The Dirt Water Refuge Family Tree
Influenced by folk and roots rock, Johnny started his playing career as a acoustic one man show performing on boardwalks, in subways, bars, and coffeeshops from Maryland to Massachusetts. During this period, he opened up shows for such acts as Matt Nathanson, Teddy Geiger, Ryan Montbleau, the Pat McGee Band, and hundreds more. He also performed some shows backed by a crazy group of kids known as The Rejected Mexicans (aka: Mike Maven, Dave Coffin, and Jack Zimnavoda). Hundreds of songs were written, and one album called "Somewhere Better than Here", was released during this time. Songs such as "Tijuana City of Sin", "Baltimore Avenue", and the title track recieved some radio airplay on college stations as well as overseas.
During a very cold winter night in early 2004, Johnny Mazcko and the Rejected Mexicans took the stage at Sally O'Briens Pub in Somerville, MA. It was that night, where Johnny met future guitarist - Nirajan Tuladhar along with his roomate and future bass player Suren Smiting. Nirajan and Suren had come down to play a couple tunes (one was a very badass version of "Hard to Handle"). After the show, they swapped emails and later began jamming together.
Nirajan came to Boston from Kathmandu, Nepal where he had played lead guitar in a chart topping rock band called Flower Generation. His band toured all over the country and was one of the first English speaking rock bands to make it big there. Raised on a steady diet of Pearl Jam, Guns n Roses, Stone Temple Pilots and other grunge era bands, Flower Generation was a hard rockin' 5 piece band with lyrics that spoke of revolution, change, and just having a good time.
During the first acoustic "jam" sessions, Johnny and Nirajan discovered a shared love for Bob Dylan's music and began to re-work some old songs as well as write new ones. Songs such as "Born on a Train", "Boobie Blues", "Destiny", "Good Night", "Houseboat on Bourbon Street", and a few others were written during the early days. Eventually they played their first show opening up for Cassavettes (it was also their first show) and Freelance in the Ozarks at the All Asia Bar in Cambridge, MA. The show was a blast but something seemed to be missing ............ Maybe some dancing clowns perhaps? Or the entire Boston Symphony orchestra to back them up?? Or maybe a bassist and a drummer would do??
Soon after the show, they enlisted Suren Smiting to join the band and play bass with them. Suren Smiting was also from Nepal and had spent a lot of time in Johnny's hometown of Ocean City, MD. So they immediately hit it off. While in Ocean City, he played lead guitar and sang in a bar band called Wiggly Butts and the Hanging Doo-doos (the greatest band name ever!), as well as various other groups.
The drummer for the first incarnation of Dirt Water Refuge, was Nirajan's older brother - Srijan Tuladhar. He also played drums in another local band and was the final piece of the rock and roll puzzle.
The band quickly built up their repertoire with new songs until they had enough to play two full sets of music. Their first show as a full band took place at a bar on the MIT campus in Cambridge and was greeted by a packed house of friends and family. The show was a long and drunken one that didn't end until the bar shut down. Not long after this show, the Johnny Mazcko Band entered into the Emergenza Music Festival, where they performed to packed houses at such venues as The Middle East Upstairs, The Middle East Downstairs (on St Patty's Day), and fullfilled a personal goal of playing the Paradise Rock Club Backroom. One music reviewer who covered the event, wrote that the band "reminded him of such greats as Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan". The band also went on to play the final round at the Northeastern University Battle of the Bands during the same month.
After months of hard work spent promoting and practicing with the band, they were soon booked for a weekly residency at the Tir Na Nog Pub in Somerville. During that same summer, Johnny recorded and produced a new solo EP called "Absinth" and some lineup changes took place. A friend of the band named Labi Shrethra joined in on bass guitar and learned how to play all 25 songs in two nights! Without any prior experience playing in a band, Labi quickly became an integral part of the group and had an incredible knowledge of sounds, effects, mixing, and recording. Not long after Labi joined the band, did the search for a new drummer begin. The sunlight at the end of the tunnel came in August of 2006, when Berklee School of Music student - Dominic Adresso decided to join the band. Johnny, Nirajan, and Labi would spend many nights mesmorized at the sight and sound of Dominic's hard hitting/lightning fast drum solos. As the band grew tighter, they developed a sound that was hard edged yet still very rootsy. And so DIRT WATER REFUGE was born......... The name is a testament to the band's love for the city of Boston, the friends and bands that have shown their love and support, and everyone else that helped out along the way.
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