Below the Radar Transcript

Episode 186: A Walk Around the Sun — with Erika Lewis

Speakers: Steve Tornes, Am Johal, Erika Lewis

[music plays: “First Love” by Erika Lewis] 

Steve Tornes  0:07  
Hello, listeners. I'm Steve Tornes, with Below the Radar, a knowledge democracy podcast. Below the Radar is recorded on the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. On this episode of Below the Radar, our host, Am Johal, talks with Erika Lewis, singer and musician with the New Orleans band Tuba Skinny. They discuss Erika's artistic inspirations, street busking, and Erika's latest album, A Walk Around the Sun. We hope you enjoyed the episode.

Am Johal  0:49  
Hello, and welcome to Below the Radar. Delighted that you could join us again this week, and we're very lucky and very happy to have our special guest this week: Erika Lewis, joining us from North Carolina. Welcome, Erika.

Erika Lewis  1:04  
Hi. Thanks for having me.

Am Johal  1:06  
Yeah, Erika, I've been a big fan of your music for a long time, but wondering if you could just begin by introducing yourself a little bit.

Erika Lewis  1:14  
Sure. Well, my name is Erika Lewis. I currently reside in Asheville, North Carolina, pretty new to this area. And I lived in New Orleans for many years, and I'm a musician. I tour and play with a band called Tuba Skinny, who is based in New Orleans. And I'm currently working on my own project up here in the mountains, and have a new album coming out this week.

Am Johal  1:44  
Cool. You know, Erika, I've seen you play in New Orleans many, many times, but just wondering how you got your start in music. Like, did you just come into this world, belting music? Or were you singing since you were a kid, I imagine, in some form or another?

Erika Lewis  1:59  
Yeah, exactly. I've always loved to sing, and my mother was a singer. She was in a country rock band, and, so, yeah, I guess my first times on stage were in utero. [laughs] And yeah, and as a kid, I just, I was a total ham, and you know, I wanted to be on Star Search. So, I was always, you know, singing the Star-Spangled Banner, anytime I could get a gig or, you know, just trying to get out there. But I left music, you know, I hit puberty and just had different interests, let's say. So I got away from music until my early 20s, when I ended up in New Orleans, and I was just, it hit me over the head, the culture and music down there. And I was really inspired to sing again, and yeah. And after that happened, I pretty much knew that, I felt very compelled that that's what I wanted to do. And that's what I'm doing.

Am Johal  3:08  
Did you have any formal training in your teenage years, or anything like that? You're just...

Erika Lewis  3:13  
No, no. I mean, when I was a kid, like, I took piano lessons when I was a kid, and that was about it. But yeah, like I said, once I turned 13, I stopped all of those sorts of creative pursuits. And yeah, it was like, you know, very typical, sort of a 13-year-old, rebellious child. And it's sort of running wild until, you know, I guess I've settled down now. But yeah, I just I... music. I forgot about music for a minute. But yeah, I'm pretty glad I came back to it.

Am Johal  3:54  
And, of course, you've played for many years, and still do with the legendary New Orleans band Tuba Skinny, on the streets of New Orleans, and in the clubs, and touring with them. But wondering if you can sort of talk about how you became a part of the band, and some of the early years in terms of just getting started, because that band has an international reputation now, I would say.

Erika Lewis  4:17  
Yeah, for sure. It was, you know, in Yiddish, they say kismet. We just really sort of came together, on the street, in New Orleans. You know, it was, the first time I was there, and met a lot of, a handful of the folks that are in Tuba Skinny now, it was the year before Katrina, Hurricane Katrina. And after Katrina, there was a big influx of transient musicians, young folks moving into town and helping to rebuild and just sort of, you know, getting in on the survival aspect. And a lot of buskers moved there, you know, people just transient, playing on streets. So, I met a lot of my bandmates by band members just walking around the French Quarter and hanging out. And you know, for the first year or two I was there, I did a lot of listening. And then, I felt it was just a matter of building up confidence to sing out. And once I did that, me and two of the other guys decided to start busking together, and it kind of took off. You know, we were pretty excited about the response we were getting. People were giving us money, and we were having fun, and we were just really surprised with all the good feedback we were getting. So that spring, I think it was 2008 or 2009, we decided to take the show on the road. And we went to Europe, and went on tour on bicycle. And that was our first big tour. You know, that was the beginning. And then we, it just... continued to stick? I think, you know, it was the fact that we were received so well everywhere that we went. And I think we were all kind of almost surprised at that. So yeah, we just were like, well, if it's working, let's keep doing it. The rest is history.

Am Johal  6:13  
You know, that early jazz, ragtime blues music of the 20s and 30s, as a singer, what have you enjoyed about doing that era of music? Obviously, there's a whole lot of history baked into it. It's the style of the music, a number of things, but I, clearly in watching all the YouTube videos that are out there of Tuba Skinny, you can see that you're all enjoying yourself so much. That's also part of why the audience enjoys it so much as well.

Erika Lewis  6:41  
Yeah, we do. I mean, it's a collaborative type of music-making. It's not, it's not super structured, and I think that kind of, you know, everyone jumps in, and has their own voice, is like a really fun thing to do and to experience. But for me, singing the blues, I mean, it's such mournful music, but it feels very close to my heart. I mean, it's the blues come from, you know, hardship, and from, largely, African Americans, enslaved African Americans, you know, singing while they work. And I think, you know, my heritage is Russian Jew, so I have, there's a lot of, you know, old folk songs that are close to my heart, from that part of the world, that, I don't know, I just feel like there's a relatable sadness that I carry with me, and it crosses genres. And the blues are just one of the, you know, to me, it's just one of the greatest types of music there is, because it's so simple, but it's so, you know, cuts straight to your heart, and everyone can relate to having the blues, and so. And so, that just felt like a natural, it felt easy for me to sing those songs. And that's what, yeah. I really love singing the blues!

Am Johal  7:58  
I've seen you play on Royal Street and Spotted Cat dpa, a whole bunch of New Orleans places. But as you've moved out of the city to be based in North Carolina, now, how complicated has the collaboration become, just through distance? I know that you obviously still play together and all of that, but how has that worked out in terms of some of the, not being based in the same city?

Erika Lewis  8:27  
There's been some growing pains, you know, it's been about five years, now, since I've left. So at first, you know, I left, and soon after, I had a child, and that kind of, there was some space there, of just being a mother. But I took my kid on the road with them for the first time, when he was four months old, and I was pretty determined to remain part of the band, and it's worked out, we're working it out. I mean, I'm on all of the tours with them, and I'm actually going down next week for JazzFest. And the older my kid gets the easier it becomes to do that. I mean, I dragged them all over the world with us the first two years, and I will never do that again. I mean, I probably won't have another child but I wouldn't, I've learned a lot, oh my goodness. Yeah, so, that's added, you know, having a kid on tours, that's added an element, but yeah, we're a family. You know, it's been long enough, and somehow, we've been able to work through a number of different changes, but pretty committed to keeping it together. However, you know, I'm really taking this time, you know, I'm settled in Asheville now, this is my home now. So I'm trying to work on my own thing, and finding a way to put more time and energy into my own music, and also still remain a part of Tuba Skinny. It's an evolution that, you know, remains to be seen.

Am Johal  9:56  
Yeah, so you have a new album coming out, a country album, Waiting for Stars, and wondering if you can talk a little bit about where this project started for you.

Erika Lewis  10:06  
Actually, Waiting for Stars is the first album that I released back in 2016.

Am Johal  10:13  
Oh, yes.

Erika Lewis  10:13  
But the new one that's...

Am Johal  10:15  
A Walk Around the Sun! That's right.

Erika Lewis  10:17  
I mean, it's like, you know, Waiting for Stars, A Walk Around the Sun, it's pretty much... I'm like, in outer space. [laughs] What was your question?

Am Johal  10:30  
It was, so, where did A Walk Around the Sun start for you as an idea?

Erika Lewis  10:34  
It was, yeah, like I said, when moving away from New Orleans, I really wanted to put more time and energy into my own songwriting, and it's been difficult to do that. So, the album came about, it was 2020, you know, just getting into quarantine. And I, you know, the idea of making an album was firmly on the back burner, because of all the uncertainty going on, the pandemic. Then I had this health scare, where I found out I had to have thyroid surgery, and I was really concerned that, you know, one of the effects of that might be detrimental to my vocal cords, my ability to sing so, out of that very sort of panicky time, my friends, actually, Lonnie and John James Tourville, whose back porch I'm sitting on right now, they really encouraged me to feel like, "You have to do this because, you know, if you, God forbid, can't do it, in the future, you're gonna want to have this album." So, it's very dramatic. And Shay, from Tuba Skinny, put together a GoFundMe to get the funds for the album, and John James helped to produce it, and got me into The Bomb Shelter, which is this really awesome analog sort of recording studio paradise in Asheville. And yeah, and with the help with my friends, the album happened really fast. So, in September of 2020, we went into the studio, and laid down the bulk of what is now on the record. And then in October, I had my surgery and everything went well, and we finished it up, we finished the album up into December. And that's how it happened.

[music fades in, playing Erika Lewis’s “A Walk Around The Sun.” Erika singing:

“But I, I ain't even gonna try...
Took a walk around the sun,
felt my hands on that gun, 
I was your love and you were mine too, 
baby there's nothing we can do.” ]

[music fades out]

Am Johal  13:06  
You know, the music, of course, very different than what you play with Tuba Skinny. Wondering if you can talk a little bit to your desire to do the type of music that's on the new album.

Erika Lewis  13:18  
I think, you know, I've been writing. Since I was a kid, I've always been writing melodies, or singing melodies to myself and in New Orleans, you know, it's such a melting pot of influences, and culture and music. So, there were a lot of people during my time there, folk musicians, and people playing country music, and roots music, and we were just all around each other, and it was a lot of inspiration in that for me. I also grew up listening to a lot of country music, and that was always, you know, to me, that's classic country, a form of the blues. You know, it's like, a similar type of relatable music and I think, yeah, that's, that's always been in my head. So, there's an element of that in the songs that I write, and it's, yeah, it's just, this album is more of a reflection of what, left to my own devices, what comes more naturally, for me. The jazz and blues of Tuba Skinny are, you know, it's all New Orleans. It's all the influence of spending time in New Orleans, and playing in a collaborative setting. But yeah, my own music is my own sort of, what's the word, just to, you know, me and my experiences, and the sounds that have kind of stuck with me over time. Yeah.

Am Johal  14:44  
Yeah. And in terms of your own solo music getting out into the world, how has the reception been with your fans?

Erika Lewis  14:52  
Good, I think. I mean, like I said, we're leading up to the release. It's happening in just a couple of days now, and so, I've released a few singles. I've gotten really great feedback so far. Yeah, I'm excited to just get it out already, and I feel it feels very much like a pregnancy. Like, I feel like I've been pregnant for two years, and I need to give birth, and just get this baby out into the world because it's, you know, I want to share it, and I've been holding on to it. And I think yeah, so far, the feedback has been really amazing. And yeah, I'm looking forward to sharing it, and then moving on.

Am Johal  15:38  
It does feel like, you know, of all the art forms out there, music is back. Like, people really want to be inside of live shows, you know, in comparison to theatre, or film, or something like that, just being here in Vancouver, the shows are packed right now. And regarding the health scare that you had, and for that period of uncertainty, wondering if you can just speak to, you know, the kinds of things that went through your mind about, you know, the possibility of not being able to sing. I bring this up, I had brain surgery three years ago, where I had a very similar type of worries, but everything turned out all right.

Erika Lewis  16:13  
God.

Am Johal  16:13  
But it does, these existentials come up, existential moments come up. Oh, yeah. Health scares, and yeah, just wondering how that period or that experience inflects some of the the music here on the album.

Erika Lewis  16:27  
Well, yeah, no doubt, there is a huge existential crisis going on. And it was like a panicky, anxiety-filled time that, you know, but I had to work through it, and having the album to work on felt like a gift during that time. Because, you know, regardless of the outcome, you know, I was gonna put as much of myself into it as I could, in case the worst thing happened. And so, the songs on the album, most of them were written before any of that, before the health scare, before the pandemic. They were, I mean, it's really a retrospective sort of album of some of the oldest songs I've written. And then I did write a few over quarantine that I finished in time for the album. So yeah, I was pretty sort of paralyzed and overwhelmed. And like I said, I had such good friends to sort of usher me through the process. And I guess I thought, you know, well, if things don't go, well, then I think my silver lining honestly was, you know, because I have a son. And it just felt like the natural thing was like, I'm doing this for him, I want to be here for him. I want to, you know, by any means necessary. And so, you know, if I can't sing anymore, at least, you know, hopefully, I'll have my health. And maybe I'll, you know, I've always wanted to be a waitress. I'll get into a new vocation. And I'll entertain some other way. [laughs]

Am Johal  18:05  
Erika, is there anything you'd like to add?

Erika Lewis  18:07  
Um, not particularly. I just want to thank you for talking with me. I'm honoured that you wanted to have this conversation, and you woke up very early in the morning, but for some reason, I am still not fully awake, so I hope the interview is cohesive, and it was great talking to you.

Am Johal  18:07  
Great to speak with you, and congratulations on the album, and for future touring with your son and everything. And hopefully, we can figure out a way to have you come up to Vancouver at some point, because you have a lot of fans up here as well. So, thank you for joining us on Below the Radar.

Erika Lewis  18:46  
My pleasure.

[music fades in: “If You Were Mine” by Erika Lewis plays.] 

Steve Tornes  18:52  
Below the Radar is a knowledge democracy podcast created by SFU's Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Thanks for listening to our conversation with Erika Lewis. Head to the show notes to learn more about the resources mentioned in the show. We release episodes every Tuesday, so make sure to subscribe to Below the Radar on your podcasting app of choice, to make sure you never miss an episode. Thanks again for tuning in, and we'll catch you next time on Below the Radar.