Revoltaire is Ruby Stewart, Jason Yates, Shawn Davis and Chris Cano doing Fillmore West-style rock ‘n’ roll, and they will light up the back lot at Footsie’s for the second time on Saturday. You can hear what they think about here and read what they think about below. This interview by Chris Ziegler.

You got together over whisky at the Short Stop—what single brand of whisky is most responsible for the existence of this band?
Jason Yates (keyboards/organs): Good question! I always fuck the name up—it’s Woodford Reserve. It’s tasty!
And what got you in that room drinking Woodford Reserve in the first place?
I was on tour with Citizen Cope, and I got a call from a producer friend who said he had this girl with some songs, and he said I’d be perfect to meet her. She loves the blues and he said, ‘This guy’s cut from the same cloth.’ So me and Ruby were trying to get to know each other and understand each other. It wasn’t even about music. It was just a hang-out session.
What’s the first album you discovered you both had?
I didn’t have this, but she gave me a copy—the Howlin’ Wolf one that’s the acid blues he did. That’s what fucked me up. I wanna do a band like that!
Ruby said the number 13 has always been lucky for her—what’s the luckiest thing that has happened to Revoltaire so far?
The chemistry has to be really right, and there have to be so many magical things that just kind of click for it to be a real band. I feel lucky we have that! From the beginning, the sound we naturally made together was very natural. We didn’t have to go through five bass players, all these different drummers … pretty much the first combo worked!
You said that you feel you guys took the ‘long road’ to get your sound—no computers, no ‘manufactured’ groups, just working on ideas for hours together. Why the long way around?
It’s that natural dynamic and chemistry that happens when there’s not one leader of the band—when it’s a collective! We’re greater as the four of us than if it’s just one person’s vision. It’s better when we have checks and balances. It pushes you. It forces you to play better. It’s a vulnerable place to be in when you have to let go of this control, but when you play in a real band, you have to let some of that go. That’s the long road. It takes a long time to play out the ideas and take the time to listen to them, and maybe you even go back to what you originally thought was correct, but at least you tried! As a team, we can be so much more powerful. I don’t think that’s for everybody—I don’t think Prince and Stevie Wonder needed to!—but it’s a powerful thing to let yourself open up. It took months for us to do that! I’m a grown man and I’m set in my ways, but you have to take chances!
What do you do right before rehearsals? What do you feel you have to be ready for to play with Revoltaire?
I go through a ritual—a playlist of a few songs. There’s some Albert King, some Cream, Some Funkadelic—America Eats Its Young and Maggot Brain. The pre-’75 stuff. It helps me get in the spirit. At any point in the show, one person might go off, and when they do, you gotta run with it. That’s when it’s most exciting because you don’t know what’s gonna happen or how it’s gonna land. Before we play, too, we all hang out with each other—building that trust. I don’t like it when bands just show up and they’re all doing their own thing, and then they get on stage and play. With us, it’s important for us to know we’re looking out for each other. You might turn some corners you never even knew!
What exactly is that spirit? What’s the connection between Funkadelic and Cream?
This is my own personal thing, but it’s very psychedelic—a lot of what I pull from is very rebellious. I’m not making any money with this band—it’s just a place of release. I’m not up here trying to pretend I’m a rock star. I’m a musician and I wanna convey that teenage angst—that feeling where you wanna be free! And creative! When I hear Cream or Hendrix, I’m reminded of that. I’m not trying to be retro but those guys have that spirit. They evoke that.
Did you know Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow was recorded in one giant session while everyone was on acid?
I’ve heard first-hand stories. They recorded it over a day and a half in Hollywood. Bernie Worrell produced the first band I was in. That shit is true!
What kind of earth-shaking revelations did Bernie Worrell share with you?
That George Clinton didn’t write all the songs? He’s not responsible for them all—but he definitely took credit for them.
Is it true that statistically, the Hammond B-3 organ has been in most of the top ten songs of the last several decades?
Yes—another Hammond player told me, and I thought, ‘He’s fucking right!’ If you listen to songs from the ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s, 2000s—if you tune into the keyboard sound, you’ll hear the Hammond in there! Or a simulation of a Hammond now. Maybe they don’t have one, but they’ll try and get that sound. As a keyboard player, that’s your meat and potatoes right there. The organ—it doesn’t have to be Jimmy Smith style, but you’re gonna hear it out there.
What do you connect to best about that kind of sound?
You have to hear it in your head before you can play it. For me, it’s taken years … I have a Moog, I have an Arp, but they never really spoke to me like an organ or an electric piano or a clavinet—those are the ones I go to. I can hear ‘em in my head—what I wanna play! It’s been more of a struggle to relate to a Moog. I have a Moog and it’s going, ‘VHWWWOOO!’ And I’m like … how do I use that? It doesn’t really fee like me! It really speaks to who you are or what you hear, what instrument you grab for. I’m trying to open up more—I’d love to rock a synth! I wish I had a Juno 60. I like Arp sounds. There’s a little bit on our record but I wish I could do more. Bernie Worrell was phenomenal on that shit. He knew how to wrestle with ‘em!
Your record is almost done—but how soon is almost?
We just got all the artwork and I’m putting together the layout now. We’ll have CDs in two or three weeks! We recorded and produced it all ourselves. It’s a really organic representation of what we are. When the new years comes, we’re gonna put the record out and keep doing what we’re doing. Keep playing shows—keep it grassroots.
What song would you want to do as a cover—something brand-new for the band?
We debate about covers! To me a cover is such a powerful tool—it’s kind of giving away what you listen to or what you’re influenced by, and also a great way to show what your band can do with a great song. We haven’t found that cover yet! We haven’t found the song we can make our own and make it shine—better than the original! My objective—don’t ever do it if you can’t do it better than the original! It’s tricky—I’m open for suggestions. But our drummer Chris is like, ‘Fuck covers! We can write our own songs!’

REVOLTAIRE WITH DJs SHORT SHORTS AND CHRIS ZIEGLER AT TOTAL WRECK ON SAT., OCT. 22, AT FOOTSIE’S, 2640 N. FIGUEROA AVE., CYPRESS PARK. 10 PM / FREE / 21+.