The Journey Agents

"The night was carefully planned around the idea that funk was at the epicenter, and the penultimate group before The Outfit, TX in Journey Agents proved that with a well rounded funk fusion complete with a soul singer and some serious odes to Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings. Albiet a bit more brazen and touching towards Parliament than swing." - Brando

The Journey Agents can be described in one word: Funky. When we say funky, we mean like early Red Hot Chili Peppers. If you listen to their 2011 release, All Up in It!, you will either want to dance or turn the bass up to the max level.

Rocks Off caught up with St. Clair and Brandon Miles of the Journey Agents and chatted about such lovely things as their influences, their future and the process of making their first album.


Rocks Off: So tell me about how you guys came together.

St. Clair: This band has been going on for about three years now. We formed through a couple different circles of guys. Brandon [guitarist] has only been with the band for about two years.

It was just a kind of happenstance where he caught us at a gig one night and we all started talking. This band [the current incarnation] formed two years ago as far as where we're at directionwise, musically speaking. We knew each other through our time in Denton, Texas, at the University of North Texas, in a way. So it kinda just happened.

We recently brought in a drummer in the past year [Hector Casillas], and between him and Brandon it has really changed the direction of the band. We're always heavy with funk, as we are now. When we first got together, it was kind of a cluster -- we had a DJ and a rock guitarist. That's the thing where, with the album we just released [All Up In It!], is kind of the song that we wrote but with a different band.

We kind of took a change when Brandon came in. You can probably hear on the CD what songs are more influenced by Brandon than the other tunes, which are more rock-centered. That's why we plan to have another release out by early fall.


RO: Who do you consider to be your biggest influences so far?

Brandon Miles: I'm gonna say War, Sly Stone, Kool and the Gang, Average White Band...

SC: War, Sly Stone, Manzel. Our South American influences are Band of Black Rio.

BM: Band of Black Rio. Huge [influence].








RO: What specifically inspired you about these influences?

SC: Funk.

BM: Flamboyance! Chops. Soul.

SC: That "in-the-pocket-ness," too. I love the use of the chants in many of the songs, like what you hear in War and Band of Black Rio. They incorporate the chants and they keep it tight and in the pocket. All we try to do is make people groove.


RO: What are some of your favorite songs to perform live, covers or originals?

SC: We don't do very many covers. Most of our songs are all originals. What we are doing now is the funnest. We have a nice disco tune that we do which is really fun. We do a house-party tune, which gets everybody involved with the chanting. Since most of the venues that we play hold about 15 people, it goes over really well. It feels like a house party.

"Mainline" from our latest album is another that we like to do live. Our current album is an "album-before"-type situation. Some of those songs have kind of run their course. However, "Mainline" is a fun, up-tempo song. We like playing up-tempo, get-bodies-movin'-type stuff.

BM: It's gone sort of more Latin-disco kind of movement with a '60s-'70s kind of jazz feel.

SC: We have done some cover tunes such as Curtis Mayfield and Leon Haywood.
RO: What do you see in the future for the Journey Agents?

SC: The future looks really good. We've been infused now with the kind of Spanish feel, the disco feel. We've been picking up a lot of great shows this year with Discovery Green, Summer Fest. We'd love to build on that and have a new album out in the fall -- just keep funkin' Houston and making noise in this town.


RO: Your debut album is called All Up in It! Tell me a little bit about the album.

SC: It's kind of a collection of songs of a band that existed before this band. It's got some heavy funk in it. We were glad to get it done.

BM: About half of that album is still in the regular rotation [at our live shows].

SC: It was recorded in three different locations. That's k - Christina Lynn

The Journey Agents can be described in one word: Funky. When we say funky, we mean like early Red Hot Chili Peppers. If you listen to their 2011 release, All Up in It!, you will either want to dance or turn the bass up to the max level.

Rocks Off caught up with St. Clair and Brandon Miles of the Journey Agents and chatted about such lovely things as their influences, their future and the process of making their first album.


Rocks Off: So tell me about how you guys came together.

St. Clair: This band has been going on for about three years now. We formed through a couple different circles of guys. Brandon [guitarist] has only been with the band for about two years.

It was just a kind of happenstance where he caught us at a gig one night and we all started talking. This band [the current incarnation] formed two years ago as far as where we're at directionwise, musically speaking. We knew each other through our time in Denton, Texas, at the University of North Texas, in a way. So it kinda just happened.

We recently brought in a drummer in the past year [Hector Casillas], and between him and Brandon it has really changed the direction of the band. We're always heavy with funk, as we are now. When we first got together, it was kind of a cluster -- we had a DJ and a rock guitarist. That's the thing where, with the album we just released [All Up In It!], is kind of the song that we wrote but with a different band.

We kind of took a change when Brandon came in. You can probably hear on the CD what songs are more influenced by Brandon than the other tunes, which are more rock-centered. That's why we plan to have another release out by early fall.


RO: Who do you consider to be your biggest influences so far?

Brandon Miles: I'm gonna say War, Sly Stone, Kool and the Gang, Average White Band...

SC: War, Sly Stone, Manzel. Our South American influences are Band of Black Rio.

BM: Band of Black Rio. Huge [influence].








RO: What specifically inspired you about these influences?

SC: Funk.

BM: Flamboyance! Chops. Soul.

SC: That "in-the-pocket-ness," too. I love the use of the chants in many of the songs, like what you hear in War and Band of Black Rio. They incorporate the chants and they keep it tight and in the pocket. All we try to do is make people groove.


RO: What are some of your favorite songs to perform live, covers or originals?

SC: We don't do very many covers. Most of our songs are all originals. What we are doing now is the funnest. We have a nice disco tune that we do which is really fun. We do a house-party tune, which gets everybody involved with the chanting. Since most of the venues that we play hold about 15 people, it goes over really well. It feels like a house party.

"Mainline" from our latest album is another that we like to do live. Our current album is an "album-before"-type situation. Some of those songs have kind of run their course. However, "Mainline" is a fun, up-tempo song. We like playing up-tempo, get-bodies-movin'-type stuff.

BM: It's gone sort of more Latin-disco kind of movement with a '60s-'70s kind of jazz feel.

SC: We have done some cover tunes such as Curtis Mayfield and Leon Haywood.
RO: What do you see in the future for the Journey Agents?

SC: The future looks really good. We've been infused now with the kind of Spanish feel, the disco feel. We've been picking up a lot of great shows this year with Discovery Green, Summer Fest. We'd love to build on that and have a new album out in the fall -- just keep funkin' Houston and making noise in this town.


RO: Your debut album is called All Up in It! Tell me a little bit about the album.

SC: It's kind of a collection of songs of a band that existed before this band. It's got some heavy funk in it. We were glad to get it done.

BM: About half of that album is still in the regular rotation [at our live shows].

SC: It was recorded in three different locations. That's k - Christina Lynn

A prophecy, delivered by a Golden Dream Eagle with ruby eyes and fire in its belly: In the near future, funk will rule the world. It will be the governing body and it will drive earth's natural process and it will be the sole religion and so on. When you're hungry, you'll eat funk. When you want to buy a new bicycle, you'll pay for it with locks of George Clinton's hair. Marriage dowries will consist of Sly and the Family Stone albums and ONLY SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE ALBUMS. The sun will literally wear sunglasses.

And when that day arrives, The Journey Agents, agents of funk and thump, will be kings. And future kings are always given space in the Artist of the Week column. So, here we are.

Interview ho, with mentions of The Matrix, nursery rhymes and chimpanzees. You know what it is.

Rocks Off: Are you all of any relation to The Matrix Agents, because, if so, well fuck.

Journey Agents: ...

RO: You have an ultra-funky instrumental called "Fried Chicken" that (I suspect) was written for either (a) the background music for a scene in a movie where two guys are getting ready to smoke pot, or (b) the background music for a scene in a movie where a pizza delivery guy is about to take his pants off. Is one of those correct?

JA: Depending on the hugeness of the offer that's rolling in, both (a) and (b) would be considered by upper management. "Fried Chicken" can assume many forms.

RO: You have another song called "Children of the Sun." How does one become a child of the sun? I feel like I might be, but I'm not certain.

JA: Very good question. Basically, nik-nak-patty-whack, give a dog a bone, e=mc2, grapes into raisins.

Just be roughly ninety-three million miles from it. You can rest easy on the certainty that you qualify.

RO: When there are as many people in a band as there are in JA, how do they all keep from killing each other, because it kind of seems like with that many different moving parts sooner or later they'd find somebody stuffed inside a trash can?

JA: Every Thursday afternoon, we go to a salon together and just talk. Then on every other Saturday, we go out and just dance. Just talk and dance it out.

RO: Finish this sentence: When you go to a JA show, you're going to_____.

JA: Boogie. [It's] a lost art form. We'd like to bring the boogie back.

RO: Now finish this sentence: When you get into a fistfight with a chimpanzee, you'd better _____.

JA: Take a picture. Your boss would never go for that on your word.

RO: Anything you want to make sure gets mentioned? Shoot.

JA: "Once You Go Black..." on Jan. 28th with our friends at the Petrol Station. Fitzgerald's with the cool kids on the 19th? - By Shea Serrano Wed., Jan. 4 2012 at 10:00 AM (HOUSTON PRESS

A prophecy, delivered by a Golden Dream Eagle with ruby eyes and fire in its belly: In the near future, funk will rule the world. It will be the governing body and it will drive earth's natural process and it will be the sole religion and so on. When you're hungry, you'll eat funk. When you want to buy a new bicycle, you'll pay for it with locks of George Clinton's hair. Marriage dowries will consist of Sly and the Family Stone albums and ONLY SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE ALBUMS. The sun will literally wear sunglasses.

And when that day arrives, The Journey Agents, agents of funk and thump, will be kings. And future kings are always given space in the Artist of the Week column. So, here we are.

Interview ho, with mentions of The Matrix, nursery rhymes and chimpanzees. You know what it is.

Rocks Off: Are you all of any relation to The Matrix Agents, because, if so, well fuck.

Journey Agents: ...

RO: You have an ultra-funky instrumental called "Fried Chicken" that (I suspect) was written for either (a) the background music for a scene in a movie where two guys are getting ready to smoke pot, or (b) the background music for a scene in a movie where a pizza delivery guy is about to take his pants off. Is one of those correct?

JA: Depending on the hugeness of the offer that's rolling in, both (a) and (b) would be considered by upper management. "Fried Chicken" can assume many forms.

RO: You have another song called "Children of the Sun." How does one become a child of the sun? I feel like I might be, but I'm not certain.

JA: Very good question. Basically, nik-nak-patty-whack, give a dog a bone, e=mc2, grapes into raisins.

Just be roughly ninety-three million miles from it. You can rest easy on the certainty that you qualify.

RO: When there are as many people in a band as there are in JA, how do they all keep from killing each other, because it kind of seems like with that many different moving parts sooner or later they'd find somebody stuffed inside a trash can?

JA: Every Thursday afternoon, we go to a salon together and just talk. Then on every other Saturday, we go out and just dance. Just talk and dance it out.

RO: Finish this sentence: When you go to a JA show, you're going to_____.

JA: Boogie. [It's] a lost art form. We'd like to bring the boogie back.

RO: Now finish this sentence: When you get into a fistfight with a chimpanzee, you'd better _____.

JA: Take a picture. Your boss would never go for that on your word.

RO: Anything you want to make sure gets mentioned? Shoot.

JA: "Once You Go Black..." on Jan. 28th with our friends at the Petrol Station. Fitzgerald's with the cool kids on the 19th? - By Shea Serrano Wed., Jan. 4 2012 at 10:00 AM (HOUSTON PRESS

"The Journey Agents: A-, lay down wicked funk and have fun doing it."
________________________________
I spent most of the my Houston Press Music Awards day circulating between five contiguous venues: Dirt Bar, Ben's Beans, Reserve 101, Pete's Dueling Piano Bar, and the House of Blues Foundation Room. Some random notes:
Drifting toward House of Blues on foot, we saw Little Joe Washington flash past in the passenger seat of an antique car; game face on, he looked like a man on the way to his 10,000th gig.

Texas Johnny Brown at Ben's Beans: He still has fire in his fingers and butter in the low end of a voice that can go from Bobby Bland to Barry White. We could've given all the awards to Brown and called a halt.

Caught the last number by supper club singer Kristine Mills, basically sung to an empty room. I've been to funerals that were livelier.

The Octanes had some tech issues, but also the best line all day: "I tried and tried to be true / Until I just got sick of you."

Recently publicists have been insisting Clory Martin is "the next Norah Jones," so I drifted into the middle of her set. Note to Martin: Don't teach your band the song during your awards showcase. This ain't amateur hour.

Rivers, a young power trio, aren't there yet but they've got a good direction and show much promise.

Surprise treat of the day, soul shouter Diunna Greenleaf accompanied by Jonn Richardson. She left the microphone and walked to the middle of the empty dance floor, where she entranced the crowd with her vocal performance; goosebumps.

And then it all starts to run together: Finnegan: A, another very pleasant surprise we'll be seeing again. Lankford Folk Family Revival: B, nice but not great. D.R.U.M.: A, rocksteady year in, year out. Steve Krase and the In Crowd: A-, stout rocking blues, great players. Brant Lee Croucher: B-, by-the-numbers sorta country, sorta not, every song sounds the same. Steve Steele: C-, so many people hit the exits you had to wait in line to get the elevator by the third song. Kevin Taylor Kendrick: C-, Songwriter of the Year? Not even funny...

Two biggest surprises? The Beans: B+, I expected to hate this band based on YouTube, but they have a lot of promise and a great vibe. The Journey Agents: A-, lay down wicked funk and have fun doing it.

See you all at the awards ceremony. - By William Michael Smith

"There's an edge to this funk band. When a funk band isn't focused, I lose interest, but these guys seem to have an idea of where they're going." - www.29-95.com (Sarah Cress)

"There's an edge to this funk band. When a funk band isn't focused, I lose interest, but these guys seem to have an idea of where they're going." - www.29-95.com (Sarah Cress)

It's good, it's tight, it's funky, it's catchy, it's well-produced. What is it? It is a song from the Texas based 2 Dollar Sound called "Running Backwards". The song is a mix of Rock, Funk, Soul and R&B with clean, funky guitar lines and soulful female vocals (the singer is originally from Nigeria, but you wouldn't know it). Some of the more downbeat, yet still funky Red Hot Chili Peppers comes to mind. Good stuff. Hate the name, like the song. Worth investigating for more. - Peter Braidis