Latest / Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond / Captain Kirk Douglas

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Captain Kirk Douglas · Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

0:15
Speaker 1: Pushkin. Captain Kirk Douglas is the longtime guitarist for The
0:22
Speaker 1: Roots and someone I've always considered to be their secret weapon.
0:27
Speaker 1: Kirk started playing with The Roots in two thousand and three,
0:29
Speaker 1: just as their guitar driven hit song The Seed was
0:32
Speaker 1: taken off. Over twenty one years, he's seen the group
0:35
Speaker 1: evolve from a touring act to anchor it around the
0:37
Speaker 1: Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, to having their own successful
0:41
Speaker 1: festival in Philly, all the while continuing for the most part,
0:45
Speaker 1: at least, to record albums for themselves and for others.
0:49
Speaker 1: Between the band's many commitments, and there are many, Kirk
0:52
Speaker 1: has also found time to record a solo project under
0:55
Speaker 1: the name hundred Wattheart. His most recent offering, New Unknown,
1:00
Speaker 1: was recorded in the basement of his childhood home on
1:02
Speaker 1: Long Island, where he first fell in love with the
1:04
Speaker 1: music of Van Halen, Hendrix, Sling, the Family Stone and
1:08
Speaker 1: so many others discussed in this episode on Today's Broken Record,
1:12
Speaker 1: I talked with Captain Kirk from the Roots Green Room
1:14
Speaker 1: in thirty Rock about the seductive pole he felt as
1:17
Speaker 1: a little kid seeing electric guitars on the cover of
1:19
Speaker 1: an old Kiss album. He also reminisces about his early
1:23
Speaker 1: days gigging around New York City in the nineties while
1:25
Speaker 1: working as a preschool teacher, and he recalls the elation
1:29
Speaker 1: he felt when Prince played one of his guitars on
1:31
Speaker 1: This Night Show, only to smash it on stage at
1:34
Speaker 1: the end of his performance. This is broken record liner
1:41
Speaker 1: notes for the digital age. I'm justin Mitchman. Here's my
1:44
Speaker 1: conversation with Captain Kirk Douglas of the Roots. This is
1:50
Speaker 1: the third place we were set to do this. This
1:52
Speaker 1: is amazing. I'm glad it worked.
1:53
Speaker 2: Out as am I.
1:54
Speaker 1: I'm so grateful to you for engineering this as well.
1:58
Speaker 2: I'm impressed with myself.
2:00
Speaker 3: I have to say, just because you know, there was
2:03
Speaker 3: a time when I was learning ableton and it took
2:07
Speaker 3: a while for me to like learn how to how
2:09
Speaker 3: to do it. And I was sort of forced to
2:12
Speaker 3: learn how to develop my skills with self recording because
2:17
Speaker 3: of the pandemic, because when doing things for the Tonight Show,
2:22
Speaker 3: we all had to do it from home. I was
2:24
Speaker 3: dabbling with it self recording at the time, and then
2:27
Speaker 3: once it once we went to lockdown, is like, okay,
2:31
Speaker 3: we're on, you're on. You have to figure this out,
2:33
Speaker 3: and you know, not just recording, but just how to
2:36
Speaker 3: send files, how to sync files up, you.
2:40
Speaker 2: Know, how to match video with audio.
2:43
Speaker 3: And it wound up enabling me to you know, develop
2:47
Speaker 3: a little new skill set just and then be able
2:50
Speaker 3: to record myself, send things in for the tonight show.
2:54
Speaker 3: And then when I had some extra time to record
2:57
Speaker 3: my own music too. So it and then when I'm
3:01
Speaker 3: not recording, then I go into life and I kind
3:02
Speaker 3: of forget that I'm able to do this. So moments
3:05
Speaker 3: like these where you're like, I don't have an engineer
3:07
Speaker 3: like three years ago, I'd be like, I guess we're
3:09
Speaker 3: just not doing this anymore.
3:10
Speaker 1: We're talking to each other micro Yeah, my iPhone's good, right, yeah.
3:16
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's always cool to learn a new thing.
3:18
Speaker 1: Absolutely so, even in your musical life, you weren't necessarily
3:23
Speaker 1: recording at home to pro tools or able to in
3:27
Speaker 1: or doing home recordings in that way previously.
3:30
Speaker 2: No, because well, let's set the stage, you know.
3:35
Speaker 3: So we are at thirty Rockbell Center, and we are
3:39
Speaker 3: in the rehearsal room slash recording room slash dressing room
3:45
Speaker 3: for the roots. This room serves many purposes, but pre
3:49
Speaker 3: recorded music that you hear on The Tonight Show is
3:53
Speaker 3: birthed here in this room. A lot of recordings that
3:57
Speaker 3: wind up on Roots albums from how We Got.
4:02
Speaker 2: Over forward We're recorded. A lot of that stuff's recorded
4:06
Speaker 2: in this room. Why is Up? Ghost?
4:09
Speaker 3: With Elvis Costello? A lot of that stuff was recorded
4:12
Speaker 3: in this room. A lot of the collaborations that take
4:16
Speaker 3: place with the Roots and fellow artists, the rehearsals for
4:20
Speaker 3: such collaborations take place in this room. So check Korea,
4:23
Speaker 3: has you know been in this seat? You know, Herbie
4:27
Speaker 3: Hancock has been in the seat that you're sitting in.
4:30
Speaker 3: Steven Tyler, Oh my goodness, George Benson, Steve Lucather, Oh man,
4:37
Speaker 3: what's so fun about moments like that? This room is
4:39
Speaker 3: so small and a lot of legends have been in
4:43
Speaker 3: this room. Yeah, that's always fun.
4:46
Speaker 1: When you guys got the Tonight Show gig right and
4:48
Speaker 1: you got sort of working with Fallon, Was this your
4:51
Speaker 1: room or did you did you have this initially?
4:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, this has been our room since we did Late
4:56
Speaker 3: Night with Jimmy fallonk and so for fifteen years essentially.
5:00
Speaker 1: Wow.
5:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, we got in and we're like, damn, this room
5:03
Speaker 3: is small and They're like, oh well, Conan's band's room
5:05
Speaker 3: was even smaller. So they're like, okay, good enough for me.
5:09
Speaker 3: Max Weinberg the mix Warnberg seven getting.
5:11
Speaker 2: Up for us?
5:11
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, go up for Max and Jimmy Lavina.
5:14
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah yeah. Shout out to them.
5:16
Speaker 1: They're amazing. Did you guys do the John Legend album
5:19
Speaker 1: here too? The Wake Up? Some of that done?
5:21
Speaker 2: You know, we used a studio that was on forty
5:25
Speaker 2: eighth Street.
5:25
Speaker 3: Againness, the name escapes me, but back when forty eighth
5:28
Speaker 3: Street was kind of like a more music row street.
5:34
Speaker 3: But eventually, you know, after being you know, using a
5:37
Speaker 3: studio around the corner, I guess we realized, you know that, hey,
5:41
Speaker 3: we can make quality recordings here. You know, quest Love's
5:46
Speaker 3: drunk Ruth is right next to you over there. And
5:50
Speaker 3: from sitting in this spot and recording so much, and uh,
5:54
Speaker 3: seeing what Steve, our engineer, was doing, you know, I
5:58
Speaker 3: got to have a front road seat to you know,
6:01
Speaker 3: how to do recordings. And I asked him a lot
6:03
Speaker 3: of questions, much to his chagrin. Yeah, but he was
6:07
Speaker 3: often gracious enough to answer, and that also gave me
6:12
Speaker 3: the curiosity to say, oh, I wonder how you can
6:15
Speaker 3: record at home. And then I also you know, hearing
6:17
Speaker 3: a lot of things about records that you love and
6:21
Speaker 3: discovering that not all of them were done in.
6:24
Speaker 2: Big budget recording studios.
6:26
Speaker 3: And you know, the longer I live, the longer I
6:30
Speaker 3: listened to podcasts and read articles more I discover that,
6:34
Speaker 3: you know, some of my favorite records were done in
6:37
Speaker 3: a home environment. And you know, if you have a
6:41
Speaker 3: place that has a great vibe, you can you know,
6:45
Speaker 3: capture a lot of moments with that.
6:47
Speaker 2: Yeah.
6:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, So hundred watt Heart is project what would you
6:51
Speaker 1: call it? A project? A group of yours?
6:53
Speaker 2: Is it project? Slash group?
6:55
Speaker 3: It's music that I write and I perform it with
6:58
Speaker 3: a drummer, Rick Sheridan, who is in a band called
7:02
Speaker 3: Earl Greyhound previously, and he's just like a you know,
7:07
Speaker 3: good friend for law time since like the nineties cool
7:11
Speaker 3: and through his friendship, I learned a lot of music
7:14
Speaker 3: and you know, we would just sit around and listen
7:16
Speaker 3: to music, and he exposed me to music I'd never
7:19
Speaker 3: heard before. And it was around this time of meeting
7:22
Speaker 3: him that I was also discovering the roots. And I
7:25
Speaker 3: also during that time I held the roots in the
7:29
Speaker 3: same regard that I held so many groups that you know,
7:34
Speaker 3: are part of the fabric of music that we know
7:37
Speaker 3: and love, you know, earth Wind and Fires, the Funkadelics,
7:42
Speaker 3: just the classic soul groups, the Jackson Five, you know,
7:45
Speaker 3: I mean Stevie Wonder, Like I had literal mixtapes, you
7:48
Speaker 3: know that would have you know, the Roots on it,
7:51
Speaker 3: that would have Stevie on it, that would have Marvin
7:53
Speaker 3: Gay on it.
7:54
Speaker 2: Like, I don't know, I just saw them in the
7:56
Speaker 2: same echelon.
7:58
Speaker 1: Had you seen them live at that point?
8:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I guess it was around ninety eight, no
8:06
Speaker 3: even earlier, maybe ninety seven when I first saw them
8:08
Speaker 3: live at the time. The guitar player Vernon Reid from
8:12
Speaker 3: Living Color. He was a huge influence on me, and
8:18
Speaker 3: I remember I got to meet him when I moved
8:19
Speaker 3: to Manhattan. I remember the day I was I was
8:23
Speaker 3: going to play with a drag queen named Head of Lettuce.
8:26
Speaker 3: That was my first gig getting paid in New York
8:28
Speaker 3: playing with the drag queen.
8:30
Speaker 1: It's a great name of Head of Lettuce, Head of
8:33
Speaker 1: let Us.
8:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I remember I was on my way to
8:36
Speaker 3: that gig at Don Hill's and I saw Vernon in
8:38
Speaker 3: the street and I'm like, yo, Vernon, I gotta play
8:41
Speaker 3: this gig. But later on tonight, I'm going to go
8:43
Speaker 3: see the Roots, and Verne's like, oh, I actually I'm
8:46
Speaker 3: playing with them tonight. So I saw him play with
8:50
Speaker 3: the Roots, and I remember watching them and just being like, wow,
8:52
Speaker 3: I would love to be in a band like this.
8:54
Speaker 3: And at the time, when I was playing with Head
8:56
Speaker 3: of Lettuce, that was the only gig I had.
8:58
Speaker 2: I was playing with a host.
8:59
Speaker 3: I played with like ten or eleven different bands back
9:02
Speaker 3: in the late nineties.
9:05
Speaker 2: But yeah, I saw them.
9:06
Speaker 3: They played five nights at the Knitting Factory, five nights straight,
9:09
Speaker 3: and I saw it like, I think three out of
9:11
Speaker 3: those nights because the tickets were fairly cheap at the time.
9:15
Speaker 3: I was a preschool teacher, but I could afford to
9:17
Speaker 3: see the Roots. It was cool to like see that
9:19
Speaker 3: up close, and I remember thinking like that would be
9:20
Speaker 3: I would love to be in a band like this.
9:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, that's It's interesting that Vernon was playing
9:25
Speaker 1: with them at that time, and he must have just
9:27
Speaker 1: been sitting because they didn't really have a guitarist.
9:29
Speaker 2: Yeah he was.
9:29
Speaker 3: He was just sitting in with them. He wasn't it
9:32
Speaker 3: was not he was not a permanent member at all.
9:34
Speaker 1: How did Vernon sound with them?
9:36
Speaker 3: Uh?
9:36
Speaker 2: He did his thing.
9:37
Speaker 3: You know, It's like he was very much himself, very
9:41
Speaker 3: much Vernon Red, and it wasn't up for the whole time.
9:43
Speaker 3: I think they brought her up at like the end
9:44
Speaker 3: of the show. And at the time, you know, they
9:46
Speaker 3: had Rozelle Godfather Noise. He was there doing what he does,
9:54
Speaker 3: his his beat box box and so much more. They
9:57
Speaker 3: had started doing I guess, you know, their jam sessions
10:00
Speaker 3: at Black Lily, and I guess they were also doing Wetlands,
10:03
Speaker 3: but I somehow didn't see them at Wetlands, So there
10:06
Speaker 3: was always an element of you know, they weren't a
10:10
Speaker 3: jam band, but they were a band that jammed with people,
10:13
Speaker 3: So I guess essentially they were.
10:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, some of the best jams I've seen, by the way,
10:17
Speaker 1: and I've seen some great groups. You had jam, yeah,
10:21
Speaker 1: you know, but on some of the best jams I've
10:23
Speaker 1: seen is you with the Roots.
10:25
Speaker 2: Yeah.
10:25
Speaker 3: Well, when the Roots just started doing Late Night with
10:29
Speaker 3: Jimmy Fallon, you know, there was a lot of talk
10:32
Speaker 3: I guess about you know, really they're going to be
10:34
Speaker 3: on are they getting saw or they're selling out, and
10:38
Speaker 3: I guess our response to that was by having a
10:42
Speaker 3: weekly jam session at the High Line, which I believe
10:45
Speaker 3: is no longer there, and you know, people from Tom
10:50
Speaker 3: Morello would come and jam with us. Vernon definitely came
10:52
Speaker 3: and jammed with us and sat in Reverend Vince. You
10:56
Speaker 3: go on stage, you had no idea what was going
10:58
Speaker 3: to happen, like literally having no idea, just start playing
11:01
Speaker 3: and our manager, God Rest his soul. Rich Nichols would
11:05
Speaker 3: just be on the side of the stage making hand
11:07
Speaker 3: gestures to us, uh for what he wanted to hear
11:11
Speaker 3: coming out out of us musically, what really?
11:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, he do that, just.
11:16
Speaker 3: Like I don't know what this meant, but this is
11:17
Speaker 3: what he wanted to like, you know, I'm just I'm
11:19
Speaker 3: gesturing my hands up in the air, but.
11:21
Speaker 1: Almost like you're gestured almost like like bigger more Yeah, yeah, yeah,
11:24
Speaker 1: that's and that's what we aim to give him.
11:28
Speaker 3: You know, Rich has always loomed heavily as you know,
11:31
Speaker 3: a father figure to Amir and Tarik and then further
11:35
Speaker 3: down the line to the rest of us in the band,
11:37
Speaker 3: you know, and he's sort of you know, everybody that
11:40
Speaker 3: you see on that stage was sort of curated by
11:43
Speaker 3: Rich Nichols.
11:44
Speaker 2: You know, he's sort of the.
11:45
Speaker 3: Mastermind that brought a Mer and Tarique quest Love and
11:48
Speaker 3: Black Thought, brought them together and said, you guys have something,
11:51
Speaker 3: and cultivated that, nurtured that alongside with them. He was
11:55
Speaker 3: sort of like the uh, the unseen sort of producer
12:00
Speaker 3: behind so many of the Roots, all of the Roots albums.
12:03
Speaker 3: Really partially why I think it's you know, been taken
12:06
Speaker 3: such a long time to come up with the next
12:09
Speaker 3: Roots album because it would be the first one without
12:11
Speaker 3: Rich Nichols, and whatever the Roots puts out is, you know,
12:15
Speaker 3: we want it to be something that would be worthy
12:19
Speaker 3: of his legacy.
12:20
Speaker 2: Of his legacy. Yeah wow.
12:21
Speaker 3: So he's almost like the like a Yoda figure, like
12:25
Speaker 3: a paternal figure, a north Star of the Roots, like
12:31
Speaker 3: a George Martin if you will, you know, a fifth
12:35
Speaker 3: beadle too, you know, that one that's off stage, but
12:38
Speaker 3: one that whose presence, you know, he casts a bright
12:43
Speaker 3: shadow over the band.
12:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, any group that is together as long as the
12:48
Speaker 1: Roots have been, including the Roots with you as a
12:50
Speaker 1: part of the Roots, I guess you to survive, you
12:53
Speaker 1: have to learn the wather changes. But it is wild.
12:57
Speaker 1: As you're talking, I start to think about all the
13:00
Speaker 1: various iterations and and just the things that have kind
13:03
Speaker 1: of transpired, you know, from I guess you're joining the group,
13:09
Speaker 1: know Rozelle at some point to party not being a
13:11
Speaker 1: part of it, Rich passing the Tonight show like a
13:15
Speaker 1: Hubbard leaving, like just things that are like, at one
13:19
Speaker 1: point seemed foundational to the group, right, and you guys
13:22
Speaker 1: are able to navigate it.
13:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I just think of doing a podcast right
13:28
Speaker 3: now in this building, you know, just it's like a university,
13:32
Speaker 3: you know, thirty Rock University, and the Roots is like,
13:36
Speaker 3: you know, we're all sort of students of that, and
13:40
Speaker 3: being a member of the Roots is like the Roots
13:42
Speaker 3: is a university in and of itself, you know, and
13:47
Speaker 3: just like listening to Questlove Supreme, just watching how other
13:53
Speaker 3: members of the band, you know, are able to pivot
13:57
Speaker 3: outside of the band and still you know, keep the
14:04
Speaker 3: band itself as something that you always come back to.
14:07
Speaker 3: You know, it doesn't have to be oh, well, you
14:09
Speaker 3: want to do a bunch of other things. You know,
14:10
Speaker 3: It's either that or be a member of the Roots.
14:13
Speaker 3: It's yeah, and you see that from you know, the
14:16
Speaker 3: core members that you know, just from reading you know,
14:20
Speaker 3: Black Thoughts latest book.
14:21
Speaker 1: You know, there's always so beautiful man. Yeah, it really
14:24
Speaker 1: blew me away when I read that.
14:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, fantastic and just I mean it only makes sense
14:28
Speaker 3: because he's a wordsmith, you know, in the booth and
14:31
Speaker 3: on record, so he lends that to you know, the
14:35
Speaker 3: page you know that we all can read. Yeah, just
14:38
Speaker 3: watching all that, it's like you have all of this
14:42
Speaker 3: information that if it's if you look at it like
14:44
Speaker 3: as a class, you know, you see this potential syllabus
14:48
Speaker 3: before you that you are able to ignore.
14:52
Speaker 2: But it's you're making best use of your.
14:54
Speaker 3: Time if you participate in it and if you use
14:57
Speaker 3: it all as inspiration.
14:59
Speaker 1: What did join in the Roots? How did that impact
15:02
Speaker 1: your guitar play?
15:04
Speaker 2: Well?
15:04
Speaker 3: At its most basic level, I think my timing just
15:08
Speaker 3: in terms of keeping time growing up, I always paid
15:11
Speaker 3: more attention I guess to leads and solos and stuff
15:14
Speaker 3: like that, and playing in the Roots just really reinforced
15:20
Speaker 3: the concept of pocket. And there's you know, no better
15:26
Speaker 3: drummer to develop that with on a stage in front
15:31
Speaker 3: of like a large group of people and in a
15:33
Speaker 3: recording situation than Questlove. Because he spent so much of
15:39
Speaker 3: his formative years with a metronn with classic records with breakbeats,
15:46
Speaker 3: hours and hours like the proverbial you know, ten thousand hours,
15:50
Speaker 3: like he logged them and then some And also when
15:55
Speaker 3: that was not happening, he spoke about it, you know,
15:59
Speaker 3: so you know, he'd call me out like yo, pull back,
16:02
Speaker 3: you know, like and then you know, you listen, you
16:05
Speaker 3: listen to the other players and you see how they're playing,
16:08
Speaker 3: and you're like, oh, I want to meld with everybody
16:11
Speaker 3: and to bring awareness to if you're not doing that.
16:15
Speaker 1: Is there anyone you could look to to sort of
16:17
Speaker 1: feel like, Okay, maybe if I just do something like
16:19
Speaker 1: this or if I approach it like the way this
16:21
Speaker 1: person did.
16:22
Speaker 3: Was there any well, the guitar players in James Brown group,
16:26
Speaker 3: you know.
16:28
Speaker 1: Catfish Fish.
16:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Boots himself, you.
16:33
Speaker 3: Know, because he played a lot of guitar on all
16:35
Speaker 3: the Funkadelic records, but like a lot of the p
16:37
Speaker 3: funk I hear that.
16:39
Speaker 1: He did a lot more like well even just him
16:40
Speaker 1: playing drums on Flash Flag Yeah.
16:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's crazy stuff like that. But yeah, and
16:47
Speaker 3: then and then you know the concepts of everything being
16:51
Speaker 3: on the one with with p funk and.
16:53
Speaker 1: Just uh that unity of everything.
16:56
Speaker 2: Yeah.
16:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, coming down on the one absolutely.
16:59
Speaker 2: The Michael Jackson records.
17:01
Speaker 3: You know, the players like Steve Lucather, you know, like
17:04
Speaker 3: what he does on like human nature stuff that like
17:08
Speaker 3: really makes the song. Yeah, you know Andy Summers, you know,
17:12
Speaker 3: on every breath you take. These are guitar players that
17:15
Speaker 3: like play these like iconic parts that you're they just
17:21
Speaker 3: weave themselves in the song and become somewhat of a
17:23
Speaker 3: glue in music.
17:25
Speaker 1: And U's a really interesting point. Like you know, obviously
17:28
Speaker 1: like in Van Halen Eddie's driving thing, Yeah, but in
17:32
Speaker 1: Andy Summers has equally iconic guitar parts. And my view
17:37
Speaker 1: and ever thought about it, but it's really like serving
17:38
Speaker 1: the song.
17:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's at the end of the day, it's all
17:41
Speaker 3: about serving the song, serving the music.
17:43
Speaker 4: You know.
17:43
Speaker 3: That's everybody you know should have that mindset. When everybody
17:48
Speaker 3: has that mindset, the music elevates.
17:50
Speaker 1: Guitar players notoriously sometimes don't have.
17:52
Speaker 2: That mind Yeah.
17:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, and there's a time and place, I
17:56
Speaker 3: guess for everything. There's times to step out, of course,
17:58
Speaker 3: you know, and to shine of course. But you know,
18:02
Speaker 3: with the roots, it's like everybody like trying to create
18:05
Speaker 3: something that's greater than the sum of its parts.
18:08
Speaker 2: Yeah.
18:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, and the roots sort of like reinforced that concept,
18:14
Speaker 3: like watching p Funk like we'd be on the tour bus,
18:16
Speaker 3: like watching James Brown videos, watching Marvin and montro like
18:20
Speaker 3: and just like checking out what the band is doing
18:22
Speaker 3: and gaining inspiration from that.
18:24
Speaker 1: Wow. After a quick break, we'll be back with more
18:28
Speaker 1: of a conversation with Captain Kirk. We're back with more
18:35
Speaker 1: from Captain Kirk Douglas. When did you pick up the
18:39
Speaker 1: guitar and who were you starting to listen to and
18:41
Speaker 1: how did it all evolve?
18:42
Speaker 3: Oh? Well, I mean all right, I have Jamaican parents, okay,
18:46
Speaker 3: so I'll start with that, and they were their music
18:51
Speaker 3: was very prevalent in our household, and my dad was
18:55
Speaker 3: a record collector and avid record collector. He was an audiophile,
19:01
Speaker 3: so grew up with you know, Big Moran's Power Amp
19:05
Speaker 3: Moran's preamp Tenois speakers. I mean, I remember these Tenois
19:09
Speaker 3: speakers as you know, to my three year old body.
19:13
Speaker 3: These were monoliths that helped me learn how to stand.
19:18
Speaker 3: But not just learn how to stand, but sound came
19:20
Speaker 3: out of them.
19:20
Speaker 2: You know what I mean.
19:21
Speaker 3: And my first memories of music was like the song
19:24
Speaker 3: Daniel from Elton John and then in the same night
19:29
Speaker 3: hearing Easy by Commodores along with various you know, reggae songs.
19:36
Speaker 3: You know, my dad would have his friends come over
19:38
Speaker 3: and play music.
19:39
Speaker 1: With the reggae records. Where those have been records he
19:42
Speaker 1: knew from from Jamaica, Jamaica or did he would he
19:44
Speaker 1: pick them like he.
19:46
Speaker 3: Brought them over from Jamaica. I'm the only one in
19:48
Speaker 3: my family that was born in America. So they lived
19:51
Speaker 3: in Jamaica for a while and then they came to Brooklyn,
19:54
Speaker 3: and I was born in Brooklyn in seventy two and
19:56
Speaker 3: then but so yeah, when anytime he'd go to Jamaica,
19:59
Speaker 3: he'd come back with records.
20:00
Speaker 1: Do you have those records still?
20:01
Speaker 2: Absolutely? Yeah, Yeah, they're all out in Long Island.
20:04
Speaker 1: That's so cool.
20:06
Speaker 3: My mom is in the house that I grew up in.
20:09
Speaker 3: My dad's no longer around. He passed nine, but he
20:13
Speaker 3: left behind that same stereo system, those same speakers, those
20:17
Speaker 3: same records, And so that's what would happen during the week.
20:20
Speaker 3: But on Sundays, you know, Sunday was church day and
20:23
Speaker 3: it would all be all about classical music.
20:25
Speaker 2: You know.
20:25
Speaker 3: My brother, his name is Handel, named after the composer Handel,
20:30
Speaker 3: but Beethoven Bach, you know, church hymns. That's what would
20:34
Speaker 3: be playing all day Sunday or most of the day's Sunday.
20:37
Speaker 3: When I was five, they moved out to Long Island,
20:40
Speaker 3: and you know, once I started to go to school,
20:43
Speaker 3: that's when I started getting exposed to rock music. And
20:47
Speaker 3: when I was seven, I had a friend in my class,
20:51
Speaker 3: Chris Garcia.
20:52
Speaker 2: I went to his.
20:52
Speaker 3: House and he had these Kiss records and I remember
20:57
Speaker 3: seeing them and being like, what is that? You know,
21:00
Speaker 3: they looked like they looked like superheroes. They looked like
21:04
Speaker 3: and then they're holding these scepter like color full, shapely.
21:12
Speaker 2: Things.
21:12
Speaker 3: These objects that I discovered were guitars, and and they
21:16
Speaker 3: looked cool. They sort of embodied like, you know, part skateboard,
21:20
Speaker 3: part sports car, part scepter. They but they the sound
21:27
Speaker 3: that was coming from the speakers was created by these things,
21:30
Speaker 3: and I was transfixed and I wanted to be a
21:33
Speaker 3: part of that. His brother had a guitar, that's thing,
21:35
Speaker 3: So seeing one up close, I was just I was
21:39
Speaker 3: so attracted to it.
21:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, we had a fake Les Paul copy.
21:43
Speaker 3: It was Sunburst, but it sort of looked like, you know,
21:46
Speaker 3: you look at a Sunburst guitars, like it looks like
21:48
Speaker 3: there's fire within this that's being that's being contained inside
21:52
Speaker 3: this instrument, and yeah, I want some of that, you know.
21:55
Speaker 3: So and he played and just so hearing, you know,
21:58
Speaker 3: him just being able to sort of have sway over
22:02
Speaker 3: this sound and just seeing you know, that it was
22:06
Speaker 3: someone accessible. Like I begged my parents for a guitar,
22:10
Speaker 3: you know, and there was a shopping mall and there
22:13
Speaker 3: was a store called Family Melody, and they sold electric guitars,
22:17
Speaker 3: and you just seeing them all lined up in their
22:18
Speaker 3: various colors and shapes, and I remember buying Guitar Player
22:22
Speaker 3: magazine before I could play, just looking at it, like
22:26
Speaker 3: like looking at Professor Boy looks at Victoria's Secrets, you know,
22:30
Speaker 3: like just being so excited by yeah.
22:33
Speaker 1: Yeah guitars in the looks.
22:36
Speaker 2: Yeah I was. I was. I was all in.
22:38
Speaker 3: And then finally my parents relented and they got me
22:41
Speaker 3: like a really cheap guitar that it's broken, but I
22:43
Speaker 3: still have the remnants of it at my mom's house.
22:47
Speaker 3: And then I think I started getting to Van Halen.
22:49
Speaker 2: I heard, I saw.
22:50
Speaker 3: Now we're at the time when MTV is birthed, and uh,
22:54
Speaker 3: I would go over my babysitter Iris.
22:56
Speaker 2: I would go over to her house. We didn't have cable,
22:59
Speaker 2: but they had cable, they had MTV, and.
23:02
Speaker 3: Then I was seeing the videos by you know, by
23:05
Speaker 3: Styx and by Van Halen and Huey Lewis, and.
23:10
Speaker 1: It's around like eighty four eighty five.
23:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're talking, yeah, like exactly like eighty two eighty
23:15
Speaker 3: and then there would also be the Friday Night videos
23:18
Speaker 3: and then you know, that's when you start around that time,
23:22
Speaker 3: you start seeing Sha Ka Khan videos and uh around
23:26
Speaker 3: then eighty four, and then you start seeing Prince, you know,
23:29
Speaker 3: and then then there's like, okay, you know black people
23:32
Speaker 3: can do this too, you know, because my other exposure
23:35
Speaker 3: to music for my brother was really Slide the Family
23:39
Speaker 3: Stone and uh Jackson five and Beg's like ABC and
23:45
Speaker 3: the Stand Record you know those and the Kiss records
23:49
Speaker 3: like so that was sort of like set the fat
23:53
Speaker 3: my musical foundation at the time.
23:55
Speaker 1: Man. And you know, honestly too, like those Jackson five
23:58
Speaker 1: records and those sly Stone records. Great guitar records.
24:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I wasn't, but I didn't really.
24:04
Speaker 3: As a kid, I was so attracted to the distortion
24:08
Speaker 3: and heavy guitars, you know, like when I heard Easy
24:12
Speaker 3: by the Commodores and hearing the guitar soul and I
24:14
Speaker 3: was like, that's a guitar solo.
24:16
Speaker 1: You know, it is a tasty one.
24:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah for sure.
24:21
Speaker 3: And then as I got a little bit older, you know,
24:22
Speaker 3: living on Long Island, like you know, hair metal started
24:25
Speaker 3: to be a big thing.
24:26
Speaker 1: There's a movie called Heavy Metal Parking Lot. Yeah, yeah,
24:29
Speaker 1: have you seen that?
24:29
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
24:30
Speaker 1: That was that going on in Long Island.
24:32
Speaker 2: That was so going on in Long Island.
24:34
Speaker 1: Man.
24:34
Speaker 3: You know, I went to high school with like twelve
24:37
Speaker 3: hundred kids, like a graduating class of twelve hundred, that's
24:41
Speaker 3: just a graduating class.
24:43
Speaker 2: And there was like maybe ten black kids in all
24:46
Speaker 2: of that.
24:46
Speaker 3: And I was into the music I was into, and
24:50
Speaker 3: so I you know, I kind of didn't feel very
24:53
Speaker 3: much accepted by a lot of the black kids. And
24:57
Speaker 3: I also didn't feel accepted by the white kids. When
25:02
Speaker 3: I say not accepted, like it wasn't like anybody like
25:05
Speaker 3: turned me away, but I just felt like a on
25:10
Speaker 3: the peripheria sense of otherness. But it was nothing that
25:13
Speaker 3: ever bothered me. But I definitely found my crew with
25:18
Speaker 3: the musicians and just you know, like I remember bonding
25:22
Speaker 3: over you know, bands like you know Motley Crue at
25:26
Speaker 3: the time or Queens Reich and stuff like that. So
25:31
Speaker 3: you're hanging with the heavy metal parking lot. I was
25:33
Speaker 3: hanging with the heavy and we had a band Overdrive.
25:35
Speaker 3: And actually the dude from this band, his name was
25:39
Speaker 3: John Hamson. He looked like he should on he should
25:42
Speaker 3: be on the headbanger's balls. Him, Keith Salomido, Paul Doxy,
25:49
Speaker 3: Marci Otis, Chris the Otis, shout out to all these cats.
25:52
Speaker 3: And I joined their band everything, and like like if
25:55
Speaker 3: you looked at a picture of us, I'd probably be like, wow,
25:59
Speaker 3: one of these things does not look like the other,
26:00
Speaker 3: you know. So I remember we did a Battle of
26:02
Speaker 3: the Bands when I was fourteen, and I remember we lost,
26:06
Speaker 3: and I remember going home afterwards and looking in the
26:08
Speaker 3: mirror at myself and I had like spandex on, and
26:12
Speaker 3: I had like rip jeans, and I had like the
26:13
Speaker 3: mess shirt on, and I had my glasses and my
26:16
Speaker 3: short little laugh ro. I remember looking at myself in
26:18
Speaker 3: the mirror and be like, I just don't know if
26:21
Speaker 3: this is the right look or if this is the
26:24
Speaker 3: right thing for me. You know, as much as I
26:27
Speaker 3: dig this music and everything, I just remember looking at
26:29
Speaker 3: myself and be like, come on, you.
26:31
Speaker 1: Know, little crisis of identity?
26:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and yeah, which is I guess the right age,
26:35
Speaker 3: you know. But I remember turning fifteen, and that's when
26:39
Speaker 3: I got heavily into motown, like just getting into and
26:44
Speaker 3: that's when I started really noticing guitar and its presence
26:49
Speaker 3: in old soul music and in like you know, the
26:52
Speaker 3: intro to My Girl and stuff like that, be like,
26:54
Speaker 3: that's a guitar and this I can play these things, yeah,
26:57
Speaker 3: and I don't need a loud, overdriven app to do so.
27:01
Speaker 3: And these are amazing songs and this is a great
27:04
Speaker 3: vibe and I don't need a particular look to participate
27:09
Speaker 3: with it. And also it was around this time that
27:12
Speaker 3: I started getting into Hendricks. I remember Guitar World came
27:14
Speaker 3: out with an all Hendricks issue, and I remember my
27:17
Speaker 3: first Hendricks record was Live at Winterland that just it
27:20
Speaker 3: was just released on CD. So it was like, you know,
27:23
Speaker 3: hearing Hendricks on stage and my dad was allowing me
27:27
Speaker 3: to play CDs on his huge stereo.
27:30
Speaker 2: Okay, so upgraded, yeah exactly.
27:33
Speaker 3: So it was that live at Winterland Hendricks, and I
27:35
Speaker 3: was able to see how black music fit into rock
27:41
Speaker 3: and roll and sort of you know, do the backtracking
27:45
Speaker 3: and seeing like how I could be part of this
27:48
Speaker 3: music that I was into and how you know, oh
27:51
Speaker 3: my goodness, Hendricks was a forefather in fact, and just
27:56
Speaker 3: seeing like my place in it more so.
28:00
Speaker 1: Like you're not an intruder or moving yourself.
28:05
Speaker 3: And then it was around this time shortly thereafter when
28:07
Speaker 3: Living Color came on the scene, and there was like,
28:09
Speaker 3: oh shit, that was such a moment of validation and
28:14
Speaker 3: just like a world just got very technicolored really fast. Wow,
28:19
Speaker 3: And I was super fanished. I remember they played in
28:22
Speaker 3: SNL and I remember getting Vivid on CD and I
28:26
Speaker 3: just remember like just dancing in my basement to this music.
28:30
Speaker 2: And then I must have gotten my heart broken.
28:33
Speaker 3: And then I discovered the Smiths and the Cure and
28:38
Speaker 3: Fishbone you know, goth if you will, you know, and
28:42
Speaker 3: then I started getting into seeing how the guitar could
28:46
Speaker 3: create a different sort of tapestry with this music that
28:50
Speaker 3: the Cure was doing what the Smiths was doing, and
28:52
Speaker 3: Cocktail Twins bands like that.
28:54
Speaker 1: You have the guitar driven stuff like rock and roll Boy,
28:58
Speaker 1: it's then you have like soul where guitars and accompaniment
29:01
Speaker 1: kind of thing, but in that music it's more like
29:04
Speaker 1: it's almost like used like a sound effect almost.
29:06
Speaker 3: Or like oh yeah yeah yeah, very son tapestries and
29:10
Speaker 3: just textual stuff that you're not like like in your
29:13
Speaker 3: mind's eye, you're not seeing this swashbuckling guitar hero, but
29:18
Speaker 3: there's the subliminal thing that guitar does, so that's triggering
29:24
Speaker 3: something within you emotionally sonically, and it's also the textual
29:29
Speaker 3: aspect of like what a keyboard does. So there's that
29:32
Speaker 3: sort of cold wave, that sort of cold British sort
29:37
Speaker 3: of element, you know with coarus pedals and a lot
29:40
Speaker 3: of delays, and then some of what you two is doing,
29:43
Speaker 3: there's like some.
29:43
Speaker 2: Aspects of that.
29:45
Speaker 3: So those teen years it was just like such a
29:48
Speaker 3: time of discovery as what the guitar could do in
29:52
Speaker 3: music and the way it could be percussive, the way
29:54
Speaker 3: it could be melodic, the way it could be textual,
29:58
Speaker 3: the way it could be noise and attitude just seeing
30:02
Speaker 3: like it does not have to be one thing, and
30:05
Speaker 3: you don't have to be one thing, and you through
30:07
Speaker 3: use of touch and am settings and effects and note
30:13
Speaker 3: selection and rhythmic choices, you can be all of these things.
30:17
Speaker 3: And just so as I was growing as a teen,
30:20
Speaker 3: it was just pulling me into this forest of sound
30:24
Speaker 3: and falling in love and just feeling very romantic and
30:27
Speaker 3: being into music that spoke to that side of life
30:32
Speaker 3: of being a misin thrown and also you know, noticing
30:36
Speaker 3: my blackness and also becoming more aware of not fitting in,
30:42
Speaker 3: which does not have to be something that's recognized, you know, racially.
30:46
Speaker 3: You know that's universal sort of existential, you know moment
30:51
Speaker 3: that people go through. And I felt it in my
30:54
Speaker 3: own way, and I was blessed to be able to
30:57
Speaker 3: be playing music at the time, and I started going
30:59
Speaker 3: out and I'd start going to like Soul Kitchen back
31:02
Speaker 3: in the day, there's this club, Soul Kitchen, where they
31:05
Speaker 3: would start playing they would play Mandril, they'd play p funk,
31:08
Speaker 3: they play silvers like.
31:11
Speaker 2: It was just yeah, the first time I heard you heard.
31:14
Speaker 3: That, that blew my mind, blew my mind. And just
31:19
Speaker 3: hearing how funk and how rock was fusing, and I'm
31:25
Speaker 3: discovering seventies electric band Miles, and I'm getting I'm meeting
31:29
Speaker 3: people that are into that, and you're jamming and you're
31:32
Speaker 3: playing in front of people. It's just like New York
31:34
Speaker 3: at the time in the mid nineties, late mid to
31:36
Speaker 3: late nineties, it was a beautiful time.
31:39
Speaker 1: But nobody does seem like a special time. I mean,
31:41
Speaker 1: all these errors were sort of seemed to be colliding. Yeah,
31:43
Speaker 1: and some of that stuff's gone now, you know.
31:45
Speaker 3: I mean I can't quite tell because you know, like
31:48
Speaker 3: I the other night, I went out to see a
31:50
Speaker 3: band and at my age now like I have kids,
31:55
Speaker 3: you know, like I and you know, with age comes wisdom,
31:59
Speaker 3: and I'm not able to be out mad late as
32:02
Speaker 3: I was every night in my twenties, you know. So
32:04
Speaker 3: it's just like and when I went out, I was
32:05
Speaker 3: just like, you know, I was in the Lower East
32:07
Speaker 3: Side and it was like, you know, there's mad people
32:09
Speaker 3: out and just like there were bands playing, and it's
32:12
Speaker 3: just like you just got to know where to go.
32:14
Speaker 2: You know. I wasn't there for the sixties.
32:15
Speaker 3: Those that were there for that time, they're probably like
32:18
Speaker 3: y'all missed out, you know, So maybe it's so much
32:20
Speaker 3: of it has to do with the hormones coursing through
32:24
Speaker 3: your body at a particular agent, being at that place
32:26
Speaker 3: at that time. And if you're hearing music you love,
32:29
Speaker 3: if you're getting laid, it's a beautiful time in New
32:32
Speaker 3: York City. You know, if you could afford to eat,
32:34
Speaker 3: if you got if you could afford to be here,
32:37
Speaker 3: you're chilling.
32:38
Speaker 4: You know that it may be that it could be
32:43
Speaker 4: that simple.
32:44
Speaker 2: So anyhow, I was working as a preschool teacher during
32:47
Speaker 2: the day.
32:47
Speaker 1: How did you get that get and where were you teaching?
32:51
Speaker 2: And you say that likes can we find them? Funny?
32:55
Speaker 3: Funny?
32:55
Speaker 2: You should ask them you can find them.
32:57
Speaker 3: But right before I left Long Island, I was I
33:00
Speaker 3: used to work with the developmentally disabled. They used to
33:02
Speaker 3: work with autistic children and I was a direct care counselor.
33:08
Speaker 2: How did you get involved?
33:09
Speaker 1: That's beautiful, Well I was.
33:10
Speaker 3: I remember working at the mall while I was going
33:13
Speaker 3: to Suffolk Community College, and I remember somebody came in
33:18
Speaker 3: with a group of people from They were developmentally disabled
33:24
Speaker 3: and there was autism.
33:26
Speaker 2: I saw. I saw kids with Down syndrome and they
33:28
Speaker 2: came into my job.
33:29
Speaker 3: I remember selling soap to people and you know, questioning
33:34
Speaker 3: about what I'm doing for a living, you know, what
33:36
Speaker 3: do I want to what I really want to do
33:38
Speaker 3: with my life. And I remember them coming in, and
33:41
Speaker 3: I remember feeling a little uncomfortable when they came in,
33:45
Speaker 3: and I remember asking the person that was that was
33:48
Speaker 3: there with them, who was sort of like leading them
33:49
Speaker 3: around everything, like where they were from, and so I'm
33:52
Speaker 3: from this place, mary Haven, and you know, we're on
33:55
Speaker 3: what's called community exposure and then you know, trying to
33:58
Speaker 3: make sure that nobody touches anything. And then they could
34:00
Speaker 3: only stay for so long and then they left. But
34:02
Speaker 3: I remember that feeling stuck with me, like why did
34:05
Speaker 3: I feel uncomfortable about that?
34:06
Speaker 2: And then I'm thinking, and I'm like, well what am
34:09
Speaker 2: I doing?
34:10
Speaker 3: Like I'm you know, I'm selling soap, you know, in retail,
34:14
Speaker 3: like and I just I don't know.
34:16
Speaker 2: I just had this sense that.
34:17
Speaker 3: Like, I want to make money, but I want to
34:21
Speaker 3: like it if there is there a way I can
34:22
Speaker 3: make money and help people.
34:24
Speaker 2: And I just switched jobs.
34:26
Speaker 3: And I wanted to do something that was like more
34:28
Speaker 3: felt more serving humanity. So I just did that for
34:31
Speaker 3: like a couple of years, and it was great, you know,
34:34
Speaker 3: and playing guitar for that population was so gratifying. But
34:39
Speaker 3: so when I moved to Manhattan, I was trying to
34:42
Speaker 3: get a job doing something similar and I needed a
34:46
Speaker 3: degree to do that, and so it was like, I
34:50
Speaker 3: need to like do some more school. And I was
34:53
Speaker 3: also at the time discovering playing music at night. So
34:57
Speaker 3: I was, you know, trying to like figure it out,
34:59
Speaker 3: like am I going to go back to school?
35:00
Speaker 2: I'm going to do that.
35:00
Speaker 3: And and then I had a friend that worked as
35:03
Speaker 3: an insistent teacher at a preschool and their preschool was
35:07
Speaker 3: looking for assistant teachers, and so I worked there for
35:12
Speaker 3: a year or two, and then I I was taught
35:13
Speaker 3: at Greenwich House Preschool for maybe six years.
35:17
Speaker 2: I taught at Greenwich House Preschool.
35:18
Speaker 3: And many of not many, but I can say there's
35:23
Speaker 3: like three or four students of my for former students
35:26
Speaker 3: I've seen within the past five years, like randomly, like
35:29
Speaker 3: I was, I was trying to get my Apple computer
35:32
Speaker 3: fixed and.
35:34
Speaker 2: He's like, are you Kirk.
35:35
Speaker 3: I was like yeah, He's like you changed my diaper,
35:37
Speaker 3: you know what, hopefully twenty years ago, but yeah, he
35:44
Speaker 3: was like, you know yeah, And I had him come
35:46
Speaker 3: down to the tonight show. He brought his mom. You
35:48
Speaker 3: had like a little reunion. He's having a kid. So yeah,
35:52
Speaker 3: I definitely have been able to see the circle of
35:55
Speaker 3: life happen before my eyes.
35:57
Speaker 1: Incredible.
35:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's it's crazy gig and I mean so
36:03
Speaker 3: I would gig at night playing. There's a band called
36:05
Speaker 3: the Velt that I They were known as the Velt,
36:09
Speaker 3: then known as a Pola Heights at some point, but
36:11
Speaker 3: now they're back to being the Belt, the Veldt. They're
36:13
Speaker 3: still playing out. That was one of the bands I
36:15
Speaker 3: played with. I played with Greg Taates, Burnt Sugar, played
36:19
Speaker 3: with Amani Yuzuri, played with Tomorrow Colli god Alice Smith.
36:24
Speaker 3: I remember playing with her, you know, sometimes interpretive Dance.
36:28
Speaker 3: You'd be playing for that too, and many of the
36:31
Speaker 3: things would be like you know, coming up with things,
36:33
Speaker 3: you know, all improvisation based. So that was part of
36:38
Speaker 3: like my my musical like diet in education. There's a
36:42
Speaker 3: band called the Bell Band. We used to play at
36:43
Speaker 3: this place, the Bell Cafe. They called this the Bell Band.
36:46
Speaker 3: We were just every Sunday just just set up instruments
36:50
Speaker 3: and just play whatever came to our minds. And that
36:52
Speaker 3: was very influenced by what Miles was doing, like seventies period. Miles, Yeah, yeah,
37:00
Speaker 3: like Mahavishnu type of stuff, just you know, Mandril type
37:05
Speaker 3: of stuff, just like meters and just you know, and
37:10
Speaker 3: I'd bring like everything that we've talked about for the
37:13
Speaker 3: past hour, like to the table sonically in terms of
37:17
Speaker 3: what would fit. And you know, through effects, you know,
37:20
Speaker 3: you learn how to like take up textual space and
37:23
Speaker 3: create things that are ethereal and then you know, sample
37:26
Speaker 3: yourself and then come in with something that's just more
37:28
Speaker 3: riff oriented or something that's you know, just more supportive
37:33
Speaker 3: to what are the keyboards are doing and just and
37:34
Speaker 3: it was all like see your pants and then occasionally
37:38
Speaker 3: get to like rip asolo too, like all that stuff was.
37:41
Speaker 2: It is like no holds barred type of creation. It was.
37:44
Speaker 2: It was such a.
37:46
Speaker 3: Freeing playground and that I think was a big part
37:49
Speaker 3: of my transition to getting to play with the roots
37:52
Speaker 3: because around that time, from playing with one of these
37:56
Speaker 3: poets amani User, I think Rich Nichols, who I had
37:59
Speaker 3: spoke about spoken about before, came to one of those
38:01
Speaker 3: gigs and gave me his card. Within I think the
38:05
Speaker 3: next year, I got a call because the guitar player
38:09
Speaker 3: for The Roots at the time, Ben Kenny, left the
38:12
Speaker 3: Roots to join Incubus. They had just put out Phrenology
38:15
Speaker 3: and they were about to go embark on a tour
38:19
Speaker 3: of Japan, and Vernon was playing with them while they
38:22
Speaker 3: were doing a brief European tour. But Vernon couldn't stay
38:26
Speaker 3: because he had to go and continue with Living Color.
38:29
Speaker 3: But they needed somebody more permanent and.
38:32
Speaker 1: That's a very guitar driven record for Phrenology.
38:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely, And.
38:41
Speaker 3: I auditioned with some other people and I got the
38:44
Speaker 3: gig and I had to give my two weeks notice
38:46
Speaker 3: to the preschool.
38:47
Speaker 2: Wow, you're still with the joined the Roots?
38:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, after this last break, we were back with the
38:54
Speaker 1: rest of my conversation with Captain Kirk Douglas, we're back
39:02
Speaker 1: with Captain Kirk. So when you joined for that is
39:06
Speaker 1: are you joining under the guise of just for that tour?
39:09
Speaker 1: Is that the understanding?
39:10
Speaker 2: Kind of put this way.
39:11
Speaker 3: I did the first show with The Roots and I
39:14
Speaker 3: had my ticket stubs from the Nitty Factory. I had
39:17
Speaker 3: them to sign it because I didn't know if it
39:19
Speaker 3: was just going to be on that tour or what.
39:22
Speaker 3: And then after the Japanese tour, then I got itinery
39:26
Speaker 3: with more dates on it, and I was like, oh, okay,
39:29
Speaker 3: I guess I might be sticking around, but I as.
39:33
Speaker 1: You toured by that point, like internationally.
39:36
Speaker 3: One of the many gigs that I played before playing
39:40
Speaker 3: with the Roots was with a guy named TM Stevens,
39:43
Speaker 3: who is a bass player who played with John McLaughlin.
39:47
Speaker 3: He was a bass player that played with Steve Vai
39:49
Speaker 3: during some time. He played with Miles. For a brief period,
39:53
Speaker 3: he played with the Pretenders. Remember like, there's that Pretender's
39:59
Speaker 3: album Get Close. There's a black dude that's playing on
40:01
Speaker 3: bass for that. I didn't TM Stevens. He was in
40:04
Speaker 3: that band with Bernie Warrel. Interestingly enough, the Pretenders.
40:09
Speaker 2: I don't know, the Pretenders had a record.
40:11
Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, So I played with him and that with
40:17
Speaker 4: TM Stevens, that was sort of like a black rock,
40:19
Speaker 4: living color type of situation, very funk influence but also
40:24
Speaker 4: pretty metallic.
40:25
Speaker 3: I played internationally with Team. We went to Germany once
40:28
Speaker 3: and we went to Japan once. Yeah, but going to
40:32
Speaker 3: Japan with the Roots was definitely different. It was definitely
40:34
Speaker 3: on a grander scale.
40:36
Speaker 1: The Roots must have been I mean they must have
40:37
Speaker 1: been pretty big in Japan at that time, right, yeah.
40:39
Speaker 3: I mean, well this is just when the seed came
40:42
Speaker 3: out and they had on their hands, like, you know,
40:44
Speaker 3: a hit. So I got to see them, witness that
40:49
Speaker 3: alongside with them, on stage with them, you know, it's like, well,
40:52
Speaker 3: we have a hit now, you know. It's like before
40:54
Speaker 3: I joined the band, they open for the Beastie Boys.
40:56
Speaker 3: That was like a big tour that they had done.
40:58
Speaker 3: I shortly after I joined, they did some opening dates
41:01
Speaker 3: with Dave Matthews band, Got It, And that was like
41:04
Speaker 3: when I saw like a really big audience for the
41:06
Speaker 3: first time, I remember, And it was the first time
41:08
Speaker 3: I ever saw top shelf catering. Like any opportunity to
41:12
Speaker 3: do anything with the Dave Matthews Band, I mean, even
41:15
Speaker 3: I'll rody it, you know, just if I have access
41:17
Speaker 3: to that catering. And then I remember seeing Dave Matthews
41:19
Speaker 3: in the parking lot. It was like, Hey, would you
41:21
Speaker 3: want to come up and play all on the watch
41:23
Speaker 3: Tower with us tonight? And I'm like with you, you know,
41:26
Speaker 3: and He's like, yeah, just come up. At the end,
41:28
Speaker 3: he invited me to do that, and it was insane.
41:30
Speaker 3: It was just like playing with them was just like
41:32
Speaker 3: being in the eye of the storm and just like
41:34
Speaker 3: you're looking at the crowd and just like it was
41:37
Speaker 3: a great crowd, you know that was there for us
41:39
Speaker 3: when we were opening. Yeah, but it definitely looked different
41:41
Speaker 3: like when you're on stage with the Dave Matthews band.
41:45
Speaker 2: And looking at his fans crowd.
41:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, like like completely on whatever you're doing, and it
41:50
Speaker 3: was it was such an experience, man, at that point.
41:53
Speaker 3: Then it started to feel like, Wow, I think I'm
41:55
Speaker 3: part of the Roots now. You know. It's weird when
41:58
Speaker 3: I think about it, because it's kind of like in
41:59
Speaker 3: the grand scheme of things, like it's like this short
42:03
Speaker 3: period of.
42:04
Speaker 2: Time that felt kind of long.
42:05
Speaker 3: I joined the band in three and then we started
42:09
Speaker 3: you doing work with Jimmy Fallon for Late Night with
42:12
Speaker 3: Jimmy Fallon that started in nine, I know.
42:15
Speaker 1: I mean the Roots pre Fallin were like on the
42:18
Speaker 1: road all the time a lot.
42:21
Speaker 2: It's like two hundred and fifty days a year.
42:22
Speaker 1: How was it transitioning from you gigging here at night,
42:25
Speaker 1: you're doing preschool during the day, to you're on the
42:27
Speaker 1: road two hundred fifty days a year.
42:29
Speaker 3: That was a big adjustment because I joined the band
42:31
Speaker 3: just after I got married. Wow, you know, I got
42:35
Speaker 3: married with the thought that, well, you know what, I've
42:38
Speaker 3: been playing music a while now.
42:39
Speaker 2: Of course, I just turned thirty.
42:41
Speaker 3: I feel like it's safe to say that I'm not
42:43
Speaker 3: going to start traveling the world or anything. And I
42:46
Speaker 3: feel like I've had just, you know, all the experiences
42:49
Speaker 3: I've need to have in my life, and I feel
42:52
Speaker 3: like now's a good time to like, you know, settle
42:55
Speaker 3: down and get married.
42:56
Speaker 2: This is perfect.
42:57
Speaker 3: And then I joined the Roots, and now now you're
43:00
Speaker 3: about to start touring the world, you know. So I'm
43:04
Speaker 3: looking back, I'm so happy that it played out that
43:07
Speaker 3: way because I feel like, you know, I had a
43:10
Speaker 3: sort of a grounding that would make me being out
43:15
Speaker 3: on the road like that at that age just kind
43:18
Speaker 3: of messy, you know. And I feel like just the
43:21
Speaker 3: groundedness from being together with someone and it just allowed
43:28
Speaker 3: me to just focus more on the situation in hand,
43:31
Speaker 3: you know, playing the music and doing the work, and
43:34
Speaker 3: you know, it was fun, it was exciting, and but
43:36
Speaker 3: it was like a lot of time away. But it
43:39
Speaker 3: also was a situation where I felt like every time
43:43
Speaker 3: we'd get back together, there'd be like a rejuvenation.
43:47
Speaker 2: Of our romance, you know.
43:50
Speaker 3: And then once we started having when we started having children,
43:52
Speaker 3: that was definitely challenging. You know, our son was born
43:56
Speaker 3: in five and so like for the first four years
44:00
Speaker 3: of his life, you know, I was on the road heavy,
44:03
Speaker 3: and that was definitely challenging, definitely challenging for my wife,
44:07
Speaker 3: and definitely challenging for me to be away while that
44:09
Speaker 3: was happening. But when it came into play that we
44:13
Speaker 3: were going to start working with Jimmy for Late Night,
44:17
Speaker 3: that was such a game changer in terms of just
44:21
Speaker 3: coming home every night for dinner, sleeping in the same
44:24
Speaker 3: bed every night, and like, you know, you really notice
44:26
Speaker 3: it when you know, you got this gig and different
44:28
Speaker 3: bands come through all the time to play on the
44:31
Speaker 3: Tonight Show, and the first questions that they would ask
44:35
Speaker 3: us was questions about what's it like to just be
44:38
Speaker 3: in one place and not have to travel so much.
44:41
Speaker 3: And then we really got the sense of, oh, wow,
44:45
Speaker 3: we're really lucky to be in this situation right now.
44:48
Speaker 3: But then shortly, you know, within a couple of years
44:52
Speaker 3: what wound up happening is any moment that we weren't
44:54
Speaker 3: doing the show we'd be out on the road, so
44:57
Speaker 3: then you'd find yourself with like kind of two jobs.
45:01
Speaker 3: It's really been a blessing and just and you know,
45:03
Speaker 3: so many bands also that I've discovered from this job.
45:07
Speaker 3: You know, bands I've never heard of that, you know,
45:09
Speaker 3: because you know, as you get older and as you
45:12
Speaker 3: are a parent, you if you're not actively trying to
45:15
Speaker 3: stay in the loop, you slowly life slowly ushes you
45:20
Speaker 3: out of the loop.
45:22
Speaker 1: And who was of the bands you've discovered, dude?
45:24
Speaker 3: Oh, I mean bands like Tame and Pala, you know.
45:27
Speaker 3: I mean, it's like doing this show. It's like the
45:30
Speaker 3: first time you know there's gonna be somebody on the
45:32
Speaker 3: shows names edg Ed Sheeran. Okay, you don't don't know
45:37
Speaker 3: who this is, and you're seeing them on stage for
45:40
Speaker 3: the first time, and it's in this room, but it's
45:42
Speaker 3: also like happening on the world stage.
45:44
Speaker 4: You know.
45:45
Speaker 2: Also Unknown Mortal Orchestra.
45:47
Speaker 3: I love that man, And that's the first time I
45:49
Speaker 3: ever saw them first time, you know, Gary Clark Jr.
45:53
Speaker 2: Sat in with us, you know what I mean, Like
45:55
Speaker 2: I never heard of it.
45:56
Speaker 1: I wasn't playing with them.
45:57
Speaker 2: It was insane.
45:59
Speaker 3: It was insane, just like watching it like close up
46:01
Speaker 3: and just and again like seeing you know people that
46:05
Speaker 3: are like legends in their first TV involvement, you know,
46:09
Speaker 3: so seeing him, you know, he was like kind of
46:11
Speaker 3: nervous but ripping, you know. And the fun part is
46:16
Speaker 3: just seeing it all up close, you know, seeing it
46:19
Speaker 3: like not on YouTube, not on your phone, but right
46:22
Speaker 3: in front of you, Like is It's been amazing?
46:25
Speaker 1: How was the Prince stuff? Make Prince? That was a
46:27
Speaker 1: funny story about Prince your guitar.
46:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, what a day that was.
46:32
Speaker 3: I remember I saw I think I saw a known
46:35
Speaker 3: Moratal orchestra the night before he came, because I remember
46:38
Speaker 3: like being backstage meeting Reuben Wilson and saying I wouldn't
46:41
Speaker 3: mind hearing Prince do a cover of So Good at
46:44
Speaker 3: Being in Trouble. I remember saying that because I actually
46:47
Speaker 3: Prince is going to come to the Joe tomorrow.
46:48
Speaker 2: Little did I know.
46:49
Speaker 3: So I'm home, I get a call that says Prince
46:54
Speaker 3: came to play it at fallon. He's playing with his
46:58
Speaker 3: group a Third Eye Girl. I think that's what they're called.
47:01
Speaker 3: Yeh all go man. Prince made it to the rehearsal,
47:05
Speaker 3: but his guitar did not, and he needed a guitar
47:07
Speaker 3: to borrow, and so you know, they asked if it
47:11
Speaker 3: was cool if he borrowed one of mine. So I
47:13
Speaker 3: have my guitars here and probably in this very spot
47:16
Speaker 3: is this is a kind of a near replica of
47:19
Speaker 3: the guitar, but it had a purple strap on it
47:22
Speaker 3: when he came in, and I guess he came in,
47:24
Speaker 3: saw that guitar, saw the purple strap and be like,
47:26
Speaker 3: I want to play that one. He played it for
47:28
Speaker 3: rehearsal and I got pictures sent to my phone of
47:31
Speaker 3: Prince playing my guitar, which I was over.
47:34
Speaker 2: The moon about.
47:35
Speaker 1: Ridiculous.
47:36
Speaker 3: So he does rehearsal, his guitar shows up, It does
47:41
Speaker 3: the rehearsal, rest of rehearsal with his guitar. It comes
47:44
Speaker 3: to show time, and right before we start the whole show,
47:47
Speaker 3: the music booker at the time comes to me and says,
47:52
Speaker 3: Prince wants to buy your guitar and use it for
47:55
Speaker 3: the show. And I'm like, oh wow, Prince can use
47:58
Speaker 3: my guitar for the show, but he can't buy it.
48:00
Speaker 1: Did you feel weird? Saying no, a little bit?
48:04
Speaker 3: I mean, well, I mean I said he could play
48:06
Speaker 3: the guitar, but feel weird saying no, no, because it's
48:09
Speaker 3: my guitar. I want that guitar. It's not for sale,
48:12
Speaker 3: so it would be weird, you know. No, I didn't
48:14
Speaker 3: feel weird about it.
48:15
Speaker 1: No, no, not.
48:16
Speaker 3: So anyhow, so he so my guitar leaves my post
48:21
Speaker 3: where I'm standing on stage, and then it comes back
48:23
Speaker 3: to me and so I'm I guess he didn't want
48:26
Speaker 3: to use it. No harm, no foul. He does two songs.
48:29
Speaker 3: He does the first song with his guitar. He had
48:31
Speaker 3: this vox electric guitar. He does the first song, and
48:34
Speaker 3: then right after this song, he comes up to me.
48:36
Speaker 3: He's like, yo, let me see that of the guitar.
48:38
Speaker 3: And I'm like sure, so I give him the guitar.
48:42
Speaker 3: He does Bambi Prints song, Bambie shreds, yeah, yeah, And
48:48
Speaker 3: at the end, I'm thinking he's about to play behind
48:51
Speaker 3: his head, but he lifts it up, but he doesn't
48:54
Speaker 3: put it behind his head.
48:55
Speaker 2: He lifts it up and he tosses it.
48:58
Speaker 3: And came crashing into the ground and it was like
49:02
Speaker 3: feedbacking and he just like does his strut off stage,
49:05
Speaker 3: you know, and Jimmy's like, you know, reducing him off.
49:09
Speaker 2: You know. That was Prince.
49:11
Speaker 3: And then we played the outro to the show and
49:14
Speaker 3: there's footage of our bass player Mark Kelly.
49:16
Speaker 2: He's just laughing hysterically and you see I'm laughing too,
49:21
Speaker 2: but it's not a normal laugh.
49:22
Speaker 3: It's just like it's a laugh that like I know
49:25
Speaker 3: I'm on camera like this sort of like maniacal look
49:29
Speaker 3: on my face, like what the fuck just happened. So
49:33
Speaker 3: then after the show, Keith comes up to us and
49:36
Speaker 3: he comes up to me. It's like Prince wants to
49:38
Speaker 3: talk to you. And I'm like, really okay, like I
49:41
Speaker 3: want to talk to Prince, you know. And then I
49:43
Speaker 3: go and he's back listening to the mix of the
49:47
Speaker 3: music and I can't hear what he's saying because the
49:49
Speaker 3: music's so loud, but I could make out the words
49:51
Speaker 3: like I'm sorry, I'll take care of it.
49:53
Speaker 2: Definitely said I'll take care of it.
49:55
Speaker 3: But he was talking about what happened with his other guitars,
49:57
Speaker 3: like it was going out of tune.
49:59
Speaker 2: Or just some excuse. And then the mixing is over.
50:02
Speaker 3: Walking out of the room, I'm holding the guitar and
50:05
Speaker 3: the two pieces is and it broke on the on
50:08
Speaker 3: the headstock is where really broke And I'm like, all right,
50:11
Speaker 3: well you broke it.
50:11
Speaker 2: You think you can at least sign it, you know,
50:14
Speaker 2: And he's like, oh, I haven't signed anything since the seventies.
50:18
Speaker 1: He wouldn't sign it.
50:19
Speaker 2: He wouldn't sign it. Yeah, And I was just in shock.
50:23
Speaker 2: I was like, damn, that's cold.
50:27
Speaker 3: But to his credit, his people called me and they
50:31
Speaker 3: wired a great sum of money to my account. If
50:34
Speaker 3: I had a choice between the signature and the money
50:37
Speaker 3: they wired into my account, I would definitely taken the money.
50:39
Speaker 2: For sure. My car didn't need servicing.
50:42
Speaker 3: But what's ironic with the whole thing is that guitar
50:45
Speaker 3: that he chose to play is normally not in the building.
50:51
Speaker 3: It's normally like at home. I always keep that at home.
50:53
Speaker 3: It was only in the building because we had rehearsal
50:57
Speaker 3: that night and I wanted to use the guitar for
51:01
Speaker 3: the show that the rehearsal was for. And the show
51:05
Speaker 3: that the rehearsal was for was at Carnegie Hall and
51:09
Speaker 3: it was a Prince tribute.
51:14
Speaker 1: Yes, well you knew how to pick the guitar for
51:17
Speaker 1: thee Yeah.
51:19
Speaker 2: Yeah.
51:19
Speaker 3: What was cool about it is the guy that sold
51:21
Speaker 3: me the guitar, great luthier that builds his own guitars,
51:26
Speaker 3: Matt from Thirtieth Street Guitars, Matt Brewster, and he fixed
51:29
Speaker 3: the guitar in time for me to use it that night.
51:33
Speaker 2: Wow, you know.
51:34
Speaker 3: And Chris Rock was also there and he did like
51:37
Speaker 3: a Prince spoken words song. I forgot which one he did,
51:42
Speaker 3: but I told Chris Rock the story. He was like, well,
51:45
Speaker 3: now you have your own Prince asshole story, you know.
51:48
Speaker 3: And now it's at the Cleveland Rock and Roll Hall
51:50
Speaker 3: of Fame and I'm trying to get that guitar back
51:52
Speaker 3: now because I think it's been there long enough. It's
51:55
Speaker 3: gathered enough mojo, I think, and I'm ready.
51:58
Speaker 2: To have it back.
51:58
Speaker 1: Now.
51:59
Speaker 2: You want to play it again? I want to play
52:00
Speaker 2: it again. It's instruments are made to be played.
52:02
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. Yeah, was that the only time you
52:04
Speaker 1: met Prince was the.
52:05
Speaker 2: I met him once at a Grammy.
52:07
Speaker 3: He had a Grammy party and that was right after
52:10
Speaker 3: he did his famous Super Bowl performance.
52:12
Speaker 2: Wow. So I met him shortly after that, a few
52:15
Speaker 2: days after that. I think it was.
52:16
Speaker 1: Talk about mojo, yeah, right.
52:18
Speaker 3: And I met him right before one of his shows
52:21
Speaker 3: at the Garden along with Questlove. He like reintroduced me
52:25
Speaker 3: both times Questlove introduced me. You know, I was like
52:29
Speaker 3: right there when he was hanging with him. So yeah,
52:32
Speaker 3: I had three and I was really looking forward to
52:35
Speaker 3: like seeing him again.
52:36
Speaker 2: After that happened, you know, never got to.
52:40
Speaker 1: Have That's so sad.
52:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, yeah, strategy man.
52:44
Speaker 1: There's a song on the New Unknown which is the
52:47
Speaker 1: hundred Heart under What Heart record Breadth of Fire, I
52:51
Speaker 1: mean Breath the Fire Jesus christ Man.
52:54
Speaker 2: Thank you man.
52:54
Speaker 1: That's another moment where I'm like, how did you I mean,
52:57
Speaker 1: he's just that good again, I mean, how do you
52:59
Speaker 1: make that sound live and improvised? On the Well, It's
53:03
Speaker 1: like that's.
53:03
Speaker 3: A song that it like has like a lot of
53:05
Speaker 3: the melodies and themes are like kind of curated on
53:08
Speaker 3: that song. Like it's you know, it's a guitar solo,
53:11
Speaker 3: but it's like a it's a it's kind of like
53:13
Speaker 3: a piece, you know, and like throughout time, you know,
53:16
Speaker 3: like there's like the basic melody of the song, and
53:18
Speaker 3: then when it goes off on this tangent, like like
53:21
Speaker 3: many days of thinking of that rhythm and like things
53:25
Speaker 3: have come to me and like and like sometimes I'll
53:28
Speaker 3: sing some of these ideas into a recorder and like
53:32
Speaker 3: trying to remember to play that next time, you know,
53:34
Speaker 3: and then some then there's some of it that's like
53:37
Speaker 3: totally off the cuff, you know.
53:39
Speaker 1: Would you mind playing a couple of just the motifs
53:41
Speaker 1: from there?
53:43
Speaker 2: No, if you just wait a second, Okay, So yeah,
53:52
Speaker 2: the main groove of is like.
54:00
Speaker 3: It's just started out of like this basic that basic progression,
54:05
Speaker 3: that basic riff, and then you have like all the
54:08
Speaker 3: percussion that happens, and it's like a guitar solo, but
54:12
Speaker 3: it's like kind of like wanted something like because if
54:14
Speaker 3: the guitar is like singing, yeah, so it's just like
54:35
Speaker 3: it's something like you can almost attach your own lyric
54:38
Speaker 3: to whatever the guitar is doing on that thing. And
54:41
Speaker 3: then as the song goes on, you start getting into
54:45
Speaker 3: things that you know probably can't be sung guitar wise,
54:51
Speaker 3: the guitars, I guess expressing like the lyrics that can
54:55
Speaker 3: only be like felt and not sung. Maybe every other
54:58
Speaker 3: song had vocals on it. I thought it'd be cool
54:59
Speaker 3: to like give people a break from my vocal. I
55:03
Speaker 3: wanted to give myself a break from my own vocal.
55:05
Speaker 3: Not that I don't like the sound of my own voice,
55:07
Speaker 3: but I thought it'd be cool to have it instrumental track,
55:10
Speaker 3: something that's you know, there's no words to take you
55:14
Speaker 3: any sort of direction, to just give you the listener
55:17
Speaker 3: their own interpretation of what's going down.
55:19
Speaker 1: There's another cool song on their land of Look Beyond You.
55:23
Speaker 1: Mind playing through a little of that?
55:24
Speaker 5: Yeah, come hits far too long since sweet fun.
55:59
Speaker 3: Like I was thinking kind of like some kind of
56:00
Speaker 3: Pink Floyd dark side of the moonish, you know.
56:03
Speaker 2: But that song was recorded I recorded.
56:08
Speaker 3: I record the whole album at my mom's house and
56:12
Speaker 3: it was recording the basement and uh with the drummer
56:15
Speaker 3: Rick Sheridan.
56:16
Speaker 2: A lot of it was recorded over COVID, and for
56:19
Speaker 2: that particular.
56:19
Speaker 3: Song, about a week before, I played the drummer Rick
56:23
Speaker 3: that song on my guitar and I don't know how
56:27
Speaker 3: he remembered it, but he was like, Yo, we should
56:30
Speaker 3: play that song again.
56:33
Speaker 2: You know.
56:33
Speaker 3: I was, as I told you, I was dabbling with
56:34
Speaker 3: home recording, so I just had three mics on his drums.
56:37
Speaker 3: I had Mike on his kick drum, Mike on his snare,
56:40
Speaker 3: and overhead mike. And what I did was I played
56:43
Speaker 3: my guitar directly into my interface, so you there's no
56:48
Speaker 3: bleed onto the drum tracks. And we played that song
56:53
Speaker 3: for the first time since he heard it, so we
56:55
Speaker 3: really never played.
56:56
Speaker 2: The song before.
56:58
Speaker 3: So when he sat down to play it, it felt
57:00
Speaker 3: so natural to him and could have been, you know,
57:04
Speaker 3: cannabis induced, but he was definitely in the zone.
57:08
Speaker 2: I was in the zone. We were both in the zone.
57:10
Speaker 3: And we played that whole song, that whole take down
57:14
Speaker 3: from top to mobom for the first time ever. So
57:16
Speaker 3: it's what you hear on the recording is the first
57:18
Speaker 3: time we ever played it. I edited it down because
57:20
Speaker 3: it's probably twice as long as what's on there, and
57:24
Speaker 3: then it was just built on top of from there.
57:27
Speaker 3: So that's what you're hearing on Land of Look Beyond
57:30
Speaker 3: beautiful song. I appreciate that you listen to it. The
57:34
Speaker 3: album's been out, you know, since the end of twenty
57:36
Speaker 3: twenty two, but I just got the vinyl done now.
57:40
Speaker 3: So now this is the challenge of playing with the
57:45
Speaker 3: roots and trying to have a side project.
57:47
Speaker 2: It's like, you know, you're just.
57:49
Speaker 3: Juggling all the blessings, you know what I mean, and
57:53
Speaker 3: you know, some things take time. And you know what's
57:57
Speaker 3: great about music and what's great about recording is it's
58:00
Speaker 3: manifestation in actions. Like you imagine something, there's a seed
58:05
Speaker 3: of an idea that comes into your mind and you
58:08
Speaker 3: record it and you throw it and you know, there's
58:10
Speaker 3: a time when Landa Looked Beyond was just like a
58:12
Speaker 3: little chord progression.
58:13
Speaker 2: I was playing for myself.
58:14
Speaker 3: And then it became this thing, you know, and uh,
58:20
Speaker 3: that's one of the most gratifying things about recording, like
58:23
Speaker 3: hearing an idea that started in your mind and then
58:26
Speaker 3: for me to get that idea out and have it
58:30
Speaker 3: come out of speakers, especially the speakers.
58:32
Speaker 2: That I grew up listening to music. That's what a
58:36
Speaker 2: musician does.
58:37
Speaker 3: That's all they want, pull you, the listener into our
58:39
Speaker 3: world and saying this is this what I'm about. This
58:42
Speaker 3: is here's a little musical museum of the things that
58:46
Speaker 3: I dig and maybe.
58:48
Speaker 2: Some of the residents.
58:48
Speaker 1: It's all in that record. It's the musical equivalent of
58:51
Speaker 1: what we just talked to me. It's like all these
58:53
Speaker 1: you hear, all of the the influences and more and
58:55
Speaker 1: just the years of work that you put into your craft.
58:58
Speaker 1: It's like it's it's beautiful, man.
58:59
Speaker 2: Thank you.
59:00
Speaker 3: I really appreciate you reaching out to have this conversation.
59:05
Speaker 1: Appreciate all the years of you juggling your blessings for
59:07
Speaker 1: our benefit. Man's it's yeah, yeah, You've given us more
59:11
Speaker 1: enjoyment than we could repay. So thank you. Well.
59:14
Speaker 2: I try to give out what I've been getting.
59:19
Speaker 1: Thanks again to Captain Kirk Douglas for talking through his
59:21
Speaker 1: origin story and for playing songs from his project Hunter
59:24
Speaker 1: Watt Heart for us. You can hear it along with
59:27
Speaker 1: our favorite songs from his work with the Roots, on
59:29
Speaker 1: a playlist at broken record podcast dot com. Subscribe to
59:33
Speaker 1: our YouTube channel at YouTube dot com slash broken Record Podcast,
59:37
Speaker 1: where you can find all of our new episodes. You
59:40
Speaker 1: can follow us on Twitter at broken Record. Broken Record
59:43
Speaker 1: is produced and edited by Leah Rose, with marketing help
59:46
Speaker 1: from Eric Sandler and Jordan McMillan. Our engineer is Ben Tollinday.
59:51
Speaker 1: Broken Record is a production of Pushkin Industries. If you
59:54
Speaker 1: love this show and others from Pushkin, consider subscribing to
59:58
Speaker 1: Pushkin Plus. Pushkin Plus is a podcast subscription that offers
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Speaker 1: a month. Look for Pushkin Plus on Apple Podcast subscription
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Speaker 1: And if you like this show, please remember to share, rate,
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Speaker 1: and review us on your podcast app. Are theme musics
1:00:15
Speaker 1: by Kenny Beats. I'm justin Richmond.