MusicTree Fest will be taking place in Manchester, Tennessee – June 6-7, 9-10. We will be publishing interviews with the performing bands as we close in on the 3rd year of this festival. View the full line-up.

Let’s start with the basics, who are you? Where are you from? What style of music do you create?

We are a Blues/Folk Rock band called The Django Riders from Portland, TN. Jay Cathcart (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar) , Josh Gentry (Drums), Chuck Radin (Bass), Tim Cathcart (Lead Guitar)

This is MusicTree Fest’s 3rd year. Is this your first time? If yes, how did you learn about MusicTree?

This is actually our 3rd straight Fest. We have been lucky enough to be on all three festivals with some great bands and watch the show evolve into what it is today. We also got to eat at that amazing BBQ place that’s now closed “:Two Purple Pigs” I think is what it was called. Absolutely awesome, so thanks for that on MusicTree.

Was there an “ah-ha moment” in your life when you knew you would pursue music?

I think we all have grown up around playing and listening to music our entire life’s. I’m not sure when exactly the Ah-ha moment was for all of us as individuals because honestly if your a musician it’s always been in you, we all just find the music at different times. The Ah-ha moment for our band though I believe is when Chuck our bass player came into the band. Tim, Josh, and myself (Jay) had been looking for months for a solid/stable bass player. It took a long time to find someone we clicked with. We had a mutual friend who introduced us to Chuck and honestly it was from the first night of playing together we knew we finally had something special. Once Chuck came to the band he added a lot different style and we just all really enjoyed each other’s company.

Who (or what) motivates and inspires your writing and playing style(s)?

Most of our music honestly comes from us just playing around. Tim might come in and say I’ve been working on a new riff or I (Jay) might come in and say I have been working on these lyrics or a rhythm but more times then none it comes from someone screwing around in between songs and someone else saying “hey play that again”. It might seem like a strange way to write to some but we believe it adds a lot more depth to our music, everyone has a chance to play the song the way they want, it’s almost like being able to put a piece of yourself in the song even if your not the one who wrote the lyrics or came up with it.

What can we expect from your performance at MusicTree Fest 2014?

Tons of nudity and a few of those Miley Cyrus bears on stage. Lot’s of unnecessary intimate hugging and touching. Also 3 or 4 “re-imagined” Cher songs and a plastic nativity scene as our stage show. In all honesty though you are really just gonna see 4 guys doing what they love and hoping you love it just as much.

Where can we connect with you online? Where can we listen or download your music?

You can check us out at TheDjangoRiders.com also Facebook.com/TheDjangoRiders. We are everywhere though Twitter, Reverberation,Tumblr just pretty much type in the name of a site and backslash “TheDjangoRiders” and it will most likely go to a page of ours. Side note if you type in DirtyBoy.com and then put Backslash TheDjangoRiders you gonna see a WHOLE different side of us.

Do you have plans for Bonnaroo this year?

Probably gonna sit this year out, not because we wouldn’t love to go but because most of us have family’s and jobs to get back too. But we hope to make the week enjoyable for the people who are sticking around and maybe we can snag Chuck a Kayne West T-shirt, he’s Kayne’s biggest fan.

Any closing thoughts? Shout outs?

Just a big thanks to everyone who put the show together and invited us back. Big shout out to our photographer Tori Harris of Tori Harris Photography (http://www.toriharrisphotography.com) and our fantastic producer and engineer Graham Waks from Left + Right Music (http://www.leftplusrightmusic.com/) who we will be finishing up our studio album with in the next few months.