Hi there! How are you doing? Mario Matteoli: Good, thanks.
Tell me about the band. When did you form The Weary Boys?
We are all originally from northern California and played in various bands togther up there for a bout five years. In ‘99/2000 we decided to move to Austin, TX and start a band. That was me, Darren Hoff and Brian Salvi.
We drove out, lived in a ramada motel for a while and played on the street for practice and tips. It was on the street that we met our bass player, Darren Sluyter. He worked in the sandwich shop on Guadalup st. that we played in front of.
We had a drummer for a while, Cade C. Callahan, that eventually had to leave the band. We then called up Cary Ozanian, a friend of ours who played in a rock with me, and he moved out and that makes up The Weary Boys as of today.
How come you started playing music in the first place?
My older brothers all played music and I just thought it would be really cool to be in a band and be up on stage.
Up until now you have released 5 full-length albums. Your latest one “Jumpin Jolie” was released this year. Have you been getting any good reviews of it?
There have not been any reviews yet that i know of, but the response from fans is really good and we have been selling a lot of them at Waterloo Records as well as on the road.
How was the recording of “Jumpin Jolie”?
Different from our other albums in that we gave ourselves a lot more time than usual. All of our last albums were pretty much recorded and mixed in a couple of days, no more than a week. We stretched this one out about seven or eight months. Not that we were recording the whole time. We did three dfferent recording sessions. One in north Carolina with Rick Miller of Southern Culture on the skids, one in Nashville, and one in Texas at Willie Nelson's world headquarters. It was nice to not feel rushed like with the other records.
You cover a Scott H Biram song on the new album. Tell me about that.
It's called “Baby Have No Fun”. We learned it from him on this radio show we did together. At first he didn't want us to record it, but then he said it would be cool because he was gonna record a song of mine on his new album.
You’ve been playing a whole lot of shows. Do you guys have the time to do anything else except for playing music?
Not the energy for anything, but the time yes. I don't do anything when i'm not touring really, or playing music. Some cribbage and a lot of movies and books.
Do you have any fovorite cities to play shows in?
Austin first of all. This town has a reputation for a reason. Specifically at the Contintal Club here. It's the best club in America. Lafayette and Baton Rouge in Louisiana are always pretty fun. People dance, drink and have a good time. It's always fun when the people are really having a good time. Tucson is great. Good people and good art there. Key West is pretty self explanatory. And pretty much the whole west coast is good except that people really don't know how to dance.
You’ve been supporting Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and a bunch of other great artists. How was that?
Awesome. It's hard to believe that we actually have done that.
What bands/artists have influenced the sound of The Weary Boys?
At first it was a lot of Ralph Stanley, Hank Williams, Clarence White. That kinda stuff. More recently it's been more Clifton Chenier, Doug Sahm, and friends such as the Lost Bayou Ramblers, Scotty Biram, The Red Stick Ramblers and Mark Ambrose.
If you had to name the best song in the world ever, what would it be? That's too tough of a question, but “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” (Hank Williams) is probably the best.
Have you guys been over to Europe? If so, how was that?
We played Holland for about a week three or four years ago. It was cool. Crowds are really different there. They look like they're not into it, but then they say how much they enjoyed the show. It's pretty weird. We're gonna play a rodeo in France this august.
You have posted a couple of whole shows as Mp3’s on your website. Not a lot of bands post that much free music on the internet. How did you come up with that idea?
People tape our shows sometimes and we never have a problem with that. Most of the time those people are tape traders and such. We figure if people want to trade our live shows we might as well make it easy for them. We think our albums are good enough where people would buy them anyway.
How does the future look, a lot of touring planned, upcoming releases etc.?
Yeah, a lot of touring this summer. Looking pretty busy. I am putting out a solo record and will be trying somehow to promote it.
Do you have anything else you would like to say before we say goodbye?
Check out the Lost Bayou ramblers and Mark Ambrose.