Four on the Floor

ARTICLE BY VANELIS RIVERA | PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW BAILEY

How do you know a band is about to throw down some tasty tunes? Is it in a densely stacked stage, multi-guitar stand with resophonic and electric guitars at the ready, band logo brandished on a kickdrum, or a lead guitarist coolly styling shades throughout his set? While all of the above is true of local Louisiana-style, blues-rock band, Four on the Floor, the unexpected signal to their musical performance comes down to four microphone stands on the floor—an emblem of a band made-up of powerhouse frontmen.

The men of Four on the Floor have ran in the same music circles for over twenty-five years. “It’s kind of a running joke in the band today. We would say: One day we’ll be in a band together,” explains Dave Reeves, the band’s drummer. Time was on their side starting in 2014 when Reeves and guitarist Danny Lee Witherington formed Blues Heals with blues harp master Dave “P’Mo” More, joined later by current bass player Kenneth Sanders. In 2017, the core of the band moved in a slightly different direction, incorporating more original music and drawing deeply into their Louisiana heritage. “Everything clicked” when current guitarist and songwriter Toby Traylor joined, finalizing what is now, literally and metaphorically, Four on the Floor. As a collective, the band came up with about twenty names for their new project, but instead of the back and forth of deciding what moniker would be a suitable fit, they left it to the fans. Twenty names got narrowed to ten, consisting of ones like Mojo Rising and The Parish Battery, but it seems that the best choice is sometimes the most obvious.

Fluent with their instruments and their individual vocals, the band acts more like a collective than a band, standing out with their use of four-part harmonies, uncommon for most bands. “It’s challenging and it’s fun. It’s something we’re really proud of,” says Reeves, who has idolized bands like King’s X that has three members taking part in the vocal arrangements of most of their songs. “Us being able to vocalize is like having another instrument or another fifth member,” adds Traylor. Each member is known for a distinct vocal slant that ends up in the groove of the band’s hounding, swampy sound. According to Sanders, Traylor is the Marc Broussard of the band. His “Louisiana, down-south, gritty, adjective, adjective, adjective” reminds Sanders of “old man vocals,” distinct in its deep raspiness. “He can sing really high too,” Sanders adds, revealing that when pushed Traylor can produce “golden notes” half a step from his comfort range. The band’s vocal jack-of-all-trades is Reeves, “the all around quintessential musician,” says Sanders. Though he shines when he digs into old-school rock and roll tunes, he can do any genre and style. “He’s got that pure tone and harmony range,” explains Sanders, stating that he can go from high to mid range and at times ventures into weird thirds and fifths. Witherington is the same way, particularly with southern-rock oriented tunes, mentions Sanders: “Gosh, that guy’s been singing for a hundred plus years. How can you not be good?” Finally, Sanders brings the hard rock to the mix. He often buckles down in the back-up parts, finding what sounds “cool.” He says, “I love singing the high stuff. To me, that’s a challenge and I accept it.”

Their combating tambors, the Cajun versus the rock and the rock versus the hard rock, are a wall of sound that pulses. And even when the style of a song shifts through genre, only one genre remains. “We all have the blues,” exclaims Sanders. Their musical influences follow different veins like zydeco, blues-rock, second line New Orleans style, as well as “anything steeped in the blues.” But in the end, the band members are just “Louisiana boys from the Delta,” at least according to Witherington. Even then, they try not to reside in a single genre, especially when it comes to their original material. During the songwriting process, Sanders brings the darkside in the form of punk-rock metal. Meaning, he runs an overdrive in bass sound which provides a buzzy distortion and more modern spin to traditional blues scales. On Witherington’s original “Southern Pride,” he uses some of that bass overdrive to make the song heavier to add more weight. “Mostly bass is clean, which I admire and use eighty percent of the time, but I like to flip over to the dark side and make it nasty,” emphasizes Sanders. Though the songs he writes for the band are heavy rock-based blues, he appreciates the band’s blues base because it’s what he grew up on: “It was my introduction to music. This brings me back to the initial love for music that I have.” The prevalent mutual respect the bandmates have for each other allows the writing process to be cohesive. “We just kind of write and let it happen,” says Reeves, adding, “there are no big egos or weak links within the band.”

When the band first got together, they mutually agreed to focus on original material while navigating the delicate balance between working covers and originals. In 2018 they released an eleven-track LP titled Straight Outta the Delta. Not just an ode to “hard core blues,” it’s also a testament to their experiences. “All the songs that I draw from are from personal experience,” says Traylor, who is the main driving force on much of the band’s lyrical material. Many of the songs from their last album are ones he’d been working on for a few years. As far as personal favorites go, Traylor leans toward “Run Baby Run,” a rock ballad that he affirms speaks for itself and focuses on disagreements experienced in romantic relationships: September winds are blowing / Back here again / I know we’ll make it baby / When will this winter end? “That one, in particular, turned out really well,” he adds. Favoring punchier melodies, Sanders’ favorite on the album to play and sing is “If I Had My Way.” It’s the bluesiest song on the album: I pawned my pistol, baby / I pawned the land / I pawned that busted up tractor / With my demons in my hand. For the first time in his twenty-something years of playing, Sanders felt he wrote “a monumental bass line that every bass player in the world would be proud of” on that song. Accustomed to creating music parts from riffing, in “If I Had My Way” he constructed his bass part note by note, an out of the norm feat that delineates the overall feel of the song.

A new album is currently in the works, and while it remains untitled, Traylor promises that it’s a divergent take on their usual. Unlike the songs from their last record, the new songs have been incorporated into their live sets which allows them to refine and adjust before recording at Space Labs, Sanders’ personal recording studio. “This time we wanted to play them live and let them come together as they will. We’re a lot more focused this time, really serving the music,” says Traylor. On the surface you might categorize the band as rock-based blues, but the new album extends further into their mindfully constructed arrangements, some of which may inspire listeners to do a double-take. “We are also doing a reggae song for the next album, but it has our feel to it, that spice that we like to put on it,” reveals Traylor. Titled “No Incident,” the song is one from Traylor’s archive. He was just “pulling things out of the bag,” but as soon as he played it, his bandmates lit up. Not only did they feel that this is the “reggae moment,” but they loved the idea of doing something unexpected. Instantly recognizable from it’s jumpy relaxed feel, the genre does justice to the song’s introspective focus on the human desire to contemplate changing the past.

“We’re like every other band,” says Reeves. They want to play “big shows” and be on the road, but in the same respect, they’re not oblivious to the realities of the music world. “At this point, we just want to do what we do. The most important thing is to serve the music,” he says. Focused more on performance than promoting, they strive to be their own “musical self,” says Witherington, also noting that they don’t concern themselves with the pop scene whether it be country or anything else: “We try to create our own style of music. We play from the heart.” Four on the Floor works hard on and off stage to make sure people have a good time, letting the music drive them. In their words, they feature a “blazing twin guitar attack over a tight, driving rhythm section.” To appreciate local music is to appreciate this “groovin’, funky Louisiana original!”

Follow Four on the Floor on Facebook to keep an eye out for the release of their new album and give their music some love on Spotify and iTunes.