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| Guessing Burton met a brighter fate than this guy... |
[Ed - I looked into the Austin-based, 2020-darlings Black Pumas at the beginning of the year - e.g., before the shit hit the fan. Something in Spotify’s algorithm decided I loved them - strong word, but not far wrong; good band, great sound - which made them one of my accidental heavy repeats of 2020. But, because I buried them in one of those mash-up posts, I worked-up a stand-alone post for the Crash Course series.]
When a new band makes it “Grammy-nom-bid” out of the blue, a lot of outlets come a-callin’ to help the world play catch-up. When there’s not a lot of story to tell - Black Pumas came together only in 2017 - you wind up telling the same story over and over, whether to Rolling Stone, or to Q on CBC. It’s a good story, and that’s below, but the looser, name-dropping fiesta posted earlier this year by Interview Magazine reveals them as people and according to their inspirations better than anything else I read or watched. Now, the origin story.
Adrian Quesada was already established in Austin, Texas, and with a strong track record as a guitarist and producer behind him - e.g., 15 years of touring, several Grammy nominations, including a win with Grupo Fantasma (a taste), an invite to play Prince’s Glam Slam club, etc. After burning out on touring, he’d settled down into Austin, but still had the itch bad enough to work up the beginnings of some songs. That had him casting around for a new collaboration.
Eric Burton, meanwhile, grew up in the San Fernando Valley as a theater kid, but in a religious setting (when people use the phrase “secular music”…). Growing up in choir competitions (this part of the Interview…interview is charming) developed his voice and he knocked around acting a little (e.g., a bit role in the Keira Knightly/Mark Ruffalo vehicle, Begin Again) and flirted with college in his youth. He eventually gravitated to busking, starting on the Santa Monica Pier (where he did quite well; a couple hundred a night) before a road-trip with friends to Austin landed him at his final destination. Once he nailed down a popular Austin street corner, he started gathering notice. Burton, as it turns out was working up some material of his own (a strong cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” among them).
When a new band makes it “Grammy-nom-bid” out of the blue, a lot of outlets come a-callin’ to help the world play catch-up. When there’s not a lot of story to tell - Black Pumas came together only in 2017 - you wind up telling the same story over and over, whether to Rolling Stone, or to Q on CBC. It’s a good story, and that’s below, but the looser, name-dropping fiesta posted earlier this year by Interview Magazine reveals them as people and according to their inspirations better than anything else I read or watched. Now, the origin story.
Adrian Quesada was already established in Austin, Texas, and with a strong track record as a guitarist and producer behind him - e.g., 15 years of touring, several Grammy nominations, including a win with Grupo Fantasma (a taste), an invite to play Prince’s Glam Slam club, etc. After burning out on touring, he’d settled down into Austin, but still had the itch bad enough to work up the beginnings of some songs. That had him casting around for a new collaboration.
Eric Burton, meanwhile, grew up in the San Fernando Valley as a theater kid, but in a religious setting (when people use the phrase “secular music”…). Growing up in choir competitions (this part of the Interview…interview is charming) developed his voice and he knocked around acting a little (e.g., a bit role in the Keira Knightly/Mark Ruffalo vehicle, Begin Again) and flirted with college in his youth. He eventually gravitated to busking, starting on the Santa Monica Pier (where he did quite well; a couple hundred a night) before a road-trip with friends to Austin landed him at his final destination. Once he nailed down a popular Austin street corner, he started gathering notice. Burton, as it turns out was working up some material of his own (a strong cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” among them).
