We didn't know music had all these names. We made up SupaFunkRock on a plane when a flight attendant asked us what we play.
I've lost a bunch of friends - some of them in jail, some of them made bad choices, some of them aren't where they should be.
My grandfather influenced my brother, and my brother was my biggest influence.
What's crazy about my life is that the biggest things that have happened just happen.
As a kid, I would wake up, and there'd be a jazz funeral while I'm walking to school. And when I come home, you can find Rebirth band playing for a birthday party the same day.
I always dreamed of playing a show with Bono and Edge and the guys in Green Day.
There's pride on Bourbon Street for the musicians that work there. They take it very seriously. I've never worked there or played in band there, but it's a part of the city. They play for the tourists and represent a whole different side of the culture of our city.
When I was a kid, my friends and I formed a band, Trombone Shorty's Brass Band. When I was six, I was a bandleader for my brother's band.
From the food to the Mardi Gras Indians to the brass bands and the second liners parading through the street, Jazz Fest presents New Orleans in one place.
I grew up right in the heart of Treme, so it was a real music neighborhood, and there was a bunch of bands like the Dirty Dozen Brass Band around.
I grew up listening to the Neville Brothers and the Rebirth Brass Band.
I've grown up in the Treme, and I played in a bunch of brass bands. My brother, James Andrews, had a brass band.
In New Orleans, people are still influenced by one another. You got these bands that play every week on Frenchmen Street, and on their breaks, they might go see the reggae band that's right next door. You might get the musicians from the reggae band to sit in with the brass musicians. Everyone is having fun.
All New Orleans music is based off dance music, even jazz.
If I have to be considered any type of jazz artist, it would be New Orleans jazz because New Orleans jazz never forgot that jazz is dance music and jazz is fun. I'm more influenced by that style of jazz than anything else.
I may be taking a different approach, being a guy leading a band with a trombone, but if you take that out of it and put in a guitar or keyboard, it would be considered funk-rock music.
It's like drinking water. You have to have water every day, and music is like water for me.
When I'm creating a song, I'm thinking of a hip-hop beat playing on a live drum set - kinda like the Roots would do. I will put New Orleans music on top of that with some other rhythms.
I was listening to Ministry and Garth Brooks and Charlie Pride and Wynton Marsalis, and then I would listen to Juvenile or Lil Wayne. It's just that I'm a big fan of music. I'm a student of music. And I just want to learn and keep enhancing my education about the music.
Australia is one of my favorite places to play - it's a crazy experience.
