When did you first realise that COVID-19 was going to have an effect on your band?
Little King had a bunch of festival and club dates in the works. We had such great momentum with the success of Occam’s Foil, which was released in late 2019. Press and radio were all over it, as were our download and streaming numbers. It was…shocking! I am not used to expectations. But there they were, and so the only sensible (and fun) thing was to start rehearsing a setlist and booking shows.
But when Coachella crashed, all of the things we were working on fell like dominoes in rapid succession. What’s a band to do? Make a new record, that’s’ what!
Initially, what was that whole situation like, and how did your band overcome/react to it?
Pretty simple equation, really. Quarantine + Inaction = Irrelevance (with a side of Madness). Seriously, though…are you a real artist with real feelings? The world was fucking IMPLODING and we had a front-row seat. Hell, it may still be happening, especially when you top it off with the worst presidential election in modern history. So, as an artist, there was more than enough cannon fodder to proceed with making more art.
Manny (Tejeda, bass and backing vox) and I lived about 10 minutes from each other, until very recently, in Delaware. I have since relocated back to the desert, but more on that in a bit. As I was writing songs on the bed with a classical guitar and a blankie, I would record them and send them to Manny where he would pretend to work on them. Finally, when May rolled around, he would come over and sit 5 feet and 11 inches away from me with a chin diaper on, and we got to the work of refining the songs. It was awesome…we work really well together.
How has your creative process changed as a band over the last couple of months?
To expound on what I was just saying, not much, really. For 23 years and now almost 7 albums, Little King has been me with a guitar and a notepad and my friends chiming in when the songs are 90% complete. The new record, titled Amuse de Q, is no different. I write and watch TV and go for walks and then come back and drill a part 1000 times until I am happy with it. I cannot work on multiple songs, whether it’s lyrics or music. I have to finish something completely before I move on…OCD songwriting 101.
Once the songs are done, we jam, go to Texas, and meet up with Eddy (Garcia, drummer and engineer) and show him what’s up. From there, he wizards up some drum parts and away we go! And here we are…all of the drums and bass and about 90% of the guitars are done. Now it’s lyrics and vocal melodies and some extras like a few string arrangements and a piano part that my son has written for a song called “Set It Down.” Excited for little Syrinx to make his Little King debut, for sure.
What’s been the hardest part about writing/doing music this way?
Not to sound redundant, but not much really changed. I think the hardest part is always getting time away from work and family to go record. This time, though, was markedly different. The Q was my impetus to change some things, most notably my body, sobriety (or lack thereof), and my living situation.
I had moved to Delaware at the behest of my ex-wife in 2013, and while I had built a nice life there, enough was enough. My family is spread out in the western USA, including Texas, Arizona (where my mom is and where my son and I now reside), California, and Washington State. After 7 years and one global pandemic, I was done. So, I sold my house and furniture and cars and motorcycles and packed up our remaining possessions and we split.
Manny and my son helped me load the trailer with our remaining possessions (like mostly guitars, amps, and basketball jerseys) and we hit the road in early August, right after my house closed. I got a DUI in December of 2019, and that STILL has me fighting for a license, so Manny had to drive the entire 2112 miles with me shotgun and Asher in the back.
We stopped in El Paso to record for 10 days and to visit my daughter, who has lived there now for a few years. Accomplished a ton in the studio, and then we hit the road again and ended up in Arizona where we met up with my mom. She’s 76 now and is still in great shape, but we are helping each other and it’s a good time to reunite with COVID happening around us. And it’s cool…she and my son are bonding, and who knows how long they have together? It’s a blessing, to be sure. We are all healthy and happy and Amuse de Q is going to be amazing…I am thrilled, thus far.
What bands/artists have you been listening to over the last couple of months?
I am not gonna lie…very few. When I am in writing mode, I make a conscious effort to avoid almost all outside music. It messes with my process and makes me go crazy. “Wait, I wanna do that, I wanna try this, I wanna bring in a fucking didgeridoo…” etc. I CANNOT do it. I have to focus on what I am doing and use the influences prior to recording as my inspiration. Occasionally I will hear some faves like Steely Dan, the Talking Heads, Megadeth (especially this year), Rush, and a few others. I am aware of the Deftones new record, of course, and I enjoyed what I heard. But no…I am in the rabbit hole right now.
So, what do you think you’ve learnt the most from being a band through COVID-19?
This is a time that will be redlined in history for 100’s of years. If I wasn’t to make a mark on it with my take on art and politics and current events, it would be a massive fail.
All of the songs on Amuse de Q relate in some way to issues most of us are encountering this year. I am writing about isolation and breaking out of that cycle, domestic violence, sobriety, social media use and abuse, the protests around the country and our current political abomination, and so much more. I think these themes are eminently relatable, and I have certainly had a front row seat for a lot of it.
What kind of effect do you think that it’s had on the music industry all together, and how excited are you to see it return to normal?
The Live Show Is King! We can all make a record in 2020…the technology helps you cheat and is cheap. You still have to write good songs and execute them, but people so often don’t even bother making an album or EP anymore. Single Release? Fucking lame, in my book. Show me what you’ve got outside of one song at a time, man.
But what you can’t fake is killing it live in front of people who are skeptical or are fans. Whatever they are, you have to bring it. The appreciation for how hard that is and how impactful it is to see a band absolutely LAY IT DOWN live will be at an all-time high, and I hope that Little King will be there to ride the crest of the wave.
What tips/advice would you like to give to other bands who are also going through this?
Go into the lab. You run the risk of losing it all if you don’t keep creating. If you don’t have the inspiration right now, really examine if the artist thing is for you. Read a paper, watch the news, talk to some people who are going through it…then pick up an instrument, fire up you notepad, and get to work. You will make it work, trust me. The hardest part is alwasy just getting started.
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