MIKE: Tell me how The Weeds came together?
Addison: It was originally the drummer, Ryan, and I that we would play a couple songs together and it was really that we just liked getting around each other and make noise. When we actually started learning songs as a band, we had thrown the name around as a joke. We had a show with our friend and when he announced the band, he announced us as The Weeds. That's kind of how the name stuck and we have just played together since then.
MIKE: For each of you, tell me a little about your musical upbringing.
Blake: The neighborhood we live in, my brother, our cousin Addison, and I were surrounded by musicians. Addison's entire family is filled with old country western musicians so we grew up with a lot of that influencing us. As far back as I can remember, people would just jam in thier garage and go over to people's houses and jam in thier garage. A lot of family influence.
Johnathan: My whole family were in school bands and then growing up listening to classic rock and blues, I got hooked on all the guitar players that my dad listened to. One year, my sister got a blue squier that she never touched and it just collected dust. I asked my dad if he could show me something and he showed me two or three chords. From then on, I started learning by ear and it's been like that ever since.
Ryan: We met Johnathan by Addison's aunt. She is a county western singer and she does the opry shows around town. She was playing somewhere and she heard him playing. She called me on the phone and she was like Hey, you need to meet this kid, he would be perfect for the boys. So I called him up and said I've got a kid that wants to play with your son. When Johnathan came in, it was amazing that within a few minutes, they were playing a song together. Ruth had Johnathan stay at my house for the weekend and by the time she came to pick him up, they already had three or four songs completed.
MIKE: How would you guys describe your sound?
Blake: I would describe it as blues rock sort of sound. We are into the Black Keys quite a bit so a lot of our writing is influenced by that. I would say Blues Rock with a twist of Reggae.
DDR: You guys won the Buzz Award for "Best New Band". How did you guys get involved with the whole contest and how did it feel being so new to the local scene?
Addison: We got in with Jordan Tydings with the band Tydings and jammed with them at Union Tavern one time and then we ended getting in on a Sunday night Texas Buzz event that they hold at Scout Bar. They heard us play and asked if we had any material recorded, but we didn't because we had not been in the studio yet. We did a bunch of shows at Scout Bar and we were nominated. We had everyone at our high schools vote for us and when we won, it was insane.
MIKE: So you guys worked hard playing by yourselves and then it came time for you to take the stage for your first live show. What was going through your head the first time you guys took the stage in front of a crowd?
Addison: The first time we played, we opened for a band called Big E and the Lowdown. We were going on stage and we had played a few songs and had three down but not written any songs yet. We go up there and we are all nervous and stuff doing a show as a four piece. Blake, Ryan and I had been playing together about six months and we had just met Johnathan a week before.
The Weeds started out in 2012 as a two piece band with Addison Ruddell and Ryan Isbell. The following year Blake Isbell joined the band. Then in December 2013 Jonathan Hales came in on Lead Guitar completing the line up. Their first time to play out in their current line up was mid December 2013 at Swampy's Bar and Grill. They were a hit and immediately received offers for shows including a New Year's Eve gig. Now, just a short time later, on any given weekend you can catch The Weeds playing venues all over Houston and the surrounding areas.