Lost Dog Found | Bands We Love

The rockabilly sound of Lost Dog Found might sound familiar to those who listen to jump blues bands like Brian Setzer Orchestra or Squirrel Nut Zippers, but that’s where the similarity ends. The Bay Area band focuses on performing all original hits since their first performance in 2010. Since then they’ve become the hot jive band to swing to, from their live concerts at the Mystic Theatre or Petaluma Music Festival, to their recent release of their debut album, “The Jump Start Scandal”.

Hailing from all around the San Francisco Bay Area, Lost Dog Found is made up of Chris Hudlow (vocals) and Stevie Mac (guitar) of Sebastopol, and Scott Yost (bass), Kyle Pesonen (drums), Todd Grady (trumpet), Randy Johnson (baritone sax), and Nick Miller (alto sax) from the East Bay.  While rockabilly is known as a form of swing music, the band is intent that they don’t fall into the generic category of this genre.

“This is not a genre in music that is typically thought as a hip/current sound,” said Stevie Mac, the leader of Lost Dog Found.  “When most people think swing music they think of Glenn Miller and bubbles floating around the stage. Lost Dog Found is not a swing band; we’re a rock band with horns and a swing beat. That description is a tough sell to those who haven’t seen us, and if we didn’t have the support from the fans who have discovered us, it would be a lot harder to get that point across… it sounds so cliche, but we really owe a lot to those fans who tell their friends about our music and help them to discover us. We always make it a point to make ourselves available after a show to meet and thank anybody who comes and tugs on our sleeves, because we wouldn’t get too far without fan support.

The band performs live this Saturday, February 16th at Hopmonk Novato (224 Vintage Way, Novato) at 9:15 p.m.  Tickets are $10.  Go to hopmonk.com/novato to buy tickets.

We caught up with Stevie Mac of Lost Dog Found and asked him a few questions about the band.  Here is what he had to say:

What inspired you to start this band?

I had always loved the idea of the neo-swing movement from the 90′s, but thought that it missed an opportunity to move the “swing” genre forward. There is nothing more energetic than seeing a really good live horn band hitting on all cylinders, but it’s hard to make a contemporary sound out of that. I spent years writing contemporary / radio friendly style songs for my music publishing company, but started to get bored with the traditional, formulaic style of songs that typically sold. Plus I was getting the itch to perform live again. So about four years ago, I began tinkering with the idea of a guitar led horn band, but not so out front like you might see in something like the Brian Setzer Orchestra; I wanted all the instruments to shine equally but led by the guitar. I was enjoying playing the music that I was writing so much that I decided to see if I could find any other musicians that would buy in on the idea that swing/jump based music could be made to sound current.

Once we began playing live, we all could feel that the music really touched a nerve with the audience; after about our third or fourth show a gal came up to me, stared me straight in the eye, and said “Where have you guys been? I’ve been wanting this music and didn’t know it even existed.”  The audiences reaction over the course of the first year convinced us to keep fleshing out this music, and our fans honestly have inspired us to keep creating and performing more.

Was music always a huge part of your life? Did you grow up playing music?

When the music bug hits you when you are younger, there is no shaking it… I think I speak for everyone in the band when I say that we have to play music. It’s what shaped us into who we are… it’s like breathing; if we don’t play music at some point during the day, we get all pent up. I’m not a painter, but I’ve heard the same thing from artists; they go crazy if they can’t release their emotional talent.

So music bit all of us at an early age I think. Chris and I went to school together; he was always in school band and in vocal groups. He’s always been a really fantastic singer; he and three other guys sang a Boyz 2 Men song at our high school graduation ceremony. Made me jealous, because the girls melted.

Myself, I took piano lessons starting at 12 years old, but didn’t have the patience for it. My neighbor could play “La Bamba” on a beat up Chinese model guitar, and made it look easy. Plus it was a way cooler looking instrument, so I taught myself how to play guitar when I was 15.