POSITIVE PUBLICITY by Camille Mola

It’s time for another installation of Person of Interest, and in this case, a Band of Interest. We’re heading down South to Nashville’s Belmont University to chat with Mr. B & and the Tribal Hoose, a “live hip-hop band spreading love and happiness.” Seeing as this blog is called Positive Publicity, it makes perfect sense to speak with a band sharing positivity. I also have a personal connection to the band: my friend Rebecca’s brother Max, aka SaxMax, is the saxophone player. When she played my friend and I their music recently, I wanted to learn more about them. They are making some serious waves in Nashville right now, so let’s meet the band…

• I think we’re all wondering – how did you guys come up with the name Mr. B & the Tribal Hoose?
  • Our guitar player, Max, roots back to having a Canadian high school girlfriend.  He would use the “oo” accent replacing “ou’s” just to give her a hard time.  Once we all came to Belmont, Max and Logan (Engineer), watched the Kroll Show weekly on Comedy Central, which had a Canadian skit that kind of rebirthed the use of “oo” within our friend group. Tribal kind of just came “aboot”…The Hoose we lived in (Max, Blake “Mr B” and Logan) was referred to as the Tribal Hoose before the band ever took on the name.  We were wondering what our band name would be, and it naturally just happened by using our residence name.

• How did you guys all meet?
  • Max and Logan both transferred to Belmont University in the fall of 2013, and they both met on the first day at a transfer gathering.  Logan also met Blake on the second day after moving to Nashville. Eventually, Logan introduced Max and Blake to each other and it all evolved from there.  The three of us played with many different musicians over time who introduced us to other musicians, such as SaxMax and Lucas “Luscious Loo.”  Blake had made friends with the new Dean of Belmont, Doug Howard, who introduced us to our drummer, Elliot Huff.  Belmont is a pretty tight knit community so it was not hard to become familiar with all of the players around. That led us to our current bass player, Thomas Altman. Special shout out to Ian Munsick, Ben “Slapjack” Czirjak, Drew “Trapgod” Lombana, and the 20+ others who have contributed to this band and movement over time (You know who you are).

• Who’s who in the band?
  • Blake “Mr B” Mankin – Rap
  • Max “Chill Brain” Hines – Guitar/ Back Ground Vox
  • Lucas “Luscious Loo” Macaluso – Keys
  • Thomas Altman – Bass
  • Max “Saxmax” Dvorin – Saxophone
  • Elliot “Jellyman, Peanutbutter Jelliot, Smelliot”…the list goes on!
  • Huff – Drums

• How would you describe your sound? 
  • It’s a blend of the many different musical tastes of each member. A funky, hip-hop, rock, double-kicking, groovy live band.

• What is something you guys are extremely proud of?
  • The musical growth over time, of course. We just released our first full band single in October, so that is a huge move to finally have music for the people to hear. Also, the many people who have been positively influenced and inspired by the music and life perspective carried by the Hoose.

•  What can we expect next from Mr. B & the Tribal Hoose?
  • An album release in the early part of 2017. As well as plenty of out of state shows showing America what the Hoose is all aboot! Then on to Europe.

Thanks guys, we’re excited to see what’s to come! Be sure to check out the band on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Soundcloud.