Dave and Tommy Malone, whose names are synonymous with their much-heralded bands, The Radiators and the subdudes, respectively, have united to form the Malone Brothers.
You know what they say, when one door closes, another opens.
In the case of Dave and Tommy Malone, it's a stage door. And come Thursday night in Lafayette, it'll be the one at the Vermilionville Performance Center in Vermilionville.
Dave and Tommy Malone, whose names are synonymous with their much-heralded bands, The Radiators and the subdudes, respectively, have united to form the Malone Brothers.
Dave's band The Radiators called it quits in June 2011 and Tommy's band the subdudes went on hiatus late 2010.
"It's an interesting blend of both bands," says Tommy Malone. "Oddly enough, our music is different enough to really draw different crowds so we have to appeal to both. We're having to figure out what the music is and meet in the middle somewhere. That's our challenge, to meet in the middle."
Of course they'll be some of their past to be heard in the show, collectively and otherwise, but the Edgard natives are also looking ahead, too.
"We have written some brand new things, so there'll be several brand new pieces of material," says Tommy. "Just a big blend of all of that, of all the stuff we've done.
"Our focus is obviously on the new stuff," he says. "Our goal is to get a whole body of new material so we can get a record together in the next six months, hopefully."
The Malone Brothers are Dave Malone, guitar/vocals; Tommy Malone, guitar/vocals; Ray Ganucheau, bass/vocals and Erik Golson, drums.
It's no secret that Louisiana produces some of the best musicians and music on this planet. But what exactly could be the reason, the catalyst for such exuberant and diverse music.
"Carcinogens," Tommy Malone laughs, and heartily at that. "That's the only thing I can think of chemical evolution. I don't know, man. I'm just kidding of course. I'm kind of kidding, but I'm not really kidding. I grew up down there. And my dad worked at Union Carbide for 25 years."
Tommy gets a little more serious and says there are other ingredients involved like the geography, the weather, and "It's the South. It's slow. People take their time, you know, because it's hot. Take naps. Eat good food. Relax. Hear good music.
"It's culturally rich," he continues. "From being a port town, all these people that came in through New Orleans through the port."
All those different influences, from Creoles, Irish, and of course French all have a part in it.
"It's just an incredible mix of people. In New Orleans, you've got a mix - it's hard to tell who you're talking to," Tommy says. "Everybody's mixed. It's just mixed races.
"I think that makes for interesting music because you have European influence, from the Islands, African, Spanish," he says. "It's just all jumbled out man, it's like the food. It's jambalaya.
"People hear you say that and think it's a cliché," Tommy says. "But I think it's so true."
Language is a dead giveaway where people are from, but in south Louisiana there's something else that indicates birthplace.
"But also Louisiana people are so expressive in music, you can almost even tell their locale from the beat, from the style of the music," says Malone. "We can tell, oh yeah, it's South Louisiana. Somebody out in Iowa or Nebraska might not know the difference between New Orleans rhythms and Southwest Louisiana, but we know.
"And it's all good," he says. "But it's all different.".
As a sophomore in high school, Tommy knew his career path was chosen.
"I felt it. I got bit by the bug at about 12," he says. "I knew immediately."
It didn't hurt to have a couple of older brothers Dave and John already making music, as well as understanding parents. Tommy says John, a poet and song writer, was an English major at Tulane.
"He wrote poetry and songs. He was doing that and playing with Dave in New Orleans when I was still in high school," says Malone. "I knew I wanted to do it just watching them. They had P.A.'s and drum kits all over our living room. My parents, I can't believe they put up with that."
John dropped out of the music scene but Tommy and Dave kept with it.
"I don't know, for me and Dave it just stuck," he says. "It just felt like, yeah, this fits. This is what we should be doing."
Throughout their careers, the brothers would cross paths from time to time, but the same thing happened with buds from back in the day, too. And they became an integral part of their bands.
"There's definitely some common musicians that come and go through the years, so I guess it's just based on friendships. And chemistry," says Tommy. "Half of a group, in my opinion, is chemistry. You've got to have the music. You've got to get along."
Blood is one thing, but a bond is a bond.
"Me and Dave, obviously being brothers and everything that comes along with that, but we can count on friends and musicians that have been hanging around this town for so long, you're bound to bump into them again," says Tommy. "And often the times the chemistry just really works, so you can go back to those people. I think that's how that works for us.
It's a pattern, Tommy says, that goes as far back to high school in Edgard.
"It's a friend-family thing. But you have to connect with these people on a much deeper level in order to do it," he says.
Tickets ae $15 for 7 p.m. Thursday, at the Vermilionville Performance Center in Lafayette and 8 p.m. Friday, at the Sliman Theater in New Iberia. Go here.
Tickets are $20 for the7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 31, 2012 at F.G. Bulber Auditorium in Lake Charles at here.