Most children are required to memorize their ABCs by a certain age. For brothers Jesse and Cody McKiernan, their father made them memorize the 12-bar blues.
Growing up listening to blues and rock legends like The Doors, The Beatles and B.B. King, from a young age, the New York City-born brothers gravitated toward music as a creative and emotional outlet.
Jesse started the band Kota Dosa in 2019 as an extension of a London-founded music collective he was a part of under the same name. Since then, it has evolved with bands performing in New York and New Orleans before uniting forces to make the Big Easy its home base in 2024. The band is made of vocalists and guitarists Jesse and Cody, saxophonist Simon Rhett, trumpet player Ben Delgado, drummer Rob Florence, bassist Noah Rozzell and organist Banjo Bergfeld.
Deeply inspired by New Orleans musicians, the psychedelic blues and funk band features a blend of emotionally moving brass elements, soulful and sultry vocals, bass, jazzy drums and a church-style organ. Though both Jesse and Cody are in their twenties, their music has the soul of someone much older.
Kota Dosa’s 2024 album, “She Makes Me Uneasy” is a collection of songs written at different times in Jesse and Cody’s life. They open up about their experiences of heartbreak, break ups and falling in love. Recorded in one day with a live band, the album has an organic and gritty style that makes you feel like you’re slow dancing in a dimly lit, semi-sketchy speakeasy with moody red lighting. Jesse and Cody alternate lead vocals throughout the album, allowing each song to go on its own adventure. The band’s body of work shows an appreciation for music, the patience to let a song unfold and raw emotion.
“You [can have] two-to-three-minute songs that are poppy and catchy, and those are great. But we love to feel,” Jesse said. “This is how we feel. Through music. To have a song with different journeys inside of it is a great way to get across our vision and feel the music we’re making.”
Kota Dosa will be wrapping up its summer tour in July, with plans to release another album by 2026. The next project will be a double-sided album featuring a “light” and a “dark” side. The light side will be upbeat, sunny and blissful with gospel and barbershop music influences, embodying the artists’ search for nirvana. The dark side will echo Kota Dosa’s previous heavy and rugged blues sound. Like their sound, the next album will be a free-flowing dance between chaos and harmony.
“The goal is to allow this music that we are making to be reached by millions of people and bring real medicinal, therapeutic music back to the mainstream,” Cody said. “Mainstream music doesn’t have those medicinal qualities. It’s very geared to be a hit, as opposed to music that has real meaning, spiritual connections and is a calling from the ancestors.”
