Speaker 1: Quest Loft Show is a production of iHeart Radio. All right,
Speaker 1: I promise you people that I haven't traded drumming in
Speaker 1: for base.
Speaker 2: But what a couinkydink. Here we are yet again on the.
Speaker 1: Quest Love Show, highlighting yet another ass kicking basis. Maybe
Speaker 1: I'm looking for collaborating. This is like the audition process,
Speaker 1: But this isn't any average run the meal influencer slash
Speaker 1: bass players we're talking to, you know, making trying to
Speaker 1: make ripples on the internet. Flee himself has declared our
Speaker 1: guest today air quote the greatest fucking electric bass player,
Speaker 1: and I'm inclined to agree. For my own band has
Speaker 1: covered his tunes from his his many records or his
Speaker 1: many viral videos that you've seen on social media because
Speaker 1: they are irresistible, ear candy and funky as hell. You know,
Speaker 1: the list is extensive. Of course, Prince knows what's up.
Speaker 1: Mac Miller knows what's up. David Staples, George Clinton, Cudan Archives,
Speaker 1: Georgie m Maldre, Pete Rock, Neo Nas, everyone knows the deal.
Speaker 1: His last project, that Dirt loves Me more than you,
Speaker 1: of course blew my mind and I was left with
Speaker 1: no choice. But to have our Court Left show QLs
Speaker 1: fam Brittany and cousin Jake get on the case so
Speaker 1: that I could chop it up with the one and
Speaker 1: only Mono Nia.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Cost Left Show.
Speaker 3: I appreciate it, Thank you, ah Man.
Speaker 1: So I will say that I got hip to you well, Ladish,
Speaker 1: I'll say that a place called fantasy where like I
Speaker 1: really jumped aboard, like oh shit, I was in a
Speaker 1: record store once. I think I was in La at
Speaker 1: a Memba and I heard all I ever wanted to
Speaker 1: do is be a mystery. And you know what I'll
Speaker 1: later discover about you is your method of songwriting, like
Speaker 1: your courses and your verses to me are mantras and affirmations,
Speaker 1: very much similar to like another native of your hometown
Speaker 1: of Memphis, mister Maurice White, the way that he used
Speaker 1: affirmations and mantras, essentially tricking their large fan base into positivity,
Speaker 1: which is always a good thing.
Speaker 2: And you know, for me, just always listening to the core.
Speaker 1: I think for that song you did, the you find
Speaker 1: that freedom inside yourself, and I think when I heard that,
Speaker 1: it stuck.
Speaker 2: With me in a way that I didn't plan it.
Speaker 1: And so you know, I've been a longtime fan of yours,
Speaker 1: so I'm glad this is finally our chance to chop
Speaker 1: it up.
Speaker 2: Thank you for doing this.
Speaker 1: I wantn't know what is your first musical memory in life?
Speaker 2: Your first musical memory.
Speaker 3: I think being around my dad. He played well he
Speaker 3: does still plays bass, but he gave me my first
Speaker 3: guitar and I just flipped it over left handed when
Speaker 3: I was four years old. So I remember that. I
Speaker 3: remember him taking me to the Mphics and may to
Speaker 3: be on stage with him with Rufus Thomas just playing
Speaker 3: their guitar. I remember that stuff. So those are my
Speaker 3: earliest memories. You know, as a four year.
Speaker 1: Old, so you didn't have a babysitter, but the stage
Speaker 1: was your babysitter.
Speaker 2: And that's how your parent Yeah pretty much. Yeah, same
Speaker 2: with me.
Speaker 1: I played air saxophone in many a nightclub with my
Speaker 1: family until you know, it was like all right, we'll
Speaker 1: just have to played tambourine. And so talk about your father,
Speaker 1: like what are his his roots as far as the
Speaker 1: musical infrastructure of Memphis.
Speaker 3: My dad was like a studio ace in Memphis. He
Speaker 3: always gets like the first calls he played with the Barcades.
Speaker 3: Later on, when James Alexander for a minute, he played
Speaker 3: with Pop Staples and Mayvis Staples the Memphis Horn stuff
Speaker 3: Ja Blackfoot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he pass on the other side of town.
Speaker 3: I didn't play on that record, but later on he played.
Speaker 3: You know, I did a lot of live shows with
Speaker 3: him and stuff.
Speaker 2: Gotcha.
Speaker 1: Okay, what did you learn from your father? The fundamentals
Speaker 1: at least?
Speaker 3: Well, actually, he really wasn't around when I was younger.
Speaker 3: He put the influence on me very early, and when
Speaker 3: I saw that, I just took it. But he really
Speaker 3: wasn't around, you know, because he he was a torn musician.
Speaker 3: He moved to Europe when I was pretty young, but
Speaker 3: he left such a huge big impact on me to
Speaker 3: the point where I didn't want to do anything else.
Speaker 3: I wanted to be like him. So and I'm still
Speaker 3: chasing that, you know.
Speaker 2: Yep. Okay.
Speaker 1: So I had James Alexander on the show recently and
Speaker 1: he gave me his version of Memphis. You were born
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety.
Speaker 3: August ninety, Yeah.
Speaker 1: So where there's a different version of Memphis. Can he
Speaker 1: describe to me, like your version of Memphis? Like, what
Speaker 1: are your fond memories what are your first memories or
Speaker 1: fluzzy memories of Memphis, Tennessee.
Speaker 3: Well, I've come from a very loving family from Memphis,
Speaker 3: and music was and still there's a big part of
Speaker 3: you know, my family, just coming to family gatherings and
Speaker 3: reunions and stuff, and just going to church for my
Speaker 3: grandma every Sunday, the Baptist church, and even the pastor
Speaker 3: will let me up on his stage to play air
Speaker 3: guitar for some Sundays just to I don't know why,
Speaker 3: but he would let me. His name was revend Ac
Speaker 3: through Liberty Baptist Church where I got baptized at, and
Speaker 3: he would just let me come in, probably with my
Speaker 3: guitar or just let me just do whatever. And that's
Speaker 3: that was a big influence on me as well. And
Speaker 3: that's my memory of Memphis, being around my grandma at
Speaker 3: church and stuff.
Speaker 1: So you were an air musician even before you talk
Speaker 1: about being a visionary, before you even got an instrument.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, even a tour guitar. I have actually
Speaker 3: old VHS tapes of me in my grandma's living room
Speaker 3: playing with this toy guitar and just you know, visualizing it.
Speaker 3: I can just see me just wanting this shit so
Speaker 3: bad as a kid when I look back at that.
Speaker 3: So I'm just still chasing that childlike fascination with music.
Speaker 3: I guess I don't know.
Speaker 2: I absolutely do that.
Speaker 1: I wanted to know, is there a subculture in Memphis
Speaker 1: that challenges the mainstream in other words, you know, like
Speaker 1: for the outside of you know, I consider myself a
Speaker 1: music expert, so of course I would say, all right, Memphis,
Speaker 1: all right, the Sun Records and the Blues and what
Speaker 1: we basically know about Memphis. But I can't discount that
Speaker 1: Memphis also gives us an occasional rebellious spirit that just
Speaker 1: goes their own direction.
Speaker 2: I mean, you could say this about Maurice White.
Speaker 1: You also say this about Larry Dotson of ur K's.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so for you, you.
Speaker 1: Seem to embody a rebellious spirit. Was this an intentional
Speaker 1: thing or did you just like sort of morph into this?
Speaker 3: Well, I guess it was kind of intentional, But I
Speaker 3: definitely morphed into it because I'm naturally bashful and shy.
Speaker 3: So this whole thing of morning now to be upfront
Speaker 3: doing my own thing, it's really tough, you know, it's
Speaker 3: really hard, But I have a little more courage now
Speaker 3: to do it, and I'm not really afraid because I've
Speaker 3: been trying to let go of everybody's expectations of what
Speaker 3: I should be doing. So I'm really having fun with that,
Speaker 3: like peeling off those layers of just letting go. And yeah,
Speaker 3: that's what I'm doing now. So I'm still trying to
Speaker 3: find myself. I guess for.
Speaker 1: You in your everyday life, are you this person that
Speaker 1: I'm seeing now?
Speaker 2: Or do you morph into your everyday self?
Speaker 3: I'm pretty much like this all the time. You know.
Speaker 3: I even sleep with my quotes song sometimes because I
Speaker 3: love them so much. But yeah, I'm pretty much like this.
Speaker 3: But around my grandma and my mama. You know, so
Speaker 3: you're not DT.
Speaker 2: I meant like, when do you turn into DT?
Speaker 3: Probably around my mama and my grandma, my cousins and them.
Speaker 2: You know, I got you.
Speaker 3: They called me DJ, so I'm like DJ around them.
Speaker 2: Oh my fault. Okay, now you cool. I've heard I've
Speaker 2: heard you. I'm in DJ.
Speaker 3: No, are you good? D? I like DT too, It's too.
Speaker 2: Is pivoting easy for you?
Speaker 3: I usually could. I always pivot back to my mom
Speaker 3: and my grandma because they keep me, They keep you grounded.
Speaker 3: You know, not even trying. They just that unspoken love
Speaker 3: they have for me and I have for them. I
Speaker 3: need it, so I carried it with me everywhere I go.
Speaker 1: Eye you've said that you were self taught at four.
Speaker 2: You're a left handed bass player.
Speaker 1: Are you a traditional right handed bass player that still
Speaker 1: plays left or like, are you ambidection with it?
Speaker 3: I'm right handed, predominantly right handed, but like I'm with
Speaker 3: my daddy. My daddy, Dwayne Thomas, gave me a guitar
Speaker 3: at four years old. I just flipped that thing over.
Speaker 2: No one corrected you at all.
Speaker 3: I mean, of course all the old heads and then
Speaker 3: you if you play the other way, you probably sound better.
Speaker 3: I heard that along with time ago, and I didn't
Speaker 3: even switch over because I knew what I wanted to do,
Speaker 3: not really, but I just felt it. I'd like, I
Speaker 3: just let me just keep doing what I'm doing.
Speaker 1: Do you readjust the strings? Like is your low e
Speaker 1: on the bottom now instead of the top or.
Speaker 3: Yeah, my low my low e is at the bottom.
Speaker 3: It's just it's just a right handed thing, and I
Speaker 3: just I just flip it over with without changing stuff.
Speaker 2: Okay for you, if he handed any bass or any guitar.
Speaker 2: Can you.
Speaker 1: Keep the virtuosil levels up, like if given a traditional bottom,
Speaker 1: me on top and playing the opposite way or is
Speaker 1: it a struggles a little bit.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't necessarily call it a struggle because I just
Speaker 3: try to try to adapt to anything I'm in. Any
Speaker 3: position I put myself in, or any situation I have
Speaker 3: to go to. I just try to adapt. So if
Speaker 3: somebody hands me like a precision base, it's going to
Speaker 3: make me want to tap into something like James James.
Speaker 3: But still try to play my own ship as well,
Speaker 3: because I'm always gonna sneak my things in there somewhere.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I try to. I try to be adaptable
Speaker 3: and let you tell me what to do at first.
Speaker 1: So yep, I'll say, the first ten years of your
Speaker 1: life between ninety and two thousand, who were you shetting to?
Speaker 3: Let's see. Of course, my dad he was the first one, okay,
Speaker 3: and I my mama used to tell me stories about him,
Speaker 3: and I just used to find anything he played on
Speaker 3: something like what he told me he played on Animal
Speaker 3: with Okay okay, yeah, and he was actually credited on
Speaker 3: that album Gotcha okay and Contagious. He told me, you
Speaker 3: played on that nice Okay, he played on two albums,
Speaker 3: but he was really playing with them live when James
Speaker 3: left for a minute. Yeah, my dad, James. Definitely Guys
Speaker 3: from Home Jackie Clark and Spanky and Anthony Crawford, Okay,
Speaker 3: Brandon Brown, who else? Yeah, guys from back Home and
Speaker 3: stuff like that. And later on I started really listening
Speaker 3: to Victor Wooden because I never heard nobody thumb like that,
Speaker 3: So it's like, I want to try to do that
Speaker 3: left hand and see if I can do that. It
Speaker 3: never worked, but I put it in there somewhere. And
Speaker 3: later on I really started listening to Anthony Jackson, very
Speaker 3: very heavy, you know.
Speaker 2: Very Philadelphia.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that's my dude. Man. I go back to
Speaker 3: listen to him all the time, just to learn something new. Gotcha,
Speaker 3: that's my favorite.
Speaker 2: Gotcha.
Speaker 1: What were the five albums that defined you for the
Speaker 1: first ten years of your life? And I don't even
Speaker 1: mean as a bass player whatever, Like just between ninety
Speaker 1: and two thousand and what were the five records that
Speaker 1: defined you?
Speaker 3: Let me see them bad with albums titled but let
Speaker 3: me see if I can figure it out? Definitely hot
Speaker 3: butter so Isaac Hayes. Yes, yeah, I'm gonna skip over
Speaker 3: some gears, but two Against Nature Steely Dan Got You. Okay,
Speaker 3: let's see what is.
Speaker 2: It about that album that gravitated you.
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, that pristine production and mixing. You know,
Speaker 3: of course that's gonna make anybody listen if it just
Speaker 3: sounds good. But I've always loved Donald Fagan and he's
Speaker 3: always been an influence on me in terms of, you know,
Speaker 3: how I want to write and the way I hear
Speaker 3: chorus and stuff. I'm not much of a keyboard player,
Speaker 3: but when I go to the keyboard for some reason,
Speaker 3: I think of how he sits down at it and
Speaker 3: just do whatever the hell he does. But Donald Fagan
Speaker 3: is really a big influence on me, and especially vocally,
Speaker 3: I don't sound like him at all, but it's some
Speaker 3: stuff in there that I kind of sound like him
Speaker 3: a little bit. But no, but yeah, Donald Fag and
Speaker 3: that album. So that's the reason I like to it
Speaker 3: Against Nature, that.
Speaker 1: Album Got You, okay, yeah, yeah, and the other three
Speaker 1: Mothership Connection Okay, probably George Clinton and.
Speaker 2: Them yeah okay, yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the album cover was pretty cool. That really influenced
Speaker 3: me a lot in terms of how I wanted to
Speaker 3: look when I saw that album cover Yeap Gotcha. At
Speaker 3: a very very early age, I used to stay at
Speaker 3: that album covered in my grandma's living room. I had
Speaker 3: the vinyl. I used to act like I was DJ
Speaker 3: wooded on the turntable in my grandma living room, just
Speaker 3: scratching it up and just playing around. So there was
Speaker 3: a big influence. What else, that's three my elementary school days.
Speaker 3: I have to say, voodoo D'Angelo.
Speaker 2: Damn that heard me When you said elementary.
Speaker 3: School, I mean it like that. I didn't know, but
Speaker 3: that damn ship was definitely you know, I didn't know
Speaker 3: what the hell was going on. I didn't know what
Speaker 3: I was listening to. But you know, guess what, we
Speaker 3: didn't know either. But it was one of those things, man,
Speaker 3: you just you couldn't stop listening to it and felt
Speaker 3: at home with that because you know, he came from
Speaker 3: the church too, you know. So yeah, it was just
Speaker 3: I ain't gonna get too much into that, but yes, yes, yeah,
Speaker 3: for real, I'm glad I'm saying that to you.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I appreciate it, and I know he would appreciate it,
Speaker 1: Like I definitely know that he's a hip to your work.
Speaker 3: Okay, that's too Yeah, what's the fifth? That was four?
Speaker 3: Find a fifth one. It's probably gonna be another steally
Speaker 3: damn album. I would say, the damn it, the royal
Speaker 3: scam Steally damn.
Speaker 4: Yeah, what's weird?
Speaker 1: You just say you're not a keyboard player yet you
Speaker 1: released a keyboard album or a synth album.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thats just me sitting around. That's when I first
Speaker 3: got that that muse. I just opened the box, I
Speaker 3: plugged it in. I just told myself, just do something
Speaker 3: with it, just put out something. And I just did,
Speaker 3: you know, just messed around with it because I was
Speaker 3: trying to tap.
Speaker 2: Into my that's creativity, that's.
Speaker 3: My whole thing. But I'm not really a deep type
Speaker 3: of person.
Speaker 2: I just you just do it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just do it because I just look at
Speaker 3: it as as breathing. I guess I've been doing this
Speaker 3: thing for so long. I just it's just part of me. Shit,
Speaker 3: I just won't this shit. I just want to be
Speaker 3: part of the music. I just want to be in it.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you, because I will say that probably
Speaker 1: be one issue that sort of handicaps My peer group
Speaker 1: is literally showing up like I tell them all the time, Like,
Speaker 1: we don't have to be prepared. Sometimes we won't be good,
Speaker 1: but let's just show up and take one step in
Speaker 1: front of the other, one step in front of the other.
Speaker 2: And look, I'm guilty of it a lot.
Speaker 1: I was that person that believed in no, it's not
Speaker 1: ready yet, perfectionism.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm the guy.
Speaker 1: I'm the guy that you know has been sitting on
Speaker 1: his album for eleven years now. But showing up, I
Speaker 1: believe is not only key in first, but it's really
Speaker 1: just the only rule. Like, so, I mean, have you
Speaker 1: always just been mis open to hey, where I plugging,
Speaker 1: let's go? Or like have you ever had trepidation or
Speaker 1: oh I'm not good enough for it? Have you ever
Speaker 1: been intimidated to be in a situation.
Speaker 3: That's what I'm working on working through now, is like
Speaker 3: feeling like I'm not good enough because I feel like
Speaker 3: that all the time. I wake up feeling like that.
Speaker 3: That's why I'm always so damn depressed. Probably, but yeah,
Speaker 3: that's what I'm working through.
Speaker 2: You know, just what is it that you want to
Speaker 2: master that?
Speaker 1: Like, what is the sign that you are satisfied with
Speaker 1: your skill level? Because I mean, dude, like you're leaving
Speaker 1: evidence all over the internet on why you are not
Speaker 1: to be messed with, Like, I.
Speaker 3: Don't look at it like that. I just, man, I
Speaker 3: just be doing shit. But I don't. I'm not where
Speaker 3: I really want to be in terms of how I
Speaker 3: actually hear myself, you know, not to be all profound
Speaker 3: and deep. But I'm not there yet, you know, So
Speaker 3: I'm not really I'm very hard on myself after every show,
Speaker 3: you know, I beat myself up. I try my best
Speaker 3: not to because it can be very draining, but I'm
Speaker 3: so used to beating myself up. I'm not trying to
Speaker 3: keep myself humble or nothing. But it's just I don't
Speaker 3: want to feel like I've arrived to nothing. I don't
Speaker 3: want to feel like, man, you're the baddest motherfucker in town. No,
Speaker 3: I don't want that. I just want to just be
Speaker 3: in the space of doing my thing and getting better
Speaker 3: and better.
Speaker 2: So is it hard for you to take compliments when.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm starting to say thank you now as opposed
Speaker 3: to say, man, whatever I tried, I still say I
Speaker 3: guess and I tried, and very you know, whatever I
Speaker 3: guess humble or whatever. I just I'm not deal with compliments.
Speaker 3: I just know I get it.
Speaker 1: Yeahs as a former student of Non deservingst University. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I will say that when you do arrive to that place.
Speaker 2: And the thing is is that even though I would
Speaker 2: say I'm more.
Speaker 1: Evolved now than I've ever been in the last like
Speaker 1: five to six years, I mean, you know, sometimes it's
Speaker 1: a struggle. I will say yesterday was probably on record
Speaker 1: one of the a very bad day, you know, because
Speaker 1: sometimes a dark commotion will come to light and you
Speaker 1: don't know how to handle it, and you know, but
Speaker 1: you're going to get to the place where you're satisfied and.
Speaker 2: That you own it.
Speaker 1: And you know, I love watching you get to the
Speaker 1: If this is not perfection for you, then I love
Speaker 1: watching you struggle to the destination. So keep on struggling.
Speaker 3: I'm struggling.
Speaker 2: The base really never.
Speaker 1: Gets the props that it deserves. Like why the bass
Speaker 1: as opposed to any other instrument.
Speaker 3: Well that's probably because my dad again, because you know
Speaker 3: I used to I used to see him thump a lot,
Speaker 3: and I didn't as a key. You don't know what's
Speaker 3: going on, but you're so intrigued, you're so fascinated by this,
Speaker 3: by your dad. By this guy is looking so cool.
Speaker 3: He got the ponytail, you got this purple base, which
Speaker 3: he actually gave me. I play, I play it with
Speaker 3: my grandma. Play that purple base with my grandma. And yeah,
Speaker 3: it was just because of him.
Speaker 2: Just because of your dad.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, you know seeing that I've heard you say
Speaker 1: a few times and this is this is what I
Speaker 1: really love about your creative ethos, your relationship to what
Speaker 1: I'll say, air quote mistakes keeps speak on why your
Speaker 1: theory of like mistakes are important ingredients for your creations,
Speaker 1: and that you don't believe in the idea of mistakes
Speaker 1: like everything is usable, Like as a chef, you will
Speaker 1: use everything.
Speaker 2: From the snout to the butt, like everything.
Speaker 1: What is your relationship with mistakes as far as your
Speaker 1: creativity is concerned.
Speaker 3: I just find so much value in just embracing the
Speaker 3: mistake as opposed to especially in musically just or just
Speaker 3: in life. Man, just just embracing it and just letting
Speaker 3: it be what it is and just letting it have
Speaker 3: its own story.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: It's like I just I don't know, I really don't
Speaker 3: think too deep about it. I just I just love
Speaker 3: making a mistake a thing and it's it's so much
Speaker 3: life into especially playing live and stuff. I make a
Speaker 3: lot of mistakes, but there's something about giving that mistake
Speaker 3: energy and it blossoms into something so I wouldn't even
Speaker 3: think of you know. So that's why I embrace, you know,
Speaker 3: mistaken The Prince.
Speaker 1: Ever tell you his theory. He's like, if you make
Speaker 1: a mistake, then make it again.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 3: So that way, he told me, man, just own it
Speaker 3: on it. We was rehearsing in an MPG music club
Speaker 3: room and back there and I did something that he
Speaker 3: probably felt that I wasn't confident with it. He told
Speaker 3: me own it and own it, and that stuck with
Speaker 3: me ever since then too. Man, just you got to
Speaker 3: own it. If you're not confident with your shit, they
Speaker 3: gonna feel it too. So that's why I kind of
Speaker 3: have this attitude behind my mistakes, like it's mine, nigga,
Speaker 3: So I'm just gonna keep doing it.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: Like in your high school, were you uh in an
Speaker 1: environment in which you had like musical bands? Did you
Speaker 1: join bands as a kid or what were your high
Speaker 1: school teen years?
Speaker 2: Like? As far as uh gigging or big bass playing
Speaker 2: is concerned.
Speaker 3: I wasn't banned. In high school, I used to stay
Speaker 3: in the band class, you know, I just and they
Speaker 3: had a base in there. I used to plug my
Speaker 3: base in the in the room and just play with
Speaker 3: the horn players and stuff. I play upright in high
Speaker 3: school and but I used to stay in the band class.
Speaker 3: But a lot of my foundation was the church during
Speaker 3: that time, playing in church with all the badass organ
Speaker 3: players and piano players. And that's where I really get
Speaker 3: a lot of my shit from looking at the organ
Speaker 3: player's foot or the left hand and how they move
Speaker 3: and stuff. So really the church is a big influence,
Speaker 3: you know, on me.
Speaker 2: So gotcha?
Speaker 1: Can you speak on the metamorphoses of Mono Neon's journey,
Speaker 1: like as in the character, like the journey from DJ
Speaker 1: to Mono Neon? Like, first of all, where where did
Speaker 1: the name come from?
Speaker 3: I just like Neon colors. I love like well. I
Speaker 3: used to call myself poly Neon, but other than my
Speaker 3: Grandma's in my bedroom, my grandma's house. For some reason,
Speaker 3: I just wanted to change it because I got bored
Speaker 3: or something, so I just started messing around with this.
Speaker 3: But I just like Neon installations like Dave Flavin and
Speaker 3: some and just light shit like James Terrell. I used
Speaker 3: to go on the Internet and just research stuff about
Speaker 3: neon lights and stuff, so it just came from that.
Speaker 3: And I love vant guard art like movements like god,
Speaker 3: I is okay, that's where all the embracing mistakes probably
Speaker 3: came from, and the rebelliousness and this anti art shit
Speaker 3: you know that I keep in my head. Just just
Speaker 3: wanted to just, I guess, be different, but not really.
Speaker 3: I don't care about being different, being different, but yeah, God,
Speaker 3: I really influenced me a lot with the whole manifesto bullshit.
Speaker 1: So yep, got you, gotcha as far as your fashion sins,
Speaker 1: did you study much as far as afrofuturism is concerned,
Speaker 1: or is this just your inner nine year old self
Speaker 1: that refuses to grow up and you're in a constant
Speaker 1: state of play.
Speaker 3: That both all those things problems, especially I don't want
Speaker 3: to grow up at all. I'm thirty five years old,
Speaker 3: but now you know, it's starting to catch up to
Speaker 3: me that I may have to grow up, but just
Speaker 3: a little bit here, you know, But now I don't
Speaker 3: want to grow up. Fuck that shit. Now be a
Speaker 3: child for the rest of my life. Yeah, that Mothership
Speaker 3: Connection the album that that whole thing really influenced me,
Speaker 3: I guess in Booty Collins and all that stuff. So
Speaker 3: I come through that, you know with the I don't
Speaker 3: worry the goggles because of that. But you know, I'm
Speaker 3: just being me, I guess, but that's that is an influence.
Speaker 2: You know. Gotcha?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Can you talk about your like when you started
Speaker 1: getting session work? Was Neo your first like major client
Speaker 1: or yep?
Speaker 3: Because I remember recording that when I was going to Berkeley.
Speaker 3: The trumpone player asked me to come over to this
Speaker 3: spot to record that, and I think it was named
Speaker 3: Derek White trumpone player. Yeah, yeah, I think he produced
Speaker 3: a co produced that song I played on. But yeah,
Speaker 3: but that was my first major pop song I played on.
Speaker 1: Was playing something so structured and discipline a hard thing
Speaker 1: to do as opposed to wanting to break out of
Speaker 1: your boundaries and.
Speaker 3: Not not during that time because I really was, and
Speaker 3: I guess so called tapped into doing my own thing.
Speaker 3: I mean, but yeah, I was just trying to make
Speaker 3: the do happy with whatever I was doing.
Speaker 2: You know. So if you're in a situation in which
Speaker 2: you're not the final say, and a performance or whatnot,
Speaker 2: you know, like you might hear you might go to
Speaker 2: a relative minor of a note that sounds cool in
Speaker 2: your ears, whereas they're just like, nah, I'm doing a
Speaker 2: pop song, like just play basic and straight. Like.
Speaker 1: Have you been in a situation where like discipline was
Speaker 1: required for a client and.
Speaker 2: What your your instincts were.
Speaker 1: Telling you to go You couldn't because you have to
Speaker 1: play something straight?
Speaker 3: No, I'm I'm I'm cool, you know, being produced and
Speaker 3: someone told me to keep it simple and keep it
Speaker 3: what it should be and just you know, play the record.
Speaker 3: I'm cool with that, you know. You know, I don't
Speaker 3: mind it. I just want to make if I'm hired
Speaker 3: to do a session or whatever, I just want to
Speaker 3: make whoever is producing happy. It's not really about me.
Speaker 3: If you want me to do whatever, mone on, neon, shit,
Speaker 3: I will go there if you want me to, But
Speaker 3: I just come in. Just tell me what to do,
Speaker 3: and I try my best to do it for you.
Speaker 1: Actually, I'll ask you the opposite, because I'll say that
Speaker 1: I'll roll my eyes more. I mean, occasionally I'll get
Speaker 1: a collaborator that will use this adjective all the time,
Speaker 1: in which they'd be like Hey, man, I want you
Speaker 1: guys to rutify it. And I'm like, if you guys
Speaker 1: really knew the roots, then for me, like I'm a
Speaker 1: stickler to the original version, so like if an artist
Speaker 1: comes on the Tonight Show, like for me, it's it's
Speaker 1: shape shifting into what the song originally was.
Speaker 2: And I had this one client that, like, you.
Speaker 1: Know, they were supposed to sit in with us and
Speaker 1: one of their massive trillion selling, trillion units selling hits.
Speaker 1: We did it to the letter and they were like, well,
Speaker 1: I want you guys to roots a fire and remix it.
Speaker 1: And I'm trying to be like, yo, like when we
Speaker 1: go out there to do it for America and do
Speaker 1: it for Jimmy, like they're expecting, you know, the version
Speaker 1: that they grew up with, and they're gonna look at
Speaker 1: us like why are you guys trying to hip a
Speaker 1: fire for me?
Speaker 4: Though?
Speaker 2: That's the challenge.
Speaker 1: So do you sometimes run into a client that wants
Speaker 1: you that'll make a reference to like one.
Speaker 2: Of your Cardi b videos or anything like that, like, yeah,
Speaker 2: to look it up like you did that.
Speaker 3: That has happened before, And I kind of get annoyed,
Speaker 3: but okay, Yeah, but if you want me to be
Speaker 3: all quirky and stuff. I can give that to you,
Speaker 3: but sometimes it's not gonna work, you know. But whatever
Speaker 3: you want, you're paying it, So I do whatever, right, Okay.
Speaker 2: So you believe in giving the song what it needs, and.
Speaker 3: That's always important to me. You know. I don't come
Speaker 3: in with the ego. You know. I can be arrogant
Speaker 3: if you want me to, but I don't come in,
Speaker 3: you know, with it.
Speaker 1: Keep talking about your work with Georgia and Mandre. How
Speaker 1: did you two connect?
Speaker 3: The first thing I played on was I think it's
Speaker 3: called Miss One. I did that with a Danish producer,
Speaker 3: Chris one two. Okay, but yeah, the first thing I
Speaker 3: played on was miss One and like I think two
Speaker 3: years ago was the first time I met her in person,
Speaker 3: and yeah, I love her man she cool he yep.
Speaker 2: So okay.
Speaker 1: So yeah, you are in the age of where you
Speaker 1: guys can just collaborate by sending each other files and.
Speaker 2: Is that so?
Speaker 1: Is it jarring for you to come and create in person?
Speaker 1: Like for me, I like to create in person with
Speaker 1: the client. But I do know that there's a whole
Speaker 1: other generation that's just like, hey, you know, I'll see the.
Speaker 2: Files, put some stink on it, send back.
Speaker 1: To me, and then maybe five months later I'll be shocking.
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh this is the song I play.
Speaker 1: So for you, Like you can have absolute chemistry with
Speaker 1: someone without ever having met them.
Speaker 3: Yep, You've been like that for me for a long time.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: Do you prefer that way?
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm used to it. I don't mind it,
Speaker 3: but you know, now I like to be in the
Speaker 3: room with people, man, because it's just a different thing
Speaker 3: you bounce off people with, you know, when you're in
Speaker 3: the room, you know.
Speaker 2: So gotcha? Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1: So you know Eddie Murphy is a major, major, major
Speaker 1: fan of your work.
Speaker 2: Has he ever reached out to you?
Speaker 3: Not personally?
Speaker 1: No, for someone that doesn't have a social media account,
Speaker 1: I'll say that. You know, he's extremely well equipped with
Speaker 1: like the idea of sharing viral videos and all those things.
Speaker 1: So you know, for him, a typical week, you're going
Speaker 1: to get like five to ten YouTube or take time
Speaker 1: or Instagram clips that he thinks it's hilarious or whatever.
Speaker 1: And you know, he went through a Mono Neon phase
Speaker 1: where it's almost like I was like, damn, like I
Speaker 1: bet you Mono neon has no clue that this guy
Speaker 1: sits and watches like hours and hours of his videos.
Speaker 3: Nope.
Speaker 1: How long does it typically take for you to once
Speaker 1: you decide that you're going to take a video and
Speaker 1: then find the harmonics? Like do you have this ability
Speaker 1: to even as I speak now, like to figure out
Speaker 1: like what key I'm talking in and where melodically my
Speaker 1: voice is going and and all those things.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I would have to. I would have to
Speaker 3: record it. I don't hear right now. I would have to,
Speaker 3: you know, psychic and to actually because there's actual notes
Speaker 3: in talking, but when you repeat it, you can hear
Speaker 3: the note, you can hear the con tour, you can
Speaker 3: hear a groove in it if based on your sensibility.
Speaker 3: So that's that's what I be, you know.
Speaker 1: So I figured Party is a good subject for you
Speaker 1: to do this with because her voice is so melodic.
Speaker 1: Of the viral videos that you've done of people talking
Speaker 1: and you providing the musical backdrop of it, which one
Speaker 1: was the most challenging.
Speaker 3: Man probably a Cardi B one those early ones, because
Speaker 3: that's when I really kind of started developing it and
Speaker 3: making a song out of it, you know, making the
Speaker 3: track out of it because I used when I first started,
Speaker 3: I was just just mimicking, just finding the notes of
Speaker 3: a person's speech. But now I'm actually making songs, actual
Speaker 3: grooves and tracks something you can dance to from it.
Speaker 3: So I think the early Cardi B once was kind
Speaker 3: of hard for me.
Speaker 1: Do you have to sometimes adjust it rhythmically so that
Speaker 1: it makes more sense?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 3: Probably yeah, for me to make mofa okay yep, yep, yeah,
Speaker 3: especially within the song structure. I wanted, you know, I
Speaker 3: want to have a groove to it, So yeah, I
Speaker 3: do structure a little bit different once to get to
Speaker 3: that part.
Speaker 1: Once those videos are made, do those grooves just lie
Speaker 1: exclusively there or will you sometimes return to it because,
Speaker 1: as you know, our listeners might not know.
Speaker 2: I don't know why we played.
Speaker 1: I think it's when Cardi B hosted the Tonight Show.
Speaker 1: We decided to do. They should have never gave some
Speaker 1: goddamn money. And the track alone, man was just like
Speaker 1: I remember once, I made a forty five minute loop
Speaker 1: to that song, just so I can walk like I'll
Speaker 1: do my morning walks and you know, from my apartment
Speaker 1: to work. When I tell you, I meant my walk
Speaker 1: change listening.
Speaker 2: To you playing that.
Speaker 1: Hell yeah, so it's like once those like you just
Speaker 1: move on to the next You never turn around to that.
Speaker 3: Sometimes I do, okay. Sometimes I go back and actually
Speaker 3: use it for one of my original songs. I put
Speaker 3: my old legs to it sometimes I yeah, okay.
Speaker 1: Have any of your subjects reached out to you once
Speaker 1: they've seen the video? Like has Cardio ever? Is she
Speaker 1: aware of these at all? Has she reached out?
Speaker 3: I think she'd sent it. I think Pete Rock reposted
Speaker 3: it one time a couple of years ago, and I
Speaker 3: think she come in it or something. I may be wrong,
Speaker 3: but got yah. I think a few people have seen it.
Speaker 3: I know Tiffany had it when I did something she
Speaker 3: did on the Breakfast Club about the man something I
Speaker 3: don't know. I re harmed that and she reposted it.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, I think some people be seeing it, but
Speaker 3: I don't care. Shit, I just be doing it for myself.
Speaker 2: Yep, got you ye? What are your upright base playing chops?
Speaker 1: Like, like, are you proficient in traditional upright bass playing?
Speaker 3: My peevocados? Shit is okay? You know, I need to
Speaker 3: work on my art, my bowling, but if you want
Speaker 3: me to play upright. You know, I'm not afraid to
Speaker 3: go nowhere. I play upright, you know, for a whole
Speaker 3: show if you want me to.
Speaker 2: Got you all right?
Speaker 1: So you're a Memphis native and you know blues and
Speaker 1: Memphis are synonymous with each other. How proficient are you
Speaker 1: as far as like the blues history of Memphis and
Speaker 1: are there any notable bass players of that genre that
Speaker 1: you feel are unsung or you know, not talked about.
Speaker 3: I would have to save my dad again, Dwayne Thomas,
Speaker 3: you know, so I always have to go back, because man,
Speaker 3: people need to know about his contribution, you know, and
Speaker 3: not to put.
Speaker 2: When they do Holy Ghosts? Does he did? He make
Speaker 2: James proud doing Holy Ghost?
Speaker 3: I got I got this cassette tape my dad played
Speaker 3: on with the Barcaes. This on YouTube. I uploaded the
Speaker 3: whole thing. I think I did what's on Facebook a
Speaker 3: summer huh? And yeah, he yes, he was that dude.
Speaker 3: Just to let you know I got you. Yeah he
Speaker 3: still is.
Speaker 1: James is so hilarious because, I mean, because of the
Speaker 1: history of that song. Holy Ghost was made in nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy three and just sat in the vault like it
Speaker 1: was nothing, and you know some five years later in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight, they just made a quickie throw away
Speaker 1: album and I'm like, how.
Speaker 2: Could you throw away a song like this and just
Speaker 2: let it sit there? I don't like.
Speaker 1: Holy Ghost is my all time favorite Barca song. And
Speaker 1: I would imagine as a bass player like for you, like,
Speaker 1: what what are your memories of like watching them play?
Speaker 1: And there were a few times when Larry would call
Speaker 1: you on stage to play with him.
Speaker 3: Correct now that was rufous my dad to play rufus.
Speaker 3: But yeah, my mom used to pick me up from
Speaker 3: school elementary school to take me to go see the
Speaker 3: Barcades live. That's when my James was playing with him then.
Speaker 3: But Barcades is such a big influence on me and
Speaker 3: Larry Dockton. That's why I probably kind of flamboying with
Speaker 3: my whole style as well, because of seeing Larry with
Speaker 3: the snake and stuff and the blonde hair. I was
Speaker 3: just with him for his birthday. I hung out with
Speaker 3: him and stuff were real. Hell yeah big. I remember
Speaker 3: the yellow and white one he used to have around
Speaker 3: his neck, and.
Speaker 2: I could have sworn that was not real.
Speaker 3: That's a real snake.
Speaker 1: It's not have you ever asked him if the snake
Speaker 1: on the cover of the Cold Blooded album was his?
Speaker 3: Like, No, I didn't ask him. That was that a rattlesnake? Yes,
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I got you.
Speaker 1: Okay, So for my my gear heads, what did you
Speaker 1: start off with and what do you continue to use
Speaker 1: to this day as far as your gear is concerned.
Speaker 3: First of all, it was a guitar. My daddy gave
Speaker 3: me a guitar, but I played it like a bass
Speaker 3: because that's all I knew was the thumping. I just
Speaker 3: used to thump. It was a guitar. Then eventually, you know,
Speaker 3: I actually had an actual bass, but I think it
Speaker 3: was an ab and as sound gear had a transparent
Speaker 3: orange finish. Yeah, it was an old Abinaz bass.
Speaker 2: And you mentioned you went to Berkeley. I don't know why.
Speaker 1: Every time I meet a Berkeley musician, I'm just like
Speaker 1: that experience would have been a nightmare for me.
Speaker 2: What was your Berkeley experience?
Speaker 3: Like it was terrible? Now, I was all right, I
Speaker 3: don't like going to school, first of all, but I'm
Speaker 3: glad I went because I met some cool people. But
Speaker 3: I hardly went to class though.
Speaker 2: Ye, what was your years there?
Speaker 3: Two thousand and eight to twenty ten. So I was
Speaker 3: there two years and I went back home.
Speaker 1: How do you decide who your tribe is or who
Speaker 1: your circle is?
Speaker 3: Actually? For me, it was that experience was eye opening.
Speaker 3: I just looked at that thing totally different because I
Speaker 3: was it was my first time being around so many
Speaker 3: musicians that were good, and they were I guess better
Speaker 3: than me. So I wasn't even trying to outplay nobody.
Speaker 3: I wasn't trying to be better. It opened me up
Speaker 3: to saying, Okay, there's a lot of good musicians out here,
Speaker 3: so you have to do something way totally different. So
Speaker 3: that's why I started tapping into wearing the neon colors,
Speaker 3: becoming a PERSONA really tapping into that because I just
Speaker 3: didn't want to just be a musician, you know, I
Speaker 3: wanted to be something else. So being at Berkeley was
Speaker 3: really an eye opening thing beyond music.
Speaker 1: I guess as far as your actual fully fleshed out
Speaker 1: mono neon character, when did when did you make your
Speaker 1: debut as far as soccer on bass, duct tape hats, goggles, like,
Speaker 1: when did this person come to like like I.
Speaker 3: I have to sock on my basis at Berkeley. I
Speaker 3: think I gotta look back and.
Speaker 4: What was the.
Speaker 2: Logistics of that this is just to be different or like?
Speaker 2: Was it?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 3: It was just I was just reading a lot about
Speaker 3: ready made art by Marcel Duchamp, that where he just, yeah,
Speaker 3: just ready may art where he takes this ordinary object
Speaker 3: and he may write some sort of pseudonym on it,
Speaker 3: or he may reposition it. And for some reason, I
Speaker 3: just I just wanted to do that with my bass.
Speaker 3: I like, okay, I since I want to be this
Speaker 3: just persona, I need to tap into something that's beyond music.
Speaker 3: Let me read something about visual arts, let me get
Speaker 3: into sculptures, let me be influenced by something else, because
Speaker 3: I can't continuously just be influenced by music, because it's
Speaker 3: gonna get boring for me. I want to be influenced
Speaker 3: by something else. So that's why I started reading about
Speaker 3: dot I and turning my bass into a ready made
Speaker 3: thing in my world, I guess.
Speaker 1: But so it like that what percentage of your live
Speaker 1: show is improvised and what percentage of it is actual?
Speaker 1: Like prepared set list A to Z execution.
Speaker 3: I have a set list. Usually I will say eighty
Speaker 3: percent of my show is improv. I have to have
Speaker 3: my my improv in there. But some of it is
Speaker 3: a structured I really don't rehearse a lot, so sometimes
Speaker 3: we get on stage and just wing it because we
Speaker 3: all know the song. So you know, there's a lot
Speaker 3: of mistakes in there. So it opens up a new
Speaker 3: world for me. But there's a lot of improv in there,
Speaker 3: but it is structured a little bit.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So of the dozen plus albums that you've released, I'll say,
Speaker 1: for me, Jelly Belly, Dirty Somebody is one of a well,
Speaker 1: you know what, surfing my brain, there was a there
Speaker 1: was a there was a point. There was a point
Speaker 1: where I think I wanted to remake that join for
Speaker 1: us because I'm the groove is you know, otherworldly, but
Speaker 1: for you, like, what is what's the album project that's
Speaker 1: the dearest to your heart?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, Crust the Neon Missionary Baptist Church. With my grandma.
Speaker 3: I've been writing songs with her.
Speaker 2: She's the number one collaborated Like.
Speaker 3: That's my my lady.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: I can talk about her all day. I'm just that's
Speaker 3: all like being away from Homer, because I'd be wanting
Speaker 3: to just sit with and watch watch Prices, right, but yeah,
Speaker 3: that's my girl, man, and these times with her are
Speaker 3: very special to me.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I try not to read into it too much, but
Speaker 3: it's such a feeling sitting next to her and with
Speaker 3: my bass, my dad's purple bass, and she's singing old
Speaker 3: hymns she used to sing in the Baptist church. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's just it's just one of those things, man, where
Speaker 3: I'm just happy that I have this time with her
Speaker 3: and actually writing original music for her to sing, and
Speaker 3: she actually loves it, you know. So I'm finding I'm
Speaker 3: finding her humping her ship.
Speaker 2: Brother.
Speaker 3: So it's just it means a lot to me.
Speaker 2: Yep. Yeah, I was gonna say I wasn't prepared.
Speaker 1: When you put out Crusty Neon Missionary and you open would.
Speaker 2: Take me to the water, I was like, oh damn.
Speaker 1: Like instantly I'm second grade at first Pentecostal, like at
Speaker 1: my at my grandmom's shirts, like I instantly started missing
Speaker 1: my grandmom.
Speaker 3: So that's my girl, man, such a one.
Speaker 2: I appreciate and love the way that you.
Speaker 1: I guess we could say documented recipes for us to
Speaker 1: stick to. I want to speak of your collaborations. So
Speaker 1: first of all, what's your decision process when it comes
Speaker 1: to like the many collaborative projects that you've done, like
Speaker 1: I know you've done Chris On Too before, or the
Speaker 1: Screaming Headless towrds those project, or even with Crass from
Speaker 1: Soul Life and drummer Joe Russo like Matt, or even
Speaker 1: with Corey Henry, or like when you do a project
Speaker 1: with people who are traditionally not like the musicians that
Speaker 1: you are accustomed to playing with, Like how do you
Speaker 1: decide like who the alpha is or who man's the
Speaker 1: ship or who lays the anchor, or like what the
Speaker 1: roles are? How do you collaborate with other people.
Speaker 3: I don't come in with no ego. You know, I
Speaker 3: listen more than I talk. Well, I don't talk much anyway,
Speaker 3: but I make sure I read the room the best
Speaker 3: way I can. And uh yeah, I just I don't
Speaker 3: decide who who is in control of the room. I
Speaker 3: just I just let it happen, and it's usually the
Speaker 3: other person because I'm not trying to control nothing. I
Speaker 3: just want to especially being a bass player and I'm
Speaker 3: hired to play in the band. I'm not trying to
Speaker 3: step out front. If you want me too, I will,
Speaker 3: but I'm just trying to just be there and play
Speaker 3: the best I can and make the person happy whoever
Speaker 3: hired me. So you can be the for all you
Speaker 3: walk to Just go ahead.
Speaker 1: Yep, yeah, But I mean as a creative I'm almost
Speaker 1: certain that you two have ideas and directions you want
Speaker 1: to go. Oh yeah, So is it easy for you
Speaker 1: to communicate to other musicians exactly what it is that
Speaker 1: you want?
Speaker 3: Nope, I just tell him, try again, Let's do some
Speaker 3: IW that's usually my thing.
Speaker 2: Yes, try something else.
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's try something.
Speaker 2: I got you you hold.
Speaker 1: I guess what I dub an unfortunate honorable title, which
Speaker 1: is I believe that you were the last musician that
Speaker 1: our dear brother Prince Roger Nelson hired before is passing
Speaker 1: in twenty sixteen, ten years ago. First of all, how
Speaker 1: did you guys come across each other? And how did
Speaker 1: he reach out to you or you him? Tell me
Speaker 1: this story.
Speaker 3: It was an email, you know, he wasn't a phone call.
Speaker 3: One of if it's manager, I think it was Phaedra
Speaker 3: somebody THEO or whatever. But they emailed me and they said,
Speaker 3: Prince wants you to come to Paisley Park to jam
Speaker 3: and That was late twenty fourteen actually, and I think
Speaker 3: the next day or two days later I went up
Speaker 3: there and Judas Hill was there, Dominique Tapling, Taylorn Lockett
Speaker 3: and we end up jamming with Judith that night. Then
Speaker 3: the next day we flew home. Then I guess that
Speaker 3: was my audition for Judas and Prince and I started
Speaker 3: working at Paisley Park early twenty fifteen.
Speaker 2: And what did he play? If you were on base?
Speaker 3: He wasn't playing. He was there though, because he would
Speaker 3: call Judith to tell the band to do something. So
Speaker 3: he was there.
Speaker 2: He heard hear the rehearsals. But was it in the midia?
Speaker 3: Yeah he was. No, he wasn't in the room, but
Speaker 3: he would call Judith to tell me or Dominique or
Speaker 3: Teyrn to you know, play something different or whatever. But yeah,
Speaker 3: so I didn't meet him the first time I went,
Speaker 3: but he was there. But when I came back he
Speaker 3: started coming around.
Speaker 1: Was it dark in there? And were those eyes staring
Speaker 1: at you from those paintings? I swear to this day
Speaker 1: that every time I passed those murals on his wall.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: It's almost like the Three Stooges as an episode when
Speaker 1: the eyes are like looking at you.
Speaker 2: What was it like walking through there? Man?
Speaker 3: There's so many words I can use to describe that experience.
Speaker 3: It was.
Speaker 2: Okay, So wait, here's the thing I don't know.
Speaker 1: Prince came into my life when I was eight, and
Speaker 1: what's weird is that you came on this earth a
Speaker 1: year after. Okay, so look, I'm I'm part of the
Speaker 1: and this is where Prince orgers get angry at me.
Speaker 1: But you know, most people when they have a magic streak,
Speaker 1: most artists have a magic and I know I sound
Speaker 1: like a critic right now, but just as someone that's
Speaker 1: observed music, most artists, if they're lucky, get a four
Speaker 1: year streak in which they shit gold. And Prince is
Speaker 1: actually a figure much like Miles Davis that was, in
Speaker 1: my opinion given in eleven to sort of twelve year
Speaker 1: period of which every SHOT's going in no matter where
Speaker 1: he shoots it from, every idea is just like changing
Speaker 1: your life and whatnot. So you came on Earth when
Speaker 1: Prince was already a legend. Yeah, And I grew up
Speaker 1: when Prince was a nobody and then six years later
Speaker 1: became a legend. So he was like he was everyone's
Speaker 1: secret niche artist and then became big with this. But
Speaker 1: for you, like, were you a student of his music?
Speaker 1: Did you know much about him besides hey, I know
Speaker 1: a genius lives in Minneapolis, or like, what did you
Speaker 1: know of his work?
Speaker 3: I mean, A, of course I knew A knew Prince.
Speaker 3: You know, I knew him. You know, I've seen on TV,
Speaker 3: I've heard his music. You know, his music was everywhere.
Speaker 3: But I didn't really listen to him like that as
Speaker 3: a kid, you know, I really as yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: you know, I really, but I knew it's it's just stuff.
Speaker 3: I knew the grooves, but he wasn't. He wasn't that
Speaker 3: for me. But once I started being around him and started,
Speaker 3: you know, having to learn songs and rehearse with him
Speaker 3: and play with him, that's when I started going back
Speaker 3: and listening to his stuff and started to really be
Speaker 3: influenced by that and started incorporating that. Not even intentionally,
Speaker 3: it just happened that, you know, because I was around him,
Speaker 3: and He's like, man, I want I saw so much
Speaker 3: of what I wanted to be in him. Once I
Speaker 3: started being around him, I was like, man, I really,
Speaker 3: whatever he's on, I want to I want to vibrate
Speaker 3: like that. That is pretty cool man. So it was
Speaker 3: that type of thing for me.
Speaker 2: Once in a.
Speaker 1: Blue moon, he would like, there's there's songs that haven't
Speaker 1: been released by him that I feel like are so
Speaker 1: the foundation of what the ground that you're standing on
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you ever heard his song movie Star.
Speaker 3: Man, that's my fabe. That's ye man, that quiet, that
Speaker 3: quiet fun whatever you want to call it. Man, it's
Speaker 3: such a that's my goal to I don't know why,
Speaker 3: but isn't that thing I want that? I want it?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Movie Star also to a lesser state.
Speaker 1: I'll say, probably the craziest song he's done is if
Speaker 1: you ever heard There's Others here with Us?
Speaker 2: Yep?
Speaker 3: It's yep, yep.
Speaker 1: He talked about him as a bass player, because I
Speaker 1: think of all of his mastery, and this is with lyrics,
Speaker 1: as a businessman, as a director, as a singer, as
Speaker 1: a harmonizer, as an engineer, I feel like the one
Speaker 1: attribute that he never gets enough phrase for, you know,
Speaker 1: is his bass play. Like it was a struggle just
Speaker 1: to get people to notice his guitar, Like people really
Speaker 1: didn't start noticing he was a guitar master until my
Speaker 1: guitar gently weeps moment and I'm like, dude, have you
Speaker 1: not seen or any of the clips?
Speaker 2: But he just talked about him as a bassist.
Speaker 3: Well, unfortunately he didn't play bass around me. I wish
Speaker 3: he did, but you know, the shit that he did
Speaker 3: play on, he just had this uninhibited type of rebellious
Speaker 3: whatever you want to call it, type of funk man
Speaker 3: that can't really be duplicated by anybody. You can learn
Speaker 3: from it, you can be influenced by it, but he
Speaker 3: had his own thing that was so uncanny. I don't know, man,
Speaker 3: he just had this weird type of funk that I
Speaker 3: just love and that I just gravitate towards and that
Speaker 3: I just learned from just just listening to it, and
Speaker 3: I've kind of found my own thing with it. Not
Speaker 3: I don't. I never try to be like him, but
Speaker 3: when I when I listened to him play, it's like
Speaker 3: I want a piece of it, and I just try
Speaker 3: to make it part of me, especially now, you know.
Speaker 3: So that's what I get from his bass plan. It's
Speaker 3: just that that rebellious type of funk, like he ain't
Speaker 3: trying to be like nobody else, but himself, you know.
Speaker 3: But you can hear the influences. You can hear Larry
Speaker 3: and Sonny, but he's still Yeah.
Speaker 1: There's a drop he does that's like a trademark of his,
Speaker 1: or on the one.
Speaker 2: Like he does a lot on Let's Work.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yep, yep, yep.
Speaker 2: Like did he make you do that a lot?
Speaker 3: In his Yeah, he would make me, would not necessarily
Speaker 3: make me, but he would tell me to play a
Speaker 3: certain way. He would tell me to There's a song
Speaker 3: called Stare. I didn't play on the song, but you
Speaker 3: used to play that a lot with him. There's a
Speaker 3: song called Stare, and I used to put a lot
Speaker 3: of you know how bass player. I put a lot
Speaker 3: of ghosts in it just to keep time. But he
Speaker 3: would tell me to remove it and just keep it clean.
Speaker 3: And I've kind of learned that from him, you know,
Speaker 3: within that song. So he would tell me certain things
Speaker 3: to do.
Speaker 2: You didn't want you to play ghost notes, not for.
Speaker 3: That song, not that well, he would he would let
Speaker 3: me do my thing, but if you want something particular,
Speaker 3: he would tell me, you know.
Speaker 1: Okay, only because brown Mark would be the opposite. He
Speaker 1: would say, principal wanting to play ghost notes and.
Speaker 2: Rumble more than the actual notes, and okaye, he.
Speaker 3: Likes that stuff too, but for that particular song, I
Speaker 3: would just remember him telling me, don't add the whatever.
Speaker 2: Yep, okay.
Speaker 1: The single you have that now, bottom Feeder with your
Speaker 1: Grandmam and George Clinton, which is such a full circle.
Speaker 2: Woman.
Speaker 1: You've worked with George a few times before. How did
Speaker 1: you guys meet up?
Speaker 3: The first time I played with THEO was at a
Speaker 3: festival music festival. I sat in with them. But I
Speaker 3: eventually started working with him on a song called Quilted,
Speaker 3: Me and my friend David Nathan. This is his studio now,
Speaker 3: all these keyboards, David Nathan. But yeah, the first song
Speaker 3: I actually deal with him was Quilted, And yeah, that's
Speaker 3: when we first started collaborating together on the song. But
Speaker 3: we went down to Telly Hassee and recorded his vocals
Speaker 3: and stuff like that. So whenever I do hang with him,
Speaker 3: I go down to tell Hassee to his studio, Yeah,
Speaker 3: and just just hang with him and smoke a lot
Speaker 3: of wee man smoking, which I don't mind. I don't
Speaker 3: mind smoking him.
Speaker 1: Yes, okay, So also I want to know about your
Speaker 1: work with John Brian and Mac Miller on a complicated song.
Speaker 2: How did how did that project come to be?
Speaker 3: I didn't give a chance to meet but actually we talked.
Speaker 3: He sent me a message on Instagram about that song.
Speaker 3: He send me the track and everything and told me
Speaker 3: to do whatever. And that was the last time we talked.
Speaker 3: I never you know, I didn't get a chance to
Speaker 3: meet him. But before he passed, he sent me that
Speaker 3: song and that was such a weird thing for him
Speaker 3: to send me that and he just passed away like that,
Speaker 3: and to meet him, it just I don't I don't
Speaker 3: do well with you know, death and stuff. Man, It
Speaker 3: just it just really fucks with me. But yeah, I
Speaker 3: wish I got a chance to meet him. But we talked,
Speaker 3: you know, through Instagram, you know, so yeah, gotcha.
Speaker 1: What determines you wanting to dive into this creative pool?
Speaker 1: Like when do you know it's time? Like okay, this
Speaker 1: is time for a new album? Or even how do
Speaker 1: you name your albums?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 3: It just happens. I'll just be thinking of the weirdest
Speaker 3: combination of words like jelly belly. I can't remember jelly belly, bally,
Speaker 3: I don't know. I just I'm just first of all,
Speaker 3: I'm from Memphis. I'm country, so I'm just be it
Speaker 3: just happens, you know. It's just one of those things.
Speaker 3: But uh, I don't know. I just the album I'm
Speaker 3: working on now with my friend Davey. You know, he's
Speaker 3: helped me with producing and writing songs with him. So
Speaker 3: I'm the album that I'm working on is a bunch
Speaker 3: of duets.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: I was just gonna say, is this the duets album?
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're working on that. You know. I've been getting
Speaker 3: people in and it's been coming alone.
Speaker 2: The song has two people or is that the whole?
Speaker 3: It's yeah, you me and another vocalist, or me and
Speaker 3: some more musicians, you know, one of those things. But
Speaker 3: it is a very one of my biggest collaborative projects.
Speaker 3: I got some pretty cool people on it. But yeah,
Speaker 3: that's I'm That's what I'm focusing on.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 3: That's why I'm here, you know, trying to get shipped together.
Speaker 3: But yeah, that's the thing I'm working on. Do it thing.
Speaker 2: What is the singular moment that has changed your life?
Speaker 3: Let's see here, there's a couple of singles. The moment
Speaker 3: be fair though. When I started playing with Prins, that
Speaker 3: was the influence that that that put a fire under me.
Speaker 3: That's why I'm doing what I'm doing now, being upfront
Speaker 3: and just trying to show people what that experience meant
Speaker 3: to me. You know, being around Prince that was singler
Speaker 3: with my dude, David Nathan, working with him, you know,
Speaker 3: writing songs with him. You know, he's kind of taking
Speaker 3: me to honestly another level in terms of you know,
Speaker 3: production and being a singer. He'd be getting me out
Speaker 3: of my comfort zone with these vocals. But I'm satisfied.
Speaker 3: So working with Davy, you know, it's really pretty cool.
Speaker 3: That's a singular moment in my in my thing. And
Speaker 3: being around my grandma doing this time, writing songs with
Speaker 3: her and shit like that, you know, that type of shit.
Speaker 3: And just have touring my own music and being up
Speaker 3: there and trying to be a better front man and whatever,
Speaker 3: all those singular moments.
Speaker 1: So singing is someone of a like a vulnerable Hell yeah,
Speaker 1: it is exercise for you man, It's really vulnerable, you know.
Speaker 3: That's what That's why I wear the sunglasses in the
Speaker 3: mask stuff. Ain't It's not. I ain't trying to be
Speaker 3: no gammick enough, but I have to hide, you know,
Speaker 3: I just It's just one of those things like singing
Speaker 3: and hearing myself on those big as PA speakers. My
Speaker 3: little ass voice, man, is just so man like. God, damn,
Speaker 3: I don't want to hear this, but I have to
Speaker 3: do it. I gotta do it.
Speaker 2: That's what. Like. Your voice is so suited for the music.
Speaker 2: Like it to me.
Speaker 3: It's not to my ears. But I'm trying.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, you just got to own it. Get out of.
Speaker 3: My head, man. People don't really know I be in
Speaker 3: my head man though, I'm trying that. I'm working down.
Speaker 3: I'm getting there, I'm getting out.
Speaker 1: Is there a book or movie that changed the direction
Speaker 1: of your life?
Speaker 3: The passion of the Christ? Now, I'm joking. Probably I
Speaker 3: love comedy and comedians. You know, Commedians a big influence
Speaker 3: on me. So it would probably have to be Jim
Speaker 3: Carrey movie Pet Detective, Cable Guy.
Speaker 2: From your childhood.
Speaker 3: Yeah, man, all that type of stuff and uh stuff
Speaker 3: with David Allen Grier in it. And you know, I'm
Speaker 3: comedians are big influence on the blaxplotation movies with comedi
Speaker 3: and stuff. So it's that type of thing. You know.
Speaker 3: I'm not really on a profound type of movies type ship.
Speaker 3: Sometimes I am.
Speaker 2: Have you scored anything or no?
Speaker 3: Just no, I haven't got asked to score nothing. They
Speaker 3: don't believe in me.
Speaker 1: All right, I'm I'm gonna change that for you, Bron.
Speaker 3: Don't give me too much of a task, but yeah,
Speaker 3: I do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got you, man, I'm I'm I'm gonna.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna lead you to that water man talk about
Speaker 1: is it possible for you to enjoy music without participating
Speaker 1: in it? Like when's the last time that you were
Speaker 1: just an audience member without having to go on stage
Speaker 1: and play.
Speaker 3: The last thing I went to was a Zach Fox.
Speaker 3: He was DJing and Memphis. That's really the only thing
Speaker 3: I went to just being you know, audience. Yeah, and
Speaker 3: it still felt weird because I wanted to get on
Speaker 3: stage and just jam with him. But uh gosh, it's
Speaker 3: hard for me to go to concerts because I get anxious,
Speaker 3: you know, I want to be on stage. I want
Speaker 3: to sit in you know. So I really don't go
Speaker 3: to concerts just to enjoy, just to watch it. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's hard for me. I should though, you know.
Speaker 1: But now so playing music is cathartic for you. But
Speaker 1: taking in music is Yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Really don't even listen to music because of that thing.
Speaker 3: I know. It takes I have to push myself to
Speaker 3: listen to music because I start thinking, Man, I want
Speaker 3: to write something like that, I want to sound like that,
Speaker 3: I want to play like that, I want to sing
Speaker 3: like that. So it takes me. I have to push
Speaker 3: myself to listen to music.
Speaker 2: Yeah, got you? Got you so? Okay?
Speaker 1: Well, when you talked about visiting George and fishing, I
Speaker 1: know he loves fishing to death.
Speaker 2: Too. Yeah, I do.
Speaker 1: During the pandemic, I purchased three of his pieces. He
Speaker 1: did a really beautiful canvas a mothership now painting, beautiful
Speaker 1: stuff that hangs in my kitchen right now? What every
Speaker 1: day activities are you proficient in that? We would be
Speaker 1: shocked that you partaken cooking, snowboarding.
Speaker 3: Boy, I don't do nothing but music, unfortunately, and just
Speaker 3: buy quilts off its y you really, I don't do nothing.
Speaker 2: You buy quotes like you you can crochet in it. No,
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't crochet, but I buy them. I have an
Speaker 3: eye for quilts.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: That's and sometimes I dabble into a little painting and
Speaker 3: see if I can tap into my alftracked expression to
Speaker 3: some stuff. But I really just do music, man. I
Speaker 3: sit behind my computer and just try to create and
Speaker 3: just post it and do it again, post it, do
Speaker 3: it again, post it.
Speaker 1: When do you first wake up in the morning, Like,
Speaker 1: what time do you typically the morning?
Speaker 3: I wake up about it in the afternoon.
Speaker 2: Okay, because.
Speaker 3: Probably about five in the morning. Okay, on my man,
Speaker 3: I'd be on my phone doom scrolling and shit and
Speaker 3: just trying to figure out what next video I can do,
Speaker 3: or typing in my phone like voice memos or some melody.
Speaker 3: I'll be hearing that happens like a lot. I got
Speaker 3: so much shit.
Speaker 2: I was just gonna say.
Speaker 1: When you get an idea for a melody and there's
Speaker 1: no acts around to really record it, like you're you
Speaker 1: just have to suffer where you are with your voice
Speaker 1: memo until you get home to record it.
Speaker 3: Usually if there's some stuff in here that I don't
Speaker 3: even go back to, but sometimes I do, but I
Speaker 3: raally go back to my voice memos.
Speaker 1: Once you go to your voice memos, can you still
Speaker 1: make out? Does it still sound the same.
Speaker 3: In your No? Sometimes I don't hate that, man. I
Speaker 3: thought I was the only one. I thought I was
Speaker 3: going crazy, but yeah, it don't sound the same. Sometimes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll sing a song for an hour, each part,
Speaker 1: each baseline, each and then I'll go back to the
Speaker 1: next day.
Speaker 2: It's just like, yeah, yep, that's funny.
Speaker 3: Okay, all right, So my final two questions, Yep.
Speaker 1: When you were younger, what is your version of making it?
Speaker 3: Honestly, bro playing with the Barcades. I just wanted to
Speaker 3: play with the Barcades overy much. I don't know, like
Speaker 3: I'm just an old spirited person, but yeah, that was
Speaker 3: my That was my making it thing, just being on
Speaker 3: stay with the Barcades, because I used to just envision
Speaker 3: my dad just being up there, just funking out and stuff.
Speaker 3: But yeah, that was one of those things. Or playing
Speaker 3: with Mayev the Staples, or or playing with a big
Speaker 3: gospel choir, you know, because the church was a big
Speaker 3: influence on me. But yeah, it was one of those things.
Speaker 3: Just a simple thing.
Speaker 1: So even now with where Memphis stands, be it like
Speaker 1: new acts or even legendary acts Glorilla Yogatti or even
Speaker 1: back to you know, uh, Project Pad or three six.
Speaker 2: Mafia or even a ball m j G.
Speaker 1: Like as far as the hip hop community is concerned,
Speaker 1: have you done or had a desire to do any
Speaker 1: collaborations at all?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was love to go. Really, it's one of
Speaker 3: my favorites right now, to be honest, so straight up Memphis,
Speaker 3: but yeah, I was. I want to do something with
Speaker 3: a Ball m j G. But I just never I
Speaker 3: tried to get something do something with Pat Pat Project Pat.
Speaker 3: That didn't work out. But yeah, I've always wanted, you know,
Speaker 3: to do that, but it's it's just never worked out.
Speaker 3: I want to do something with play a Fly. I
Speaker 3: want to do something with Gangs the Boot. You know,
Speaker 3: she's no longer hear the rest of Soul.
Speaker 1: So yeah, there there's actually a Project Pat roots song
Speaker 1: that probably won't ever see the light of day. No, Pat,
Speaker 1: Pat's one of our favorites. Like, yes, we always plays
Speaker 1: on the tour bus. So my final question is, when
Speaker 1: all is said and done, what is it that you
Speaker 1: would like us to say about you and your art?
Speaker 3: I guess I could just use one word, and it's
Speaker 3: very cliche, but just freedom, you know, not too deep,
Speaker 3: just freedom, just having to the freedom to be free.
Speaker 3: I guess, you know, I know that's very cliche, but
Speaker 3: just freedom, just freedom.
Speaker 1: George Clinton once said freedom is the I think he
Speaker 1: said true freedom is not having the need to be free,
Speaker 1: and I get that all right. Well, I will say
Speaker 1: this DJ brother mom On Leon. I'm very grateful and
Speaker 1: thankful that you are here to show us the light
Speaker 1: and just with your overall creativity. I'm a massive fan
Speaker 1: and I thank you for granting me one man audience
Speaker 1: to get all my nerdy questions out, and thank you
Speaker 1: for being on the Quest Lost Show. Thank you so much,
Speaker 1: and to all of you listening, we will see you
Speaker 1: next week on the next go round of the Quest
Speaker 1: Love Show.
Speaker 3: Thank you, my bae.
Speaker 1: Quest Love Show is hosted me a Mere Quest Love Thompson.
Speaker 1: The executive producers are Sean g Brian Calhoun and Me.
Speaker 1: Produced by Brittany Benjamin Jake Paine. Produced for iHeart by
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