{"id":7821,"date":"2018-06-21T12:00:40","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T17:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/?p=7821"},"modified":"2018-06-21T11:08:16","modified_gmt":"2018-06-21T16:08:16","slug":"choke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2018\/06\/21\/choke\/","title":{"rendered":"Choke"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hometown Band\u00a0<\/span>Takes On Tokyo<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Story by Justin Morris \u2022 Photo by Matthew Ison<\/i><\/p>\n

Dagostino\u2019s. Nate\u2019s. Pourquois Pas. These names will only mean something to you if you are of a certain age and were of a certain age back when these places were in their heyday. At one time, they were the spots where one went to see local live music in the Lake City. They hosted many an act whose times have come and gone: Pink Noise, Lingus, The Groceries, Frig-a-go-go \u2026 One name graced many a marquee back in that day; and the act is still at it today, nearly 25 years after they first kicked it off. That band is Choke.<\/p>\n

Southwest Louisiana has never been known as a breeding ground for metal acts. But if one was the standout that came as close as any to putting Lake Chuck on the metal map, it was certainly these guys. After two and a half decades, the band has seen some talent come and go. The current line-up is taking its South Louisiana metal sound across the Pacific to play Choke\u2019s first international shows on Japanese soil later this year.<\/p>\n

Since the group of musicians who became Choke took the name, Lake Charles native Tracy Mcginnis has fronted the band. Now 48 years old, Mcginnis shows no signs of slowing down or that the decades of shouting metal lyrics into a microphone has tempered him musically. In fact, he\u2019s more excited than ever to do it. He took some time to chat with us about Choke then and now, and about how to prepare for an international tour in style and what it is that\u2019s taking Choke to the Land of The Rising Sun.<\/p>\n

Justin Morris:<\/b> I know the background of Choke is pretty extensive. When and how did Choke first form?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tracy Mcginnis<\/b>: Well, I had been living in Austin, and I moved home for a bit before I was going to go to New York City to be a musician. The guys in Choke heard that I was in town, and they said, \u201cHey, would you come sing with us\u201d? I said, well look, I\u2019ll sing with you until you find another singer. This was October of \u201894. I really liked their music. They played me something and it spoke to me. It was kind of Faith No More, but it was like Pantera and was heavy enough. I heard a lot of melody, and I was like, \u201cman, I really like this,\u201d because I wasn\u2019t really a heavy metal singer, you know. So, I joined and 24 1\/2 years later, I\u2019m starting to think they\u2019re not looking for another singer anymore. (Laughs.)<\/p>\n

JM<\/b>: So how long had they been together before you got on with them?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

TM<\/b>: They were called the Air Junkies then. They\u2019d been together a couple of years when their singer quit, so there was an opening. I mean, these were all my buddies I went to high school with, you know? I\u2019ve been knowing them since junior high, so I loved them all as people and as musicians, and it just kind of accidentally worked, you know?<\/p>\n

JM<\/b>: So, who was in that original line-up of Choke?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

TM<\/b>: It was myself, and Jeremy Bouillon and Jason Fuselier and Brian Hood. Out of the original four, me and Brian Hood are left. Jason left last year. He\u2019s still, on paper, our bass player. But he can\u2019t travel with us on this tour, so we\u2019re going to have a touring bass player for this run.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

JM<\/b>: And Charlie (Frye) has been with you guys for a long time, right?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

TM<\/b>: Charlie joined us five or six years in. So Charlie\u2019s been with us 20 years. I consider Charlie an original member, because we were just kids those first few years, and then when Charlie joined, we were a touring band. Charlie was with us for all the good stuff, you know? He didn\u2019t play on any of the early albums, but he got to do all the tours and the fun stuff. At this point, he\u2019s got the job, you know? (Laughs.) Jeremy left about a year and a half ago, and up until then, it was mostly the original members.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

JM<\/b>: And back then, what was it that made it happen for Choke? How did you guys get to be known as quickly as you were?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

TM:<\/b> Choke was just a local band, and we\u2019d been a band for like three months before we went and played in Morgan City, opening for Acid Bath. And their manager signed us to a managerial deal. We\u2019d only been a band for three months, and all of a sudden, we\u2019re on the road, meeting record labels and getting bounced around. But major labels said we were too heavy and heavy metal labels said we were too mainstream. They couldn\u2019t put us in a hole. They couldn\u2019t pigeonhole us. We were grunge; we were metal; we were … weird; you know, I heard it all. I was like, OK, so we\u2019re unique. Sign us because we\u2019re unique! Because we\u2019re different.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We even had our opening band sign our Maverick deal. We got offered a deal from Maverick Records and Drowning Pool took the deal because they wanted us to … Like they wanted us to sing, \u201cLet the Bodies Hit the Floor\u201d; wanted me to dread my hair; [wanted] us to be more rap rock; and I was like, \u201cI\u2019m not going to be like this, dude.\u201d And then a month later, Drowning Pool got the deal. They were opening for us for like a month in Texas and Oklahoma and Arkansas and Northern Louisiana. I mean they\u2019re old friends, you know.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But we\u2019re the only band from Lake Charles that\u2019s ever played CBGB\u2019s in New York City and sold it out. And I\u2019d like to think that other than the Hackberry Ramblers, we\u2019re the longest continuous running band down here. Maybe The Kadillacs? Maybe us and The Kadillacs are tied, but other than the Hackberry Ramblers … October makes 25 years. You know what I mean. We\u2019re not going to beat the Ramblers since they had 90 years or something, but hey, I\u2019ll take 25 years. Let\u2019s do it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

JM<\/b>: Did you ever guys ever take like a hiatus?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

TM<\/b>: Well, not really, because we had kids, and three of us had kids in the same month. (Laughs.) We were touring at the time. We were busy, and our wives or girlfriends, they all came to New Orleans to spend the weekend with us, and we all saw what happened nine months later. (Laughs.) We figured that while we were sleeping in the hotel, our wives all went to the French Quarter and went to a voodoo witch doctor to get us off the road. (Laughs.) That definitely slowed down things. In fact, it\u2019s still slowed [down]. This is 14 years later, [and] it\u2019s still slower than we were then. We don\u2019t play 280 shows a year like we used to. We\u2019ve done two shows a month since we had kids. But no, we never took a break. There\u2019s been guys come and go. There was one point where I was the only original member. I just wanted to keep Choke alive, and the rest of the guys were tired of it, so I brought guys in. I brought young guys in town who were Choke fans to be in Choke for a year. Once the original members saw me kicking ass with these young kids, they were like, \u201cNo, **** that. I\u2019m back in the band.\u201d (Laughs.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And in 25 years, we\u2019ve only had 11 people who can say they\u2019ve been in this band. That\u2019s not bad with a five-member band, you know what I mean?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

JM<\/b>: So how did the local scene treat you over the years? Did you always feel embraced by it, or did you really find your stride outside of Lake Charles?<\/p>\n

TM<\/b>: There was not a scene here when we started; there was no place to play, so we had to go out of town. And that\u2019s why when I hear the people crying now … I mean, OK, Luna Live just shut down. OK. And I heard something about Sloppy\u2019s Downtown. But I mean, come on dude, there\u2019s at least seven or eight clubs to play in locally now for bands and people are still crying that \u201cthere\u2019s nothing to do.\u201d Go back, man. We used to have to rent the VFW halls. That\u2019s how we used to have to do it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When Choke first formed, that\u2019s how we played. We had to either play Pourquois Pas or we had to play Woodmen of the World or the KC hall or we had to rent the place \u2014 rent the police and rent the PA and everything. It was punk rock, you know, like the Kilowatt Club shows \u2026<\/p>\n

JM<\/b>: I was just about to ask about Kilowatt Club and Jody Taylor. That was where a lot of those DIY punk kind of shows came from.<\/p>\n

TM:<\/b> Jody was one of our early promoters. So yeah, we\u2019re definitely from that whole scene; even though we played metal, we were definitely punk rock DIY from day one. But then we would leave out of town and go to, like, Muncie, Ind., and there would be 200 people who were Choke fans. And we\u2019d go to the next town an hour over, and nobody knew who we were. (Laughs.) It was because we were on public access TV for some shows we played in New Orleans, and it just depended on where they were airing it. This was before YouTube, so you had to watch public access to see new bands, and it just depended on where we were hot.<\/p>\n

JM<\/b>: What do you think was the single best thing that got you guys out there and got you moving into other states? Was it that deal with Dax Riggs (Acid Bath, Deadboy and The Elephantmen manager) that you hooked up with?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

TM<\/b>: Yes, it was. That was the one, because we played that Friday night in Morgan City. I mean, it was packed. It was 200 people, and there was nobody else that was a bigger name on the show, right? So, the manager said, \u201cWhat are y\u2019all doing tomorrow night?\u201d So, we went to New Orleans to open for Acid Bath, and we met Phil Anselmo and White Zombie, and I met all the guys from Nine Inch Nails and from Marilyn Manson. In fact, I went to an after party with Marilyn Manson and the whole band.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, we met everybody and I was like, wait a minute, this is it; we\u2019re doing it. And then the next night we played in Lafayette with [Acid Bath] again. So, that just opened all the doors. We went from being the opening band of Acid Bath to a headliner in New Orleans in a month\u2019s time. It was really fast, and probably too fast, because we were really rock star ***holes, you know, and then we came back to Lake Charles. They said we had the big head, but we did, because we were really doing it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The guy who recorded our two albums used to manage the Eagles. We had no idea he had been basically blacklisted from the music business after that. He was trying to start over, and he was finding a few bands in New Orleans and such, and we were one of the bands he liked. So we were like, \u201cDude, The Eagles\u2019 manager \u2026 We\u2019re about to be rich and famous, you know …\u201d<\/p>\n

JM<\/b>: But you didn\u2019t realize what a lid the industry had on him.<\/p>\n

TM:<\/b> Exactly! We had no idea that that put a big, big red X on us. We see that now. But, oh well, (laughs), I mean, what do you do? You\u2019re young and they\u2019re buying you drinks and bringing girls to the studio. What can you do?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But, we\u2019ve been lucky, too. Something that a lot of people don\u2019t know is that Juvenile, the rapper, paid for Choke\u2019s last album. It was recorded in 2001, and we\u2019ve never released it. But Juvenile paid for it. He showed up at the studio and he needed it and we had the studio booked. He said, \u201cNo, I need it. I need it now. I have a deadline.\u201d And he asked, \u201cHow much does it cost? I\u2019ll pay for their entire record.\u201d So, we got a call: \u201cDon\u2019t come to the studio for three weeks.\u201d But we were also told that our entire album was payed for. (Laughs.) So we got to go in and make it right. We were on a weekend budget, and now we got to go in and spend a month in the studio and do a Rolling Stones full-on harmony thing and everything. We got to go in and do a real album. It\u2019s just sad that nobody\u2019s heard it, because it\u2019s really good.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

JM<\/b>: So there\u2019s probably not a whole lot of original successful touring metal bands out of Louisiana. How do y\u2019all feel about kind of being one of, if not maybe the iconic Louisiana touring metal band. And if you\u2019re not, who is?<\/p>\n

TM<\/b>: Well, Crowbar is really world famous right now and they\u2019re friends of ours, so kudos, you know. I\u2019ll give it up to Goatwhore, they\u2019re huge. I\u2019ll give it up to both those guys. Those are all very close friends. But when the singer for Goatwhore found out we were playing in Japan, he was like, \u201cHow in the hell did y\u2019all do that? We\u2019ve not even played Japan!\u201d and I was like, \u201cWell, you know, we have connections over there.\u201d<\/p>\n

JM<\/b>: Well, let\u2019s talk about that. You guys are going to Japan. You\u2019ve never played outside the U.S. How\u2019d this come to be?<\/p>\n

TM<\/b>: Well, there\u2019s a band from Tokyo called Gunship666, and they toured America 10 years ago with another band called Six Past Hell from Houston. Choke jumped in on two or three of the dates at the beginning of the tour, and ended up doing some dates with Slipknot on the tour as well. So, we became friends with them, and we\u2019ve kept in touch with both bands over the years. Well, about a year and a half ago when Jeremy left the band, we needed a guitar player, and we actually discussed breaking up. But Charlie mentioned that Scott, the guitar player from Six Past Hell, was getting a divorce; moving from Hollywood back to Orange, Texas, where his mom lives and \u2026 he wanted to be in Choke. And I was like, \u201cOh my God, he\u2019s like my dream guitar player.\u201d And he\u2019s toured Japan a couple of times and is kind of famous over there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019s got an underground cult following in Tokyo. So we\u2019re going over there with him now and he\u2019s going to be the rock star. I\u2019m the lead singer, but all the posters have him on them, and everyone there is like, \u201cSCOTT\u2019s coming. Yeah!\u201d (Laughs.) Man, it\u2019s always been my dream to go to Japan, and so about six months ago, I said, \u201cHey Scott, what\u2019s the possibility of Choke going to Japan\u201d? He goes, \u201cI\u2019ll make some phone calls,\u201d and that\u2019s literally how it happened.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

JM<\/b>: Wow. So, when\u2019s the tour?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

TM<\/b>: Mid-September. We\u2019re going to fly in and do an autograph signing at a record store and then we\u2019re going to play \u2014 I think the first night is Tokyo, and then we\u2019re going to do Nagano and Nagoya, which is basically all-around Mount Fuji. So, we\u2019re going to kind of go around on bullet trains around Mount Fuji. It will always be at our right, which is really cool.<\/p>\n

JM<\/b>: So, you mentioned a place and time when you were \u201ctoo hard for this\u201d and \u201ctoo mainstream\u201d for that. Metal is one of those things that I\u2019m very picky on. I\u2019m not a huge metal guy, but what I like I really like; and have always claimed to like everything from Mozart to Metallica. I do think that a lot of metal is very baroque in structure \u2026<\/p>\n

TM<\/b>: Oh yeah, man. I\u2019ll listen to Mozart when I go to sleep. The Requiem is the most beautiful piece of music ever written. I did the honor chorus, state chorus, show chorus, you know \u2026 church choir. I have that background: using the diaphragm. So I do sing proper. There\u2019s a reason I\u2019m almost 50 and can still scream, you know? (Laughs.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

JM<\/b>: That was another question I was going to ask. How old are you guys now, because, well, you\u2019re not kids anymore.<\/p>\n

TM<\/b>: Yeah, I\u2019m 48. I\u2019m the oldest member, and I think Charlie, the youngest, is 43 or 44. So we\u2019re all in there somewhere.<\/p>\n

JM<\/b>: So, we\u2019ve got a fundraiser coming up to support this tour. Touring is not cheap, but I know you guys are crazy hip to get over there and do what you guys do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

TM<\/b>: Yeah. So it\u2019s Saturday, June 16 at My Place. It\u2019s [an entire] day of music from 2 pm to 2 am and I\u2019m starting the show acoustically; just by myself. I figured I\u2019m going to be the master of ceremonies, so I figured I\u2019d start the show. And then there\u2019s going to be six or seven acoustic acts. Then at about 7, the electric music starts. And man, we could have just brought in a bunch of heavy metal bands, but we decided not to. Choke\u2019s the only really \u201cheavy metal\u201d band that\u2019s playing. Vection is playing. They\u2019re not metal. They\u2019re heavy, but not really metal. And there\u2019s some punk bands. Femaregionsix will be there and the Von Dukes are playing, so ya got rockabilly, too. So, all the bands are different. I wanted it to be like that. I didn\u2019t want to just be heavy metal all day.<\/p>\n

JM<\/b>: So why was it important for you to do that? That eclectic thing gives it a pretty inclusive feel.<\/p>\n

TM<\/b>: These are our friends, and most of the bands are our side bands. I\u2019d say 90 percent of the bands that are on the bill are our side bands or, I\u2019d say, my and Charlie\u2019s side bands, because me and Charlie are the really eclectic members. But other than that, it\u2019s just our friends that have supported us, you know, for 25 years. And like Vection … when we were forming Vection, we were all in three or four other bands. So, you know Crown Shift, who will play before Vection, has Brian Fruge. When I said I kept Choke going with me as the only original member, Brian was our guitar player then, so it\u2019s kind of a Choke family reunion and barbecue. That\u2019s really what it is, because Kim Janes is playing and all my side bands. And then Jesse\u2019s playing; he plays in four of my side bands with Brian Moore. It\u2019s the best musicians in town in every genre, you know?<\/p>\n

JM<\/b>: So, what\u2019s the admission? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

TM:<\/b> It\u2019s going to be 15 bucks to get in, but that gets you 12 hours of music and a barbecue plate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

JM<\/b>: So, who\u2019s doing the barbecue?<\/p>\n

TM<\/b>: Well, actually Charlie and Brian work for Reeves Uptown Catering. Brian\u2019s a chef and Charlie is a chef\u2019s assistant. I still don\u2019t know the menu. I said, look, let me do the live music and you guys do the food and we\u2019ll make it work. So, I haven\u2019t even asked.<\/p>\n

JM<\/b>: Anything else you want to add about the event, about the tour, or about that album that Juvenile paid for that hasn\u2019t been released yet?<\/p>\n

TM<\/b>: We\u2019re going to be selling t-shirts that are just exclusive for the barbecue. Just going to be a one-time only thing. And I think we\u2019re planning the barbecue part two later on, maybe, if this one goes well, because this is going to pay for the whole tour. So, if we have a barbecue part 2, then we\u2019re gonna sell the Japanese tour shirt for that one.<\/p>\n

JM<\/b>: And maybe that next go-around goes towards getting that record put out there?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

TM<\/b>: Well, we\u2019re on a label in Japan that\u2019s putting out an EP just to have some music over there. And then we\u2019re hoping to get a full-blown record deal over there, because if you get a record deal in Japan, it opens up the doors to Australia and Europe, where metal is really popular. Maybe. We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n

JM<\/b>: What do you think has kept Choke alive … has kept you kind of relevant and hip and in all the hearts and minds of the people who have heard you over the years?<\/p>\n

TM<\/b>: We\u2019re friends first, you know what I mean? You don\u2019t want to screw your friends over. So, if we have a problem, we take it up with each other and sometimes it\u2019s not nice, you know? We put guys in time-out and we put guys in check and I\u2019ve even been put in time out. We\u2019ve all been put in time-out.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, we kind of treat it as a business. And now I\u2019ve been in this band half of my life. How many people can say they\u2019ve done anything for half of their life?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One thing you know, this has been my passion. I mean, I do have a 15-year-old daughter, and I love her more than anything in the world. And I have a wife of 17 years. But Choke\u2019s my baby. October will be 25 years.<\/p>\n

JM<\/b>: You put that long into anything, music or otherwise, and it becomes something you are responsible for and take care of.<\/p>\n

TM<\/b>: I love it when people come see us \u2014 local people who have never heard us before, but have heard the name for 20-plus years; when they actually come and see us, it\u2019s always like, \u201cMan, that\u2019s not what I expected. That\u2019s so much better than I ever expected.\u201d Because, it\u2019s heavy metal, but we\u2019re not heavy metal … We have our own thing, whatever it is. It kept us from being famous, but we have our own thing. And you know what, I\u2019m going to stick to that. I\u2019m gonna stick to it.<\/p>\n

Choke will be taking on Tokyo on Sept. 14, with dates following in Nagano and Nagoya on Sept. 15 and 16. But if you want to see the hometown rockers do their thing and get 12 hours of live music and barbecue to boot, make your way out to My Place on Saturday, June 16, starting at 2 pm, for the Choke barbecue event, and help send these guys east proper. Konnichiwa! And I\u2019ll see YOU at the show!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hometown Band\u00a0Takes On Tokyo Story by Justin Morris \u2022 Photo by Matthew Ison Dagostino\u2019s. Nate\u2019s. Pourquois Pas. These names will only mean something to you if you are of a certain age and were of a certain age back when these places were in their heyday. 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These names will only mean something to you if you are of a certain age and were of a certain age back when these places were in their heyday. 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