Hot off the tarmac after spending a summer away in Los Angeles, James Quick kicks back with his drummer Ethan Wallace and co-manager Connor Ellison up in Gasa Gasa’s graffiti-covered loft before his first concert since coming back to New Orleans.
The trio met each other in their freshman year at Loyola University’s music industry program, seeing their commitment to working in the industry and churning out material.
“Our eyes made contact across the room,” Quick said.
“He kept following me around,” Wallace replied.
“We had a collective of friends in the Biever dorms who just genuinely wanted to grind and make music and be production companies and be management companies, so it was a really productive environment,” Wallace said.
Wallace started out as a session drummer for Quick, working in live shows and recording sessions.
“That’s how I hooked up with James — musically,” Wallace laughed. “We’ve been able to progress as musicians and as one musician. As Jathan.”
Wallace got excited about the inclusion of a Roland SPD-SX pad for their Gasa Gasa concert last Thursday. The sampling pad allows for the band to achieve the production value that Quick has on his recorded songs and execute those live and would be the first full test run of the product in a concert of theirs.
“A lot of times you see people who have really cool production in their recordings with a lot of electronic elements and a lot of cool sound effects and you can’t really do that live so a lot of what I like to bring to these songs live is to have those electronic and those three-dimensional elements,” Wallace tells OffBeat.
Moving to Los Angeles over the summer was a strategic move on Quick’s and Ellison’s part, taking note of just how many of their contacts set up base in California and set up meeting after meeting to start working with them. Quick had a songwriting session with singer Alice Gray, worked with producer Nolan Frank, performed at the Hotel Cafe shortly after his first week in the city, and has had rappers approach him to write beats.
The socialite of the band, Ellison’s contacts came in handy with their trip to Los Angeles.
“It was connections after connections so I had a few meetings every day,” Quick said. “Connor’s friend [Charlie DePew] is doing a TV show now with Bella Thorne, they happen to be costars, and he [DePew] showed her my music and she liked it so we went over there to have a little songwriting session.”
DePew, known for roles on “Famous in Love,” “Mad Men” and “The Goldbergs,” knew Ellison in high school, where he first heard James Quick’s music.
“Back in my senior year of high school I would drive home from school and one day Connor sent me his SoundCloud profile,” DePew said. “I freaked out a little. I was, like, ‘this kid is crazy talented.’”
DePew showed Ellison and Quick around Los Angeles and went to see Quick in concert at the Hotel Cafe.
“I still can’t believe that’s his voice untouched,” DePew said.
Quick is now writing songs for the Famous in Love star including her forthcoming single “War Crimes,” and then the pair are planning on singing a duet together on a song called “Any Place.”
“It was great. She was super down to earth and we got along really well. I went over to her house when I was in L.A. to show her some demos for songs we could potentially do together and we started working on a couple different projects,” Quick said.
“A lot of people in the industry are looking for new talent they’re all looking to get their hands on,” Quick said. “It’s weird being out here where it’s a little more mellow and slow pace.”
Quick and Ellison started their day at 8 a.m. and drove all over Los Angeles going from studio session to studio session until 8 p.m., when they decided to reward themselves by going out to unwind.
“I’m happy to be back because I’ve got my home studio set up in my apartment so I’m honestly just going to be recording forever,” Quick said.
Quick churns out more than a song a day when he feels inspired. The singer has a stockpile of over 200 songs that he plans on getting to before writing any more so that he can get the old ones out of the way to make room for the new material.
His performance at the Dragon’s Den, in March of 2016, was “95 percent covers” according to the group, laughing at their “standing ovation” that night. (Everyone was standing as there weren’t any seats.)
“I remember when we came out of that show I heard a lot of people saying that they like to hear originals and that was kind of the game changer,” Quick said. “The style has evolved in the sense that it is all over the place now. I’ll be writing almost like a hip-hop beat one night and the next day I’ll write the most acoustic folk song or a country song.”
The Gasa Gasa concert got jam-packed before Quick and crew walked on stage. The eclectic interior of the space was fitting for a line up featuring DJ Derek Taylor for pre-show and post-show music, rock artist Tristin Sanders, and Quick’s mix of acoustic and electronically enhanced music. Connor was glad to have included Derek Taylor for pre-show music, thinking it would help retain college-age crowds waiting for the show to start. The crowd soaked up the atmosphere and the drinks, playing on arcade machines and dancing to Taylor’s set. Quick played mostly originals, keeping a popular cover of Chance The Rapper’s “Cocoa Butter Kisses” in the set, and included the SPD-SX pad for songs like “Brushed Down Kilos.” The band walked off stage for a break, leaving James on stage singing acoustic duets with Kayla Mims.
James Quick and his band are performing with MØ at Tulane’s Devlin Fieldhouse tonight, Sept. 6th from 8-11 p.m. Tickets are $5 for Tulane students and $20 for the general public. Doors open at 7 p.m.
By Davis Walden, Loyola Student News Service. The Loyola Student News Service features reporters from advanced-level journalism classes at Loyola University New Orleans, directed by faculty advisers.
