American alternative rock band The Revivalists started their journey in 2007 in New Orleans. The group has surpassed expectations with their raw musical talents, as they include not only great vocals by David Shaw, but also bring depth to their outfit by including a saxophone and trumpet as well. The 7-piece band consists of Ed Williams (pedal steel guitar, guitar), David Shaw (lead vocals), Zack Feinberg (guitar), Rob Ingraham (saxophone), George Gekas (bass guitar), Andrew Campanelli (drums, percussion), and Michael Girardot (keyboards, trumpet).

The Revivalists are getting ready to launch their spring tour, “Against All Odds,” at Jannus Live in St. Petersburg on April 11th. I had the opportunity to speak with guitarist Zack Feinberg to discuss the band, their music and their upcoming tour.

I wanted to know more about how the group met each other.   Zack states, “In 2007, most of us were in college at the time, I was a junior in college. And our lead singer, David Shaw, had just moved to New Orleans. And he was sitting on his front porch, playing guitar, and one day I was riding my bike and came upon him. He was singing and playing, and thought he sounded great and I started up a conversation, and we took it from there.”

The Revivalists have had a lot of success over the last few years which started with the release of their single, “Wish I Knew You,” which was the second single of their album, “Men Amongst Mountains.” In September 2016, “Wish I Knew You” reached No. 1 on the Adult Alternative Songs chart, and in May 2017, the song reached No. 1 on the Alternative Songs chart.   Zack told us, “It was the second single off the album, and it just kind of had this incredible build. And eventually all the radio stations started catching on, and it kind of built from there. So it’s been really nice.”

The Revivalists decided to launch their new Spring tour in the State of Florida starting at Jannus Live in St. Petersburg, before heading to House of Blues in Orlando, the Fillmore in Miami Beach, and then performing in Jacksonville at the Florida Theater.

I wanted to know what we should expect from their upcoming tour. Zack tells us, “It’s gonna be great shows. We’re bringing out a relatively new addition to our family. We have Pj Howard as a percussionist and second drummer, and it’s been a blast having him out with us. We’re gonna probably start playing some new material, we’re gonna add it in some of the shows. All of our shows are a really high-energy, fun spectacle, so I’m looking forward to getting back out there. Should be a great time as always.”

The Revivalists have a very unique sound which is influenced by many different musical influences and genres. I was curious to know some of Zack’s musical influences. He replies, “I love classic rock, like the Beatles and Bob Dylan. Great singer/songwriters like Bill Withers, Paul Simon, James Taylor. I like blues music. As a guitarist, I had a pretty heavy blues guitar sound. I had a kind of jam band phase as well. Plus some of the great modern bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Arctic Monkeys are great…more relatively new ones. And the Alabama Shakes. I have kind of a wide range of stuff that I’m into. But when I was a kid, there was the music of the day. There would be the grunge phase. I was pretty young, I was in first grade, but there was Nirvana, Green Day, and stuff like that. It definitely left an impression.”

The Revivalists have been performing at a lot of major festivals recently, so I wanted to know if he prefers to perform at festivals or their own show. He states, “They’re both great for different reasons. At festivals, you might get more people that are just discovering you, which is a lot of fun. And I like playing outside, and at festivals I know it can be really cool. Where as at a venue show, like a House of Blues show or something like that, it’s great because everywhere you sit I can see you, and you’re the entertainment of the evening. Generally you can play a longer set and that will mix it up a little more. People will see us multiple nights in a row sometimes, which is fun, so we’ll go a little deeper into the catalog. We usually have about four or five songs that we play just about every night, but every set list is different every night.”

Due to a large demand, The revivalists decided to reissue “The Sound of Song” on vinyl last year. Zack explains, “It was sold out for a while, so we just needed to remanufacture it. We sold out of the initial pressing, so we just finally got that in stock from being back-ordered. It’s interesting, since vinyl came back in, there’s been such a high demand for it and a lot of the manufacturers were closed down in the era of, CDs and digital.”

Zack did tell us that they are currently working on some new material, but as of this interview, there is no release date scheduled for the new album. So definitely be on the look out for some new material from the band in the near future. But until then, you can check out the release of The Revivalists official lyric video for their hit song, “Wish I Knew You.” The video was released the beginning of January.

Definitely make sure you go check out The Revivalists live at one of their four Florida shows, and you will be blown away from seeing them perform live.