The aftershocks of Hurricane Katrina continue to be felt throughout New Orleans’ entire music community, especially on the local rock scene. Even as key clubs such as the Howlin’ Wolf and One Eyed Jacks have reopened, others have either closed or else their fates are still up in the air. The situation can be even more vague and confusing when it comes to the bands whose music rang through the city’s air every night. Some have returned, but the status of others varies. The majority of the bands I used to see have relocated and taken up residencies around the country, mostly New York City or Austin. Others have disbanded for good. But then some have even joined forces and formed altogether new bands here in the city. Such is the story of Lives of the Deceived.
Bassist Angel Flanagan and guitarist Justen Martin were members of the gothic hard rock band Once Upon a Time since early 2005. The band had already played a fair number of shows around town and had released a self-titled CD when Katrina struck. Flanagan ended up in Minnesota, and was already questioning the band’s plight. “After seeing the hurricane’s damage, I had to deal with the possibility that I might be permanently displaced,” he says. “There was a chance that I would be living in Minnesota for good.” Eventually, she returned home and found that her former band could not survive the demoralizing effects of a natural disaster. “Once Upon a Time split because, after the storm, we couldn’t get everyone together again and our morale was shot. At that point, we knew we had to go our separate ways.” But Flanagan and Martin knew that they couldn’t just give up on music, so they brought their search for new musicians to the Internet.
“Lives of the Deceived would never have gotten together so quickly if it weren’t for MySpace.com,” says guitarist and lead singer Dave Sambola, referring to the popular online community. Flanagan answered an ad that Sambola posted online looking for musicians to bring to fruition the songwriting and recording project he had begun in 2003. “I started writing and recording these songs after my last band No Faces broke up,” he explains. “From there I started buying recording gear, not really knowing what I was doing at the time.” Through trial and error, Sambola eventually became proficient at recording and engineering, and put together a demo CD appropriately titled Driven.
After posting the songs on the Internet under the name Lives of the Deceived, he began looking in earnest for other musicians to breathe life into his songs. Sambola seached unsuccessfully for two years, then that search was interrupted as so many things were by Katrina. After the hurricane, Flanagan and Martin answered his post since they were short on bandmates themselves. “What’s really great is that I’ve been in and out of bands for the past few years, but these are the first musicians that I’ve met where I knew instantly that we were gonna do something great together,” Sambola says.
“Especially post-hurricane, I think we came together as a band all too smoothly,” says Flanagan. “With our old band, it took us three months just to find our first drummer. This time, we hooked up with Dave immediately, and it seemed like fate.” The idea that the current members were destined to form a band may not be that farfetched. After their initial contact with each other, it turned out that they knew each other through a former mutual bandmate about whom they shared not-so-fond memories. “It’s a pretty strange coincidence that we all got screwed over by the same guy. The new band is our way of turning all these negative experiences into a positive one.”
As of this printing, Lives of the Deceived will have probably played their first show, and if all has gone as planned, they will have come off like old pros. “At this point, we’re not worried about where and when we’re going to play shows,” says Sambola. “Right now we’re worried most about not sounding like beginners. We all have the talent, but it’s just a matter of time before we get ourselves out there. And when we do, I guarantee that we’ll take everyone by surprise and kick a lot of ass.” Flanagan agrees that the band must wait until “all the members are 100% confident that we can get up there on stage together” before they even begin to think about organizing shows. “We’re still trying to figure out where to go with the vocals, if we want a female singer or if we want to do three-part harmony. We can’t take to the stage until we get that straightened out.” The band does know that they will probably play those first shows with popular metal act Merry-Go-Drown, who not only introduced them to their current drummer – Drew Stevens – but have been staunch supporters since the first day. “I’ve been contacting bands and musicians in the New Orleans area to see who might want to play shows with us, and Mike [Anglin] from Merry-Go-Drown has been the only one to respond so far,” says Sambola. The band has also rallied the support of the Northshore’s own In Medias Res and concert promoter Steve Williams of WhatStyle Productions.
If anything, the members of Lives of the Deceived encapsulate the resolve of not just other local musicians, but all local citizens who want nothing more than to get back to doing the work they were doing, and chasing the dreams they were chasing before Katrina. “Everyone’s goal now is to rebuild,” says Flanagan, “and so is mine. The only difference is that I’m rebuilding a band. I returned from Minnesota to do what I know and love, and music is my life.” And if raw ambition and talent equal success, then the future looks bright for the band. Drew Stevens envisions Lives of the Deceived forming their own independent label and production company, on top of a possible tour when the time is right. “That would be our way of getting rid of the middleman, and putting out our music the way we want it to sound,” he says. The hurricane has also taught them a lesson of a far more personal nature.
“I rarely ever got a chance to tell my grandpa that I really do love him,” says Sambola. “But he lived in New Orleans East and had to be rescued from his roof. I just can’t imagine him having to go through something like that, and I used one of my new songs about the storm to tell him how I felt. Now more than ever, you learn not to take anybody in your life for granted. For once, I feel really confident about the people I’m making music with, and I’m fortunate that we found each other.”
Jeremy J. Deibel can be contacted at [email protected].
