
Parkway gets a shout out for sure. Domlisis gets another
shout out as well. Uh and also Adams Street Grocery
(19:34):
uptown in the wall.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Really good, boy.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Ok I haven't been there, but I will make sure
that we.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
It's it's very good, all right. Fried chicken, little dizzies.
Willie May's my grandmother.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
That was the only thing she could cook, right. Everything
else was not great.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
She used to boil steaks in a sautee pan with
an onion, like, here's your steak.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
And I was like. As I grew up, I was like, oh,
I don't like steak, and I had one. I was like,
oh my god, I love she betrayed me. She was
trying her best. And then one more.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
Let's see blue crab beignets a pet grocery.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
That's a good one. Those are really good.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Those are really good in their crab, for whatever reason,
is the only shellfish I can eat now, so I'll
go hard on.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
The Okay, that's fair, that's fair.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
And these unfortunate allergies they just popped up.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Some of them.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
I've known about it.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
I'm nervous for myself personally now, like wake up every
day stressing about crawfish.
Speaker 4 (20:39):
Hit around, like puberty or something. There was some sort
of shift there. I never really cared for shrimp. Maybe
it was because my grandma couldn't cook, so I wasn't
sad to lose that. And the only time I had lobster,
I was very disappointed that it didn't taste like a
gigantic crawfish, so I also wasn't sad.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
About that that would be awesome.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
I went to several crawfish boils with venadola in my
pocket because that's.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
How much I loved right.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
And the last time, I want to say, it was
like five years ago, and it's like, oh no, I
need my EpiPen.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
This has turned into some area.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Yeah, and then.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Yeah, don't do that. Just don't listen to anything I say. Healthwise.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
I'm allergic to gluten, which I had a feeling was
the case, and I do feel a lot better having
cut it out. And there are a lot more options
now than when I first heard about it, and I
just completely ignored them. Yeah, but most fortunately for me,
most of the foods that I grew up loving are
(21:43):
you know, gluten free. I'm Mexican. On one side, black
on the other. So there's a lot of rice and beans.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
I think the meal from my childhood that I love
the most is my boils recipe for Goddio, which is
usually a beef stew, but she was on a health
kick when I was a kid, and so she made
hers with ground turkey, and it's just a stew with
It's a tomato based stew. It's got potatoes and ground
(22:12):
turkey and onions and that's pretty much it. But it
just it tastes like El Paso and watt Is to me.
And I mean there's a whole bunch of human in it.
So once I once I smell that, I'm I'm right
back there.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
And what about Christmas?
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Christmas?
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Was that a big throw down?
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Thanksgiving in Mexico, Christmas was a big throw down. My
mom was one of eight and I'm one of twenty grandchildren,
and so we would all pile into my family's house
and wat is and just go hard, like maya, well,
I could throw down. She We have a cookbook of
all of her recipes that a cousin of mine had
her make when he got married, and then we all
(22:54):
stole it from him and like, oh.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Yeah, let me see that for a second.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
Yeah, so that was Christmas was always very very fun
and celebratory over there, and here in New Orleans, Thanksgiving
was my jam. I hosted for many years. I love
to cook. I don't get too many opportunities. We have
a much smaller family on this side. It's just me
and my brother and we have cousins. And my grandmother's
(23:22):
house was sort of the home base where I grew up,
and so she always hosted, and then I started hosting after.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
I love Thanksgiving and it's just an.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Excuse to eat.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
It's like Christmas, but without the responsibility of buying. Everybody gifts, right,
it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
So what is your favorite Thanksgiving items? So for me,
it's stuffing, a dress, dressing and that that is my
favorite things. What is yours?
Speaker 4 (23:49):
Okay, I've got a spin on dressing that's called Holiday
cast role just randomly, I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Beautiful.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Yeah, yeah, I'm.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
Make it with Buddha and chicken and it's sort of
just all thrown in there together. The Buddha is what
really gives it that like stuffing.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Consistency, and that sounds really.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
That that's the recipe.
Speaker 4 (24:17):
Yeah, yeah, these days it's you know, gluten free breadcrumbs.
But at that point you don't really notice it. And
it's what else do I put in there? Some paprikas
is what gives it a little bit of a that
smoky kick. Yeah, it's good.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
What about dessert? What kind of pie do you guys say?
For Thanksgiving?
Speaker 4 (24:38):
I am obsessed with apple pie. It's kind of a problem.
I'm only we always have at least two, and one
is for me. Everyone else can pick off of the
other one.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
I endorsed that message.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Yeah, and I actually I made a spin off of
Mylas apple pie recipe because hers was just there's so
much butter and sugar and it was just unnecessary. I
love her, but I come from a big family, and
I don't mean just the number. Let's put this down
a little bit, right, So I like to make her
(25:14):
apple pie, only allow myself to make it at holidays,
and the same thing for Thanksgiving. I'll make like a
pumpkin cheesecake, which is also only allowed then because I
will house it immediately.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
That sounds amazing. We were actually talking about Patti Labelle's
Sweet Potato Pie, which.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Is rumored to be supposed to be the best of
the best.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Yeah, so that's what I might be doing this year.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Okay try yeah, all right, go for it.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
I think you can pull it off too.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Oh man.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
So if they're in the the big world out there
of festivals, what is one that is on your wish
list that man, I would really like to be up
there tro in seventy six.
Speaker 4 (26:01):
Or oh man, that would be great. I mean, if
if I could go play Woodstock, that would be awesome.
The original certainly not when they tried to bring it back.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
Oh no, that was what a nightmare.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
That was a mess.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
But Newport Jazz would be great. That's it feels like
it's such a benchmark professionally, So I would love to
go up there and show them a little bit of
a little bit of what I do.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
But living in the Northeast, yeah, you could get hit
him with the y'all.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Oh yeah, or maybe we can edu this. So Lucia
Jazz Fest, I would love that's that's a beautiful. It
reminded me a lot of jazz Fest hair because it's
outside and it's open and you can you know, people
still bring like their coolers and everything, and they set
up for the whole day oh so it reminds me
a lot of when I moved there, Like that reminds
(26:57):
me of jazz Fest back.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
I'm a beach baby.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
I love them any islands, I accept.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Who's the most interesting you've had on your.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
Well, it's mostly just me and my friend asking each
other questions. Okay, it's called great question with me and
Kate obviously have to plug it now she's gonna get
mad at. Yes, we ask a little question, we ask
a big question. Little question can be like how do
you eat a sandwich that turned into something?
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Okay, so very seriously.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Good question because a lot of people have their ways.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Yeah, I'm very particular. I go around. I have to
go around in circle.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Even a burger.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Really it's crazy. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
I go straight ahead, like.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
I'm gonna have him cook a burger.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
And watch this go down and then you know, we
ask a big question, like is their life after death?
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Is there?
Speaker 4 (27:49):
I would say yes, I feel it. Being from New
Orleans is tough.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
To something like that. That's a good point.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
There are definitely some friendly ghosts in my house.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
I love that little question, big question.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Yes, we should have y'all on. Yeah, we had my
brother on he was a hot mess.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
He was ready, these are our first special guest and
he's like, yes, I'm about to embarrass.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Oh my god, go for it. That was the name
of the episode. Actually had to do it.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Yeah, you were great at like marketing and like those
one liners where you do it really well. Well, So
when it comes to not playing music, do you have
any hobbies.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
Or I actually love building furniture? Okay, yeah, I had
to stop for this past year. I was trying to
sell my house, but Louisiana insurance market failed me. Yeah,
nobody wants to pay yep, and I don't blame them.
I inherited my family house. It was just way too
(28:56):
big for me. But one of those rooms was a
dedicated you know, workspace to build bookshelves and other types
of furniture. I love redoing old things, and my grandmother
was on one hand, she was an arkivist.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
On the other hand, she was a hoarder.
Speaker 4 (29:14):
So there's a lot of old, legit, mid century modern pieces,
solid wood.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
I love working with stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (29:22):
So I'm you know, the silver lining to not selling
my house at this point is that I get to
get back to that stuff.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Yeah, that's great. It must be therapeutic.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
It really is.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
It's really rewarding to see something that I've built with
my own hands, and I've got nieces and nephews and
you know, they use the bookshelf that I built them
and they draw on it, and yeah, it's really cool.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
That's sweet.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
How'd you learn woodworking?
Speaker 3 (29:48):
It was born out of necessity.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
Really. We dealt with a lot of shoddy contractors after Katrina,
and so I spent a lot of time fixing their mistakes.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
And then that just sort of grew into well, let
me just start building my own stuff. And I need
a bookshelf. Why would I pay Ikia prices?
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Right right?
Speaker 4 (30:09):
I love Ikia, but yeah, let me let me put
my own spin on this and build something that is
actually going to work for me instead of working around
someone else's design.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
That's amazing. That is that's huge.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
It's fun.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Whenever anything breaks and it's I'm like, Larry, any please
help me.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
It's the worst because one time I poured liquid draina
down a sink and she thinks I'm a plumber. Now,
so it's it's the worst. Like some some circuit board
gets fried in one of the ovens and she thinks
I can rewire.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Break Like, Larry, can you please come over here, bring
your toolbox? We need this fix, and he's I can
just call the plumber.
Speaker 4 (30:50):
I've had to stop myself from doing that sort of
thing too, because I have a rental property and so
something will go wrong and.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Be like I'm on my way with my drill and everything.
He's like, no, just call someone's right.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Like, I can fix this, but I got to go
spend a thousand dollars at Low's. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Oh, Larry loves Lows to come on. If he says
I'm going to Low's, it's three hours, No, like.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
An hour and a half. No, it's you know what
the best was? It wasn't the best, but I went
to Load's. I don't know why I had to go.
I went to Low's this year at halftime in the
Super Bowl. Oh wow, it was like the rapture had
come and it was just me and like the three
employees were the only sinners left on her. But it
was amazing. It was just echoes and oh yeah, all
(31:34):
by yourself.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
No, I love it.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
No, I got to what Larry tries to hook me
in because he's like, I'm going to Low's do you
want to come? Yes, we can get some plants. And
I'm like okay, and then that's my little area.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Yeah, only the distress plants. Nina will only buy distress
because I.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Want to get I want to give them a happy home.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
Like you.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
We got some roses that were all distressed and they're
doing three years. Lah, they're doing well.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
Wow, everything I plant dies.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
That's that's actually one area where I can admit I'm
out of my depth.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Something somebody said the other day. I never thought of this.
It's not our fault. The plant is not performing up
to the level.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
Okay, blame it on my whole life.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
I thought it was my fault.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
It's a few instance, but I still I still try
to like bring them back to life, and when they survive,
I feel I feel really proud, like, yeah, I gave
you a good home. I saved you. Not everyone makes it,
but at least I try.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
Sure I've got one that's holding on for dear life.
A friend of mine got it for me when my
pit bull passed and she's like, don't worry, You're not
going to kill this and I was like, no, I can't.
I don't even know what it is, but it's holding on.
Two years later, it is struggling, but it's it's still
(32:54):
with me.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
That's great. I love that it's this nice one springtime
rolls around because then the weather's nice, the jazzmine comes out.
I guess that's my favorite part of the year, when
I tell Larry every night, put your windows down and
just try the neighborhood because everybody's jasmine is just perfuming. Yeah. Everything.
So my mom is coming later this month. Oh great,
(33:18):
And it's her first Springtime because she always comes in
the winter, in the winter, and she's from the Caribbean,
so she always calls the week before she is it's
going to be cold. I said, no, Mom, it's it's nice.
And then she gets here and it's the pole of
vortex and it's you know, twenty five degrees and she's
just oh man, bundled up. And it was last Mardi Girls.
(33:40):
She came and we had a couple of cold days
and she sat outside watching muses that night and I
have a picture. She's scarved, you know code this, you know,
the tea pot of hot tea, and she's just like
not moving, not trying to catch any throws.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
No there's nothing worse than a cold morning girl. As
a kid, that was just the worst.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Yeah, when you were you fired up for Marty Graus's
kid as a kid, Yes, for sure.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
We lived right around the corner from the parade route,
and so again our house was the hub, and it
was always just so much fun and families there and
cousins and you know, you just get to run around
the block and have a great time yelling. There's loud music, Yeah,
there's always good food.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:31):
And then I got older and I quit drinking and
was like, this is hitting different. But now with my
nieces and nephews, you know, you get to sort of
start over again and see it through their eyes.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
And that's neat because that was our first Marty Gras here.
We had all those windows along chop Toolis. I'm like,
oh my god, do we need to board up like
a storm? You know what's going to happen. I'd just
known the Marty Grass in my youth when we traveled
the town and the crazy yeah, and it was really
neat to see. And I don't drink either, so you
(35:05):
see some of the foolishness. But it really is a
family event, and that really is what was really pleasantly surprised.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
That's a lot of things.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
That's something that a lot of people don't often understand
when they're not from here, Like that's the first thing
they ask about is New Orleans and Marty gra and
how crazy people flashing?
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Right?
Speaker 4 (35:26):
Like no, no, no, someone flashed last year, I want
to say. And they're like a group of parents tackled her.
Oh my, like we don't do that here, right, bourbon right, Okay,
this is Napoleon Avenue. No, keep it right, no, no, no, no,
no no no. You see all these babies around here,
put them away.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Yeah, well, I think that's what people think. People think
it's crazy frat boys going, you know, just wild, and
it's not. In our first year when we moved that
we went to Zulu and we we would just I
don't think, I don't think we I think we caught
one coconut that year and we were just like this
is gold. And you know, we were walking back to
(36:09):
our car and we just saw in the neighborhood because
we went where did we watch it? By Brian's house? Yeah,
and just all the grills were out, kids were running around,
somebody was cooking, somebody had music on, yeah, and he
just thought it was just like a family cookout. And
it showed me that this is just I think people
(36:32):
have the misconception of what it really is. But it's
about families coming together and cooking and hanging out and
watching the parade together.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
Yeah, it's art and motion, and we celebrated accordingly.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
What's your favorite parade?
Speaker 3 (36:48):
Bachus?
Speaker 2 (36:49):
That was?
Speaker 4 (36:50):
That was always my favorite as a kid. My grandmother
and I, which I still can't believe because she had
to have been late seventies at the time, we would
walk from our house up to Saint Charles. There is
about seven blocks and we would sit on the steps
of Temple Sinai and we would watch Bacchus together. That
(37:11):
was the one night parade that she would take me
to because obviously at her age she was like, I'm
not hoofing it for you, calm down here. But it
was just us, and so she would take me every
year to Bacchus. I remember one year Jean Club and
Damn was Marshall.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
He was I love, I love wish y'all could.
Speaker 4 (37:35):
I had never felt any feelings like that before until
I saw Yell Clove and Damn and was like.
Speaker 3 (37:39):
Oh, I get it where I have. No, he's a
nut job, but he got kicked in the head one
too many times.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
For one year. One year he reigned as Bacchus.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
Yeah, sure did. And I have that bablloon in my house.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
How has the music industry changed in New Orleans from
when you started to now? So your first album released
two ten, We.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
Put on an EP in two thousand and seven, and
then the first full length album came out two thousand
and nine, and I would say, unfortunately, it's gotten more
competitive and less supportive when it comes to certain venues.
(38:35):
Tourism is great and it's how this city survives.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
You guys know that.
Speaker 4 (38:40):
But it also there's a double edged sword. People feel
like they are entitled to music when they come to
New Orleans. They don't have to pay when there's a
brass band playing on the corner right outside the club
where I'm playing inside, and so it's it's difficult, and
I think we are all as musicians sort of feeling
that pressure. I started with a full band.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
That was the only way I played.
Speaker 4 (39:07):
I never played solo because my anxiety was through the roof.
I would never do it, but out of necessity. My
shows have gotten smaller and smaller in certain venues because
clubs don't guarantee money, or they make you pay for.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
Tips or play for tips.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
Tipt arbitrage going on in the on Frenchman streets.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
Oh yeah, and I mean certain certain smaller festivals will
actually make you pay to play.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
They have all mostly have gone by the wayside.
Speaker 4 (39:41):
I think we put up enough of a ruckus that
that stopped. But seeing the state of the industry really
motivated me to get more involved on the business side.
So I did start an entertainment company, Third Coast Entertainment,
registered trademark. I nailed it, and so I put on
I put on some cases, and we have a Pride
(40:01):
festival in June. We're gonna expand to another festival in
the fall as well, specifically targeting marginalized musicians and musicians
from communities that are often overlooked and underpaid. Just trying
to get more music out there and getting actual significant
(40:24):
money into musician's pockets.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
That has been an ongoing thing for years.
Speaker 4 (40:30):
Yeah, and I mean, we're so lucky to be filled
to the brim with really high quality, talented musicians, but
it dilutes the pool.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
That's just the nature of the game.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
And so we are becoming more and more like a
New Yorker, Nashville or in LA where it's just tough to.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
Tough to be heard.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
Right. Yeah, So what's next for you for twenty twenty four?
Speaker 4 (40:58):
Twenty twenty four, I have a news. I have a
new album coming out at the end of August. I'm
very excited about it. It's called Firewalker, which is the
name of a song that I wrote with George porter Junior.
I actually wrote it for one of his albums, but
it didn't really fit the motif and so I took
(41:21):
it back. And so it's a lot of fun. We're
going to record at Marini Studios in about a month.
So right now I'm in my home studio every day,
probably over polishing the demos. At this point, I don't know,
I'm just type A. I have to be in control
of everything.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
I've got my.
Speaker 4 (41:42):
Spreadsheets, the schedule and what everybody's going to play and
when they're going to play it, and so this is
this is the part that I really enjoy, the pre
production and then yeah, I love being in the studio.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
On the demos you have, did you play all the instruments.
Speaker 4 (41:58):
Yes, wow, yeah, I mean there are some like software instruments,
but yeah, it's all me.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
That's pretty cool laying that down together. Have you ever
co written a song with somebody?
Speaker 3 (42:13):
I have.
Speaker 4 (42:13):
I've co written a couple of songs. There was one
with my original band member. He had a song that
was sort of unfinished. He wanted the female perspective, and
so I finished it with him. And then people have
reached out to me to ask me to write songs
for them. That's how I started working with George. He
reached out to a bunch of female singer songwriters and we,
(42:39):
you know, started up a really good relationship. So I
have a few songs on his album that came out
a couple of years ago, crying for Hope.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
And so is it a different anxiety it is now
that you have that instead of just saying I can't
write because I write something and then I cross it
out and I could never be finished.
Speaker 4 (43:01):
Yeah, writing is rewriting to this day. You know, the
songs that I play live, the live versions of what
we do are totally different from where they originally started.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
And that happened organically.
Speaker 4 (43:12):
Yeah, definitely, I found a really good group of musicians
who elevate what I write, and that's really important to me.
They listen to me, but they also know that I
want them to put their stamp on it, because you know,
I can give them the recipe, but you know I
(43:36):
want them to put their own.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
You know, if any of our cooks are listening, we're
going to give you the recipe, don't put it. But everyone.
Speaker 4 (43:49):
Every once in a while, there's you know, there's a
song and I will write the bassline note for note,
and my bassis nos to play it note for note.
And then there are other times where I'll just give
him the chord chart and I'll say, go crazy, like
do what you want to do. So there's mutual trust,
and that's really important to find, especially in musicians in
(44:10):
the studio.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
So let's say you've written a new song, the band
is practiced. How long does it take not necessarily them,
but how how old is a song before everybody is
entirely comfortable?
Speaker 3 (44:26):
Does it depend on this is a good question I
would have to ask them.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
But does it depend on the technical levels of things
you're doing in there?
Speaker 3 (44:36):
Or I think it it just this.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
Do you have somebody in the band who's not as
bright as the other ones you have to write. But
do you ever have to write a song not the
way you would have played it, but the way you
know somebody else is going to have to play.
Speaker 4 (44:53):
No, Okay, I there are some songs that I write
with my certain band members in mind, like although really
in this area, maybe they'll be a little bit more
uncomfortable in this other song. So I'll give them free
reign over here while holding them to a much stricter
standard over here.
Speaker 3 (45:10):
That's cool, But I think I don't know. It takes
a few times live to really gel.
Speaker 4 (45:21):
And I was very particular in the beginning. I didn't
play anything live until we had the recorded version, and
so I sort of let go of that a little bit.
So we've been playing a couple of these songs live.
Two of them we actually put out over Quarantine. We
recorded in our own home studios, and so we're going
to go in and polish them and add a little
(45:42):
more flare to them to sort of make them new.
But yeah, it takes a minute to get on board.
We often we're also busy. We don't necessarily have time
to rehearse before a gig, and so I'll give somebody
a new song and then we just play it for
the first time at the show on stage and just
sort of see what happens because the audience has never
(46:03):
heard of it. They don't know we mess up, right, right,
It's fine, do whatever you want, you know, so, I know.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
That you're very busy and you have a gig tonight,
right I do. Yeah, so we're gonna let you rest
your voice. Where can people find you? Where?
Speaker 1 (46:20):
On the regular?
Speaker 2 (46:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (46:21):
On the regular? Mia borders dot com has everything. Okay,
there's a mailing list. I'm notoriously flaky, so I'm not
I'm not going to overrun your mailbox with stuff. Maybe
once a month if I'm good. And then Facebook. I'm
on Facebook, Instagram. I technically have a TikTok, but you know,
(46:44):
it's mostly just to watch other people and then every
once in a while, I'm like, oh, I should post
a video.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
What's your favorite social media?
Speaker 4 (46:52):
Instagram is fun, it's just you know, visually sort of
just scroll through and hover first stuff. I get a
lot of like home renovation stuff on my algorithm, so
I'll just go down that rabbit home.
Speaker 1 (47:07):
It's so easy, but it is the worst when you
click on the one thing that you're just like, oh,
let me see you know how a wombat raises it,
and the everywhere nothing but yeah yeah sub Saharan animals
like in your feed and well man, thank you for
your time, thank you and your boys. Thank you today.
Speaker 2 (47:29):
It's a pleasure and we will hopefully be on your podcast.
We will prepared for the big questions.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
Yes men, borders dot com, thank you, thank you, everybody,
thank you, all but out word
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