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Matt Dauzat and Heather St Marie of Dauzat St Marie Interview with Michael Strong on Maximum Threshold Radio
Michael Strong (MS): Hey everybody, this is Michael Strong of Maximum Threshold Radio, and I am here at the show with Heather St Marie and Matt Dauzat from Dauzat St Marie. Welcome.
Heather St Marie (HStM): Hello.
Matt Dauzat (MD): Howdy.
MS: So you guys are out here on the tour with Sammy Hagar and—this guy is a personal favorite—Rick Springfield!
MD: OK, yeah!
MS: How long are you on for? The whole summer?
MD: For this run, yeah.
MS: That’s awesome. How did this tour with Rick Springfield and Sammy Hagar come about?
MD: It was basic, really. Dauzat St Marie played our third-ever show opening for Rick in Reno.
HStM: Yeah, back then.
MD: After the show, Rick is like: “Dude, I really like your sound, and I like how you hype up the crowd. If you ever want to play any of my shows again, let me know.” I’m like, “I want to play all your shows!” He’s like, “Okay, hop in.” So we’ve been jet-setting around with Rick, off and on, for about 11 years now.
MS: That long? 11 years?! I’m almost bummed I haven’t seen you guys, because I’ve seen Rick on basically every tour. Like last year with the 80s package, John Waite and Men At Work…
MD: Yeah. First, it was mostly his acoustic shows.
HStM: Yes.
MD: That led to a tour with Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo. Then a tour with REO Speedwagon.
HStM: Yeah.
MD: And now here we are with Sammy. So they needed an opener for this tour and they threw our name in the hat and we got it.
HStM: Yeah, there wasn’t room for us on that 80s package one, but they took good care of us on this.
MS: That is so cool. Now where can people find your music and buy your merch? You know, instead of taking it for free off the internet, how about people buy something to help the cause?
HStM: Right!
MD: The easiest is DSM.LIVE. That goes to all our socials, our store, our main site. You’ll find us.
MS: You mentioned earlier that you guys are originally from Louisiana. I am not hearing the accent!
HStM: I have a Cajun accent! I lost a lot of it in California.
MD: People tell me I have a country accent, like when we opened for Seal…
HStM: Yeah.
MD: During the Seal 30th anniversary tour, the bugles—Trevor Horn, the producer—brought me on to be the bugles bass player. Trevor was in YES, and he wrote “Video Killed The Radio Star.” So I played that set, then the YES set, then the Seal set opening for ourselves. So he always calls me the “country bugle.” You probably don’t hear it, because you’re American.
MS: Did you guys start as a duo back in Louisiana, and then move out to LA?
MD: We did.
HStM: Matt was in high school. I had just graduated and was moving up to North Louisiana, looking to meet new people. Someone said, “There’s this kid starting a band.” So I thought, that’s a way to meet people. We started singing together and we’ve been singing ever since. Started playing rock bands, touring a lot, and we started playing the clubs on the Sunset Strip.
MD: The Whisky A Go Go. Maybe every other month. Since we were playing live, it led to networking and I was picked up by Kelly Osbourne as a bass player.
HStM: Yeah, the Osbourne link is over 20 years. Dauzat St Marie officially started in 2014 opening for Rick.
MS: Now that’s a big question. What are your biggest musical influences? What are the influences that make Dauzat St Marie?
MD: Collectively?
HStM: Alice In Chains. Those tight harmonies, the dark sound. They were huge for us before we even had songs.
MD: We were just singing Alice In Chains songs in coffee shops back in Louisiana.
HStM: For me, my mom listened to Motown. But also Phil Collins and Queen—Phil Collins and Freddie Mercury are my idols for singing.
MD: I had older brothers, so I was listening to Boston—lots of harmonies, crafted songs. And also Van Halen and Black Sabbath.
MS: Wait, now I’ve got to know. Team Hagar or Team Roth Van Halen?
MD: Sammy is on this tour. So Team Hagar.
HStM: Definitely Team Sammy! He was a huge influence vocally on me. The dude can shred.
MS: Listening to your set, that’s what I felt—great songs. What was it, the second to last song, that brought the crowd to life. There was even a girl crying!
MD: Yes, that song is a big one. It hits people in the heart.
HStM: We partnered with the American Cancer Society on that song.
MD: It was also our first time playing to tracks, too. It makes the sound bigger and allows us to play venues this size.
MS: To do a tour like this, and you were the openers for Pat Benatar, REO… How do you approach opening such a short set like that?
MD: You just have to hit ’em in the nuts and go for it. We craft a perfect trajectory and build it up from the first song.
HStM: You try to center yourself. I try to pull in all the energy from the crowd to push it back to them.
MS: Thank you so much for talking to Max Threshold Radio. Everyone, check them out—buy their music, buy a t-shirt, support Dauzat St Marie.
HStM & MD: Thank you!
