Anyone who spent time in the indie music scene of the early-to-mid-2000s in this city knows the name Rotary Downs. Lead singer James Marler has captured national attention for his unique vocals, laced unmistakably with a heavy dose of the disaffection of Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus, but with significantly more passion. Two well-known local visual artists—videographer Jason Rhein and photographer Zack Smith—hold down the rhythm section on bass and drums, respectively. Chris Colombo commands the pedal steel and trades off lead guitar licks with Alex Smith (who has graced stages with a slew of local bands over the years). The guys are also often joined by The Revivalists’ Michael Girardot on keys and trumpet, and Tif “Teddy” Lamson has provided live backing vocals and percussion throughout the years.
Once relatively prolific and performing locally with regularity, the band has gone into what can only be called a state of hibernation. Their last show, in the summer of 2022, was dubbed “Farewell For Now” as James and his family departed for a fresh start in Granada, Spain. Their socials went quiet for three full years. Until, in the fall of 2025, posts appeared hinting at something big on the horizon.
On a quiet Tuesday morning after school drop off, I met up with Zack, Jason, and Chris (joined virtually by Alex and James) at St. Roch Market. We talked about the impetus for their upcoming show celebrating 20 years of Chained to the Chariot, how they rescued the lion’s share of the album from a Bywater studio post-Katrina, why The Terrible Twos are a lie, and how—despite the challenges of distance and the nonexistence of free time—they still love working together more than two decades later.
Your last show was four years ago. James, you’ve relocated to Spain with your family. What was the impetus for getting back together and playing this show?
James Marler: Zack Smith was the impetus.
Zack Smith: Only because I’m very nostalgic and I realized it was the 20-year anniversary of the release of Chained to the Chariot in 2006. Every five or 10 years it seems we’ve had some sort of Katrina remembrance. And as we get further away from an event that defined a lot of our lives, you tend to look back and remember where you were. We realized last year that 2026 would be 20 years from the release and it brought back those memories of Jason getting the tapes and all of us magically moving to Lafayette… Well, and Eunice…
JM: No, it was Rayne—The Frog Capital of the World!
Jason Rhein: James and I didn’t evacuate together, but we ended up living together afterwards for like three months in a little house in Rayne. We met Ivan Klisanin, who is an engineer out there, and that’s where we recorded the rest of Chained to the Chariot.
JM: We lived in this tiny place above the office of Jason’s girlfriend’s grandfather, whose name was Pee Wee Whitewing and he was a famous Texas swing player.
Chris Colombo: He’s in the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame.
JM: He gave me a job for like a week-and-a-half. I found out later that it was all just a display though. None of the work we were doing was necessary. He wanted an investor to see people were working on “things.” But he gave us money, which was good.
ZS: Hey, we were all looking for money at that time. I mean, the random jobs…
JR: Zack started a tree-cutting business! [laughs]
ZS: We started The Tree Musketeers! Just to try to get back into the city. James and I took a police-escorted bus into downtown high rises to rescue hard drives from a law firm. [laughs]
JM: I remember that—we had to hike up like 50 floors! They told us, “If you do two trips we’ll give you $50 each and we’ll give you a ride to go check on your practice space.”
JR: I actually went in just a few days after the storm. I had a press pass because I was working for American Routes.
What happened with the Chariot masters? You were already working on this album when the storm hit, right?
JR: Pretty much all our albums took a long, winding journey. [laughs] They’d start out in one place and go somewhere else. They were evolutions over a few years. So we started with…
ZS: Piety [Street Recording]?
JR: No. It was Andrew…
ZR: Goat? Yeah, Andrew “Goat” Gilchrist.
CC: At House of 1000Hz.
JR: Yeah, so we started recording there and he lived in the 9th Ward…
ZR: He lived behind the Church’s [Chicken] in Bywater.
CC: Wait, didn’t we start at Piety? We did an overnight. We did the graveyard shift for like $100.
ZS: Yes! Because it was cheap. We did that session from like midnight to 8 a.m. and I don’t know if we liked it.
CC: It got pretty weird. [laughs] Everyone was sleep-deprived.
ZS: And we were in iso situations. I was in an iso booth. People were separated and we felt it wasn’t cohesive. And then we go to Andrew Gilchrist and it’s like going into… What did you call it, James? The “red velvet brick-a-brack” room? It’s like you’re all in this living room of a shotgun house and jamming with your friends. It was very comfortable.
So that’s where you had to rescue the masters from?
JR: Yeah, and they were on two-inch tape, up on a higher shelf.
ZS: To be clear, he lived in Bywater and his house didn’t flood, but when you have that in your mind and it’s so near the epicenter it might as well be under water. We just knew we had to get to them.
How much of the album was recorded at that point?
JM: We had about 80% of it. I would say that the biggest songs—in our opinion anyway—that we started the record with were recorded in Lafayette after the hurricane, those first three tracks we did with Ivan. We did “False Protection,” “Sing Like the Sun,” “Big Parade,” and then maybe one or two more with him. The rest were already down. It ended up being really fortuitous, though, that we connected with Ivan. It was a massive development.
“Big Parade” feels very obviously post-Katrina in its writing and production. For my husband and I, listening to it has a transportational effect—it feels like 2006 to us. Does it still feel that way for you when you listen to it or perform it?
JM: It does. It’s definitely of that era for me. It’s also just really good memories. Chris and I were pretty new to playing with Jason and Zack at the time and Matt Aguiluz—who is a dear friend of mine and now actually also lives in Granada—was the original keyboard player. It was great to see all these practice jams and song ideas come together on a record. And the fact that the recording process was split in half by Katrina added another element, another layer to how the songs came out and what they were about.
JR: For sure, it brings back memories for me too. I also think that was maybe our most critically-acclaimed record. There was a lot of attention on New Orleans at the time.
You guys made NPR! It was an NPR list of the best unknown artists of 2007.
CC: We also played on [NPR’s] Studio 360.
JR: I think that all translated into some real opportunities. Getting to play in New York and San Francisco and at some big festivals, so it was pretty exciting.
ZS: It was the silver lining of some really bad stuff that happened. That you could still have a soundtrack that makes you feel connected to a time but also feel optimistic. A lot of the lyrics are dark at points, but there’s also a ray of light. And that’s part of the album concept we had talked about with Miranda Lake, the artist who created the cover. It was this angelic figure coming over a bend, she’s in this tattered dress but there’s a brass band following her. Beauty sits next to decay… and all the while the music is happening.
If that isn’t New Orleans in a nutshell…
ZS: Still!
You guys have gone through so many changes since the inception of the band. The last time you played together was the “Farewell For Now” show in 2022 at d.b.a. What can people expect from this show? Who is going to be able to join you onstage?
CC: Everybody here. Plus Mike [Girardot] and Tiffany [Lamson].
ZS: We’re also gonna ask our friend Cory [Schultz], who plays trumpet and keys…
CC: There’s gonna be eight people on the Siberia stage! [laughs]
Is Tif gonna do backup vocals or is she gonna do any drums?
ZS: Vocals, yeah.
Because of course she’s been touring lately as Shania Twain’s drummer.
CC: It would be funny if Tif found out she was playing drums at this show by reading this interview.
ZS: Right? Bring your percussion kit! [laughs]
What’s the structure of the show? Are we playing the whole album front to back and then some extras?
JM: I think there’s only one or two songs we’re not gonna do.
We don’t get the whole album?!
JM: I mean, it’s like 14 tracks and we’re doing all but one. [laughs]
Who’s the redheaded stepchild that got kicked out of the set?
JM: It’s “Black Town.” We don’t wanna bring everybody down!
ZS: And there might be people who just don’t get the big picture of that song or don’t want to get it.
JR: We’re gonna inject stuff from the other two albums as well.
ZS: Yeah, at first I was like, “Let’s do it from front to back. Just push play,” and James said, “You’ll have Chris getting on pedal steel and then off, and then back on again. What is Alex gonna do? What is Tiffany gonna do? Mike’s not…” And James came up with a great setlist with clumps of eras and it feels really good.
Are we pairing tracks from the other albums with tracks from Chained that maybe feel more thematically or stylistically similar?
JM: Nah, just ones we like to play.
ZS: All rockers. Maximum good times.
JM: It’s a lot of songs! We were originally gonna do I think 14 and now we’re doing almost 30 songs.
Chained to the Chariot artwork by Miranda Lake
You guys gonna stretch and hydrate before this? [laughs]
ZS: Oh man, seriously.
JM: We’re gonna have a giant pot of coffee on stage.
JR: It harkens back to old school d.b.a. days—remember we’d play until like 2 o’clock in the morning or whatever?
CC: I’ll bring some Bengay.
The fact that everyone has kids and full-time gigs has obviously changed the way this looks over time and how you guys get to interact with each other. Most of you are in New Orleans, but how often do you actually see each other outside of “official” Rotary Downs business?
ZS: Well Jason’s wife is my son’s godmother and Chris is my daughter’s godfather. So we try to keep in touch that way. And we’re getting together tomorrow night. We’ve been trying to do Wednesday evenings and Saturday days as a way to rehearse. And actually, Alex has been really good about 24 hours before the session asking, “What are we working on today?” And it’s been so helpful to push the narrative forward so we’re not just getting to the space and catching up for half an hour.
Alex, are you a teacher? That feels like teacher energy to me!
Alex Smith: No, but I do work at a school. I wish I was talented enough to be a teacher, but I’m more behind the scenes. Listening to this conversation has been great, though. Because I came to New Orleans in 2004 and I started as a fan of the band. I met Zack pretty early on at a photo shoot and he told me about the band, and I started coming to the shows and quickly became a big fan and got to know the guys over time. So the record is very nostalgic for me. Going back and listening to it does remind me of the start of my adventure. I’ve now been in the U.S. almost 22 years and little did I expect I’d end up playing in this band. My wife [Sarah] briefly sang with the band as well! Lots of deep connections. In many respects, this is a family. We’ve become much more than a band and it goes beyond the music. It’s been an honor to be part of it and help bring these songs back to life. In the meantime, I’m playing the part of James’ stunt guitarist. [laughs]
Do they have you on Zoom singing during rehearsals, James?
ZS: We’re trusting that he still knows the lyrics.
JM: I send Alex notes. I tell him exactly how many beers to drink. Where to fuck up the songs.
AS: Very detailed notes. Precision timing. We’re gonna try to do a compilation of all my wipeouts.
CC: It is pretty challenging practicing without him here. You realize how often you play off vocal cues, so sometimes we’ll just go “blah blah blah” for his parts. [laughs]
How did you end up tumbling your way into the band, Alex? And did you know your wife when she sang with the band or did you meet later?
AS: We met after the fact. Originally I came to the U.S. to play in a band called World Leader Pretend. Over time I quit going back to the U.K. between tours and started staying in New Orleans, and of course I fell in love with it. Jason was doing a tour with another band…
JR: Imagination Movers. He filled in on bass when I was out on tour with a kids rock’n’roll band.
AS: I had seen the band play many times and the first time I saw my wife she got up at One Eyed Jacks and sang a song with you all. Once I filled in on bass duty the guys were kind enough to say, “Why don’t you stick around?” And so we figured out how to make it work after that.
JR: The delicate balance of three guitars in a band.
ZS: That was for Traces. Alex is all over that album.
So what’s the breakdown? Who’s rhythm? Who takes lead?
JR: James is primarily rhythm. Chris, how would you characterize your and Alex’s dynamic?
CC: We kinda swap off. There’s some things that he plays lead parts on and some I do. As a general rule, I say if you came up with a better part, go for it.
JR: And they have different styles and tones, so they kinda complement each other in a cool way.
AS: James is a very rhythmic player, but his parts when they’re not chordal are very melodic. Actually one of the fun things about doing Traces was figuring out how to make three guitars work in a way that supported the song first and foremost. And I’m a huge fan of Chris’ playing. He’s such a creative player and the stuff he does on pedal is just amazing. Chris’ personality comes out all over his guitar playing and that’s something I really love about playing with him. He can do some stuff I wouldn’t even know where to start with.
ZS: Sometimes he doesn’t either. [laughs] Playing from the heart, man. It’s magic.
That’s a lot of bodies on stage, in a practice room, in a recording booth. In most bands that’s a lot of egos too. Do you feel like you got really lucky because you genuinely like each other? Twenty years of putting up with anybody is tough. And you’ve all been a part of other bands. Do you think there is a difference in the way Rotary Downs operates and connects to each other that’s helped it stand the test of time?
JR: For me it’s just the time and the history. Not to be heavy, but I got the call that my father was dying while I was practicing with Rotary Downs and these guys were there for me. We’ve just all been through it together. Growing families, life traumas, just a lot of history. Last year my family got to go visit James and the family in Spain.
JM: I’ve told the guys if they can find a way to all get over here, we could have some really great gigs.
CC: How do you say Rotary Downs in Spanish? [laughs]
How is your Spanish now, James?
JM: Ummm, it’s still like a B minus on a good day. Early intermediate. We had a baby two-odd years ago, which kinda stalled us out on our Spanish progress. [laughs]
CC: El goo goo.
JM: Also, learning Spanish in Andalusia is like learning English in Louisiana. It’s notorious for being the fastest and most difficult accent to understand. They drop a lot of sounds, just like Southern people do. A lot of slang, a lot of words are skipped.
I’ve always said the Southern dialect is English in cursive. What was the impetus for moving to Spain?
JM: We started talking probably 15 years ago about how great it would be to live in west[ern] Europe some day. And it was just talk. But when Hurricane Ida hit, we had to evacuate for like a week and a half. We were twiddling our thumbs at my wife’s brother’s house in Alabama and we just whispered “Granada” to each other. And we were immediately ready to jump on a plane. That’s how excited we were. Then we figured out we couldn’t bring our puppy, so that put a pause on things. But we became more and more interested in it and we started to see a path to do it. We started checking out different parts of Spain. And it’s fantastic—we love it. There’s a lot of connections to New Orleans, really. Because it’s a walkable city where we live. There’s everything you’d want to seek out in terms of music and food and culture. The people are very chill here, just like in New Orleans.
I’ve noticed you guys are posting a lot lately about the videos you made during the Chained to the Chariot era. You made a ton of videos for that record. Are videos dead? I feel like nobody makes videos anymore.
JM: There was a comment on the “Body of an Outlaw” video that’s from a friend I’ve known since 7th grade in Colorado and he was like, “Who still makes videos like this?!” Rotary Downs does!
ZS: That was a mini movie!
JM: It’s such an epic, old-school thing, like, “There’s a story here about an outlaw…”
CC: Yeah, it’s a story song.
It feels a little VH1. Like I’m watching that morning countdown getting ready for school. And I think that died somewhere along the way. Big budget artists these days have “visualizers” but not many small bands still make this kind of video.
ZS: It takes so much time. If you look at “Body of an Outlaw” and how many people are in there, even for just a split second… You gotta realize it took us days to film that. At City Park, at One Eyed Jacks. [Music video director] Jonathan [David] Evans was a big part of it. Jason, James.
JR: Blake Haney was the preacher…
ZS: So that snapshot of everyone in that video is our core kind of family at that time. That still exists, but the thing that doesn’t exist now is time. We had time to do those things back then.
JM: Honestly, I think the thing that cut the most into our being prolific was losing our practice space at the Music Shed. We did things, we still made a record and we were still active, but it’s hard to overemphasize how crucial that space was to us making music as a band.
CC: It felt impossible trying to find a good practice space in the city, unless it was at your house. We went from one place to another and they were all too small, or if we had stayed in Mid-City we would have flooded. That really did hurt the band.
ZS: We actually have one more video to post. I can’t remember which one. I always forget the name of the song, I don’t know why. James, you and I made it.
JM: Is it “Flowers in Bloom?”
ZA: I can literally never remember the name of that song. [laughs]
JM: It’s one of my favorites. From Traces.
CC: I love it too James! You’re not alone.
JM: It’s really hard to play live, but Chris and Alex do an admirable job of pulling it off. Some songs you can do with time in a studio but it’s really, really hard to make everything sync.
ZS: That song gets away from you really quickly if you’re not careful, with everything happening. Even on the drums, I’ve gotta just lock in. I can’t get too creative. There’s a lot of shit going on.
CC: The rhythm’s really tight for everybody individually.
AS: It’s like getting onto a roller coaster and hoping everyone just stays in their seats.
JM: Yeah, if one thing gets out of whack, you’re fucked.
8×10 publicity photo by Zack Smith circa 2004 (Left to Right: Matt Aguiliz, Jason Rhein, James Marler, Zack Smith, Chris Colombo)
So obviously nostalgia about the album and just a desire to get together and play again is the main driving force behind this show. Is there any chance while you’re here, James, that you guys will put anything new down on tape? Any structured plan for future releases? Or are you just going to see where life takes everyone?
JM: We might have two outtakes from Traces ready. We’ll see. I think it’s feasible. I don’t know about this trip because I don’t know if we’ll have the time to do it. But we left a lot of either songs or song ideas ready to go, or three quarters there.
ZS: The goal is to try to play at least one of those for the show. I’m pushing that pretty hard. Sending out versions of some songs. I think we can kinda just see what happens. Which relieves a little bit of pressure to get it right. There were a ton of little two- or three-minute jams when we were at Ivan’s where we were just like, “Hey, press record—this may go somewhere and it may not.”
JR: I’ve got a little above-the-garage studio and I can see us finishing up some tracks from back in the day.
Jason, you’ve been pretty active playing with your other band, The Bottoms. Touring a bit.
JR: Mostly playing locally, but we’ve done a few shows in Pensacola. We got invited to play Jazz Fest as well.
Congratulations! What are you guys up to beyond that? Zack, you’re still doing photography of course. Jason, are you still doing videography as well? Chris, what are you up to?
JR: Yeah, still doing videos with my company Elephant Quilt Productions.
CC: Just working. I’m an electronics engineer. But my oldest [kid] just went into college and my daughter is a senior, so helping them figure out what they want to do has been my biggest focus the last few years.
Rotary Downs performing at Tipitina’s in September 2007
Photo by Tamara Grayson
OK, so you have almost-adult kids, Chris. Jason, how old are yours?
JR: They’re teenagers now. Thirteen and 15.
And Zack?
ZS: Nine and five.
And James, you have a baby… well, a toddler.
JM: Two-and-a-half, yeah. And I gotta say, I know there’s that whole Terrible Twos thing, but he’s just hilarious.
[Everyone but James laughs] I’m so sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, but two is beautiful. It’s three you want to watch for.
CC: Yeah… I’ll take two.
JR: The threenager!
JM: Really?
ANTIGRAVITY October 2006 cover. Photo by Tamara Grayson
Oh yeah, because they believe themselves to be fully capable of all things. I DO IT MY OWN SELF! [laughs] Alex, do you have kids?
AS: Yes! I have 11-year-old twin daughters. They are amazing. And like I said, I work at a school. I have the privilege of organizing lots of fun after-school and summer activities for the kids. Outside of that, my wife and I have a project called Kirasu which all the guys to some extent have been involved with, which is something we have done over the years. And I play bass with lots of people. Stunt bass player wherever folks need help. I love playing and it’s been fun to jam again with the guys and keep this all going.
You’re playing with some other local acts? Where can we see you play?
AS: I sub for Where Y’acht—New Orleans’ yacht rockers. I play with some friends of all of ours, Dustan Louque and Margaret Hebert, their base is Lafayette. I did a gig with Chris Lee [from Supagroup] that was real fun. Just whatever comes up, whether it’s recording or a live show, I’ll do it all.
With James not being in town anymore, is there any chance we’ll ever see Rotary Downs again at the Not So Super Super Hero Party?
ZS: Yeah. I mean, if everybody is ever in town during Mardi Gras I’d pretty much have to text Blake and say, “We’re gonna play from 11 to 3.” [laughs]
AS: We’re gonna reach out to Anthropic and see if they can somehow get a hologram of James there, but also the hologram has to be in Granada too. James has to feel like he’s in wherever the gig would be. The technology’s not caught up.
JR: It’s not there yet.
ZS: It’ll catch up to Rotary Downs at some point.
CC: Didn’t Dio’s wife have a hologram tour with her? But yeah, it would be great to do that show again.
James, I was going to ask if you’re playing music or you’re anchored with jobs or something remote from the U.S.
JM: As far as music, I’ve been doing this project with Matt Aguiluz, who was the first keyboard player for Rotary Downs. We both got really into Italian library music from the ‘70s. It’s a whole world of amazing music. So we started this project of making music like that. We get together every week and it’s been pretty productive, actually. So that’s the main music thing I’ve been doing. I’m the backup bass player for this cumbia band too. But I’m working on a PhD at the university here. I’ll be done soon.
What’s your study area?
JM: English Literature. Specifically the American poet James Neugass, who volunteered to fight the fascists in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. As it turns out, he’s from New Orleans. So I’m doing an unabridged scholarly edition of his memoir (ironically titled War is Beautiful), focused on his surrealist style, dark humor, and political orientation. I’ve really been enjoying it. And my wife, she just got this gig helping to run this cultural center that’s in our neighborhood. They do concerts, art projects, and holistic healing services. It’s in one of the most beautiful parts of the city and she met somebody there who was trying to organize it but didn’t have the experience she has, so that’s been a recent development for her. And it’s fun for us, because we already liked to go to this place and she’s feeling more connected through that job.
That’s great that you’re getting more enmeshed in the community, especially now that you’re out of the newborn fog. Those first 18 to 24 months are just survival, then you wake up and realize you can leave the house and do things. And you’re in Spain so you can go to dinner at 9 p.m. and put the baby to bed at midnight!
JM: Pretty much. [laughs] And you can bring your baby into bars here! It’s totally normal. We have photos and videos of him in different taverns. His first concert was Bob Mould doing Hüsker Dü songs in a small club, full blast but with no drums or bass. He was six weeks old. He slept through the whole thing with ear protectors on.
Left to Right: Jason Rhein, Zack Smith, Chris Colombo, and Alex Smith in August 2025, gearing up for the reunion show.
Photo by Jason Rhein
Is there anything else about the upcoming show you’d like people to know?
ZS: We’re playing [the show at Siberia] with our friends Big Light from San Francisco. We have a nice kindred simpatico with them. We’ve played a few shows with them in the past and their guitarist Jeremy Korpas lives in New Orleans now. I’m trying to figure out how to get him into a song or two. He’s such an incredible guitar player.
Zack, where are you going to find any more room on this stage?! Where’s Mike gonna stand? On top of the keyboard?
ZS: He can. Mike can stand on his keyboard chair…
AS: Mike’s actually gonna levitate the whole gig. He’s really good at jumping off the keyboard too.
JR: I just want to give a shoutout to Zack here, because I don’t think any of this would have come together the way it has without him. He’s been herding the cats as it were, which is no easy task. We’re all scattered.
CC: And not getting frustrated—or at least not showing it.
ZS: There’s passive-aggressiveness in my emojis. [laughs] But honestly, that’s the thing that I have missed—having time to get together with my friends to play music. And we still get together, talk about our families and different stuff, but having that time to play music that we love… make each other laugh and rib each other, it’s something I don’t do enough. It’s so hard to find that hour-and-a-half, but it counts.
JR: Absolutely. Even though the future is a bit unknown past the show for us, it’s just been so great to get together with these guys again. It’s family. It’s a musical brotherhood. So I’m hopeful more good things will come.
Rotary Downs celebrates the 20th anniversary of Chained to the Chariot on Friday, May 1 at Siberia, with Big Light opening. For more info, check out @rotarydowns on Instagram.
Top photo by Michael Girardot: Left to right: Zack Smith, Jason Rhein, Michael Girardot, Alex Smith, Chris Colombo, James Marler
