Speaker 1: Pushkin. First time I heard Black Poomas I was blown away.
Speaker 1: The guitar player and producer, Adrian Asada has a production
Speaker 1: style that's uniquely his own, sounds both modern and retro,
Speaker 1: and Eric Burton's voice is so powerful and soulful it's
Speaker 1: hard to believe you've never heard him before. The band
Speaker 1: seems like they came out of nowhere and everywhere all
Speaker 1: at once. The runaway to success was short for blackpoolas
Speaker 1: five months after releasing their debut album in twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: Dawson based band was nominated for Best New Artists at
Speaker 1: the Grammys, and now one year later, Black Booms are
Speaker 1: up for even more Grammys, including an Album of the
Speaker 1: Year for the deluxe version of their debut. Adrian and
Speaker 1: Eric mented a crossroads in both of their careers. Adrian
Speaker 1: left his first band after successful run, including a year's
Speaker 1: long mentorship with Prince. In this episode, I talked to
Speaker 1: Adrian about being taken under Prince's wing. Eric reminis is
Speaker 1: about writing the group's biggest hit in Church, and they
Speaker 1: explain their unique chemistry that's led to instant success. This
Speaker 1: is broken record liner notes for the digital age. I'm
Speaker 1: justin Richmondton. Here's my conversation with Adrian Quesada and Eric
Speaker 1: Burton of Black Plumas. Oftentimes, the experience as a fan
Speaker 1: of listening to a band is there is a justation
Speaker 1: period where you've heard the name, or you've heard a song,
Speaker 1: you've heard something and it's kind of like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I need to check that out, or people keep telling you.
Speaker 1: But you guys really just almost like materialized out if
Speaker 1: thin Era felt like it was experienced the same for
Speaker 1: you guys. On the other end, man, it's weird on
Speaker 1: one hand, yes, on one hand, no, you know, it's like,
Speaker 1: on one hand, it's kind of the culmination of everything
Speaker 1: Eric and I've been doing already, you know, in the
Speaker 1: years leading up to this and you know, being introduced
Speaker 1: to each other in two seventeen. We worked on the
Speaker 1: music in two tho seventeen for a good while before
Speaker 1: we played our first show in twenty eighteen. So for us,
Speaker 1: some of these songs are you know, three years old.
Speaker 1: But then on the other hand, from the time we
Speaker 1: played our first show, which was a spring of twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: to the time we were touring and all that, because
Speaker 1: we were moving at such a fast pace, it actually
Speaker 1: did feel like it happened kind of fast. So I
Speaker 1: do remember talking to Eric at our first south By
Speaker 1: Southwest and telling him like, man, this is this is
Speaker 1: going to happen fairly quickly. And the reason, like I'm
Speaker 1: bringing it up is because we're not going to have
Speaker 1: time to think about it or breathe for a while.
Speaker 1: And then that's really what happened. And until honestly, the
Speaker 1: first time I felt personally like I stopped and was
Speaker 1: able to take a breath and look around and process
Speaker 1: it was was during the pandemic. Yeah, you know, like Adrian,
Speaker 1: he's been in the industry for a while, like he's
Speaker 1: not new, Like a lot of the radio stations and
Speaker 1: some of the people that we've run into doing interviews,
Speaker 1: they know Adrian from group both Fantasma and Brown Out
Speaker 1: and you know Brown Sabbath, and he's got all these
Speaker 1: He's done different things and I, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: I'm virtually non existent before the Black Pumas online. While
Speaker 1: at the same time, you know, like writing these songs
Speaker 1: like Colors, and I wrote Colors like ten years ago,
Speaker 1: and you know, touched this guy. I was writing that
Speaker 1: when I was busting on the Santa Monica Pere, you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of years before meeting Adrian in the first place.
Speaker 1: And so I think that being a new kid in
Speaker 1: this beautiful music town, you know, finding a partner in
Speaker 1: someone who's done it for so long to the degree
Speaker 1: that people are interested in hearing what he's got going
Speaker 1: on next. And so while Adrian was looking for someone
Speaker 1: to write songs on the instrumentals that he had at first,
Speaker 1: our friend Brian Ray introduced the The No Body Guy
Speaker 1: to Adrian, and you know, Adrian, he liked the songs,
Speaker 1: and you know, I think that we're both thankful that
Speaker 1: that is the reaction to most of most of the
Speaker 1: people who listened to the music in the first place.
Speaker 1: But it would not have happened if Adrian didn't have
Speaker 1: the history that he had in the industry, you know,
Speaker 1: with the quality that he brings to the table, And
Speaker 1: it would not have happened if I wasn't bringing the
Speaker 1: songs that I was bringing to the table, as well
Speaker 1: as the live performance aspect of what we do together
Speaker 1: as well. So yeah, it's an interesting dynamic, oh absolutely.
Speaker 1: You know, like the way what Eric was saying, I
Speaker 1: kind of imagine it almost like you know, there's a
Speaker 1: plateau or like a mountain, and I've just been climbing
Speaker 1: it longer, and he just moved up and we got
Speaker 1: to the same point, and we're almost like starting from scratch,
Speaker 1: you know. It's like I just see it, like at
Speaker 1: some point we hit a new plateau where we're in
Speaker 1: in the exact same uh. I've never been there either,
Speaker 1: And that's what blows me away the most. It's because
Speaker 1: you know, I remember kind of nudging Adrian when we
Speaker 1: were in the airport and like London or Paris. It's like, dude, man,
Speaker 1: this is crazy, right, And like, I mean, I know
Speaker 1: you've I'm almost embarrassed, embarrassed to even show that I'm
Speaker 1: excited around like somebody like Adrian. And then Adrian goes,
Speaker 1: you know, I haven't seen a lot of these stages
Speaker 1: in the same in the way that we're seeing them either.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen that, And so to hear that, it's
Speaker 1: very humbling and amazing to me that a virtual nobody is,
Speaker 1: you know, somehow elevating the career of someone who's been
Speaker 1: doing it for such a long time. So you know,
Speaker 1: to the degree that we're experiencing a lot of the
Speaker 1: same things for the first time together. What's that hard
Speaker 1: for your adrien or in a sense maybe even humbling
Speaker 1: to have to start over again, because I mean you're
Speaker 1: coming from a group where you had two Grammy nominations,
Speaker 1: you know, or a win right one. Yeah, yeah, you know.
Speaker 1: I I don't think Eric and I really at the
Speaker 1: beginning had an intention of starting a band. We were
Speaker 1: just recording, you know. Eric was getting hit up a
Speaker 1: lot by producers in Austin, and we were just having
Speaker 1: fun working on music. And I feel like that's why
Speaker 1: this is so special to me, is that we had
Speaker 1: really pure intentions. We were just trying to like record
Speaker 1: cool songs that we wanted to listen to, you know,
Speaker 1: and Eric would show me something, I'd be like, oh man,
Speaker 1: check you know, check out the production on then and
Speaker 1: it took us a while to finally say, well, we
Speaker 1: should actually be a band and do this, you know.
Speaker 1: So I think it's our enthusiasm kind of rubs off.
Speaker 1: I mean, part of why we started it. We were like, well,
Speaker 1: let's play Let's see what it would be like to
Speaker 1: play these songs live, as we had never played them
Speaker 1: live together. We were just recording them, and then we
Speaker 1: started playing our live shows, and that was just a blast. Man.
Speaker 1: It was just so much fun to be on stage,
Speaker 1: and Eric's enthusiasm and stay age presence and everything was
Speaker 1: all just contagious and just kind of took off from there.
Speaker 1: I mean, those songs are really good. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: one of the interesting things too about it feeling like
Speaker 1: you guys almost were not here one day and hear
Speaker 1: the next is that the song sounds so fleshed out
Speaker 1: and so incredible. It's hard to believe that these songs
Speaker 1: and the productions were conceived of and created independently. Did
Speaker 1: you have the sense when you were recording these that
Speaker 1: these are really special? Kind of yeah, if I was
Speaker 1: trying to contain my enthusiasm and just play it cool,
Speaker 1: you know, and we just, I don't know, we were
Speaker 1: just in a little bubble working on the on these songs.
Speaker 1: Like I don't we didn't really show him. I didn't
Speaker 1: really show him to anybody but my wife and maybe
Speaker 1: like a couple of people at some point. Every time
Speaker 1: I played for somebody, they'd be like, what is that
Speaker 1: Play that again, and I'm like, oh, is this guy
Speaker 1: Eric Burton? I just met him? Check this out? And
Speaker 1: they'd be like, what the hell Like, I mean, it
Speaker 1: just seemed like early on, like the songs he was
Speaker 1: writing and the production style that I was hearing in
Speaker 1: my head was just effortless, man like. We really didn't
Speaker 1: really even have to like talk about it that much.
Speaker 1: It was just happy we'd just do it. I know,
Speaker 1: you guys were going to cut a couple of songs
Speaker 1: for this conversation, So I was thinking we could start
Speaker 1: by hearing having people hear Colors. What was going on
Speaker 1: in your life that led you to write that song?
Speaker 1: I think I was just leading a praise and worship
Speaker 1: at a Presbyterian church and was just looking to connect
Speaker 1: with God in my own way, you know, from my perspective,
Speaker 1: and so Colors kind of emanates from a place. So
Speaker 1: just trying to be honest and in my alignment to source.
Speaker 1: So you were leading essentially like a church group. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was hired to learn hymns on my guitar and
Speaker 1: kind of you know, before I came into the church,
Speaker 1: they were listening to recordings and I'm like, what, there's
Speaker 1: no music going. You know. I was going to a
Speaker 1: different church at the time, but they caught wind of
Speaker 1: me through you know, some family, and they paid me
Speaker 1: to come and lead some hymns, and so that's what
Speaker 1: I did. I would learn some of the hymns and
Speaker 1: then start writing my own pretty much. And Colors was
Speaker 1: one of those that were reflective of trying to break
Speaker 1: out of just singing that kind of music. Did you
Speaker 1: ever perform that in the church maybe once? Do you
Speaker 1: remember how it was received? Yeah? It was always received
Speaker 1: very like pretty well, you know, but there's obvious, this
Speaker 1: this obvious difference you know, between you know, me writing
Speaker 1: my own song as opposed to like singing these like
Speaker 1: old hymnal songs and stuff like that. So I am
Speaker 1: I imagine now that I probably came off a little
Speaker 1: bit more worldly than people were used to. But that's
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess I would have been unlike the
Speaker 1: time when a lot of the great gospel songs that
Speaker 1: we sing in church now were written, you know, right exactly.
Speaker 1: And you know, to be honest, I look up to
Speaker 1: people like Sam Cook and Ray Charles and Arita Franklin
Speaker 1: who were able to kind of take what they learned
Speaker 1: in church and to give it a univer verstal approach.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of how I kind of see a
Speaker 1: little bit of my development and as a songwriter and
Speaker 1: a performer as well. Adrian, were you very connected to
Speaker 1: gospel music at all, because it seems like that's the
Speaker 1: world that Eric's wire coming from. Not particularly, no, man.
Speaker 1: I grew up Catholic and went to Catholic school, and
Speaker 1: I'm from South Texas, and the connection to music with
Speaker 1: the churches in South Texas, I think is a bit
Speaker 1: of a different experience. Although although I love it, you know,
Speaker 1: but that wasn't my upbringing. Honestly, it really wasn't mine either.
Speaker 1: I mean I wasn't really in a gospel singing church,
Speaker 1: like learning like how a wreatha Franklin that I had
Speaker 1: no way near close is just I just feel coming
Speaker 1: from that from the church in general and its strictness
Speaker 1: to sing, like to have certain content, you know. Just
Speaker 1: taking what I've learned and making it my own is
Speaker 1: what I mean by coming from singing in church and
Speaker 1: then writing my own songs and stuff. When I moved
Speaker 1: to Austin. Actually my freshman year in college, I did
Speaker 1: go to the University Catholic Center, which was across from
Speaker 1: my dorms, and I thought I would play guitar and
Speaker 1: there for a second there, I was like, maybe I'll
Speaker 1: go play guitar at the at the University Catholic Center.
Speaker 1: But man, the music was not inspiring to me. If
Speaker 1: Eric could, if I had like heard colors or something there,
Speaker 1: you know, I might have joined. I might have taken
Speaker 1: a different career turn. We'll be back with Adrian and
Speaker 1: Eric after this break. Here's more of my conversation with
Speaker 1: Adrian Quesada and Eric Burton. One of the cool experiences
Speaker 1: with your music is it sounds familiar because it sounds
Speaker 1: it sounds soulful and the way that music used to
Speaker 1: sound soulful. But when I'm listening to your voice, Eric,
Speaker 1: like I can't pinpoint a particular singer that you sound like,
Speaker 1: but you can hear the gospel. You can hear the
Speaker 1: soul sometimes in your writing and colors, even in the lyrics.
Speaker 1: There's almost like a country element to just sound like
Speaker 1: specific and clear the lyrics are, the verses are and
Speaker 1: aiding with the production. There's not one person it sounds
Speaker 1: like in terms of arrangement production, Like you can't say
Speaker 1: it's Isaac Hayes or Curtis Mayfield, but there's such as
Speaker 1: such soul Imbaut and the way you're producing these tracks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean there's certain nods, very specific nods. I think
Speaker 1: every once in a while we throw in a little
Speaker 1: wink here and there to a particular influence. But I
Speaker 1: don't think when Eric and I were working when we
Speaker 1: first met, Well, what's funny. I actually probably have to
Speaker 1: punt this back for to Eric to clarify on this,
Speaker 1: But like I remember him telling me he had never
Speaker 1: really sang on a song that he didn't start himself,
Speaker 1: like these instrumentals, you know, So he was telling me
Speaker 1: he was kind of struggling to kind of fit in
Speaker 1: or I'm like, everything you're singing sounds gold in to me. Man.
Speaker 1: I mean there's there're nods, you know, there's nods in
Speaker 1: my production there. I think there's little winks and nods
Speaker 1: between us to our influences. But ultimately, I don't even
Speaker 1: think we had a discussion on like well let's make
Speaker 1: that sound like this. You know, I never told Eric there.
Speaker 1: I don't think he ever told me that as well.
Speaker 1: But what that was initially when when I reached out
Speaker 1: to people and was like, hey, do you know anybody
Speaker 1: I could collaborate with this on this? A bunch of
Speaker 1: people sent me ideas like, oh, check out this such
Speaker 1: and such person, all real talented people, but nobody really
Speaker 1: uh made me kind of jump out of my seat
Speaker 1: and reach out until I saw until I heard about
Speaker 1: Eric and and one of the main reasons why I
Speaker 1: was they were like, oh, I just you know, you
Speaker 1: hear a soul singer and you just imagine like that
Speaker 1: kind of especially nowadays, like that retro soul kind of
Speaker 1: like thing. But I just looked him up and I'm like,
Speaker 1: now he's playing like an acoustic guitar or you know,
Speaker 1: almost more like Neil Young than that, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. But he but it's soulful, but it's his soul.
Speaker 1: I don't know. It was just so much to me
Speaker 1: that I was just like perked up and was like, damn,
Speaker 1: this dude is like is an individual, you know, And
Speaker 1: that's the main the most important thing I think both
Speaker 1: of us have wanted to convey with through through the
Speaker 1: music is like just that it sounds like us, you know,
Speaker 1: and the band name. It's like the imagery is super strong.
Speaker 1: How did you guys land on Black Pumas? Adrian went
Speaker 1: cat crazy on me. Man, Yeah, he came back from
Speaker 1: he came back from Mexico. I'm gonna tell the story down.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, go ahead, Yeah, okay, he came back from Mexico,
Speaker 1: was really inspired by the cat iconography, and I'll let
Speaker 1: you conclude, Adrian. I'm uh, you know, we sent a
Speaker 1: slew of text back and forth of different names and stuff,
Speaker 1: and Adrian kept sending me cat names. I'm like, what's
Speaker 1: your problem, Like I remember, like like we're gonna be yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's I forgot about that one man. I remember reading
Speaker 1: about pumas. I went like literally stayed up like three
Speaker 1: nights just reading about Puma's, Jaguar's lions, all of them.
Speaker 1: And then I read about the black puma, that there
Speaker 1: is no such thing as a black puma, and then
Speaker 1: there's like all these kind of weird crypto zoology sites
Speaker 1: of people like whatever just went down rabbit holes. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was literally just weird. Texting back fourth it was
Speaker 1: like black pumas and he's like that's nope, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: black Puma was like black Pumas is great, it's it's strong,
Speaker 1: it's easy. You don't even want to know what I was,
Speaker 1: what I was sharing with Adrian. I wish I could
Speaker 1: find those textual. Oh my, he like he was just
Speaker 1: like I remember, just like us laughing at each other.
Speaker 1: I don't know if Adrian was like smoking or something
Speaker 1: like that or whatever, but I just remember getting to
Speaker 1: know him through like coming up with these names and
Speaker 1: stuff and like mines had to do with like spaceships
Speaker 1: and this and that, and like Adrian's like Mighty Royals Cats. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that was fun. I'm glad we uh we stuck with
Speaker 1: black Pumas. Yeah. No, absolutely, there is an element of
Speaker 1: you guys that feels like you're engaging on social things.
Speaker 1: So even if that wasn't intention with the name, it
Speaker 1: feels right. I think there's like an undercurrent, there's an
Speaker 1: undertone of some real fire and the both of us
Speaker 1: as it pertains to what we see that is going
Speaker 1: on socially. But when we make the music, it's never
Speaker 1: we're never thinking about like, hey, like let's speak to
Speaker 1: the George Floyd's situation in a way that is going
Speaker 1: to really spark something and like some empathy in people
Speaker 1: like colors. When I wrote that, I was I was
Speaker 1: just thinking about just being aligned within myself. If I
Speaker 1: wasn't thinking about race, and that's what's amazing about the
Speaker 1: power that comes from, you know, being a band in
Speaker 1: the first place, writing the music that we write in
Speaker 1: the first place, because at the times progress and different
Speaker 1: things happen, people are going to want to take the
Speaker 1: music and make it universal as it pertains to the
Speaker 1: times and what's actually going on. So when we have
Speaker 1: conversations together, you can feel the compassion for people who
Speaker 1: aren't aren't treated as fairly. But when we're making music, man,
Speaker 1: that's like sanctuary time. Like it's just about coming together
Speaker 1: to have fun, you know, being honest and not just
Speaker 1: pity partying, you know, so to speak, if I may, Yeah,
Speaker 1: does it feel weird to have built up all this
Speaker 1: momentum of the last few years just to sort of
Speaker 1: have it, you know, just come to a stand still totally. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we realize and are thankful that we're kind of a
Speaker 1: studio band first. You know, we didn't start off as
Speaker 1: a live band anyway, so you know, it's it's obviously
Speaker 1: a bumer to not like play some of these some
Speaker 1: of the biggest festivals we would have played, some of
Speaker 1: the biggest rooms we would have played this year. But
Speaker 1: I think that we both can still take a step
Speaker 1: back and be thankful for the opportunity this is to
Speaker 1: kind of in the industry's retrograde, just kind of go
Speaker 1: back into our you know, our comfort zone that is
Speaker 1: writing and just coming up with different ideas that kind
Speaker 1: of get us going. And what more of a better
Speaker 1: time is is you know, the civil unrest and the
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen things that are going on to work through creatively.
Speaker 1: Are you guys able to write and record right now? Um? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's yeah, on and off kind of we're chipping
Speaker 1: away at a new record with ideas. You know, have
Speaker 1: everything from from kind of like songs that we've already
Speaker 1: begun in the studio to two ideas that on phone
Speaker 1: messages to songs that Eric's written on guitar on his
Speaker 1: phone and has recorded it. It's all over the place.
Speaker 1: We have a lot of sketches. We just need to
Speaker 1: kind of I think Eric's gonna be writing here for
Speaker 1: a little bit and uh and then we'll we're gonna reconvene,
Speaker 1: you know, before the end of the year, hopefully lay
Speaker 1: a lot of it down. And on one hand, I
Speaker 1: actually feel like the touring going completely away, uh is
Speaker 1: gonna be good for us because if we had, like
Speaker 1: try to do this in between tours, there'd be a
Speaker 1: lot of noise, you know, Like I just feel like
Speaker 1: there'd be we probably would feel like that pressure and
Speaker 1: that all the noise of what happens on tour and
Speaker 1: regular life. And on one hand, it's like everything just
Speaker 1: paused and went silent, and I feel like it's back
Speaker 1: to the whole reason we made these songs. And I
Speaker 1: remember Eric one time telling me something like on a plane, like, man,
Speaker 1: I want to record more stuff just so I have
Speaker 1: something to listen to. And it's just like, you know,
Speaker 1: at this point, just back to square one, without feeling
Speaker 1: any pressure, and it's just like, just make something we
Speaker 1: would want to listen to. Is it different writing and
Speaker 1: recording together now, given that you guys are actually like
Speaker 1: a band now and essentially the first time around, you
Speaker 1: guys weren't quite a band yet, you know, certainly hadn't
Speaker 1: had the success he had add yet, does it feel
Speaker 1: does a context feel different in terms of writing recording?
Speaker 1: Does a collaboration feel different, like when we recorded the
Speaker 1: second half of the album, which we're you know, the
Speaker 1: way I kind of just the easiest way to describe
Speaker 1: it as songs that Eric started on his guitar, you know,
Speaker 1: versus writing a song to an instrumental. We kind of
Speaker 1: are We recorded those pretty live with the band. From
Speaker 1: a production standpoint and like a technical standpoint, which is
Speaker 1: you know what I bring is I feel like it's
Speaker 1: because of the pandemic and quarantine and us not being
Speaker 1: able to really get the band in here all the time,
Speaker 1: and us crowd into a studio, it's actually forcing me
Speaker 1: to step outside the box and and like make these
Speaker 1: creative decisions that I think would keep us from falling
Speaker 1: into our comfort zone or at least me production wise,
Speaker 1: falling into the same bag of tricks. It's forcing me
Speaker 1: to kind of like and just think outside the box
Speaker 1: a little bit and make more creative decisions that I
Speaker 1: think is going to be good overall for the next album. However,
Speaker 1: however that comes together musically, same with the other aspects
Speaker 1: of it too, is as far as um. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you could look at this as a production aspect,
Speaker 1: but I remember being in well we Paris sitting outside.
Speaker 1: That's so funny, say, but Adrian showed me this, this riff,
Speaker 1: this blues riff. I was like, man, yeah, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: kind of cool. And then I always think because we
Speaker 1: had had a conversation with the label before and I
Speaker 1: was like, man, I can't wait to like maybe collaborate
Speaker 1: this person or that person or this person, and it
Speaker 1: was more from them. They were kind of encouraging the
Speaker 1: same sound. And so what I realized, it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: so we can't forget where we come from, but hey,
Speaker 1: there's still different levels within a room. Like just because
Speaker 1: we're in a theater doesn't mean you have to create
Speaker 1: music on the stage. Maybe we can go up in
Speaker 1: the balcony and do something crazy. So Adrian came up
Speaker 1: with this blues riff, and I thought, man, how cool
Speaker 1: would it be to like throw some cap awaya like
Speaker 1: instrumentation behind that blues riff? Yo, I don't know. So
Speaker 1: we like to vibe out on it and and whatnot,
Speaker 1: and you know, it's it's really cool to be collaborating with,
Speaker 1: you know, someone as generous to that degree to create
Speaker 1: a little bit of space to you know, have some collaboration.
Speaker 1: I guess. So I think I try to be open
Speaker 1: to you know, Adrian just doesn't care about you know,
Speaker 1: the words and lyrics and stuff like that as much.
Speaker 1: That's your job. Oh that's just yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know he'll help out, like how you help Adrian,
Speaker 1: tell him, tell him how you got my back when
Speaker 1: when uh, you know, when we first started working together
Speaker 1: and he would kind of get stuck on the line.
Speaker 1: I'll offer my feedback, but honestly, it's like there's not
Speaker 1: a lot I could tell him to make what he does,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying like better. I mean I'm
Speaker 1: not I'm not the most vocal person in general, and uh,
Speaker 1: but I remember there was definitely times where you kind
Speaker 1: of cold be stuck or I just I might stop
Speaker 1: and say, man, that line is dope, and like that concept,
Speaker 1: whatever you're going with. I really like that. But for
Speaker 1: the most part, you know, what, am I gonna tell
Speaker 1: this dude? How am I gonna make this dude's stuff
Speaker 1: lyrics and vocals better? But just just that alone, though,
Speaker 1: like really keeps me ground and I'm like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: all right. You know I see Adrian nodding to certain things,
Speaker 1: and you know, if I don't sometimes if I don't
Speaker 1: have that, and I can get really eccentric and the
Speaker 1: way that I like to be abstract visually with the
Speaker 1: with the lyrics and stuff. So he sort of keeps
Speaker 1: you on on on the right. Oh yeah, he keeps
Speaker 1: me on the ground because I want to fly. Eric
Speaker 1: has more production ideas than I have vocal ideas. Put
Speaker 1: it that way. But but I but I really equally important, man,
Speaker 1: Like I don't want to know what I ad in
Speaker 1: the studio. I mean, I love you guys willingness to experiment,
Speaker 1: and it totally comes across. And like when I was
Speaker 1: listening to the deluxe edition, you guys did a cover
Speaker 1: of Politicians in my eyes, and when I first saw
Speaker 1: the title, I was like, man, that's a that's a
Speaker 1: death song. That's interesting. I put it on. I's I
Speaker 1: wonder if it's a cover, and I put it on.
Speaker 1: I was listening, I was like, oh this is this
Speaker 1: isn't a cover. It wasn't until like the third or
Speaker 1: fourth time I listens like, oh shit, this is a
Speaker 1: cover of that song because you guys did it so different,
Speaker 1: Like how did that come about? So that we were
Speaker 1: in Europe and our label and distributor out there, I
Speaker 1: had a project that they wanted us to be a
Speaker 1: part of why we were out there, which was on
Speaker 1: our last tour, I think, and they were getting bands.
Speaker 1: I can't remember if all the bands were covering. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess all the bands were covering like punk rock stuff.
Speaker 1: And they sent us a list, you know, they brought
Speaker 1: it up to us and we remember we were in
Speaker 1: the green room and it was just like so the
Speaker 1: sex Pistols, the Ramans and the you know whatever, all
Speaker 1: these bands and Eric was like, what about Death, and well,
Speaker 1: they weren't on the list. And I was like, man,
Speaker 1: you know Death. I remember seeing that documentary and like
Speaker 1: he was like, yeah, I've been jamming that and he
Speaker 1: was he pulled out Politicians on my eye. Well he
Speaker 1: was going through some songs on the phone, and remember
Speaker 1: he showed me that one. I was like, damn, we
Speaker 1: heard that. And we were like we could kind of
Speaker 1: freak that. I mean, what part of one of the
Speaker 1: things we like to do with covers is sometimes we
Speaker 1: stay pretty faithful, but sometimes we like to just kind
Speaker 1: of make it our own. And there was a little
Speaker 1: bit of a saga to record that one, because we
Speaker 1: sent it back and we were like yeah, yeah, we
Speaker 1: were so pumped. We were like hell yeah, man, Death
Speaker 1: like Politicians in my eyes, Like it's super timely and
Speaker 1: like timeless, you know. We were like hell yeah, sent
Speaker 1: back to them and it was just crickets and they
Speaker 1: were like, well that's not a we're not familiar with
Speaker 1: this band. We were like, dude, that they like invented
Speaker 1: punk rock, like that's and then they came back and
Speaker 1: said it was too obscure. They were like, how about again,
Speaker 1: like the sex Pistles, the Ramones. We were like, man,
Speaker 1: it's like the least punk rock thing you could do
Speaker 1: is tell us to go play the Ramones or so
Speaker 1: we actually like remember Eric text, we were on this text.
Speaker 1: Eric was like, man, that's this is the only song
Speaker 1: I wanted to do it. I was like, man, I'm
Speaker 1: down with you, bro. That's that's we're being punk rock here.
Speaker 1: So that was it. We worked it up at a
Speaker 1: couple of sound checks, I think the band, Eric with
Speaker 1: the band jammed on it for a little bit. Then
Speaker 1: I showed that to Eric and he was like, well,
Speaker 1: he kind of came up with the like the way
Speaker 1: the core progression moves I think kind of remember it
Speaker 1: was quicker or slower than the original. He was like,
Speaker 1: well check this out. And I mean we learned it
Speaker 1: like the day before two days before in the studio
Speaker 1: at a sound check. We just sat there and went
Speaker 1: over it with guitar, and then we went into the
Speaker 1: studio and learned it that day. I mean, and testament
Speaker 1: to our band just being killer musicians, like they just
Speaker 1: they learned it and all showed up and interpreted it.
Speaker 1: We might have rehearsed it a couple of times. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll be back with Adrian and Eric after the break.
Speaker 1: We're back with more of my conversation with Black Plumas
Speaker 1: October thirty three. I guess how did that one come about?
Speaker 1: Was that one that Eric you had or was this
Speaker 1: a collaboration song? So the completion of this song was
Speaker 1: spurred by Adrian's thought to add one more song to
Speaker 1: the album. We probably recorded like a bit over fifteen
Speaker 1: songs or so, and he was just telling me like, man,
Speaker 1: I don't really feel like we really have that last song.
Speaker 1: And so when he told me that, I sent him
Speaker 1: a snippet of this this song October thirty three, a
Speaker 1: couple of days after, I said, hey, check this out,
Speaker 1: and you know, he thought it was a perfect way
Speaker 1: to end it. I might have sent him like a
Speaker 1: little bit of a verse, maybe a little bit of
Speaker 1: a chorus, and he said, yeah, yeah, it kind of
Speaker 1: reminds me of this, this and that, and so I
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe a week later, right, Adrian, we got
Speaker 1: together and I pretty much finished writing the song on
Speaker 1: the way to the studio and in the studio, so actually, funny,
Speaker 1: I have the lyrics right here, man, yeah something. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: he wrote him on a paper on a grocery bag
Speaker 1: in my studio. But yeah, I remember because we talked
Speaker 1: about it recently, but I forgot. I still have him
Speaker 1: right here. But yeah, he just he was cranking him
Speaker 1: out on this. This just kind of gets to the
Speaker 1: crux of my my feeling about you guys, which is like,
Speaker 1: it's amazing how fully formed you guys were from from
Speaker 1: the start. Twenty nineteen, the record comes out and the
Speaker 1: Grammys is past January, you guys were for Best New Artists,
Speaker 1: and looking at the list of artists, you guys we're
Speaker 1: in with, it's Billie Eilish, Black Pumas, Lil nos X, Lizzo,
Speaker 1: Maggie Rodgers, Rosaliah, Tank of the Bangers, and Yola. That's
Speaker 1: pretty yeah. You know, we actually played a party at
Speaker 1: the Grammys, a Spotify party where like all all those
Speaker 1: bands were played the same party, all the Best New
Speaker 1: Artist nominees. It was like this like rotating stage and
Speaker 1: everybody did like twenty minutes or something. But it's pretty
Speaker 1: kind of wild. Yeah, how was that crazy? It was
Speaker 1: just nice to be around peers man. It's like, wow,
Speaker 1: like these are our peers, man, this is great. So
Speaker 1: that part of it was awesome. And then the part
Speaker 1: that kind of tripped me out about like being in
Speaker 1: California again, I'm like, oh my god, man, like this
Speaker 1: kind of feels like a pageant, you know, I felt
Speaker 1: like I was in a pageant. I was like, wow,
Speaker 1: this is this is kind of tripping me out. And
Speaker 1: then probably my favorite part of it is just you know,
Speaker 1: seeing some of our heroes Grace the stage and as
Speaker 1: well as Grace, some of the hosting some of the
Speaker 1: parties that happened before and after the Grammys, like Quest
Speaker 1: Love and the Roots invited us to play their you know,
Speaker 1: their jam before the night of the Grammys. That was
Speaker 1: probably like my favoritavorite part of it, Like I had
Speaker 1: such a good time at that party, Dave Chappelle and
Speaker 1: Quest Love. I'm running into people in the in the
Speaker 1: green room smoking you know, free joints and CBD infused coffee.
Speaker 1: You know, you know it was It was just really cool. Man.
Speaker 1: It was like the most rock star thing I've ever done.
Speaker 1: Because as I was leaving, we were leaving, I think
Speaker 1: Adrian might have left Arry. I'm like, man, I can't leave.
Speaker 1: This is awesome. And uh so, like my hair was
Speaker 1: looking crazy because I'm I never I'm never prepared to
Speaker 1: go to an event anyway, you know, I just I
Speaker 1: just kind of go as this. But I realized, I said, Okay, well,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of looking like I'm still busting on the
Speaker 1: Santa Monica Pere right now, and I probably should show
Speaker 1: some some respect to the event. So you know, I
Speaker 1: end up going on Facebook. I'm like, yo, does anybody
Speaker 1: know anyone in LA who can like retwist my hair
Speaker 1: and Blase blase and so you know, I end up
Speaker 1: Adrian and I both end up like getting fitted for
Speaker 1: for it. And then the night that we left the party,
Speaker 1: this you know, someone like came to my hotel like
Speaker 1: at four or five six in the morning to do
Speaker 1: to do my hair. My little brothers were. I flew
Speaker 1: my little brothers out, and you know, she cut their hair.
Speaker 1: It was like the coolest. I felt so cool. I
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, your big brother's doing it. You guys
Speaker 1: one hundred percentsion of vocal and I bet you guys
Speaker 1: were the best on that stage too. I guarantee that.
Speaker 1: Oh man, it was fun. And this is why I
Speaker 1: love Adrian Man because you know, if there was a
Speaker 1: guy who had gone up and you know, like black
Speaker 1: music and black vocalists is always very sharp and you
Speaker 1: know with the rips and all this warm stuff and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm on. I'm I'm in the corner of
Speaker 1: the stage right before we go on, and I'm almost
Speaker 1: like kind of shedding some tears because of the music
Speaker 1: is so beautiful. And the guy who was seeing I
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, that guy's pretty good. I look at Adrian.
Speaker 1: He's like, don't worry, bro, you're better. You're better than him,
Speaker 1: you know. So it's it's nice to kind of like,
Speaker 1: you know, have that the validation reciprocated in the appreciation.
Speaker 1: I think that we do that for each other. So
Speaker 1: that's kind of cool. No, I mean, I must have
Speaker 1: been an incredible experience. I feel bad because this is
Speaker 1: going back to pre Black Puma days, but I would
Speaker 1: be one hundred percent unhappy with myself if I didn't
Speaker 1: mention the fact that Adrian you got to have a
Speaker 1: few years worth the Prince experiences. Yeah, so your old
Speaker 1: group group of Fantasma was kind of more or less
Speaker 1: mentored or by Prince right for a time. Yeah, a
Speaker 1: few years on and off. It started with a residency
Speaker 1: in Las Vegas. He had a club and we started
Speaker 1: playing there, and then he eventually just started coming on
Speaker 1: stage and jamming with us, and then that led to
Speaker 1: us backing him on certain occasions for a few years
Speaker 1: on and off. So yeah, I got to we's got
Speaker 1: to spend some time with him. What was it like
Speaker 1: jamming with him? Absolutely? Insane? Absolutely, and back then, like
Speaker 1: the way I used to put it was like it
Speaker 1: was like being a really good high school basketball team
Speaker 1: and being put on a plane the next day and
Speaker 1: then putting put in Game seven of the NBA Finals,
Speaker 1: you know, like we were we were a good band,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, Game seven of the
Speaker 1: NBA Finals like go you know to all of a sudden.
Speaker 1: Being a rehearsal with him was like that. And because
Speaker 1: he could play every instrument better than than everybody, you know,
Speaker 1: so he So it was just like one day to
Speaker 1: the next, our confidence level was just through the roof.
Speaker 1: It was just trial by fire man. We just got
Speaker 1: thrown in the deep end and just like no choice
Speaker 1: but to show up and you know, and bust your
Speaker 1: ass and try hard. So, I mean my confidence level
Speaker 1: in the band's confidence level was just from one day
Speaker 1: to the next. After like being in rehearsals with Prince
Speaker 1: was just like you know, chess stumping everywhere. We were
Speaker 1: just like, hell yeah we played with Prince Man. I'm like,
Speaker 1: we can hang anywhere. How was he as a band leader?
Speaker 1: He was amazing man, And it was really he was
Speaker 1: really cool. I saw. I saw multiple sides of him
Speaker 1: because we were like the cool, new young band that
Speaker 1: he worked with, so we weren't like his regular band
Speaker 1: on salary. He always set the mood. You know, there
Speaker 1: was times I think he was funnier and more engaging
Speaker 1: and like more personable than people make him out to be.
Speaker 1: You know, like all used to hear these rumors like, man,
Speaker 1: you can't look him in the eye and you can't
Speaker 1: like whatever. He was cool. He was really funny as hell,
Speaker 1: but he always set the mood and there was days
Speaker 1: where he wasn't in the mood to joke and it
Speaker 1: was all business, you know. I mean, you knew right
Speaker 1: away it was just like man princes here, it's all
Speaker 1: business today, or if not, he just was hanging like,
Speaker 1: you know, hanging out and joking with us and stuff. So,
Speaker 1: but he was always a little bit cooler with us.
Speaker 1: He was cool with his band, but he was a
Speaker 1: little harder on them. And he was maybe because like
Speaker 1: I said, we were like a younger band and I
Speaker 1: mean still a hardass. There was definitely times where he
Speaker 1: cut us down individually, certain guys he would call you
Speaker 1: out and say and say something embarrassing the hell out
Speaker 1: of you at a rehearsal. But most of the time
Speaker 1: and he was really encouraging and inspiring for us, and
Speaker 1: he knew, you know, we we had it a little
Speaker 1: bit easier than his band, where you know, those guys
Speaker 1: are like you know, his band, and then they had
Speaker 1: it it was a little more intense. I witnessed a
Speaker 1: lot of those rehearsals, and that was a lot more intense,
Speaker 1: you know, he was he was softer with us. Did
Speaker 1: he ever direct any of those critiques at you, not verbally?
Speaker 1: But one time I got I got like my bubble
Speaker 1: popped real quick, real bad at a rehearsal man, So
Speaker 1: we had to learn a few songs of his, and
Speaker 1: he came in with his keyboard player too. Then they
Speaker 1: were like going to watch us play their songs. And
Speaker 1: I there was a song that didn't have another guitar part,
Speaker 1: it just had one guitar part. We had two guitar players.
Speaker 1: I came up with my own parts and was like
Speaker 1: he came in with the keyboard player and was like okay,
Speaker 1: and he was like an audition like go ahead, like
Speaker 1: played the song guys, and I was just like, man,
Speaker 1: you know this is it I'm going for Man, I'm
Speaker 1: playing my guitar part. I know it's not in that song,
Speaker 1: but I've just made up a part that I had
Speaker 1: made up and was playing that, adding this part to
Speaker 1: the song. And I kind of like looked up and
Speaker 1: saw his reaction, and he looked at the keyboard player
Speaker 1: and was like pointing at me, like you know, and
Speaker 1: like oh hell yeah, like he was feeling it. So man,
Speaker 1: I mean that my my like confidence level and ego
Speaker 1: was just like through the roof. So then I was
Speaker 1: like in my head. I'm like, man, I play whatever
Speaker 1: I want on Prince songs, like I make up my
Speaker 1: own shit, you know. Next song, I just like also
Speaker 1: started playing some other part that wasn't there and was like,
Speaker 1: dad and I hate. And at that point he was
Speaker 1: on stage list and he had his back to us,
Speaker 1: and he just threw up his hand and he goes
Speaker 1: stop and the whole band stops, and he like points
Speaker 1: to me without looking at me, he goes, what are
Speaker 1: you doing? I was like, Oh, I just came up
Speaker 1: with this part that that uh and he goes, don't
Speaker 1: play that play was in the song. I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: that was it. It was just like, you know, so
Speaker 1: he had that power like to either build you up
Speaker 1: and then also just bring you back down and be like, no,
Speaker 1: you got a ways to go, you know, like you're
Speaker 1: still in school. And do you feel like a better
Speaker 1: musician having gone through that? Yeah? I feel like that
Speaker 1: man that did so much for our development and my
Speaker 1: development personally in terms of confidence, you know, just knowing
Speaker 1: that like if you can hang in that room and
Speaker 1: hang anywhere, you know. I had this crazy experience and
Speaker 1: it was like kind of the night we technically got
Speaker 1: signed to our label was. We played in uh uh
Speaker 1: Minneapolis one Saint Paul technically, and this is early on
Speaker 1: in the band, and we just killed that show. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you remember that one. I remember that show.
Speaker 1: It was really good. Man. We had a sub on
Speaker 1: on keys. But I had this like I got chills.
Speaker 1: Not to get like too hokey about this, but man,
Speaker 1: I remember for some reason, we were just really killing
Speaker 1: it that night, and I got chills. We had a
Speaker 1: packe was a small club but it was packed. Remember
Speaker 1: getting chills and looking around and thinking like, man if
Speaker 1: it was almost like I could feel Prince And I
Speaker 1: was like thinking, if if he was alive, he would
Speaker 1: have been here. He would have known about this, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like I I really, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm getting chills talking about it. But I remember looking
Speaker 1: around and for some reason we were just on fire
Speaker 1: and thinking like he would have known about this, man
Speaker 1: and he would have cornered Eric, you know, and been
Speaker 1: infatuated with hearing about the songs, and you know, like
Speaker 1: I just had that feeling. I was just like I
Speaker 1: knew it. I know he would have known about this.
Speaker 1: That's almost the worst thing about Lose and Prince beyond
Speaker 1: the fact that we can never go to a Prince
Speaker 1: show again. Is that. You know, I'm not sure how
Speaker 1: many other people were as supportive of really new acts.
Speaker 1: I mean, what a lovely guy and so giving to it,
Speaker 1: like people who you know, none of us really deserve
Speaker 1: to be in his presence probably you know it's Prince,
Speaker 1: but it's just it's crazy, you know that he's not
Speaker 1: here to mentor oh my god. Yeah, and especially for
Speaker 1: someone like Eric, because I can only imagine, oh my god, dude. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know that one time we were going on stage
Speaker 1: somewhere with him at an award show and he was
Speaker 1: like in a different green room or something, and he
Speaker 1: called us over there to talk before and somebody was
Speaker 1: somebody made a joke. We were kind of we're pretty
Speaker 1: comfortable him after a while, and you could kind of
Speaker 1: joke if he was in a good mood, like to
Speaker 1: joke around. And somebody made a comment like, oh, this
Speaker 1: is where the stars are, and he pulled us on
Speaker 1: and he was like no, no, no, He was like,
Speaker 1: you guys are the stars today. You know. He was
Speaker 1: just really encouraging like that, and he loved he loved
Speaker 1: younger songwriters and you know people that out all that
Speaker 1: world of soul and rock and everything, you know, which
Speaker 1: is like I'm tell why I'm telling you. I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: I was getting chills that damn Like, I know he
Speaker 1: would have been here. I know he would have been
Speaker 1: lined up for Eric to like, you know, to talk
Speaker 1: to him and a rest in peace, absolutely rest in peace.
Speaker 1: One last thing I wanted to ask Eric about, did
Speaker 1: you have an American Idol audition? Yeah, before anything else.
Speaker 1: I think it was twenty twelve. It was in California,
Speaker 1: like thirty bucks to my name, after getting a round
Speaker 1: trip ticket to Houston, Texas. Actually I was supposed to
Speaker 1: go to Houston, Texas and then come back to LA
Speaker 1: and I did. But I didn't realize that the process
Speaker 1: of the road audition was like a three day long
Speaker 1: process before you'd even know if you'd make it, if
Speaker 1: you made it to Hollywood Week. I just thought that
Speaker 1: you know, you go and then you see the you
Speaker 1: see Jennifer Lopez and Rainy Paxon, and you know, you
Speaker 1: see the people and and then you you you know
Speaker 1: if you made it or not. But like I was
Speaker 1: out there with no money trying to like, you know,
Speaker 1: befriend people in the crowd, and I ended up meeting
Speaker 1: this uh, this guy who let me sleep in the
Speaker 1: back of that like his vehicle. Like we we like
Speaker 1: camped out between like a Burger king and a gas
Speaker 1: station in Houston, Texas. Uh, you know, his mom sent
Speaker 1: some money. We went shopping and you know, I made
Speaker 1: like a cardboard sign. It was bonkers. That's that was
Speaker 1: the craziest initiation to the music industry that I've ever
Speaker 1: I've ever had, And you know I made it. Jennifer
Speaker 1: Lopez liked me. I liked her too, and you know
Speaker 1: she she kind of you know, she worked, she worked
Speaker 1: it out for me to you know, get through. She
Speaker 1: really liked me. So then I got eliminated in Hollywood
Speaker 1: week So I mean the glory wasn't you know, lived
Speaker 1: too much further beyond actually just being able to make
Speaker 1: real friends. Like I'm still connected with a buddy of
Speaker 1: mine who also made it to Hollywood Weeks and he's
Speaker 1: Dylan Loza. His family took me in. I mean we
Speaker 1: were eating taco dinners, palm trees in the backyard. I'm
Speaker 1: swimming in the pool, playing video games with the brother
Speaker 1: and so you know, I always kind of you know,
Speaker 1: I tell people all the time, I'm just I'm very
Speaker 1: thankful because it just seems like anytime I've ever decided
Speaker 1: to take a risk, you know, like that, it just
Speaker 1: seems like things just kind of all things work together
Speaker 1: for good. You know, It's like it just feels, it
Speaker 1: feels good. And I believe. I'm a believer, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm I believe that when I decide to do something
Speaker 1: that has got to happen. You know, it must feel great. Man,
Speaker 1: with all those little all those people who kind of
Speaker 1: invested you in these ways along the way, and now
Speaker 1: you're you're where you're at. Man, that's just got to
Speaker 1: be so fulfilling, even for them. I mean, that's amazing.
Speaker 1: Being coming from a place where you know, we moved
Speaker 1: around a lot. It's it's kind of hard to like
Speaker 1: have some of the same friends and you know, keep
Speaker 1: certain things, that certain mementos. So it does me a
Speaker 1: lot that especially that the you know, that where where
Speaker 1: we are right now, because it's it's easy to find
Speaker 1: me for people who you know, I've had a really
Speaker 1: nice connection with. So that's that part of it's really dope. Cool. Well,
Speaker 1: thanks guys, really appreciate you guys taking the time. Thanks Brother,
Speaker 1: appreciate it man, Thanks Justin. Thanks to Eric and Adrian
Speaker 1: for taking the time to talk. We wish him to
Speaker 1: the best of luck at the grants. You can hear
Speaker 1: all of our favorite black Bomba songs on our playlist
Speaker 1: at broken record podcast dot com. It'd be sure to
Speaker 1: subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube dot com slash
Speaker 1: broken record Podcast. There you can find extended cuts of
Speaker 1: new and old eversides. Broken Record is produced with help
Speaker 1: from Leah Rose, Jason Gambrel, Martin Gonzalez, Eric Sandler, and
Speaker 1: it's executive produced by me a little bit. Broken Record
Speaker 1: is a production of Pushkin Industries and if you like
Speaker 1: Broken Record, please remember to share, rate, and review our
Speaker 1: show on your podcast s app The music expect any beats.
Speaker 1: I'm justin Richmond, Pace m