ÆNIGMATUM: INFINITUDE’S PASSAGE 20 BUCK SPIN LP | CD | DL CD | DL Out Now (VINYL SEPTEMBER 4) Portland Tech-Death savants Ænigmatum release their third LP: Infinitude’s Passage. 42 minutes chock-full of adventurous riffing, time-changes and intricate experimentation framed upon a cohesive but broadminded Death Metal canvas. Sean Millard puts down his brushes, squints […]
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Back in February, Martin Ludlow, a former Los Angeles City Councilman, announced the inaugural edition of the LA Jazz Festival, a new music extravaganza that he’d founded. The festival was set to include a few weeks of performances in parks and nightclubs across Los Angeles, as well as a Caribbean street carnival in Venice and a two-day mini-fest called Jazz On The Beach that was set to feature artists like John Legend, Janelle Monaé, Raphael Saadiq, Charlie Wilson, and George Clinton’s Parliament Funkadelic. But just before the festival’s Aug. 7 kickoff show, which Lalah Hathaway was booked to headline, the entire festival was canceled under mysterious circumstances.
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Jesse Dayton, Ian Moore and Johnny Moeller have each spent decades establishing their own musical identities, but together as Texas Headhunters, the three guitarists have found a chemistry that offers something different from their individual careers.
“Three guys that love playing together,” Moeller says, offering perhaps the simplest description of the band.
Texas Headhunters bring together three musicians with deep Texas roots and distinctly different approaches to guitar, songwriting and vocals. While their music draws heavily from the sounds that shaped them, Dayton says the group isn’t interested in simply recreating the past.
“We’re not locked in the past, but it’s hard Texas influence,” Dayton says.
The idea for the group originated with Dayton, who found inspiration in the 1985 album Showdown!, featuring Albert Collins, Robert Cray and Johnny Copeland.
“I love this old record from the ’80s that had Albert Collins, Robert Cray and Johnny Copeland on it, and I thought that’d be cool to put together something like that with a couple of friends,” Dayton says.
Moeller remembers running into Dayton in Austin when the idea first came up.
“I ran into Jesse hanging around somewhere in Austin, probably at a club somewhere around town, and he was like, man, I got an idea. It’d be cool to get Ian and you and I together, and do something,” Moeller recalls.
Dayton also reached out to Moore, another longtime friend who was intrigued by the opportunity to be part of a true band environment.
“Jesse called me, and it’s his idea, and we’re all old friends,” Moore says. “I’ve been doing my thing for 35 years now. I was a sideman for a little while when I was a kid. But I’ve never really had a band. And so we got together and recorded, and it happened quick.”
That quick, instinctive approach became an important part of the Texas Headhunters formula. Rather than spending months rehearsing and dissecting material before recording, each member brings songs to the group and allows them to develop collectively.
“We all brought in, like, four or five songs apiece,” Dayton says. “And then we just recorded them all and picked the best ones. So that’s kind of what we did. And then we went and did this new record (Rise and Shine). It’s the same way we did it, the same way we just went, knocked it out like four days.”
Moeller says the process works because the three musicians already understand one another’s musical instincts.
“Easy. Like we all bring in songs and I mean literally both times we got together at Jesse’s place in Austin and went over, hey, I got this one, I got this one, I got that one, you know, and showed each other and then head to the studio the next day,” Moeller says. “We each kind of work on our own and we all know where each other’s coming from. So it’s great.”
Although the songs generally begin with one individual member, they don’t necessarily remain that way once the band starts working on them.
“So far we’ve mostly brought in our own songs, but then they grow in the studio quite a bit because we trust each other,” Moore says.
For a group containing three accomplished guitarists, Texas Headhunters could easily become an exercise in extended solos and technical showmanship. Instead, Dayton points to songwriting as one of the band’s greatest strengths.
“I mean, listen, we can all get up there and rip up guitars. We’ve been doing it since we were kids,” Dayton says. “But the thing I’m most proud of is the songwriting. Because if Ian brings in a song, nine times out of ten, me or Johnny will play lead on it. Or like I wrote, ‘Maggie Went Back to Mineola,’ and Ian plays all the lead on that song.”
That willingness to hand songs over to one another creates an interplay that carries over to the band’s live performances.
“We naturally will play off of each other, so Jesse will start something. I’ll respond. Johnny plays off of that,” Moore says.
The differences between the three players are equally important. Rather than approaching the guitar from the same perspective, each brings his own vocabulary to the band.
“It’s very blues for sure, but it’s very rock and roll,” Moeller says. “Ian’s a great soul singer, so we can dip into that world.”
“We three, we had really distinct sounds,” Dayton adds. “And, yeah, it just all came together so effortlessly.”
Moore agrees that those differences are what make the combination work.
“We do a different style. It’s cool because I’m different from Johnny, and Johnny’s different from Jesse,” Moore says. “We’re all part of a thing and we get it.”
Three prominent guitarists sharing the same stage inevitably raises questions about how everyone finds enough room to play. According to Dayton, audiences expecting an endless guitar battle may be surprised by the restraint involved.
“Everyone’s asked like, is there ego? ” Dayton says. “If you come to our show, you’ll be sadly, you know, shocked that it’s not guitarmageddon like you think. We’ve got the ancient art of weaving where we weave in and out of each other, and we don’t step on each other. And it’s just not just all guitar solos the whole time.”
That doesn’t mean competition is entirely absent. Instead, the three musicians use it to push each other creatively.
“It’s always pushing, and it’s great,” Moeller says. “I mean, because with both those guys, for me, I’ll hear things that they’re doing and get inspired and it’ll immediately spur something on. Then my solo is up on the next song or whatever. And I’m like, yeah, I’m going to kind of go there too. That was cool.”
Dayton describes the relationship as brotherly, with plenty of good-natured attempts to raise the bar when the opportunity presents itself.
“We all mess with each other and we, like sometimes on certain leads when we’re playing some of our instrumental songs, we definitely compete,” Dayton says. “I mean, we’re definitely trying to outdo each other, and we’re all coming from such a different place. It’s no way to be competitive, you know? Music’s not a sport but we’re trying to like say, hey, check this out.”
Ultimately, the appeal of Texas Headhunters appears to be much simpler than the logistics of putting three established guitarists together might suggest. It’s an opportunity for longtime friends to write songs, challenge each other and enjoy playing music together.
“And I gotta say, man, playing guitar with your friends might be the greatest thing ever,” Dayton says.
Texas Headhunters will release their sophomore album, Rise and Shine, on October 9.
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Upcoming Metal Releases: 8/9/26 – 8/15/26
–Colin Dempsey
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–Colin Dempsey
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–Colin Dempsey
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–Colin Dempsey
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