Episode 991 - Anderson .Paak
Marc:all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fuckadelics what's happening i'm mark maron this is my podcast wtf welcome to it how's it going how was the game for you yesterday i have to be honest
Marc:And I've said this before without condescension.
Marc:It means nothing to me.
Marc:I should say it meant nothing to me.
Marc:But I am recording this Sunday hours before the big game that many of you spent your day enjoying, yelling about, eating things, judging commercials, you know, armchair quarterbacking, whatever, you know, doing opioids and missing half of it.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I don't know what you're.
Marc:What's your Super Bowl day looked like?
Marc:But I spent the day cooking.
Marc:And if everything went as planned yesterday, because it hasn't happened yet, I had a little birthday party for Sarah the painter here at the house.
Marc:And I cooked a lot of Indian food during the day.
Marc:I like to cook, man.
Marc:I mean, I know you know that I do if you listen to this, if you're still with me, but I like to when you have to cook for people and you want to try something new and the whole process of reading recipes, putting them together in your head, figuring out how they are supposed to work, what it's going to look like, what it's going to taste like.
Marc:It's very exciting because you can spend hours doing that.
Marc:And if you make a very complicated recipe,
Marc:And you spend hours doing it and you're very excited about it.
Marc:And then it doesn't taste quite good.
Marc:The intensity of the disappointment is profound to the point where sometimes you just throw the entire pot of whatever you made right in the garbage or disposal.
Marc:You know, like you're getting back at it.
Marc:I've had that happen.
Marc:Did I mention Anderson Pack is on the show today?
Marc:Anderson Pack is a hip-hop artist.
Marc:As you know, hip-hop is not necessarily my thing, but I have nothing against it.
Marc:If you look in my music, back before Apple Music, where you actually had to upload all your shit, I've got a lot of hip-hop in there.
Marc:But it's pretty mainstream stuff, a lot of Kanye, a lot of Jay-Z.
Marc:I've got some Pharrell in there.
Marc:But I go back.
Marc:I've got some Cypress Hills, some Ghetto Boys.
Marc:I've got the Wu-Tang.
Marc:I definitely have stuff.
Marc:I had open Mike Eagle here to sort of school me on the newer kind of alternative hip-hop.
Marc:I'm not adverse to it.
Marc:I enjoy it.
Marc:I listen to it.
Marc:I've got all the Kendrick records.
Marc:Yeah, I mean, I listen.
Marc:But it's not fundamentally my go to stuff.
Marc:Got some Gil Scott Heron, not theoretically, not class, not hip hop, but inspirational.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Kind of moved in that direction.
Marc:Kind of, you know, you know what I'm saying?
Marc:But like, as you know, when I talk to the Beastie Boys, I don't know my history.
Marc:I don't know any of where it came from or or how, but I enjoy it.
Marc:So Anderson Pack, I actually did a thing with him.
Marc:I had to apologize to him for that.
Marc:He was at an event that I hosted for Flea over at the Silver Lake Conservatory.
Marc:He was the headlining act.
Marc:And I didn't know who he was.
Marc:And I believe I brought him up as Andrew Pack.
Marc:So I'm going to set that straight with Mr. Pack.
Marc:But the fortunate thing about having Anderson on or having the opportunity to have him on, I mean, he is nominated for Best Rap Performance at the Grammy Awards, which is this Sunday, February 10th, for his single Bublin'.
Marc:And the new album Oxnard is out now, but he's only got like four or five records out.
Marc:So I was really able to get up to speed and enjoy it and get it.
Marc:And he's great.
Marc:He's a great artist.
Marc:And he's a guy who started out as a player.
Marc:I mean, like a player, like a musician, like a drummer.
Marc:I was excited to talk to him.
Marc:And I never know how it's going to go.
Marc:Um, I didn't really know him, but we had a great conversation.
Marc:So Anderson pack is my guest and it was, it was fun.
Marc:It was, I need these conversations, man.
Marc:If I, you know, I've been shooting glow and if I go without talking to people, like I did a couple of interviews yesterday and I just, I need them.
Marc:I, I can get way up into my head.
Marc:I can really spin some shit.
Marc:I can really spin, you know, existentially spin myself, corkscrew right into the dead center of the dark earth.
Marc:And, you know, it's just the nature of who I am, you know, and I don't want to bring anyone down with me.
Marc:And, you know, sometimes I'll do that in my personal life.
Marc:So, like, when I just talk to new people and engage in these things, I'm thrilled, you know,
Marc:to be out of myself and into somebody else's life and stories.
Marc:So it's been good lately.
Marc:I actually had a weird thing happen.
Marc:There's weird decisions we make.
Marc:I'm sort of hung up on a couple of things.
Marc:I was interviewing someone in here the other day.
Marc:Oh, before I get into that, first of all, my dates coming up at Dynasty Typewriter are almost sold out.
Marc:I have dates coming up on the February 10th.
Marc:These are Sundays, the 17th, the 24th, and March 17th at the Dynasty Typewriter here in L.A., but they're close to selling out.
Marc:You can go see if you can get tickets, but I think all those shows...
Marc:are about sold out i don't know about the shows in aspen march 23rd at the wheeler opera house uh i don't know where that's at or boulder the boulder theater on march 24th um i don't know i don't know where those are at but all my uk dates are selling very well if you're in the uk or ireland um those are coming up and they're out they're on sale now the lowry in uh
Marc:Salford England Royal Festival Hall in London the Lowry's April 4th Royal Festival Hall April 6th the Rep Theater in Birmingham England April 8th and the Vicar Street Vicar Street in Dublin on April 11th they're selling well but I think there's still tickets so so go grab those so that's done what else oh I'm not trying to hide anything from you people when you read about me
Marc:being attached to something, a movie or something.
Marc:You never know until these things are real when they're real.
Marc:Like I know I was in the Joker movie.
Marc:I know that I did that.
Marc:I know that I walked down a hallway a few times with Robert De Niro talking to him into a room where Joaquin Phoenix was.
Marc:And I know that happened.
Marc:I know I was on that set.
Marc:I don't know how much of that will make the movie.
Marc:You never know these things, but I know it'll happen.
Marc:There was an announcement about a movie that I don't even necessarily need to draw attention to because I don't know.
Marc:I don't know if it's going to happen or it's not.
Marc:So I'm not holding back.
Marc:I'll let you know when I know it's for real.
Marc:One thing I do know, and I don't want to give you too much information, is I had someone on my show, on this show, coming up.
Marc:And I did his show.
Marc:And that was a very big deal.
Marc:It's a very big deal.
Marc:And it's exciting.
Marc:There might be some hints of it out there, but I'm not able to promote it yet.
Marc:But it's very, you know, it's sort of a it's sort of a big fucking deal.
Marc:And that's all I'm going to tell you.
Marc:I don't want to give it away.
Marc:And that's coming up.
Marc:And that reminds me of what I was going to tell you.
Marc:So I had a guest in here.
Marc:And it's weird how, you know, sometimes you're trying to do the right thing and it could turn into a disaster.
Marc:I had a guest in here and I finish up with her in here.
Marc:And right as I turn the mics off, I hear my fucking fire alarm going on.
Marc:in the house so i'm like wait here let me go check this out i run into the house i run all over the i smell for smoke no smoke i run all over the downstairs i go upstairs look for smoke smell no smoke i run down into the crawl space in the basement where there's a smoke alarm smell no smoke no i'm like what the fuck is happening i turn it off with my finger the fire trucks are not i don't think they've been dispatched i have no idea how long it's been
Marc:And I can't figure it out.
Marc:I say goodbye to my guest.
Marc:I go back into the house and then I go into the bathroom downstairs and I realized I had used it.
Marc:And out of respect for the possibility that my guests might need to use it, I lit a candle.
Marc:And that's what could have had the entire fire department at my house.
Marc:The fact that I went to the bathroom and I wanted to be nice, it could have cost the city thousands of dollars to dispatch.
Marc:It cost me a taxpayer.
Marc:It didn't happen.
Marc:They didn't show up at my door all ready to go, and I didn't have to say, yeah, I'm sorry.
Marc:I took a shit and just lit a smelly candle.
Marc:I'm sorry.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But I feel better and I think I did the right thing.
Marc:But you guys, I hope you... I'm sorry.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So you can just get back on the truck.
Marc:But didn't happen.
Marc:The other thing I was thinking about, if I could, is denial.
Marc:I'm sort of hung up on this because...
Marc:It seems to be a problem in the culture we live in.
Marc:I'm trying to assess these larger problems through my own lens to understand myself that people will buy what they believe, even if it's bullshit, despite facts.
Marc:We all have the mechanism for that.
Marc:And I got a little obsessed with this the other day because I bought some fish.
Marc:I bought a nice piece of steelhead, wild steelhead.
Marc:I ate half of it.
Marc:And then a couple of days later, I was looking forward all day to cooking the other half of my slab of steelhead fish.
Marc:And I get home, and I don't have anything else to eat.
Marc:That's going to be my dinner.
Marc:And I open it up, and it's a little discolored in some places.
Marc:This is fish.
Marc:Steelhead is almost a salmon-y looking fish.
Marc:And it was kind of gray in one area.
Marc:But I was like, is that fat?
Marc:I mean, that's probably fat.
Marc:I don't remember noticing it.
Marc:And then there was a little spot that seemed to be growing, like it was something on the fish.
Marc:And I'm like, that's probably, I don't know.
Marc:That's probably all right.
Marc:So, and I smelled it and it didn't smell to me in that moment to be terrible.
Marc:So I'm going to follow through and cook this fucking fish because I want to believe it's okay.
Marc:And I'm cooking it and I like, I slice off the little, the little patch of weird thing on it.
Marc:You know, the, the spot that is something it's fish.
Marc:It's not cheese, but I'm like, you know, it didn't smell bad.
Marc:And
Marc:there's a gray patch on it i mean what the fuck is wrong with me i wanted so badly to eat that fish and for it to be good that i cooked it all the way through i put it on a plate i took one bite and i spit it out and threw it away and i said what the fuck is wrong with me why would i let myself you know do that i knew in my heart that it was bad right when i opened the goddamn wrapper
Marc:That I was wrapped in, but I wanted to believe.
Marc:But fortunately, today I do not have food poisoning because of my belief.
Marc:Or worse, some sort of botulism.
Marc:Could have fucked my whole brain up.
Marc:I could have botulized my brain into complete stupidity and next week I might believe Pizzagate.
Marc:The other thing I was thinking about in talking about false equivalence
Marc:I'm a little obsessed with the idea of that, too, on a personal level.
Marc:You know, false equivalence is a tactic that, you know, primarily shitty people use or powers that be, you know, to to justify shitty behavior.
Marc:It's like if a factory is polluting a river and the townspeople are trying to shut it down and the factory owner is like, wait a minute, there are bums that that that live near the river and they pee in the water all the time.
Marc:Why isn't the town doing anything about that?
Marc:Right.
Marc:False equivalence or Trump saying that the people who were beating up Nazis were just as bad as the Nazis.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Or another example, Al Gore wants to stop climate change, but he flies on a plane is another classic of false equivalence.
Marc:It is a way somehow to get regular people again to feel like they're making a point and that they're smart in condemning progress or doing things that might save us.
Marc:As opposed to siding with monsters, both corporate and human, for the ongoing destruction of all things that we've grown used to.
Marc:But again, I'm looking at myself and where does the where does the appetite for that come from?
Marc:And I think we all use some version of it, you know, in the form of rationalizing our place in life that, you know, if you're dissatisfied about anything.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Right.
Marc:which we all are on some level, but it can get big.
Marc:Sometimes it's small, sometimes it's big.
Marc:I think people do it every day.
Marc:I could have been a rock star if I just bought an amp.
Marc:I could have been a rock star if I just spent a little time with an instrument of some kind.
Marc:I could have been a rock star if I knew how to sing.
Marc:They're somehow self-jilted or slightly entitled or bitter or cynical or lazy or dumb justifications for our own failures.
Marc:We all do it.
Marc:I could have been a painter if I'd just taken those classes in college.
Marc:But now I don't do anything.
Marc:I don't do anything.
Marc:I just like I sit around and see other people and I judge myself against them because I could do almost anything that anybody else can do.
Marc:You know, even billionaires, if I just applied myself somehow, you probably couldn't have done it.
Marc:There's no reason to make those comparisons if you're not going to do it or you didn't do it, you know, other than to justify your own anger, misery, cynicism or bitterness.
Marc:But those I think that kind of mindset, if you live in that stuff,
Marc:False equivalencies are very satisfying.
Marc:Even if you're on the wrong fucking team.
Marc:Or you're fighting for the wrong shit.
Marc:It's like, yeah, fuck that.
Marc:What about the bums who pee?
Marc:Huh?
Marc:Dummies.
Marc:Still a lot of emails coming in about the Steely Dan business.
Marc:Yeah, again, you know, I've listened to, I had Hey19 stuck in my head for a couple of days, but I'm not in a rabbit hole.
Marc:I'm just integrating it into the things I no longer judge and now understand and may even enjoy a little bit.
Marc:But this is an interesting one because maybe I don't know what I'm putting out in the world.
Marc:I got an email that subject line, what the fuck, Mark, dot, dot, dot.
Marc:If only I'd known you didn't like Steely Dan the last two years.
Marc:And then the email, this changes everything, really, not really, from a 65-year-old regular listener who is over all the hand-wringing about aging.
Marc:You're kind of boring us with it at this point.
Marc:Catherine.
Marc:Am I hand-wringing?
Marc:I feel like I'm accepting aging rather well.
Marc:And how is this connected to the Steely Dan thing?
Marc:I'm not wringing my hands.
Marc:I'm experiencing it.
Marc:And I'm not freaking out about it.
Marc:I don't know what you're projecting, but you are 10 years older than me.
Marc:So maybe you're seeing something I'm not seeing.
Marc:I hope when I'm your age that I can be where you're at.
Marc:And if it's too much, Catherine...
Marc:You know, I do like Steely Dan now and I'm okay with my age.
Marc:Seriously.
Marc:All right.
Marc:Anderson pack.
Marc:It was great.
Marc:I, I, again, like I never know how these things are going to go.
Marc:And, and, um, I was excited cause I enjoyed the music, but I didn't know how he would be.
Marc:I didn't, you know, you know, I never know how anyone's going to be.
Marc:And, and, uh, it was, uh,
Marc:I thought it was a great conversation.
Marc:As I mentioned before, he's nominated for the Best Rap Performance at the Grammy Awards this Sunday, February 10th, for his single Bubbling.
Marc:And his new record, Oxnard, is available wherever you get music.
Marc:It's a good record.
Marc:Malibu's a good record.
Marc:Venice is a good record.
Marc:And he's a good guy.
Marc:So this is me talking to Anderson .
Marc:You know, honestly, I think I owe you an apology.
Marc:Why?
Marc:Do you remember we were on a show together at the Silver Lake Conservatory?
Marc:I was hosting that show.
Guest:Chili Peppers.
Marc:Yeah, a couple years ago.
Marc:And I brought you up as Andrew Pack.
Marc:Story of my life.
Marc:But like, I'm a comic, you know, and I know that's like the worst when someone, you're just waiting there to go on and some guy just mangles your fucking name and you're like, oh man.
Guest:You gotta work your way up from there.
Marc:Just disrespect right out of the gate.
Guest:I am a Grammy nominated SoundCloud artist.
Guest:Andrew Pack, ladies and gentlemen.
Guest:Andrew Pack.
Guest:Andrew Pack.
Guest:It's better than, man.
Guest:yeah no i guess i i don't know if you've gotten it wasn't i missed it man i was i was going through a lot that day you were yeah i had my my uh my newest son he was born that day that day yeah so i guess you didn't give a shit yeah i didn't give a shit you didn't even notice me yeah i was just you know happy to be out out of the hospital for a second and oh how many do you have i have two okay yeah he he's uh he's one and then my oldest is eight
Marc:Oh, and that happened that day, and you still showed up for the benefit.
Marc:I had to do it, man.
Marc:Did you mention that?
Marc:I don't think you did.
Marc:I think you just got in it.
Marc:I think you got on the drums pretty quick.
Marc:Yeah, I got on the drums real quick.
Guest:How'd you get involved with that organization?
Guest:I met Flea.
Guest:Of course, I'm a huge fan of the Chili Peppers.
Guest:I think I reached out to Flea one time on Twitter or something, and he was a big fan.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:We just started chopping it up from there, yeah.
Guest:Then we met over in South America, and we partied with them.
Guest:You met in South America?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Just hanging out?
Guest:We were on a tour at Lollapalooza in South America.
Marc:They have a Lollapalooza in South America?
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Can you believe that?
Marc:Every time I hear about shows in South America, there's always like 900,000 people there.
Guest:Oh my God.
Marc:Like you do a show and there's a million people.
Marc:You talk about real fans.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, was it like that?
Marc:Where were you?
Marc:In Buenos Aires?
Guest:I was in Brazil, Argentina.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Chile.
Guest:And they come out.
Guest:They come out, man.
Guest:They were waiting at the hotel, you know, the whole thing.
Guest:Yeah, playing arenas?
Guest:No, it was like this big outdoor situation.
Guest:But yeah, I've been playing arenas lately, though.
Guest:That's crazy.
Guest:I'm in that weird middle ground where... That's a middle ground?
Guest:Well, no, no, no.
Guest:What's next?
Guest:What I mean?
Guest:Entire states?
Guest:Well, no, yeah, seriously.
Guest:But, you know, it's like they can't put, they can't hold all the fans in like a, you know, 4,000, 3,000 seater.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:You can't necessarily go to the 10,000, 12,000, so you kind of have to, you're in this kind of- Oh, so what's an arena?
Guest:Well, I guess it's... I thought arenas were like... 18, 20,000.
Guest:Me too, but I think they kind of, you know, arenas, whatever... You're in the smaller arenas.
Guest:Okay, so you're working up to large arenas.
Guest:Yeah, like 10K, you know, you're working it up, man.
Marc:It's like I do small theaters, like 800, 900 seats.
Marc:You're like, I'm in small arenas.
Marc:I'm more into miniature arenas.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:We're doing a miniature arena.
Marc:I noticed on the new record that you sampled Rodney Dangerfield.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:I love that kind of comedy, man.
Marc:Out of nowhere, I'm just listening to it.
Marc:I'm like, holy fuck, that's Rodney.
Marc:That's right, man.
Marc:One of the best.
Marc:How do you come up with a Rodney sample?
Guest:You're just sitting around?
Guest:I mean, I came up on that.
Guest:I grew up watching...
Guest:Like MTV, and I remember he would be on MTV sometimes.
Guest:I remember he had that movie Ladybugs where he made his son dress in drag to win the soccer tournament.
Guest:I don't even remember that.
Guest:I remember back to school.
Guest:His son was a sick soccer player, but yeah, I can't remember the premise, but somehow he put his wig on his son so that they can win the tournament.
Guest:And that stuck in your head?
Guest:Yeah, and then I just remember, like, you know, we just love watching all the old clips of him and, like, comedians like Andrew Dice Clay.
Guest:Yeah, sure.
Guest:It's just no setup.
Guest:It's just, like, boom, you know?
Guest:Yeah, jokes.
Guest:Bing, bing, bing.
Guest:I love it.
Marc:Yeah, well, I think they were, I think Andrew Dice Clay was on the Rodney Dangerfield, like, Young Comedians show.
Marc:Oh, he put them on.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, but you're just sitting around the studio and you decide, no, we need a Rodney joke.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:I'm always looking for little pieces like that to put in between the songs, but the thing that came in with this album was sample clearances, which I had no clue what was until...
Guest:I got on a major label and now I just can't throw little clips of surf clips or little random excerpts because they want publishing or they want 30,000.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Shouts out to Ronnie Dangerfield's wife.
Guest:She liked the song, so she cleared it, you know.
Guest:But that was the only one that fucking ended up making the album because everything else, you know, was so expensive.
Marc:Oh, really?
Marc:So you actually, you had to send her the song?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:So I got all these people, you know, when you're doing your album, you know, once it's done.
Guest:Which song was it?
Guest:It was Trippie.
Guest:Oh, okay, okay.
Guest:Featuring J. Cole.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:And I put that on there.
Guest:I love what he's saying, because, you know, I can relate to that, you know?
Guest:He's talking about, he's no ladies, man.
Guest:Like, you know, one time a girl told me, come over, there's nobody home.
Guest:I went over, there was nobody home.
Guest:There's nobody home.
Guest:That was fire.
Guest:And then a soul song comes in.
Guest:It's so awesome.
Guest:The J. Cole's on that song.
Guest:And I remember when we were making the song, he was talking about how when he went to, in high school, he was the big man on campus.
Guest:He had all the ladies.
Guest:And then when he went to college, this big college, he was a nobody.
Guest:He didn't play ball or nothing.
Guest:And all the other guys were getting all the girls.
Marc:He knew the feeling.
Marc:Yeah, we could relate.
Marc:So it set the tone.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:I just love that Rodney's wife had to sit there and listen to it.
Guest:Yeah, she's like, I'm feeling this.
Guest:All right, go ahead, man.
Guest:30,000, we'll give it to you.
Guest:30,000!
Guest:Nah, nah, nah.
Guest:That's the most that record's ever made.
Guest:And you know, he was on the... Carson?
Guest:Yeah, it was at Carson, yeah.
Marc:You didn't have to clear it with NBC?
Guest:Dude, I hope they clear it.
Guest:I hope they do due diligence.
Marc:I'm pretty sure no one's coming after me, so... So that's a real problem, though, in terms of, like, you really... It can be a problem.
Marc:You used to not worry about it?
Guest:about it and just take the hit I mean didn't people come after you well you we weren't making any money enough for people to really care it wasn't really on the radar enough so which records like before Venice Malibu Venice oh even though even yeah those were those had all kinds of little excerpts and samples and stuff and some some people came back but what happens if you don't make the attempt to clear it that's when people get pissed so you don't clear it and you put it out and you put out for sale and
Guest:Then that's when you have people coming out the woodworks like, I want all my bread.
Guest:You made a lot of money from them and all this stuff.
Guest:So not everybody has stamina to go to court and all this stuff.
Guest:And sometimes you can work it out.
Guest:But it's just so much easier to do that stuff before.
Guest:But then it takes time.
Guest:And these are all the new things I never thought about.
Marc:Didn't you have some hits on Malibu?
Marc:You did.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But you didn't have any samples in there?
Guest:I mean, we definitely had some samples, but we were, the clearing process was just, you know, we did a lot of the clearing after the fact.
Guest:Hey, man, what's up?
Marc:I gotta ask you something.
Marc:I mean, don't get mad.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:Exactly, man.
Guest:So my lawyers will not have it.
Guest:I've all been a fan of your shit, and I used some of it.
Guest:Is it cool, man?
Guest:I mean, three tours later, I just got back from South America.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Everything's lovely on this end, but I just want to know it's like... But I guess that like, I mean, you don't lean too heavy on it.
Marc:I mean, you do, like, you got a real band.
Guest:Yeah, that's what we're about.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, it's like a typical... Bringing the bands back to hip-hop.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Is that happening?
Marc:Is that a movement?
Guest:I mean, I'm pushing for it, man.
Guest:There's no one playing an instrument, really, that's coming out of hip-hop, per se.
Guest:And rock and roll, God bless its soul, and it did so much for years.
Guest:But now the biggest genre, everything is revolving around hip-hop now.
Marc:But you're saying that this is relatively new to just use a full-on band?
Guest:Well, I think hip hop in the core of its foundation was built off of not having instruments, not being able to afford instruments, so working with what you have.
Guest:So we want to make a song, but we don't necessarily have keyboards or anything, so we're going to make loops from vinyls, and we're going to put two
Guest:two turntables together and literally make our own loops in the park and have a party and we're going to start busting over that.
Guest:So I think the foundation of it was always live music because they were rapping over these breakbeats, funk and soul and even like new wave and all kinds of different stuff, whatever was out.
Guest:And so all those were real instruments.
Guest:You know what I'm saying?
Guest:Right.
Guest:So, but I think now it's like, you know, people now when they see instruments, it's almost like, yuck.
Guest:Really?
Guest:They want to see light shows and they want to see like.
Guest:They just don't care.
Guest:Content.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And they want to make sure you look cool.
Guest:And, you know, what's he dressing like?
Guest:And is he sexy or she?
Guest:I don't think all music is like that.
Guest:But I'm saying like, that's a big part of what we're competing against.
Guest:You know, big music.
Marc:Well, I mean, no one's really that interested in the guy stepping up doing a guitar solo anymore.
Guest:They don't care.
Guest:How many years did we do that, though?
Guest:Like you said, you're a blues guy, you're a rock and roll guy.
Guest:Those dudes ran the industry forever.
Guest:Yeah, no, I get it.
Marc:There's a limit to guitar solos, I'll admit.
Marc:There comes a point where you're like, all right, let's move on a bit.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:But there's a limit to a dude just, you know, screaming on a mic in front of a DJ too.
Guest:So, you know, that's where I'm at when I'm like, I come from, I started playing drums first.
Guest:That's my foundation.
Marc:But you grew up in Oxnard, so it took you two cities to get to your home city?
Marc:Yeah, you had to make some money first.
Marc:I couldn't come back broke.
Marc:No, but I mean the titles.
Marc:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Marc:You thought, well, Venice and Malibu, people are going to want, they're interested in that, and then you're going to throw Oxnard in when you're a little more comfortable.
Marc:Let's see.
Marc:I got more eyes on me, so, you know, I got to put the city on.
Marc:Venice, Malibu, Oxnard.
Guest:yeah but but like so you grew up that how far i don't even like i don't have a is that by uh irvine where is it no absolutely not i got a one-on-one north and you just keep going until you start saying where the fuck am i you still until it starts to smell funny oh sorry yeah that's all right yeah just yeah you hit the one starts to smell yeah yeah what the hell is that smell and that's where i'm that's oxnard yeah why is it smell like that it's produce it's ran by produce so you got cilantro strawberries onions oh that's it anything can grow there well that's
Marc:It's a good smell, that's not terrible.
Marc:No, it's great, but if you're used to... But if they're manuring it, then it's bad, right?
Marc:So you get some cow shit smell too, or no?
Marc:Yeah, absolutely, you better.
Marc:How'd you end up in Oxnard?
Marc:How'd your folks end up there?
Marc:Oh man, well, our story starts in Korea.
Marc:Oh, we're gonna follow your tats?
Marc:We're gonna follow the story.
Marc:You got your whole life story tattooed on your arm?
Marc:Oh, so far.
Marc:I got it up to a certain point.
Marc:Looks like he's been there for a while.
Marc:You're going to have to add some.
Guest:Yeah, right?
Guest:He made it look kind of vintage, right?
Guest:Son of a bitch.
Guest:It's not vintage?
Guest:You charge me fucking $5,000 to make it look old.
Guest:How old is that?
Guest:I just got it.
Guest:Come on.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Oh, I'm sorry.
Guest:No, no, I'm just cursing out the tattoo artist, I guess.
Marc:It looks like that sort of old sailor style green there.
Marc:Like he's been there for a while.
Guest:Like I did spend a couple trips.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:It's weathered.
Marc:So it starts in Korea with a yin-yang.
Guest:That's a flag?
Guest:That's a Korean flag, yeah.
Guest:My mom was born in Korea during the war, so she was an abandoned kid.
Guest:Her and my uncle, they pursued maybe someone in the service, and my grandmother.
Guest:Oh, so your grandmother swept with an American GI kind of deal?
Guest:Perhaps, maybe a sailor, and raised up my mom and my uncle for as long as they could, and then abandoned them.
Guest:And from what I hear, there was a mass like, I don't know if it's not genocide, but they were going around and kind of getting rid of all the mixed breed kids at this time.
Marc:That the Americans left behind.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Really?
Guest:In South Korea?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Well, this is during the war.
Guest:So it was for grabs.
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:Got it.
Guest:But yes, so then there was a dude that went around and actually found my mom and my uncle and got them to an orphanage.
Guest:In Korea?
Guest:In Korea.
Guest:At which point my adopted grandparents adopted my mom and my uncle and got them back over to Los Angeles Compton at the time.
Guest:And so my grandmother and my grandfather were also in the military, so they were flying around and traveling and picked up some kids.
Guest:Did you have a relationship with them?
Guest:They both passed.
Guest:Before you were... Yeah, before I was born.
Guest:Oh.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:but compton that's where your mom grew up the compton she grew up in compton los angeles 50s this is when compton's pretty much just like farm territory suburb right uh wasn't even connected unincorporated yeah it wasn't even right i don't even consider los angeles right right so it was primarily african-american no it was a suburb it was whites you know um really no one was really out there
Marc:It was like farms.
Guest:It was farms.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But but it was a suburb.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:If you had if you were out there, you were you know, you were doing pretty good.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And so she stayed out there and pretty much was raised in L.A.
Guest:up until her teens and then eventually moved to to Oxnard, Ventura County on her own.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:With with her with her with her dad and her mom.
Guest:Oh, so they all moved out of Compton to Oxnard.
Guest:Were they in the farm business?
Guest:My grandfather was a pastor.
Guest:He started pastoring after he got out of the service and started a church in Oxnard.
Guest:So they all moved out there.
Guest:That's where he found his flock?
Guest:Yes, Lord.
Guest:He found his flock.
Guest:He found his congregation, if you will.
Guest:You can tell you never been to church.
Guest:It's a congregation.
Guest:Oh, who calls it a flock?
Marc:I didn't make that up.
Marc:You knew what I was talking about.
Marc:Yes, I did.
Marc:Yeah, his congregation.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:He found a place where he could peddle his God wares.
Peddle.
Guest:yeah so they're in oxnard work the jesus hustle work the jesus uh in you and me yeah spread the good word yeah of the gospel uh-huh uh he also wrote poetry he had some poetry books yeah was he good he had a way with words yeah do you have those books uh i do yeah i do was it good it was good stuff was it religious um yeah it was but it was you know you know smooth yeah
Guest:Did you put any of that in the songs?
Guest:Any of that on Oxnard?
Kidding me?
Guest:Kidding me?
Guest:So they got to Oxnard and she was out there.
Guest:She met my pops.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Now my pops was also in the Navy.
Guest:That's the other side of your arm?
Guest:My pops used to work up on the fighter jets.
Guest:I don't know if you see that.
Guest:He's got the fighter jet right there.
Marc:Yeah, it's fighter jet.
Marc:I got it.
Marc:So you got Korea on one side of the arm and this one.
Guest:My pops was a twin from Philadelphia.
Guest:Philly.
Guest:From Philly, yep.
Guest:So he grew up in Philly.
Guest:Was he flying them or fixing them?
Guest:He was fixing them.
Guest:Mm-hmm.
Guest:Fixing Jets in during Vietnam.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:Yes, I believe he was.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:In Philly.
Guest:Well, he was stationed out in Korea as well for a little bit and then eventually went back to Port Wainimi, which is the base where I'm from.
Guest:They met out there.
Guest:Oh, so it's on the water?
Guest:It must be.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yeah, it's a beach town.
Marc:I didn't realize that.
Marc:I'm an idiot, so it's a beach town.
Guest:I mean, I should know a little bit.
Marc:I don't even know where the Inland Empire is, really.
Marc:I.E.?
Marc:Yeah, I'm not even sure.
Guest:Riverside.
Guest:Okay, all right.
Guest:There's not much going on.
Marc:I don't go west.
Marc:I wouldn't leave this house if I was you.
Marc:I would take mushrooms and I would stay here.
Marc:Well, the mushrooms are behind me, but maybe, maybe I'll leave it open.
Marc:I've done them before, it's just not here.
Marc:But I think I saw this years ago.
Marc:I saw this house when I was on mushrooms.
Guest:Yeah?
Marc:Yeah, come full circle.
Marc:Isn't it crazy how God will show you a little glimpse of your life?
Guest:Are mushrooms part of your process?
Guest:No, I put that behind me as well.
Guest:You did?
Guest:Nah, I mean, I'll do, you know, it depends.
Guest:The natural stuff, yeah, you know.
Guest:Some people will do it just to clean out the pipes.
Guest:Yeah, it's called like a reset.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:When you take it, it's like, oh, yeah, I needed that.
Marc:But then I meet these crazy cats who are like, you know, some of these dudes are doing these micro doses of acid.
Marc:No, that's too much.
Marc:But they say they don't feel it, but they're doing it every day and they look a little jangly, you know, kind of wide open.
Marc:They're fried.
Yeah.
Marc:A little bit.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But they're like, I'm not depressed.
Marc:I'm like, yeah, but you're not even here, bro.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:Like, do you know what today is?
Marc:Okay, so how many kids in your family?
Marc:You're growing up in Oxnard.
Marc:Your dad's like out of the military, on the pension.
Guest:Yep.
Guest:My mom, this is, by the time she got to me and my little sister, it was her second one.
Guest:So her first husband, she had my two older sisters.
Guest:And then she said, done with you.
Guest:Boom, boom.
Guest:He's out.
Guest:He's out.
Guest:Got this dude from the Navy from Philly.
Guest:Boom, boom.
Guest:Had me and my little sister.
Guest:And then she was done with him.
Guest:And I had a stepdad for a little bit.
Guest:Oh, yeah?
Guest:Yeah, and that didn't last too long.
Guest:What happened to your real dad?
Guest:My pops, he died.
Guest:He passed away, I want to say 2006.
Guest:Did you have a relationship with him?
Guest:I didn't have the... When I was seven years old, he went off to prison.
Guest:He got really addicted to drugs and went to prison for assault and battery on my mom.
Guest:And he went away after that for about 14 years.
Guest:Do you remember that?
Guest:Did you have to live through that shit?
Guest:I did remember it.
Guest:I don't remember anything other than...
Guest:When it actually happened, I was getting babysitted.
Guest:We were chilling, and we heard screaming.
Guest:I went outside, and he was on top of my mom.
Guest:There was blood everywhere in the streets.
Guest:He was just like, go back in the house.
Guest:He ran back in the house, and that was the last time I saw him.
Guest:Go back in the house, but he's doing it out in the front yard?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:He wanted the neighborhood to see, but not you?
Guest:I guess he thought he didn't know that his kids were there.
Guest:So when we came outside, and we were just like, Dad, what's going on?
Guest:Because before that, I thought everything was straight.
Guest:My mom was really good at keeping...
Guest:The dog business away from the kids.
Guest:What was he on?
Guest:What was he strung out on?
Guest:You know, I think my mom, she was a really bad alcoholic.
Guest:I don't know exactly what drug.
Guest:I'm pretty sure it might have been like, you know, maybe crack, maybe cocaine, maybe some other shit.
Guest:But I think honestly it was just the wrong influences, you know?
Guest:Yeah, Adam's my...
Guest:Bad crowd.
Guest:Blues.
Guest:The blues, man.
Guest:He went straight up.
Guest:Bad crowd, you know?
Guest:And then when you got the blues, it really was, man.
Guest:He got kicked out of the Navy for weed or something.
Guest:So he had the blues.
Guest:Yeah, he had the blues.
Guest:Philly style.
Guest:Philly style, man.
Guest:So it was downhill after that.
Guest:If he couldn't work on the planes and stuff, he wasn't.
Guest:right so he went to prison and then you didn't see him I didn't see him after that and then when he got out we kept in touch for a little bit but I think he knew he was about to pass so he was really adamant about trying to get in touch with me but um I was you know doing my thing yeah and and just getting into music but I was I was talking to him we talked a few times did that feel like closure I mean it did yeah on both of ours on both our parts so you had that
Guest:Yeah, I was just like, you know, I love you, man.
Guest:And I was older now, so I kind of see how it is when you grow up and anything can happen in life.
Guest:So it's like, if you're still alive, you're like, yeah, man.
Guest:Sorry about that whole shit.
Marc:I was thinking about this today, like how many lives I've lived.
Marc:Like, you know, you got one life, but, you know, if you've lived in a couple different places, you start to realize that you have more than one in a way.
Marc:So is your mom still around?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, that's nice.
Guest:Yeah, man.
Guest:So she gets to see your success.
Guest:She's got a crazy story, too.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:Your stepdad was all right?
Guest:Yeah, my stepdad was cool.
Guest:It's kind of a twisted situation with that, too.
Guest:But my mom and my stepdad ended up going to prison as well.
Guest:For what?
Guest:So when I was in my senior year, they both went into prison for security.
Guest:Fraud?
Guest:I don't know if it's security.
Guest:It might be security fraud.
Guest:They got caught up with it.
Guest:Pretty much, long story short, they weren't paying taxes.
Guest:They owed a bunch of money.
Guest:Blue collar shit in Ventura County.
Guest:But they gave them a crazy sentence like,
Guest:15, and this is the first offender, but they had to serve seven and a half.
Guest:Holy shit.
Guest:Exactly, so one of those situations.
Guest:They both served seven and a half years?
Guest:My stepdad served one year or less, and it's because he started running his mouth and trying to get deals and stuff.
Guest:throwing your mom under the bus yeah pretty much yeah so we lost connection after that during that whole time i think that's earned he earned that yeah for sure but you know fuck it you know um i've never been to prison well good and so you don't have to go i don't know what the fuck's going on in his mind but i don't think that was the best choice i don't talk to him too much but i love him you know like i love him for for what he did for being around you know for that time when my pops i
Guest:wasn't there, and then my mom got with him, and then he was a male figure that was around.
Guest:I thought he was an asshole, but he was around.
Guest:But they both go away when you're in high school?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So who's watching you?
Marc:My sisters.
Marc:Oh, they're older.
Guest:Yeah, my two older sisters are still married, and they quit what they're doing.
Guest:They come back and take me and my little sister, and we all kind of live together for a little bit until I turn 18, and then I go off.
Marc:And do the thing?
Guest:Yes, and I started my flock.
Marc:I joined my flock.
Marc:You found your flock, your congregation.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:When do you start with the music?
Marc:Because you started, you weren't doing old style hip hop when you were in high school, right?
Marc:You were playing?
Marc:Hip hop was everything.
Marc:It was everything.
Guest:Since I was six years old, it ran my world.
Guest:It did.
Guest:It was everything.
Guest:Yeah, like Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Tupac, all these people that was along with Nirvana and Offspring and Foo Fighters.
Guest:I'm 33, so I'm like an MTV kid.
Guest:So you got it all.
Guest:This was the music of life.
Guest:Right, everybody.
Guest:There's no color lines.
Guest:Yeah, when you went to school, it's like, who knew every word of the song?
Guest:That was what we did.
Guest:Whatever song.
Marc:It wasn't like you didn't have to pick sides.
Guest:No, no, no.
Marc:We were all listening to the same thing.
Marc:Isn't that weird?
Marc:That's what MTV did, isn't it?
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:It really sort of brought everything together.
Guest:It was the channel, if you will.
Guest:This is the portal.
Guest:If it's coming through here, it's late.
Guest:It's dope.
Guest:We're playing stuff.
Guest:Now there's all kinds of different channels.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But at that time, I never really thought about it like that.
Marc:You have R&B people.
Marc:You have rock people.
Marc:But it seemed like when I was a kid, before MTV, you had your rock people.
Marc:You had your disco people.
Marc:But they were different worlds.
Marc:And it seems like I never really thought about it.
Marc:But MTV sort of...
Guest:brought it all together i mean whether you agree with the the premise of the thing yeah it was in your face yeah but it was all different so you could you were exposed to everything yeah i also grew up in so like socal west coast kid yeah you know the the people around me were into a lot of listening to everything sure chili peppers yeah uh these these like the my teachers you know like even in school like
Guest:you know, what's, Counting Crows, like, you know, REM, like, these are what my teachers were listening to, you know, like, and they would play the shit for us.
Guest:And those were the cool teachers.
Guest:Yeah, like, let me put you into some shit.
Guest:Do you know REM?
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:Everybody hurts.
Guest:Now fill out your scantron and turn it in.
Guest:That was the English teacher?
Guest:You thought that was English?
Marc:Oh, English literally.
Guest:Yeah, it was.
Marc:Seriously, man.
Marc:I don't see no math teacher giving you the R&M.
Guest:Nah, the English teachers were the ones.
Marc:Sure, sure.
Marc:History maybe.
Marc:The classes that required a little individuality in their presentation.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:You get to see a little bit of taste what they're working with.
Guest:So when did you start playing drums though?
Guest:I started playing drums when I was 12.
Guest:So yeah, I was into hip hop doing stuff, beating around on the tables and just beat boxing and break dancing and everything.
Guest:And then eventually I was like, I want to play drums.
Guest:And I got into middle school and that was the only thing that they had left to play.
Guest:I joined a school band.
Guest:I wanted to play sax.
Guest:No more saxophones.
Guest:That's interesting.
Guest:So you wanted to play like the old style.
Guest:I wanted to serenade and I wanted to get some chicks.
Marc:Yeah, with the saxophone.
Guest:Sax, dude.
Guest:I could pull up anywhere, play.
Guest:What was being played in the house?
Guest:Frankie Beverly and Mays, Earth, One and Fire, Curtis Mayfield, New Edition, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder.
Guest:Stevie Wonder was huge in my house.
Guest:Prince...
Guest:a little bit but it was kind of like you know that box that you that room you go like don't ever go in there yeah you know that was the that was like prince in my mom yeah like he's weird oh really but but she liked it yeah you know yeah it was it was like dang it was kind of like you you don't go there you knew it was there you could see the cover for sure yeah yeah and my stepdad that that was one thing though he was for sure good for he was a prince fanatic so that was how i introduced the prince so
Guest:And that was unique for the time, the way he put music together.
Guest:Prince?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Are you kidding me?
Guest:It was great, right?
Guest:Dude, nothing like it.
Guest:I didn't get hip till older, though.
Guest:I wasn't more Michael Jackson, Steve Wonder.
Guest:It was more my palate.
Guest:But when I got older, I saw him like, oh, this is actually the dude.
Guest:He is the golden child.
Guest:How he came in?
Guest:He came in the game young as fuck.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:doing it his way on the androgynous tip.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And you see everybody was like, there was no rules, you know, you're dressing with the makeup, tight, everything.
Guest:But black dude coming in, I don't give a fuck, I'm prettier than your finest girlfriend, and I can play every instrument, and I'm producing, and I'm telling the label, fuck off, I'm doing this shit.
Guest:You loved him.
Guest:Dude, punk, he was punk, knew everything.
Guest:Everything.
Guest:And he was only three inches tall.
Guest:Just a little guy.
Guest:And that's why he was that talented.
Guest:All that condensed talent.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Had a lot to prove, man.
Guest:You got a lot to prove, man.
Guest:You ain't taking no shit when you're that short.
Guest:You're riding motorcycles in your, you know.
Marc:In your long purple coats.
Guest:Exactly, man.
Guest:And man, I just, I trip out on how experimental and how like,
Guest:new wave and rock his early stuff was.
Guest:I trip out on some of the content as well, what he was talking about.
Guest:He's got a song called Sister where he's talking about getting turned out by his sister and fucking his sister, and that's how he got so weird.
Marc:Yeah, that's what did it?
Guest:She's the reason for my sexuality.
Guest:Is that a real story?
Guest:My sister never gave a shit.
Guest:You need to play that song.
Marc:I don't know if you play music.
Guest:It's a song on Dirty Mind.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Classic album.
Guest:I don't know if that's- But it's one of those ones where you're like, is that true?
Guest:Is it true?
Guest:It might be.
Guest:It makes a lot of sense.
Marc:Because I learned, I always assume that when I talk to songwriters, which I do sometimes, that every song they write is about them, and then I learned it's not.
Mm-mm.
Marc:It's not a dude down the street.
Marc:Yeah, dude down the street a dude I made up exactly Yeah, some you know other point of view that was trying to explore.
Guest:Yeah, so principal your mind Still does Yeah, so you start playing drums start playing drums and the school I was about to quit because it was boring I didn't want to read music then my then I get to the house my stepdad again He's on the key on has a drum kit at the house randomly and I'm like what the fuck and I see the drum kit I'm like, okay drum kit
Marc:Oh, so he just had it there and you just knew it was out in the garage or something?
Guest:No, no, he just got one.
Guest:And he knew I was playing drums in the school band, but it was like single drum, snare, and then a bass drum.
Guest:And he knew I was playing, so he's like, I'm gonna get a kit and show him what's up.
Guest:So when I got home from school, he was banging on the kit.
Guest:I was like, oh shit.
Guest:and he was on the kit playing some drums, Prince stuff.
Guest:So he could play pretty good?
Guest:He could fool around, enough little basics.
Guest:He let me get on the kit and I just started messing around and nothing ever had ever came that natural to me.
Guest:It was just like,
Guest:Boom, right away.
Guest:Like, oh, yeah.
Guest:You felt it.
Guest:Figuring it out.
Guest:And then, boom, I was playing a groove.
Guest:And then my mom comes out.
Guest:She starts dancing.
Guest:I'm like, okay, this is what I'm going to do.
Guest:Right then, I knew, you know?
Guest:She never danced like that.
Guest:She just workaholic.
Guest:She came out in her pajamas and was like, what the fuck?
Guest:Fuck, you play drums?
Guest:You play drums now?
Guest:That's exactly what she said.
Guest:I'm like, uh, yeah.
Guest:She's like, all right, I got some records.
Guest:I want you to learn how to play this.
Guest:And she started telling me, yo, play this, Archie Bill and the Drills.
Guest:Play this, you know.
Guest:If you're going to play this, you can play.
Guest:And that's all I did.
Guest:What other ones?
Guest:A bunch of James Brown stuff.
Guest:What else did I play?
Guest:I played a lot of Soul and a lot of whatever was on the radio until my god sister came over and was like, you need to go to church.
Guest:And that's where you're gonna learn how to play.
Marc:Those James Brown records are good, though.
Marc:So good.
Marc:I mean, there's like a hundred of them.
Marc:I keep picking up these old James Brown ones, and you look at those covers, you're like, what the fuck is this one?
Marc:Yes.
Marc:It's just called Hell or something.
Guest:That was the thing, too.
Guest:People could just put out music, like so many, and then the cover art.
Guest:The best.
Guest:That's how you pick records now.
Guest:It's like, this looks sick.
Guest:You do your own cover art?
Guest:In a sense, I'm very involved, but I work with artists.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:But I'm very into it.
Guest:Yeah, I worked with Dewey Sanders on the first two, and then this other talented artist, Simone Chillar from Germany.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I like collage artists.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:I like mixed media artists.
Guest:I love it.
Guest:I like putting effort into the artwork, because that's how I used to look for music, or even books or anything.
Marc:You're flipping through those bins.
Guest:This is sick.
Guest:This can't be corny.
Guest:Look at this shit.
Guest:Pull you right in.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:But you knew when they were corny.
Marc:But even sometimes- Hell yeah, you know.
Marc:But sometimes the corny ones, you're surprised.
Guest:Well, I mean, everyone gets the laying down, the laying down, you know, that one, everybody was doing that.
Guest:So you kind of have to, you have to check those out.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:That was the thing to do.
Guest:The Hey Baby covers.
Guest:Curse of writing, chest hairs out.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:So you're playing with the James Brown, then your sister says you got to go to church.
Marc:You got to get your ass to church.
Guest:That's where you're going to learn how to play?
Guest:You're going to find the best of everything there.
Guest:So I was like, all right, I've never been to church.
Guest:My mom never really took us like that.
Marc:No, and her dad was a pastor?
Marc:Yeah, probably why.
Guest:He scared her away.
Guest:Enough of that shit.
Guest:But she still is very religious, but she was just a workaholic, honestly.
Guest:She was never home.
Guest:What was her gig?
Guest:She ran her own produce company.
Guest:Really?
Guest:In Oxnard?
Guest:Yep.
Guest:Yeah, she started it.
Guest:Somebody handed it over to her.
Guest:You want to run this strawberry stand?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:She was like, fuck it.
Guest:Yeah, she was dropping out of college and didn't really know what she was going to do.
Guest:She had kids, and she was like, fuck it.
Guest:I'll do this.
Guest:And then it just got bigger and bigger and bigger.
Guest:like what berries and strawberries just strictly strawberry all strawberries yeah yeah and she went uh and just you know distributed independently to all the the restaurants and you know she was doing at one point doing ralph's and like the cocos and carols on oh really still but yeah and it was her company she was her company no shortage of strawberries in the house no shortage you know but then again you know we never had it we were just like fuck strawberries no we're done we're done with strawberries don't want cheetos i want you know yeah yeah
Guest:So you go to church?
Guest:Go to church.
Guest:She takes me to church and I'm hooked.
Guest:I'm set on the Lord.
Guest:My mind was set on the Lord.
Guest:That quick?
Guest:That quick.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah, I was like- Had nothing to do with the music?
Guest:It was the music.
Guest:It was the music, yeah.
Guest:But then I knew, I was like, okay, how do I get in this?
Guest:You know, what's going on?
Guest:Okay, I gotta get baptized.
Guest:Okay, I gotta- Gotta believe.
Guest:Gotta believe.
Guest:Okay, oh yeah, okay, let's do it.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, and I was just like, whatever it takes, because I want to be here every day so I can get better at the drums.
Guest:I want to learn these songs.
Guest:I want to play gospel music.
Guest:So you played in the gospel band in the church?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Old school.
Guest:Yeah, it was contemporary gospel music.
Guest:I went to like a Southern Baptist church in Oxnard where, you know, Oxnard is mostly Latinos and whites.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But where I was going to church was probably, you know, where all the black population is in the whole city, you know.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:And so we were going and playing, you know, gospel music.
Guest:Standing up and clapping kind of gospel music.
Guest:Shouting.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, people screaming and running around and dancing and some of the most intense music and energy ever.
Guest:Like, you know, you have your old, you know, old school kind of sound and stuff, but modern gospel stuff.
Guest:Forget about it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You'll go through like five genres in one song.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, switch ups and all these different hits and breaks and grooves you have to hit.
Guest:People know what's up about gospel for sure.
Guest:And so that's that's where I came up.
Marc:And you got all that Jesus energy going through it.
Guest:Got all of it.
Guest:You know, all that that spirit.
Guest:You're not supposed to do it for no form and fashion.
Guest:Remember D'Angelo said that, but you're not supposed to.
Guest:It's not supposed to be about you.
Guest:You know what I'm saying?
Guest:It's the opposite of like rock and roll.
Guest:It's like, no, I need to open myself up, let God flow.
Guest:And it's a miracle.
Guest:This is not me, y'all.
Guest:You're a vessel.
Guest:I'm a vessel for God.
Guest:That was the whole thing.
Guest:That's how I came up.
Guest:So it was like, all right.
Guest:And you felt it.
Guest:You got it.
Guest:I felt it, man.
Guest:And also, too, it was dope because I got to play with musicians that were like, when you're feeling it too much, hey, calm down.
Guest:They have the pocket on their shirt and they play the pocket, bro.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And that was like the main thing.
Guest:To stay in the pocket.
Guest:Yeah, stay in pocket, bro.
Guest:Nobody wants to hear all that shit.
Guest:She used to tell me.
Guest:You're the groove guy, not the show off.
Guest:You let me go off on the keys, all right?
Guest:He's up on the fills, drummer guy.
Guest:You hold down.
Guest:You hold me down, all right?
Guest:We need you to hold it down.
Guest:And I'm 12 years old, you know?
Guest:So it's like I got all kinds of puberty.
Guest:I got all kinds of shit going on.
Guest:I want to just rock out.
Guest:And that was cool for me.
Guest:It was just like kept me, you know, gave me that foundation of like,
Guest:Work, you know, follow direction and stuff.
Marc:And working with other people.
Marc:Mm-hmm.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Like, you know, to get the unit going, right?
Marc:Absolutely.
Marc:The drummer's, like, so fucking important.
Marc:Like, there's some guys who can't swing.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:To save their lives.
Marc:It's weird, right?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Like, and you can feel it and stuff.
Guest:But, you know, I can't play, when I try to play, like, alternative rock, like, the white boy type of, like, more stiff song.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Or, like, any, like, that kind of feel.
Guest:You can't help yourself.
Guest:It's hard for me to do that shit.
Guest:I'm too much swing.
Guest:You can't help yourself.
Guest:You know what I'm saying?
Guest:It's different.
Guest:You find the pocket.
Guest:If I try to play a Metallica song, you know, it probably wouldn't work.
Marc:Yeah, you're going to play it with a little swing.
Guest:It's going to have a little too much grease on it.
Guest:And so it's like I have a lot of respect in that, too.
Guest:You know, it's like, you know, everybody's got their own groove.
Marc:Well, it's like the swing, like the rock is you're ahead of it.
Marc:And then the swing is you're behind it.
Marc:Right.
Marc:You're kind of pushing it along.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, I mean, even that early rock.
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That shuffle, that's a shuffle, that's blues, you know?
Guest:Yeah, but that's totally it, you know?
Guest:But it's like, even the rock stuff, especially the old stuff, the classic rock, that shit got grease to it, man.
Guest:It's like, they're not playing all stiff.
Marc:Even with Rolling Stones, because Charlie Watts is on top of it, but he can really fucking swing, man.
Marc:He's digging in, you know?
Marc:Yeah, all those dudes, man.
Marc:That thing.
Marc:that that clapping i saw you know where i saw that i had to learn how to do that yeah it was i was i was watching an interview with dizzy gillespie okay right and he was just talking about it and he just started doing that with his hand i'm like i gotta learn how to do that with my hand yes man i love that man
Marc:yeah do you listen to do you listen to jazz stuff yeah i do yeah like it's it's wild right it really is man it really is dude like that kind of music who's that cat you work with the the sort of a jazz legacy he's related to alice coltrane and like uh he's a producer um a fly low yeah yeah what a weirdo yeah i got it like i was looking i was poking around like stuff that you worked on and i was like who's that guy
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:Because I've talked to Kamasi, and what is the bass player's name, Thundercat?
Marc:Yes.
Marc:It's like, what the fuck?
Guest:That's my bro.
Guest:Yes, Thundercat is a, yeah.
Guest:Have you worked with him?
Guest:Yeah, I work with him too much.
Guest:Honestly, he's one of my best friends.
Marc:That five-string bass?
Guest:Mm-hmm.
Marc:That last record, the double record, the 10-inch, it's like a fuckadelic record?
Marc:Drunk.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:Holy shit, man.
Guest:He's a maniac.
Guest:And he's like an anime buff.
Guest:He watches all the superhero movies and he's just like- Full on nerd?
Guest:Full on nerd.
Marc:Black nerd, jazz, just crazy freak.
Marc:Well, there's that whole crew of those guys from over there in South
Marc:Central, right?
Marc:Yes, yes.
Marc:Like Kamasi and that whole gang, their dads are involved.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:They got a whole jazz crew over there.
Guest:They're like trying not to get shot at and they're playing jazz music and they're into anime.
Guest:Can you imagine those cards being dealt to you?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Well, I mean, it's good.
Marc:It's good.
Marc:It's amazing.
Marc:Well, I think they think they, you know, not unlike you're bringing the instruments into hip hop, they are fighting for the survival and relevance of jazz.
Marc:Absolutely.
Marc:And they single-handedly brought it back.
Marc:They did.
Marc:It's great.
Marc:Yes, yes.
Marc:I mean, those Kamasi records, I mean, to put out a record called Epic and it's three fucking records and it's your first record.
Marc:Pure jazz.
Guest:Right, but it's sort of like deal with this.
Guest:That's really what it should be.
Guest:It's like all or nothing.
Guest:I think so.
Guest:You know, if you're going to be all the way that, do it.
Guest:If you're going to be all the way this, do it that way.
Marc:So did you play the drums all the way through then?
Marc:So when you started doing your first stuff, like when were you starting to make records or at least make tapes or whatever you made?
Guest:Well, in high school, I made my first demo.
Guest:By the time I was a senior, I had my own mixing board, mic, and a little studio of my own.
Guest:Like an 8-track mixer?
Guest:It was a digital rolling mixer.
Guest:So this is like...
Guest:And it's just around the time Pro Tools was just coming out.
Guest:There was no real software stuff.
Guest:So it was that in between time.
Guest:So it was actual hard board gear like a mixer.
Guest:And you could print straight to CD.
Guest:Right.
Guest:It was digital though.
Guest:Oh, so you had a CD burner?
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I was making my demo and I sold it around school.
Guest:To make a cover?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And you were the guy with the stack?
Guest:I was the dude.
Guest:How much?
Guest:Three bucks?
Guest:I was the ladies' man, you know?
Guest:Three bucks, you know?
Guest:Two bucks for the ladies.
Guest:It's nothing.
Guest:Or just give them away.
Guest:Actually, here, take this.
Guest:Yeah, drop them off at some radio stations.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:The local radio station.
Marc:What was that one called?
Marc:What was the first one you made?
Guest:Oh, my first tape was called Have You Seen My Uncle?
Ha!
Guest:My sister was having all these kids by the time we were already in high school.
Guest:I was in high school, but she was older, but she had kids and they were always at the house.
Guest:That's what I went with.
Guest:Have you seen my uncle?
Guest:Have you seen my uncle?
Guest:Was it a big hit at high school?
Guest:It was a big hit.
Guest:It was rave reviews.
Guest:This high school paper wrote a great review on it.
Guest:Did they?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, that's nice.
Marc:So you felt it.
Guest:I was buzzing hard.
Guest:I felt it.
Guest:I could feel myself bubbling.
Guest:I knew I was going to get signed at any minute.
Guest:And I was taking meetings.
Guest:I was going around.
Guest:Were you?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's funny because right when my parents got put down, it was like I was getting some meetings with labels.
Guest:I was going to Atlanta and I was meeting all the big labels and stuff.
Guest:Who were they then?
Guest:Who were the big labels?
Guest:It was like Arista, and I was meeting with BMG Publishing, and Atlantic, and all these different, you know.
Guest:And you were like 18, 17?
Guest:Yeah, 17, yeah.
Guest:And they were like, we got one.
Guest:We got one, yeah, we got a little sucker that we can work and take advantage of pretty much.
Guest:Yeah, I was doing all these meetings, but I was very distracted.
Guest:Both my folks were in prison.
Guest:My sisters were breaking their necks to try to figure out how they're going to take care of me and my little sis.
Guest:And I didn't want to stress them, so I was very anxious to move out and try to... I thought I was going to get signed.
Guest:I'm about to be famous.
Guest:I'm about to take care of my family.
Guest:It's all good.
Marc:Why didn't you?
Guest:Ten years later, nothing.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Heartbreak, man.
Marc:The heartbreak.
Guest:It just wasn't time.
Guest:It was a timing thing.
Guest:I think this is in 2004, and I was in this transitional period of the music industry.
Guest:From what to what?
Guest:From CDs and from the way people were hearing music and receiving it, it was all going in a more digital direction.
Guest:So now it was going into MySpace music or people were downloading.
Guest:That was the big thing back then.
Guest:I remember, yeah.
Guest:People were illegally downloading.
Guest:Oh shit.
Guest:Now we can't charge people $30 for double disc CDs or anything like that.
Guest:They're making a lot of money from-
Marc:The labels are freaking out.
Guest:The labels are freaking out.
Guest:Everything's free.
Guest:Yeah, but nobody was, you know, the labels weren't, they could have made a DSP back then, you know, but I don't think they were really taking it serious.
Marc:Right.
Guest:So all these different companies were coming up under them.
Guest:What was the big one?
Guest:No, Napster.
Guest:Napster, yeah.
Guest:Yeah, Napster was going on all these different things, you know, so.
Guest:I was just like someone that was making beats and making my music and stuff, but I wasn't a gangster rapper.
Guest:I didn't have anything.
Guest:I was really just making raps about- You weren't a character.
Guest:And I didn't have anything that they could really market.
Guest:He wasn't a thug.
Guest:It was boring for them, and this is when the height of krunk music, Lil Jon and all this stuff, and that's really what they wanted me to make music like, and I immediately just got turned off by that.
Marc:Well, it still seems that even like on the new record, it seems like almost on a couple of your records, you kind of draw this distinction between people who are pretending to be that and people who are really that.
Marc:And, you know, like, does it even matter anymore?
Marc:Right, right, right.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:Exactly, man.
Marc:Everything's changing.
Marc:Absolutely, man.
Marc:So you didn't fit the mold and you weren't going to make yourself fit the mold.
Marc:You just stuck with your own shit or did you actually?
Marc:I quit.
Marc:Really?
Marc:Yeah, I was like, fuck you.
Marc:You were done in high school?
Guest:I was done because I was like, if I'm not signed now, what the fuck, I'm a loser.
Guest:I'm 18 years old and I don't have a million dollar record deal.
Guest:It didn't happen.
Guest:It's over.
Guest:It's over for me.
Guest:So what'd you do?
Guest:I got a job.
Guest:Doing what?
Guest:A few things.
Guest:I sold Vans shoes.
Guest:At a Vans store?
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:And then that didn't work.
Guest:I worked at a library.
Guest:Got some free shoes though, right?
Guest:I got free shoes.
Guest:I got free everything wherever I worked for show.
Guest:I was getting out.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:with the whole thing for sure.
Guest:You worked at a library?
Guest:I worked at a library.
Guest:It was like a warehouse actually where they sold, it was an online store and I worked at the warehouse where the books were at so I had to just go around.
Guest:That's not great.
Guest:Came up on some books though.
Guest:But were you bitter?
Guest:I was a bit bitter.
Guest:I was a bit like, damn.
Guest:The times they were hurt was when I was working these shitty jobs and my boss would be like, dude, they would catch wind that I did music.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And they were like, you're talented.
Guest:What are you doing here?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:As they're giving me my schedule, you know?
Guest:And then I was like, fuck, what the fuck am I doing here?
Marc:No music?
Marc:You weren't doing anything?
Guest:I wasn't.
Guest:I was like, fuck that.
Guest:I'm done.
Guest:I'm just going to get a job.
Guest:My parents are in prison.
Guest:I want some stability.
Guest:How did music come back?
Guest:Uh, this girl I was dating.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:She was like, you can sing.
Guest:Like, what are you doing?
Guest:Like, she was, she's a singer as well.
Guest:Where'd you meet her?
Guest:Church.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Uh, she was a bit older than me.
Guest:And you stopped playing at the church too?
Guest:I got back into playing at the church.
Guest:So I was, I was working a job and I, and I ran into the old organist player.
Guest:Oh yeah.
Guest:And he was like, where the fuck you been?
Guest:And I was like, dude, like, you know what's going on.
Guest:I'm like, it's crazy.
Guest:And then, so he's like, dude, come, come back to the church.
Guest:I know you still, hopefully you can still play, you know?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I could always still play drums, you know, so I went back and started playing and I got back into it like, you know, at least playing drums.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And I was shedding back in with him and it was just me and him.
Guest:And then the girl came back from college and she saw me.
Guest:Also, too, I was really fat growing up and I had lost a bunch of weight.
Guest:Now I'm thinking about it, I put all my energy towards that.
Guest:Losing weight?
Guest:Losing weight, getting a job.
Guest:How fat were you?
Guest:um i was i was at my heaviest like maybe like 270. that's oh man so yeah and i was short and i'm you know lugging around a lot of weight lugging around moving the weight from state to state and uh yeah i was just over it yeah right the time i got out of high school i was like i haven't gotten laid i was like nothing was i was like everything must change fuck this and you lost all you would you was 100 pounds yeah
Guest:Lost a bunch of weight, changed the diet up.
Guest:I just had bad eating habits.
Guest:I thought it was normal to eat fast food every day.
Guest:A lot of people do.
Marc:That's what keeps the industry alive.
Guest:I just thought it was a normal thing.
Guest:Never drink water.
Guest:So you lost the weight, got back on the drums.
Guest:Got back on the drums.
Guest:College girl comes.
Guest:She starts giving me a little confidence.
Guest:I'm feeling myself.
Guest:Boom, I'm back in it.
Guest:I knocked the dust off the old mixing board.
Guest:I start writing again.
Guest:But I'm doing it my way.
Guest:I'm not trying to chase no sound or anything.
Guest:I'm just writing songs that I've been keeping to myself.
Guest:Were you singing a lot then too?
Guest:I was starting to experiment, so I was finding my voice.
Guest:I guess you can call it singing.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:Yeah, and I started singing more.
Guest:She was giving me a lot of confidence boost to sing.
Guest:And she was a musician as well?
Guest:She was, yeah.
Guest:She sang in the church.
Guest:I played drums.
Guest:She was in the praise team, and she was an excellent singer.
Guest:So she was like, yeah, man, you need to sing.
Guest:You need to get back into it.
Guest:What the fuck are you doing?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, what happened with that?
Guest:She went to law school, and then I was kind of still on the fence.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I went to culinary school first, cut myself the first day, and was bleeding everywhere.
Guest:I was like, okay, fuck that.
Guest:I'm just going to go.
Guest:Oh, you were going to be a chef?
Guest:I thought I was going to be a chef.
Guest:I thought I was going to get a nice job at the Olive Garden, figure it out.
Guest:Wow, that's where all chefs go.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:You know, earn my keep, go through the garden, if you will.
Marc:And you cut your finger and that was it.
Marc:It was like the one when you didn't get your record deal.
Marc:You're like, I'm out.
Marc:I cut my finger.
Marc:Done.
Guest:I take everything as a sign, you know?
Marc:Fuck this.
Marc:Not meant to be a cook.
Guest:And my teachers told me that even the teacher at the culinary school, he was like, get the fuck out of here, dude.
Guest:You cut yourself the first day.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I was like, all right, bet, I'm going to go to music college.
Guest:At least, at the very least, I can get a job playing drums.
Guest:Right.
Guest:What the fuck am I doing?
Guest:So I went to music college, Musicians Institute.
Guest:Oh, yeah?
Guest:Where's that at?
Guest:It's in Hollywood, in the middle of Hollywood Boulevard.
Guest:Is it good?
Guest:It's dope.
Guest:It's like ITT Tech for musicians.
Guest:Like two years?
Guest:Yeah, about two years.
Guest:I was working there longer than I actually attended there.
Guest:You worked there as well?
Guest:Yeah, I was working there as a TA.
Guest:So I couldn't afford it.
Guest:I had to drop and then the teachers called back and they were like, why don't you work here as a TA?
Guest:You can play drums for the students, the vocal students.
Guest:We need people to play for the classes.
Marc:So they must have thought you were good and believed in you and they didn't want you to go.
Marc:What happened to the lawyer girl?
Guest:The lawyer girl went off to go to UCLA law school.
Guest:We split up.
Guest:She ended up actually dating one of my buddies.
Guest:And they ended up having a kid and living happily ever after.
Marc:Oh, still?
Guest:You guys weren't married, though.
Guest:Not still.
Guest:You know I know that.
Guest:We're not together anymore.
Marc:Did you guys get married or you weren't married?
Guest:No, we didn't get married.
Guest:I'm married now, though.
Guest:Shout out to my wife, my beautiful wife.
Guest:My only wife.
Guest:I don't want to cause any trouble.
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:Let's just say I have one wife.
Guest:That's how it always been.
Guest:That's how it always will be.
Marc:Wow.
Marc:That's just my friend.
Marc:Okay, good.
Marc:Good for you.
Marc:She's got a grasp.
Marc:It sounds like it.
Guest:Yeah, but it was cool.
Guest:And then I got back into music.
Guest:Where'd you meet his wife?
Guest:Fully on fire at the school.
Guest:She a musician too?
Guest:Straight from Korea.
Guest:She was coming in.
Guest:She's Korean.
Guest:And she was going there for vocals and piano.
Guest:And we met in one of the classes.
Guest:She still sing?
Guest:She still sings.
Guest:On your records?
Guest:Not on my records.
Guest:She has her own group.
Guest:We're one of those kind of like, you do your thing, I do mine.
Guest:It's better that way?
Guest:We're complete opposites.
Guest:It is.
Guest:We have our common grounds.
Guest:That's great.
Marc:All right, so now you're teaching kids, you're playing with the kids.
Guest:It's building up.
Guest:You're still making your own shit.
Guest:Yeah, making my own stuff.
Guest:And I started my own band now at the school.
Guest:So I'm getting the connections.
Guest:I'm learning a bunch of music.
Marc:How many pieces?
Marc:What kind of band?
Guest:It was like five of us.
Guest:So it was called Breezy Lovejoy Band.
Guest:Breezy Love.
Guest:Breezy was my nickname since I was in high school.
Guest:Breezy Lovejoy.
Guest:And I had it tacked on to Lovejoy.
Guest:And when I got to the college, I was scouting out musicians to play the demo that I had, this new demo of new songs that I've had.
Guest:And I got with a bunch of musicians and they loved the songs.
Guest:And we started playing dive bars and pay to play in Hollywood and playing for other artists, which is how we made ends meet.
Guest:Backup band?
Guest:Cover band, backup band.
Guest:What kind of stuff are you playing?
Guest:We were playing for a lot of singer-songwriters that had money to blow.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:They needed backup.
Marc:You recorded with some people then?
Guest:Yeah, we did a lot of session work for the kids at the school and then a lot of session work for these kids that got record deals and they needed bands.
Marc:So you're really jumping right in.
Marc:It's good because you're learning how the business works.
Marc:You're learning how to lead a band.
Marc:Exactly.
Guest:To orchestrate, compose, put shit together.
Guest:Yep.
Guest:Making my way around the city.
Guest:We were the band that if you needed a band,
Guest:You could pay us $150, and we learned your whole catalog.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Like what kind of acts?
Guest:Any kind?
Guest:A lot of hip-hop, a lot of soul acts, a lot of singer-songwriters.
Guest:Right.
Guest:A lot of people that they just got in Breck Your Deal.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And they got these showcases that they got to play.
Guest:That's the kind of gigs we were getting.
Guest:And then...
Guest:There was clubs like the Little Temple Bar, I don't think it's called that anymore, but there was these spots where the promoters would hire us, and we played for all kinds of bands, all kinds of groups.
Guest:We were just like the house band for open mics and stuff.
Marc:Right, right.
Marc:Is that where you got the idea to do the covers record?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, pretty much.
Guest:Yeah, we were always playing covers, so that was just like, yeah, fuck it, let's play these interpretations and put them out.
Guest:What was on that record?
Guest:You can't find it.
Guest:I couldn't find it.
Guest:Cover art was, we did Seven Nation Army by White Stripes.
Guest:We did Heart of Gold by Neil Young.
Guest:We did The Beatles, Blackbird.
Guest:How come I couldn't find the record?
Guest:It's on, you gotta go to Bandcamp or SoundCloud or something.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:One of those.
Guest:And it's called cover art under which name?
Guest:Cover art under Anderson Paak.
Guest:Oh, okay.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:One of the first projects I did under that.
Guest:Now I got to listen to it.
Guest:What we did was we flipped.
Guest:The idea was that we're going to take all these songs by white artists and put the soul and grease on them because, you know, in the 50s.
Guest:Get in the pocket?
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:It was just like, you know, kind of spinning that whole thing where how in the 50s you had a lot of white artists that did black music.
Guest:And then when they did it, it went straight to radio and became huge records.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:So I wanted to do the opposite of that in a way.
Guest:And so that was the whole idea with that.
Guest:Black up the white stuff.
Guest:Yeah, pretty much.
Guest:It never left SoundCloud, but, you know, I was early on it.
Guest:How could it not be released now?
Guest:Hey, it's never too late.
Guest:I gotta get the mechanicals and all that shit because they're not my songs.
Guest:Sure, but I mean- But it's not hard.
Guest:I just gotta put some energy towards it.
Marc:None of those guys really mind if you make them an extra buck.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Guest:Except for Neil.
Marc:Oh, Neil's a little- He might be a little particular.
Marc:I would think that maybe he'd be- I don't know.
Marc:I talked to him once.
Marc:He's an odd guy.
Marc:Yeah, I would be a prick if someone tries to do my shit over me.
Marc:I know, but it seems like it happens all the time, and if those guys own the publishing, what do they care?
Marc:Exactly.
Guest:Make your money.
Guest:Yeah, I mean, it's not on you, it's on the label.
Guest:That's how I got my first plaque.
Guest:How?
Guest:I put out a song on Venice called Might Be.
Guest:and um it did what it did and then another kid took the song and remixed it yeah took our version and then out of his made a version his version of our version pretty much a remix you know yeah a cover if you will and then put put that out and it started booming and it started getting radio play right and then my label calls they're like you know this kid i'm like no what the shut it down it's my song and they're like uh well you're getting all the publishing and like
Marc:we'll let it go because it's it's number one at radio i'm like fuck that damn and that's when you learned how to write songs for people exactly you got past your pride and you're like how much more than one way to do it man do it any way you can hey i love it
Marc:So how many records did you do under that Breezy Lovejoy moniker?
Guest:Shit, I did, I think it was two projects, three projects maybe.
Guest:And they were all with the full band?
Guest:Yeah, I was working with my band.
Guest:I was working with producers and stuff.
Guest:I was doing a lot of beats too.
Yep.
Marc:How does that work?
Marc:Because I noticed this is one of those areas where I'm not educated.
Marc:I had the Beastie Boys in here a couple weeks ago and I just felt like an idiot because they're going through the whole history of what they grew up with and the music that moved them.
Marc:I'm like, who?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Like an idiot.
Marc:Because you get into your own thing and you know what you know.
Marc:Mm-hmm.
Marc:But when you work with all these different producers, because even on this record, it seems like every song is a different crew.
Marc:So how does that work in hip hop?
Marc:Because it seems like the producer is intrinsic to the sound.
Marc:Whereas with rock, they'll do their thing, but it's usually on the artist, but it seems like it's more collaborative.
Marc:Right.
Marc:You're working with them to get their sound, right?
Marc:Absolutely.
Marc:Absolutely.
Guest:Yeah, I mean, I like to think on this album, probably the main producer, my co-producer, if you will, on this album was Dr. Dre.
Guest:We worked with a lot of different musicians, my band included, a lot of different producers and everything, but one thing we did was all the songs were, most of them were done in one room with me and Dre there.
Guest:For Oxnard.
Guest:Uh-huh, and we're utilizing whoever's in the room.
Marc:And you're on his label now?
Marc:Yes.
Marc:But did he work with you on any of the other two, or is this a new relationship?
Guest:No, this was the first one.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yep.
Guest:Malibu was pretty much halfway done by the time I was working with him, and then he dropped his project before, and that's when he put me all over Compton, and then I was like, oh shit, all right, I think I should drop this project now.
Guest:It's probably a good time, and I wasn't signed to him, so I was able to drop it independently.
Marc:So after you do the Lovejoy stuff and you're doing the cover album and you're back in, what was the big break?
Marc:What makes you sort of, before you meet Dre, why Venice?
Guest:Are all these albums, do they have themes or are they just... So I switched over, I made a decision to switch over and go by Anderson .
Guest:So I gave up Breezy Lovejoy, my mentor at the time, Brian Lee, who told me that I should actually come on this podcast.
Guest:and then like he he hit me to you pretty much and now i'm like a huge fan now oh thanks um he was like fuck all this other shit man you need to go on that motherfucker show and i'm like all right bet and then i started listening and it's great but he was he's totally that guy you know put me on a bunch of different shit but he was the one i was like dude screw breezy lovejoy that shit's corny just go by you know you should switch it up you've been doing it for six seven years and one of the things he was like you're really gonna meet dr dre and tell him your name is breezy lovejoy
Marc:I mean, Q-tip is Q-tip.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:True.
Marc:That's really true.
Marc:I mean, I don't think it doesn't seem like the hip-hop world is that judgmental about silly names.
Guest:I'm very influenced.
Guest:So I was like, you know what?
Guest:It's out.
Guest:Reece Ledger is out.
Guest:Well, you might as well use your real name.
Guest:I'm Anderson Package.
Guest:Me, no name, no real name.
Guest:And we started going in.
Guest:And so I spent like six, seven months with Brian in his apartment.
Marc:He's a producer.
Guest:He was not a producer.
Guest:He was really on the tech side and on the business side and knew a lot about YouTube and how to blow artists up on YouTube and make viral moments.
Guest:I get it.
Guest:And he was working with another artist, Dumbfounded, that was like- So he's like a tech consultant.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, so he saw things from that side.
Guest:So my brand master.
Guest:Yeah, brand master.
Guest:He's like, you're really talented, but it's gonna take a lot more than that, you know?
Guest:So he's like, you need to work ethic.
Guest:You need to get in a room and just work on you.
Guest:You're playing drums.
Guest:You're doing what you're trying to do too much, right?
Guest:And you should simplify your life and just get in a room and make it easier for yourself.
Guest:You can make better decisions.
Guest:So he turned his extra room into a studio, just one computer and a keyboard.
Guest:And he was like, you can do everything yourself.
Guest:And if you can't learn how to do it.
Guest:And then he locked you in that room.
Guest:Locked me in the room.
Guest:Well, I was waking up early and I was doing music and that's the first time I started working with whiteboards and drawing out what I wanted for myself and being serious with it.
Guest:I've never done that.
Guest:Setting goals and shit.
Marc:So whiteboards, huh?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Like with the markers?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And what would you put on the whiteboard?
Marc:Lyrics or ideas?
Guest:So first I would brainstorm.
Guest:So I was like, what do I want to sound like?
Guest:What are the artists I even like?
Guest:What is my ideal definition?
Guest:And who came up?
Guest:So I went back and I went through the 60s and I looked up Sam Cooke and I looked up Steven Wonder and I went through Marvin Gaye and I looked up
Guest:people that have like these real distinctive voices yeah I knew I had like a unique voice but I didn't have like if you will like like a pretty you know singing kind of voice do you listen to that any of that soul stirrer stuff the Sam Cooke the old gospel yes yes soul stores it's a while with his voice because like even when he was in that gospel crew
Marc:His voice was so unique, even when he was singing with three of them.
Guest:It just cut through.
Guest:It's wild, right?
Guest:Beautiful melodies.
Guest:Otis Redding, James Brown.
Guest:So I just started listening to all those guys, and then I started checking out the new dudes, even the dudes that were killing it in my era too, like the Bruno Mars and Kendricks.
Guest:you know people that that I saw that had integrity that were musicians you know that I wanted I knew that that's the lane I wanted to go in so uh but what about all that early that mid-period hip-hop that you know the Tribe Called Quest oh of course yeah of course so that was just there that was that was that was like you know already engraved in me you know so um I was I was just more so like what the stuff that I miss you know the Beatles you know sure as simple as I never never was gotten into them and then I got hit to them later you know and uh
Guest:You know, then that opened up a whole portal, you know, so.
Guest:So that's what was on the whiteboard.
Guest:Yeah, it was just influences.
Guest:What do I want?
Guest:What do I want?
Guest:I want a Grammy, of course.
Guest:You know, I would love to have my own studio.
Guest:I would love to have a car.
Guest:I would love to have health insurance.
Guest:I would love to get my own place to live.
Guest:I didn't have it.
Guest:That was one column?
Guest:Place to live, health insurance, Grammy.
Guest:Yeah, Grammy, million dollars.
Guest:Or actually, it was just like $1,000 back then.
Guest:Realistic goals.
Guest:And so that was it.
Guest:And it was like the people that I wanted to meet and how I wanted to look and everything.
Guest:So that was all the things that I- You were putting yourself together.
Guest:Yeah, I was putting it up.
Guest:I was putting it together.
Guest:And then I would just go in there.
Guest:And one thing he told me too was like, learn how to do it by yourself.
Guest:Don't try to be-
Guest:It's less dependent on people as you can because when you know Even when you get to the point where you don't have to do it yourself You at least can tell people I was done, you know, right?
Guest:You know, yeah, and so that was that and so I did that six months came out of it Okay, I'm down one change my name Anderson pack.
Guest:Yeah, I'll keep the dot there.
Guest:So I always remember that It takes work ethic in detail to get anywhere.
Guest:It's about the things you said no dot Yeah, that's what the dot represents.
Guest:Hmm the dot before the P
Marc:But what were you recording at that time?
Marc:What did that become?
Guest:I was recording what would later become Malibu and what would later become... Was Malibu first or Venice?
Guest:Venice was first.
Marc:So you'd already done that?
Guest:Yep.
Guest:So I had came out of that whole thing.
Guest:It was like six, seven months of that, right?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Maybe a year or so.
Guest:And I had the bulk of Malibu done after I came up with that.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I was hesitant, though, to put that out because I didn't think people would receive it well.
Guest:What, Malibu?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Why?
Guest:It was different for me.
Guest:It was very revealing.
Guest:It was more personal.
Guest:And a lot of the songs were very understated and not overproduced.
Guest:And the stuff that I was listening to at the time was very dance and heavy bass.
Guest:And I wanted to get people turned up.
Guest:And I didn't know people were going to turn up to The Bird or all these songs.
Guest:And I didn't realize that these were actually the songs that
Guest:really that you should be doing but i wanted to um i noticed that with the bass in my car like like even if i don't have it turned up that much yeah yeah yeah i wanted my little nieces i wanted my the homies to like it you know they're like what the fuck every time i played my music for people they were like this weirdo shit you know like and then they turn back on whatever the fuck they're listening really i i don't like see i guess i don't listen to enough hip-hop to like is it doesn't i didn't listen to anything you did and think like nah this stuff's out there
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:I mean, because you grow up, you have a different palette.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:But it just sounds like good music.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But what are they judging on?
Guest:I think that at the time... This is the time of Malibu or Venice?
Guest:This is... My music in general, like when I used to play for my family members and stuff like that, they just...
Guest:They were like, you're talented.
Guest:You're great.
Guest:You're going to make it one day.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:They weren't bumping my shit.
Guest:But they were like, you're great.
Guest:My sisters were my biggest fans.
Guest:But I could tell they didn't always understand where I was coming from.
Guest:Because you were being too honest?
Guest:No, I think my influences were just a little different.
Guest:And my music was left to them, I think.
Guest:My early demo stuff, I was doing a lot of weird stuff, I think, to their ear.
Marc:Like what?
Marc:What made it different?
Marc:you know, like, you know, structurally or sound-wise than what they were used to?
Marc:Like, what elements?
Guest:I guess it was maybe too lo-fi and even the topics, you know, that I was pulling from, you know?
Guest:My brother-in-law listens to people like E40 and SIBO and real heavy gangster rap, you know what I'm saying?
Marc:So it's too soft for him.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:A little too, like, you know, what do you...
Guest:fucking weirdo or you know that was that's pretty much it you know you're talented you're great it's gonna work for somebody you know we'll let you know when the shit starts to slap and you know we'll let you know you know and you know and by the time i got the drain now they're like fucking ah you know so but yeah i was doing all kinds of stuff and so but i myself wasn't confident in what i was doing malibu at the time so and also too i had been locked in this room and i wanted to just work with other people
Guest:You wanted a band.
Guest:Yeah, I wanted a band.
Guest:I wanted to work with producers.
Guest:I wanted to just talk and get out of the cave.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:Well, if you're in a cave too long, you're going to do weird shit.
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:But I needed that.
Guest:I needed to get ugly and do weird stuff to get comfortable at least with what I could do as an artist and find my voice.
Guest:Right, you took a risk.
Guest:Yeah, it was great.
Guest:You put yourself out there and people said like, all right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And also, too, yeah, we got that album done, and then we took it to places, and then we're like, exactly, all right, well.
Guest:And everybody was scared, nobody was.
Guest:But they liked Venice.
Guest:No, nah.
Guest:I couldn't buy a deal, bro.
Guest:Not until I got to Dre, he was the only one.
Guest:And this is midway through Malibu that you've met Dre?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yeah, I had already put out Venice and I went back and worked with producers when I went and worked with Venice and I wanted to do like a heavy hitting sound, more modern sound, if you will.
Guest:And so I went back and did Venice and then put that out.
Guest:And then I was like, that's why I started calling it the beaches because I was like, okay, I'll give it a location so I can build up to these places.
Guest:So Venice is kind of gritty.
Guest:And you open with beach sounds.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:It's SoCal.
Guest:It's the beach.
Guest:And then we'll work our way up to Malibu.
Guest:That's a more mature sound.
Guest:Got it.
Guest:And then back to Oxnard.
Guest:And then we'll go north, keep going north, take it home.
Marc:So how do you meet Dre?
Marc:You're working with pretty big producers already, right?
Guest:I was just working with, yeah, I thought they were the biggest producers to me, because they were the producers around in the city that were
Guest:Killing it, you know, people like, you know, Knowledge and people like Lo and Taku, Toki Monsta and Kei Trenada, Pomo.
Guest:These are people, DJs and producers that we that's what we listen to.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You know, and they were moving the needle for us.
Guest:So I was I was excited to work with them.
Guest:But Drake could give two shits, you know.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And so everybody was trying to get the music to Dre, you know, from what I hear now, you know, whether it was Ty Cannon or F. Gary Gray, the director, or my manager at the time.
Guest:But honestly, until you get in the studio with him and he sees that you're capable and you see that fire, that's when you're going to make him a believer.
Guest:How'd you get in the studio with him?
Guest:So I finally got in the studio with him because he was making Compton.
Guest:He was doing the Straight Outta Compton soundtrack.
Guest:And his two writers that he was working on the album with, King Mez and JT, were working on a song.
Guest:And they said, we got to get this kid in here.
Guest:So they got...
Guest:They got Ty to get me on the line.
Guest:Carrie Lynn, I was working with her.
Guest:They got me over there.
Guest:I was skeptical.
Guest:I didn't think it was going to work.
Guest:I got in there and the first two people I meet were Dr. Dre and DOC.
Guest:They gave me a handshake and they're like, dope, okay, cool.
Guest:Were you freaked out?
Guest:I was a little freaked out just because of how tall and big they were.
Guest:Other than that, it was like...
Guest:Everything felt good that day.
Guest:Everything felt like it was supposed to happen that day for some reason.
Guest:I was feeling good.
Guest:I was like, all right, cool.
Guest:I'm finally in the building.
Guest:All right.
Guest:And they go back to watching the game.
Guest:And I go in the studio and I meet the writers.
Guest:And they're like, yo, you're dope, man.
Guest:We love your song, Suede.
Guest:And this and that.
Guest:I'm like, oh, cool.
Guest:I had this song called Suede out.
Guest:And I was like, dope.
Guest:They started playing me the music.
Guest:I'm like, this sounds crazy.
Guest:They're like, Dre's really going to put an album out.
Guest:I promise this and that.
Guest:I'm like, cool, man.
Guest:let me let me get on something you know and so they're like hold on before we get you on this let's play the song that let's play suede for dre and i'm like wait he's never heard the shit yet he didn't fuck he just on there in a recommendation yes i'm like let me get on the mic first let me get something let me because what if he doesn't like it i don't want to get kicked out yeah yeah
Guest:Not now.
Guest:They bring him in the studio, they play him the record, and he plays the record three times in a row, and he's like, let's work.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Was it heavy?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Like, you're just sitting there?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And he's playing it again?
Marc:Yep.
Marc:Again.
Marc:Because, I mean, I watch a documentary, so I get a sense that, like, it must be wild just to see him thinking.
Marc:Like, listening and thinking.
Marc:That's hard right there.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:He does a thumbs up.
Guest:AP, that was hard.
Guest:That was gangster.
Guest:That was gangster right there.
Guest:Play that again?
Guest:Yeah, so the third time goes around, he's like, all right, let's work.
Guest:And I'm like, cool.
Guest:So they play the beat, and I love it.
Guest:It's like this crazy infectious bass line.
Guest:It's great.
Guest:All in the day's work is what it ended up being.
Guest:For Compton?
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:And I'm like, cool, let's do it.
Guest:Let me get on the mic.
Guest:And they got the mic set up just like this.
Guest:There's no booth.
Guest:And everybody's in the room.
Guest:So he's like, oh, you want to just hop on the mic?
Guest:I'm like, yeah.
Guest:Throws on the beat.
Guest:I close my eyes and I'm just like right out of a movie.
Guest:Just like throw my headphones on.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:The room gets silent.
Guest:And I black out.
Guest:Literally.
Guest:And when I open up my eyes, I see Dre.
Guest:I see the whole room just going crazy.
Guest:And I've been working with him ever since.
Guest:And you just freestyle?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It was freestyle, not really thinking about the words, just getting melodies and cadences and stuff and just speaking in tongues, if you will.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:And that was it.
Guest:And he loved it.
Guest:He just loved the tone of my voice.
Guest:He told me, you know, you got that pain in your voice.
Marc:Like, no one sounds like you.
Marc:See, finally the weird thing pays off.
Guest:It is.
Guest:Yeah, that was it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Be confident in what you do in yourself.
Guest:And that was it.
Guest:And I knew I could do me at that point and like nobody else.
Guest:So it was fun.
Guest:Because you'd already pushed yourself out there.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I was already, you know, I have music out, plenty of music out.
Guest:I wasn't getting called in to write a verse for him or anything like that.
Guest:They were like, they wanted me to do what I did, you know?
Guest:And thank God I wasn't like chasing something or something else.
Guest:I had no choice but to just do me.
Guest:Nobody wanted to sign me or do anything.
Guest:I was just the weirdo kid.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So that paid off, the weirdo.
Guest:It really did, man.
Guest:So did he do half of Malibu then?
Guest:No.
Guest:So then I ended up camping out there, finishing up the rest of his record.
Guest:And I didn't know what was going to come out or anything.
Guest:I didn't know if I was going to be on it or anything.
Guest:And then all of a sudden I look on iTunes and the record's out.
Guest:Compton.
Guest:And I'm on six tracks.
Guest:And they're like, he's the new Snoop and he's the new Nate Dogg and this and that.
Guest:And it's just blowing up.
Guest:And so I'm like, I was probably like 50% done with Malibu at that point.
Guest:And now everybody's hitting my line.
Guest:So now I'm like, all right, cool.
Guest:I'm about to finish my record now.
Guest:And now I want to work with Knife Wonder and Malib, all these different, you know, high tech, all these, I got all this access now, you know, because he's Dre's kid now.
Guest:And I wasn't signed to Dre, granted, at this point.
Guest:And now all the labels are coming, you know.
Guest:But he loved you.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Hey, what's up?
Guest:Blah, blah, blah.
Guest:He loved me.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he told me, he's like, I don't know what you got going on, but I would love for you to come over here to Aftermath.
Guest:And I was like, no question.
Guest:You're the only one that took a chance on me.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So that was a no-brainer.
Guest:But I had one more album to go with this independent contract that I had with Steel Wool and with my own label and an art club.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I had Malibu left to go.
Guest:And so I finished it up.
Guest:I got songs like Come Down and Hard to Stand a Chance and all these different, the second half of the records came later because I was, you know, I had the access now.
Guest:I had the juice.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I finished it up and I put it out.
Guest:And then I was on the, I've literally been on the road ever since.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That album came out and it was just like everyone loved it.
Guest:It broke you.
Guest:I never would have thought it would do the things that it did, man.
Marc:and then it did like really good in the licensing world so we didn't have any real per se radio hits but then like people were snatching it up for google and then like espn and all these movies like it became that album and that just is another part of the business to you you don't have any problem with that nah i love it yeah man get it out there it doesn't matter yeah i love it man and you did apple commercial with uh what's her name uh fk twigs that album her album is wild yeah she's a wild artist it's like she's only got that one record out
Marc:I got it a few years ago, and I saw the cover, and I'm like, what's this?
Marc:And I listened to it, and I was mystified.
Guest:Yeah, dude.
Marc:That's some left-field shit.
Guest:That's the shit I was listening to when we were doing all this stuff.
Guest:They were saying my stuff was left, and I'm like, listen to this shit.
Marc:It's beautiful.
Marc:I gotta pull that out again.
Marc:Because I used to get a lot of records sent to me.
Marc:from different labels because of the show and I didn't know anything about anybody but that's one of those times where I'm looking at that cover and I'm like, who's this?
Marc:What's she up there?
Marc:Absolutely, that artwork, man, that's it.
Marc:You can tell if he's a douche right off the top with the artwork.
Marc:So this record's with all you and Dre and you got big people with you.
Guest:This is the big major label debut album.
Guest:This is like, boom, we got the budget.
Guest:How's it doing?
Guest:It's doing great, man.
Guest:I mean, it was a landmark, what is a milestone for me, you know, as far as like, if you want to talk about commercial success or whatever, like, I charted, you know, it was like, you know, it hit, you know, top, you know, 20 or whatever on Billboard.
Guest:It sold what it sold.
Guest:And I think that the core fans that wanted Malibu 2 are probably a little upset about the album.
Guest:Why?
Guest:Because it's got more of an edge?
Guest:No, I think it's just because maybe it wasn't what they were expecting.
Guest:And we took almost three years to come out with the next one.
Guest:So people build all these expectations up.
Guest:And I don't know who's going to live up to it.
Guest:Right, so they were there early.
Guest:and they had this relationship with you and they understood you.
Guest:A lot of people are eager to hate, you know?
Guest:And they see that.
Guest:Or be disappointed.
Guest:To be disappointed, yeah.
Guest:He doesn't need any help, you know?
Guest:I think that was the consistency from a lot of people.
Guest:So they thought you got overproduced or sold out or whatever?
Guest:Overproduced.
Guest:Sounds forced.
Guest:He's shallow now.
Guest:It's all about the money.
Guest:I've always been shallow.
Guest:Always talked about pussy.
Guest:Always talked about money.
Guest:Always talked about these different things.
Guest:You guys just.
Guest:You were just a little more sad.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:You guys could be happy for me.
Guest:I'm happy.
Guest:You'd be happy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I'm happy times now, guys.
Guest:I'm not melancholy and longing.
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:So that's what this album was.
Guest:I'm having a good time eating calamari.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know?
Guest:Talking about tinting your windows with Kendrick.
Guest:My friend is Kendrick now.
Guest:Texting Dr. Dre, like, this is my life now, guys.
Guest:You got to let it go.
Guest:And so, no, it's just like embracing that, you know, like that whole deal.
Guest:Like, how do you make a record when you have everything now and you're traveling and just embracing those ideas?
Marc:Am I remembering right?
Marc:Did Kendra come out with you on Saturday Night Live?
Guest:Absolutely.
Guest:Absolutely.
Guest:Came out.
Guest:What a stand-up guy.
Guest:Comes out.
Guest:How'd you meet him?
Guest:I met him, I guess, somewhat through Dre.
Guest:After Compton came out, he ended up texting me from, you know, I didn't have the number.
Guest:He sends me a text.
Guest:No, at the very end of the text, it says that.
Guest:But he says, you know, the text starts off with, life's a trip.
Guest:I got introduced to your music a long time ago, but you were going under a different name.
Guest:And I saw one of your videos, and it made me want to get more on top of my shit.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:And it's so crazy to see how you were able to turn around and to see your journey.
Guest:Sincerely yours, Kendrick Lamar.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:And I was just like, oh, shit.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then after that, we just, you know.
Marc:You've been friends since?
Marc:Mm-hmm.
Marc:Because he's like a totally unique voice.
Marc:Absolutely.
Marc:My girlfriend loves him.
Marc:Man.
Marc:Yeah, those records are great.
Marc:Amazing, amazing artists.
Marc:But Snoop's in the- Snoop.
Marc:Like Dre just called Snoop up and said, come play with this kid?
Guest:How does that work?
Guest:Hell nah, man.
Guest:You know, shit, dude.
Guest:I think me and Snoop, I'm trying to think of when we first met.
Guest:But Uncle Snoop, man, he took a real liking to me, man.
Guest:He's his off-top nephew.
Guest:I love you, man.
Guest:I got you, man.
Guest:Whatever you need, man.
Guest:And he'd be hard to get a hold of after that.
Guest:But, man, I sent him that record and he was like-
Guest:Two minutes after I sent it to him, he's FaceTiming me from the gym.
Guest:Which one?
Guest:Like the one he's on?
Guest:Yeah, that song, yeah.
Guest:Nephew, you know I want to get on that.
Guest:Come on, man.
Guest:When we doing it?
Guest:If you start writing it now, it'll go by faster.
Guest:So if you start writing it, man, you know.
Guest:So I started writing a verse and he come in and just laid it down right away.
Guest:You know what I'm saying?
Guest:it ain't nothing dude and he came in there and just ah you gotta have something about yourself in this industry that's what he said you know it's gotta be something about yourself he's like a real zen dude he is man can you think Dre too to go through that like you said all those life times and still stay down to earth
Guest:Yeah, and they are, huh?
Guest:Man, that is the most down-to-earth dude.
Guest:One of the most down-to-earth dudes.
Guest:And how does Q-Tip get involved?
Guest:Q-Tip, you got to go to him.
Guest:He's one of those cave master senses.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:You got to go up the hill and travel up and go fight through the... The jungle with a machete?
Guest:The jungle, and finally, I'm here.
Guest:Here's the tape, master.
Guest:Is it good enough?
Guest:No, it is trash.
Guest:Come back again.
Guest:yeah that was that that was that was master's uh q-tip you know i was uh he he reached out to me to work on the last tribe called quest album and uh the new one the resurrection yeah the one that last one that came out yeah and um i went over to uh jersey and and got over into his lab and we just right away just like the connection was there yeah you know we just like got along you know real genuine relationships and then
Guest:We spend a lot of time just talking and listening to music.
Guest:Yeah, of course, we made a bunch of records, but it was more so just picking his brain and, what you think of this?
Guest:Just chopping it up.
Marc:Well, you're an open dude, and you're not coming at them with the attitude.
Marc:You come at them with respect and your own specific talent.
Marc:They must love it.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:The old dudes are a certain way.
Guest:Yeah, they don't have to work.
Guest:They don't have to do shit they don't want to do.
Guest:They don't want to do anything that they don't want to do.
Guest:So when they get fired up about something, it's dope.
Marc:Yeah, it's great.
Marc:I like that cut, too, the sweet chick one.
Marc:Who's that guy?
Guest:Yeah, you like that one?
Guest:See, some of my Malibu fans are upset about that.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:Too dirty?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I love that one, dude.
Marc:That's weird.
Marc:It's not even a deal with the devil, but you got that loyalty that you build up initially because people think they found you.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:And then holding on to them when you make a bigger jump, you know, they'll bitch at first, but you'll probably hold on to 75%.
Guest:Yeah, absolutely.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:But it hurts, you know, as an artist, when you see them like, oh, you know, like, you're not the darling anymore.
Guest:You can't, you can't, right?
Marc:Yeah, no.
Marc:Do you read the shit?
Marc:No, I can't do it.
Marc:I can barely do Twitter anymore.
Marc:I'm barely on Twitter because the weird thing in the brain with your ego is that you see one fucking negative thing on any of them, comment board, Reddit, Twitter, whatever, in your mind immediately, it's like the whole internet hates you.
Guest:But it's just one asshole.
Guest:It really is.
Marc:Even if it's 20 assholes.
Guest:Exactly.
Marc:Who cares?
Guest:Exactly.
Marc:And a lot of times it's the same 20 assholes.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:Doing it over and over again.
Marc:And it fucks your head up.
Marc:And then when you really look at it, if you look at a comment board, it's like 12 people.
Marc:Over and over again.
Marc:And you're like, what am I?
Marc:That's so true.
Marc:My whole day's fucked up.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:Because you think like, oh, these people don't like me.
Marc:But go back and look.
Marc:It's like, even if it's 30 people.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Exactly.
Guest:Compare that to the number of records sold.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:What are you doing with your head?
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:You're fucking yourself and doing a wrench in your whole shit.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:They got you.
Guest:And then it throws you off of your confidence and shit.
Guest:So you can't read it.
Guest:Yeah, that's right.
Guest:I don't have that shit on either.
Marc:And it seems like your audience is pretty broad.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:You got all types of people.
Marc:Just people with good taste.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:That's it.
Guest:That's it.
Guest:I think if anything, that's how you narrow it down.
Guest:My audience, I've seen all kinds.
Guest:Like the nerds, the gangsters, the nine to fives, the internet, the whatever, the hypebeast, the, I just listen to blues, but I like you for some reason, guys.
Guest:Me.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Real talk, man.
Guest:And that's what, when I think about when I was coming up, like that's really what all I wanted was the respect.
Marc:And now your family's coming around.
Guest:And now they're finally, I got something for my nieces and my brother-in-law to bump.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And your mom?
Guest:My mom loves it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:My mom loves it.
Guest:My mom loved Malibu.
Guest:She loved Venice.
Guest:She loved Yes Lord album.
Guest:My mom lays it to me straight for sure.
Guest:Oh really?
Guest:She'll tell you?
Guest:I wasn't feeling that.
Guest:Why did you say that?
Guest:What did you say on this part?
Guest:She's fact-checking and everything.
Guest:No shit.
Guest:Well, no, you know that, you know, yeah, she's on it, man.
Guest:But she's got to be proud.
Guest:Yeah, for sure, man.
Guest:She's super happy and proud.
Guest:Well, it was great talking to you, buddy.
Guest:Man, that was went by quick.
Guest:I loved it.
Guest:Thank you.
Marc:Great talk.
Marc:Good dude.
Marc:As I said, Anderson's nominated for the Best Rap Performance at the Grammys this Sunday, February 10th, for his single Bublin.
Marc:And the new record Oxnard is available and out now.
Marc:You can get it wherever you get the music.
Marc:I plugged in the Telecaster through this Echoplex pedal and into the old Fender amp, and I realized exactly what the Echoplex pedal and the Telecaster and the old Fender amp, what sound exactly they were supposed to make.
Marc:This is that sound.
Marc:Boomer lives!