Funk guitarist and producer Shaun Bivens of Black Stone Funk Revival joins Joe Kelley to dive into the creation of his raw and soulful new EP Blue Tears. In this intimate conversation, Bivens opens up about his Bay Area funk roots, performing in gritty clubs, the influence of Prince, and why imperfections give music its soul.

From solo studio sessions to a lifelong love of vinyl, Shaun shares stories that take you deep into the heart of real funk. A must-listen for fans of Prince, R&B, and timeless funk grooves.

🎙️ Musicians Reveal with Joe Kelley features deep conversations with funk legends, soul innovators, and artists from Prince’s creative orbit.

🔗 Guest & Episode Links:

• Shaun Bivens on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shaunbivens

• Listen to Blue Tears (Apple Music): https://music.apple.com/us/album/blue-tears-ep/1801821444

• Shaun Bivens on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shaun.bivens.7

🎧 More from Musicians Reveal:

• Official Website: https://musiciansreveal.com

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1rQAZZtdU2cZB6EeleSZ8J

• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/musicians-reveal/id1545165178

• YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@musiciansreveal

#ShaunBivens #BlackStoneFunkRevival #Prince #Funk #MusiciansReveal #BlueTears

The Viper Room and Whiskey Go, Go.

Are.

What's the vibe in there?

Is it still, like, kind of, like, ripped up, kind of dirty inside?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's the appeal.

That's the appeal.

You know, you walk on the floor and your feet are, like, sticking.

You know what I mean?

It's like.

Yeah, it's disgusting, you know, but, you know, if I. I don't.

If it's not a little bit disgusting in the club, then it's not a good club.

As far as I'm concerned.

It's not a good music venue.

At least, you know, it might be a good dance club.

You know, I mean, if you want to listen to dance music, then so be it, but if you want to hear good music, it's got to be a little bit beat up.

It's got to be lived in, you know?

Yeah.

Nobody's passing you the towel or giving you the mint in the bathroom at those clubs.

Absolutely not.

Yo.

You're watching Musicians reveal with Joe Kelly.

I am Sean Bivens, AKA Snicker Bar Brown, of the Blackstone funk revival.

Foreign.

Welcome to Musicians reveal.

We are in store for a great conversation today.

A premier funk and roller from the Bay Area, Mr. Sean Bivens, the leader of the Blackstone funk revival, has just put out a smoking ep.

That's right.

He's excited.

Nice episode.

Blue Tears.

And he primarily worked on it all himself.

Plays all these different instruments.

And we've got Finally, Mr. Sean Bivins on the show.

How you doing?

Great, man.

How about yourself?

I'm.

I'm extremely blessed, bro.

Good.

Good to see you.

Yeah.

And it's great to have some music that we grew up loving and.

And the feel to it.

I mean, you got your original spin to it, but you got motifs of other different flavors and music.

This particular record, it.

You kind of went into the studio by yourself and laid down almost everything, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, with.

With the guys, it's like, you know, everybody is kind of spread out far, you know, so sometimes I'll just get an idea.

I just go in there and just knock it all out.

And then, you know, I give it to them and say, you know, what do you guys think?

You know, if they say, hey, this song is trash, then, you know, it'll make the cut.

You know what I mean?

But, you know, this one, I think I kind of.

I kind of.

I kind of nailed what I wanted to do with it, you know?

What do you usually write on to start or.

It depends.

It depends.

You know, like the, like, you know, the, the ballet we just did.

I, I did that on bass first.

You know, I had.

My kids were.

We were hanging out with my kids and I was just sitting around noodling on my, on my cheap bass.

I got this old, old Squire bass.

I, you know, it's like a hundred dollar base.

And I just around on that thing.

And then I was like, man, it's a cool little bass line.

And I kind of built everything else around that.

And then, you know, the chorus, the hook came after, after the bass and the drums and then all the other, the piano line and all the other synth parts and guitar parts came after that.

And speaking of guitar parts, we mentioned off air about the doubling up on the guitars.

I mean, on the record.

Is there a difference with the different guitars?

I'm not a musician, so you tell me when you guys are playing it together.

When we're playing it together.

Yeah.

You're gonna hear.

On the record, you're not gonna hear that much of a difference, you know, because it's just me and I'm using the same amps and stuff like that.

But what's cool about, you know, live, you know, my other guitar player, Derek, he's, you know, he plays, he plays a Strat.

And those Strat pickups, you know, are very.

Just a Stratocaster is very.

A distinct sound, you know.

And I play, I play a guitar with, you know, a couple of humbuckers, and it's a Fender too, but it's a Supersonic, so it's got a more of a warmer, you know, it doesn't cut the same way.

So when you hear them together and you're playing like a harmony part like we do on your harmonizing on a guitar part, it, it, it really, it really has this nice big open, you know, sound to it.

Yeah, it's great.

I'm sure you guys, every night is different when you play on stage with that song.

Ah, yeah, yeah.

We, we.

We don't.

We, we like, once we get past the second chorus, we do whatever we want to do.

And you get the signal, somebody else can take over after.

That's right.

That's right.

That's right.

Yeah.

I take it Derek's a big Prince fan too.

Does he still have that rude boy sticker on his guitar?

Yeah, absolutely, man.

Everybody, everybody, everybody is like Prince fans and lovers of God.

You know, the whole band is like.

We're all like men of faith.

We're all Christians and, and we're.

And we're all like Prince Heads.

So that, like, you know, go figure.

How did that happen?

You know, that.

That's just God working right there.

Hey, how did you decide to tackle Breakdown by Prince?

The Breakdown, which is one of the later albums that he had.

I mean, the Falsetto really in fine form for you there.

I'm gonna say something that's gonna, you know, probably, you know, get under some Prince people said.

But, you know, I was out of the, you know, after the first four Prince records, you know, I was finding more and more, and I was like, okay, I like these three songs on this alb.

Four songs on that album, this one song on that.

So when that record came along, you know, there's some cool stuff on there, but the one that stood out, I was like, this reminds me of the early Prince stuff.

This reminds me of, you know, Doomy Baby, that whole Prince slogan, you know.

You know, scandalous.

It had that.

It had something about it that reminded me of when I first fell in love with Prince's music.

So when we do.

When we cover print stuff, you know, sometimes we play with bands that are, you know, our tribute bands.

So we don't want to, you know, we don't want to do the same stuff that everybody else is doing.

You know, we don't.

We're not going to touch Purple Rain, you know, we're not going to touch any of that stuff like that.

So we kind of.

We kind of dig in the crates a little bit.

And that's one of the songs that stood.

I was like, man, we should do this song, you know?

And everybody was like, heck, yeah, we love that song.

Did you see him do in Montreux, the version.

No, no, no.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, yeah, yeah, I did, I did, I did, yeah.

The festival, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's.

That's.

Yeah, yeah.

Three nights.

Yeah.

Amazing, amazing.

Yeah.

They were saying, like, oh, the fancy.

Well, of course, you know, Prince fans, very intense.

But they were saying, was he crying?

Was he wiping sweat?

All this?

Right, right.

Probably a little both.

Yeah, that's true.

Yeah.

And then the lyrics are pretty deep in.

In that one, too.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I. I was.

You were mentioning.

With being on the same bill with some Prince tribute bands.

I think I read a comment.

They must have been a big supporter of the Prince tribute bands and saying.

I don't know if you saw it.

They said, how could you play Prince songs with your band when we're the band or they're the band.

Did you ever see this song like that?

No, no, no.

I. I only get in the comments that much, you know, I, I'll get, I get, I'll get people that'll shoot me a text or whatever, and then, you know, maybe some of my bandmates or something will read something, you know, if it.

Or whatever like that.

But like, I mean, you know, everybody, you know, everybody got their opinion when it comes to, you know, even Prince had, you know, was, Was, you know, wasn't a big fan of, of, of people, you know, covering his music, whether that be live or on record.

So, you know, you're going to hear a lot of different, you know.

Yeah, they were really negative against you, you guys playing.

It was just like they were defending the other band for some reason, you know.

Oh, okay, okay, okay, okay.

Yeah.

So Blue Tears, the EP contains six songs, right?

Six songs.

Yeah, yeah.

And where's the best spot that people can purchase it?

Amazon Music and, and Apple Music, but it's on Tidal, it's on any of the other stuff.

So if you got all that, you know, it's all, all the major platforms it's on.

Okay, but those are the two I use.

Those are the two that usually send people to.

Right, and that's Sean Bivens band, the Blackstone Funk Revival, which.

The previous album, Funk Funk Shui man, you got some good titles.

Yeah, thank you, sir.

Fifty Shades of Funk.

You got, you got another great video on there for.

Yeah, yeah.

That was a fun video to shoot right there.

Let's talk about affiliation with the Prince and the revolution.

Dr. Matt Fink contributes.

It's Love and Life.

Live in Love Life and Love, the remix version.

Yeah, yeah, okay.

How'd you get affiliated with Doc?

Well, my drummer was doing, doing a show with, with, with Matt Fink and I forget who.

I think it was most of the Revolution.

And my old, old friend, bass player John Payne was, was, was jamming with the Revolution there for a while.

So he called my drummer and had him come in and I guess him and him and Matt Fink became like good buddies, you know, and they, they, they, they talk and they text and, or whatever.

Ever since then, that must have been.

She probably, you know, I don't know, maybe, maybe 15 years ago, but they've kept in touch.

But when we, when we got the, the Blackstone Funk Revival off the ground, you know, we had the song, the Life and Love song and it had a, had a guitar solo in it and I was like, oh, you know, guitar solo is cool.

You know, we got a lot of guitar.

But what would be really cool if we had, you know, Dr. Fink on here.

And I was just kind of mentioned it in passing to my, to my Tony Providence, my drummer.

And he was like, you know what, I'm gonna send it to him.

I'm like, oh, that's right.

You know, dude.

So he sent them the song and literally, like two days later we had this, you know, insane shredding going on.

I mean, and it was, it was a, it was a, it was a long piece of music.

But, you know, he was like, chop, chop it up, you know, and make it fit.

And man, it came out perfect.

Yeah.

Really nice guy.

He's got Starview Studios in his home, like still creating over there.

Yeah, yeah.

So, yeah, it sounded, it sounded great, man.

We were very, we were very stoked, you know, like my 16 year old self was just like jumping around like a kid listening, listening to it, you know, in the studio, mixing it, you know.

Yeah.

Talk about, you know, those young years.

When did you first start falling in love with the Minneapolis sound?

Do you remember?

I'm gonna say about 12, 11 or 12.

My cousin Vicki heard when I was living in East Oakland on 42nd, 42nd Street.

And she, I think she had the, the for you album and then.

And then the Prince album.

But when for me, I liked Soft and Wet and I like, you know, some Bambi because I'm, you know, I started playing metal and punk first.

So when I heard Bambi, I was like, oh, this dude's the truth.

Right?

But when, when Dirty Mind came out, it was over for me because I'm a big fan of everything that, that, that sound really encompassed, you know, controversy and Dirty Mind.

I go back and forth between those records, which is my favorite.

So you had, you know, you had the real, the synth pop thing going on there.

You had, you know, elements of that in there.

You had very heavy funk presence and, you know, rock presence.

Then you had, you know, this beautiful falsetto and, you know, screaming going on with the rock.

So all of it was like, for those records, I mean, like, that's when I, as a musician, I was just like, man, this is, this is insane.

This guy, this guy's got, he's got it all covered, you know?

Yeah.

I think my first single from Prince was Uptown.

I bought Song and I got Controversy for Christmas gift from my mom.

And I started playing it with the door closed clothes and the Lord's Prayer came in and she was like a really devout Catholic.

I get the knock on the door, she's like, what's going on in here?

She's like, Are you fine?

Are you finally converting, Frank?

Thank the Lord I didn't show her the.

The crucifix in the shower scene on the.

The pull up, right?

You're like, no, no, no, no, no.

Yeah, yeah.

So, yeah, those.

Those were great times, discovering music and you had to get the next record.

Always excited, what he was putting out.

Yeah, yeah.

And he was always.

He was always pushing the envelope and, you know, and.

And I think he was all about challenging himself, you know, not to say even though that, you know, a lot of us want him to stay in the same lane, you know, because we love a particular era or a particular sound that he was making.

But for him, you know, he was always pushing the envelope with himself, you know, you gotta respect, you know.

Yeah, there's.

There's probably more than half of the music still in the vault getting digitized and fixed up, man.

Can't wait.

Can't wait.

Yeah, he's got a couple of my radio shows in there because he requested them, so I sent him up there.

So I don't think it's on the.

I don't think it's on the high priority list from the fans to release, but they're.

They were in the vault.

Yeah.

Awesome.

That's beautiful.

Yeah.

So you come from the Bay Area.

Were you born there?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was.

I was born in Castro Valley, California.

I spent a week there and then went right to East Oakland.

My parents had a little house on Seminary in East Oakland, and that was our first house.

And then, you know, then we bounced around.

Then we went to Hayward, California, and then San Leandro, San Lorenzo, Castro Valley.

So we bounced around, but then out to Tracy, California, Central Valley, and then back to Hayward.

And, you know, I'm on the Peninsula now, which is like 20 minutes outside of San Francisco, 25 minutes outside of San Francisco, and right in the middle between San Francisco and San Jose.

So I'm like, right in the middle of it.

How's the BART system?

BART's good.

BART's good.

Yeah.

We live in a good spot, you know, me and the wife, because we're like, you know, the.

The airport is, you know, five minutes away, you know, South Bay 30 minutes away.

San Francisco's 30 minutes away, East Bay's 15 minutes away.

So we're like, you know, and then the coast is another 30 minutes if you want to go out to the beach.

So we're like right in the middle.

Yes.

Ideal location.

Yeah, yeah.

Just, you know, so much musical tradition and recently, so much loss, key losses.

Dwayne.

Wiggins and Sly Stone and.

Yeah, you know, so.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm sure they influenced, you know, your musical style, right?

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And, you know, when I was, when I was in the mid-90s, you know, playing, I was playing guitar for Larry Graham and our band would, our band would open up for Larry and then our band would become his band, you know what I mean?

And then, you know, this is when Larry was playing with Prince.

So we got to hang out and catch some of that, you know, firsthand and see some, you know, but Dwayne was always around.

This is, you know, he had his own band.

So me and Dwayne, you know, I got good pictures of us jamming and, you know, and having a good time together.

You know, we always cross paths over the years and he was, you know, probably about, probably about seven months ago now, the artist, her, her father throws a party and he threw a party and had all these Bay Area guys and guys from Sly Family Stone, myself, Dwayne Wiggins, and a bunch of us, you know, in the backyard just with like, like kids, you know, bunch of amplifiers, drum set.

We just all got to jam, you know, and I didn't know he, he was, he didn't tell anybody that he was even sick, you know, so I hadn't seen him probably, you know, in, you know, maybe like three, four years before that.

But, you know, we got to jam that one last time, man, and it was really cool to see him, you know.

Yeah.

And thankfully they, they reunited for a full out tour, the two brothers.

Yeah, yeah.

So, yeah, yeah.

Bay Area is really small, man.

Really small.

But a lot of, a lot of talent comes out of there, you know, and it's, it's, it's mainly, it's mainly because of the, the church, you know, so, you know, you got, you got, you know, you know, Prince's old drummer, you know, John Blackwell, you know, Rosie, you know, you know, you got cats like Thomas Pridgen.

You got all these different, you know, superstar musicians that come out.

Prince was always digging into that well of the, of Bay Area musicians, you know.

Yeah.

Rosie Gaines, you know, she, she's been laying low for various reasons, but we wish her well and, you know, absolutely, absolutely amazing talent.

Yeah, yeah.

Did you go see the Minneapolis acts and Prince live in concert a lot?

Yeah, over the years.

I probably started going when I was, I don't know, I want to say freshman in high school, you know, caught the Purple Rain tour then, you know, Love Sexy, which is one of my favorite records couple Love Sexy, you know, and I, you know, signing a time.

So I seen him probably, you know, you know, five or six times over the year.

But we did catch him on the piano tour the last tour probably, you know, maybe a month or so before his passing.

So we got to see him at the Open Coliseum, you know, and, and I'm like, you know, I want to see him with the whole band, two keyboard players, a couple guitar players.

I want to see the whole thing.

But my wife talked me into it.

She's like, no, let's just go check it out, you know, it might be cool, you know.

Yeah, I think he had the Hit and Run album out at the time and, man, and it was amazing, you know, just one dude, you know, and he, and he had, he came out, he came out riding on the side of the stage.

He was riding a bike, like a little mountain bike or something.

And he had on these tennis shoes that were lighting up in the back, you know, those little light up shoes that the kids wear.

He was, we could see him bopping around on the side of the stage and then he walks on.

He's got the little light up shoes on.

We were cracking up.

So in a basketball arena, how, how is that watching someone just piano and piano and a mic, you know, himself.

There's a big difference.

It was amazing.

That was the second time I saw him there.

The other first time was.

Was the love, the Love Sexy thing, you know, when, when, when Charlie Murphy did his skit about Prince being a baller, I instantly knew it was true.

A couple of, A couple of reasons.

I know a couple of people that, that was around him at that time, you know, friend of mine, Trempt Gums is good friends with Eddie Murphy, probably Eddie Murphy's best friend.

So he was saying, oh, yeah, it's true.

But during that Love Sexy tour, we watched Prince at the Oakland Coliseum shoot about, I don't know, three or four three pointers in a row on stage and not miss one.

And, you know, to the point where me and my cousin were like, is the ball on a string?

Is that, is that.

Is like, is that real?

And then finally, you know, he bricked one and cap kicked it back out to him.

But I'm like, this, this dude's jumper is insane.

And he was doing it in his.

Yeah.

And he was spinning the ball on his finger and everything.

Yeah, yeah, I remember that.

I was probably like, yeah, I don't know, maybe.

Maybe I was 18 or 19.

But I remember that vividly.

Right, so.

So the Bay Area Is it still called.

Is it the Bay Area MPG Fan Club?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the sf.

Yeah, it is.

They go by a couple of different names now.

I always, always get the names mixed up because it's like two different camps now.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah, yeah, we know Gigi.

And there's Bobby out there, too, but.

Yeah, Bobby's out here.

Yeah, he's in San Francisco.

Yeah, right.

And they were.

Bobby's in the 50 Shade Defunk video.

Oh, he is.

Okay.

I have to look for that.

Yeah.

So, yeah, he's the guy dancing with the.

With the bow on, you know, because that.

That's Bobby always been Bobby's thing, you know, he's been the dancing man.

So I was like, we got to get Bobby in the video.

You know, Gigi's in the video too.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true.

Yeah, I know from the Prince Org days and all the fan groups.

Yeah, yeah, they were there.

They were there supporting you.

You and Blackstone Funk Revival at the Retro.

Yeah, absolutely.

It was Gigi's birthday, man.

So she.

She came out and she showed out, you know what I mean?

And you had the.

The fans with the purple jumping up and down during the concert.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Some kids.

Some couple of kids in there going crazy, man.

They're like.

These kids are making me tired just watching them.

I know.

Is that distracting when they're that close or you just roll with it, right?

No, I think I. I think it's fun, man.

I like to interact with people and I think.

I think it's.

I think it's so cool when people are like, you know, really involved in the music that much, where they just having such a good time, they can't sit still.

So I'm like, you know, go crazy, you know, I mean, have a good time.

Yeah, they were definitely feeling it.

So that.

That's great.

Yeah.

Have you had a CD release party yet or are you thinking about a place coming up?

Yeah, we're gonna do something.

We're.

We're waiting on.

We're gonna.

We're waiting on the vinyl to get back.

So we're gonna.

We're gonna.

We're gonna keep it real.

We're gonna keep it real.

80s and we're gonna get vinyl and stuff like that.

So I know we got a couple of things booked, but I don't think we'll have the vinyl in time.

We got, like, July 2nd in Vallejo, and then we have.

I think the September show we got coming up is going to be in a bigger, bigger spot.

So I think we'll do the.

We'll do the release party in it.

You know what?

We should have the vinyl by then.

And besides your own original stuff, you got some.

Some really cool.

I love you.

You work chocolate in there?

Yeah, man.

Heck, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And Maserati, man, you 100 miles an hour.

You guys made songs incredible.

Yeah, yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Yeah, yeah.

Maserati, man, that was like.

Anything that came out of that camp was like, you know, hey, man, you know, I don't care if you're even Taj or Seville.

We look all that stuff that came out of that off Paisley park, we're like, where anything that's connected to Prince, you can hear that sound.

And we were like, we're with it.

Let's.

Let's.

You know, but that's the stuff we like covering, you know, because everybody else covers everything else, so there's no point for us to do it, you know.

You know, we'll do she Always In My Hair or something like that, which, you know, a lot of people don't do, you know.

Yeah.

As soon as you played on, my wife's first reaction.

That's one of my favorite songs.

That's how we met through.

Through Prince's music, so.

Oh, wow, that's so cool.

Yeah, same with me and my wife.

Oh, cool.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We used to go to Bobby's parties and, you know, and a friend introduced us, you know, and then, you know.

You know, 12 years later, you know.

There'S some really cool stories, you know, like that.

Like us.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Tasha Seville, actually, she.

When we had the radio show in Connecticut, came to the studio, and she was there four hours on air.

She really nice lady.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, we were all in love with her.

Yeah.

Everybody had the big crush on Positive Seville.

We're like.

We're like, any chick that can wear combat boots, look that fine, like, we're.

We're like, man, forget about it.

Sign me up.

Yeah, she's good friends with Nile Rogers, and he's from Connecticut, too, so.

Okay, that makes sense.

She's up in Detroit, I think, still.

She.

She does, like, a lot of things for farming.

Real, Real.

You know, helping the community.

Oh, dope, dope.

She's still making music, right?

Yeah, still making music as well.

In fact, I had a guest on the show a couple weeks ago, and he did a remix for one of her tracks, but it was in the past, but she's.

She's definitely still making music.

Okay, all right.

Nice.

Nice.

Yeah.

So let's.

Let's get back to the metal roots and guitar and everything.

How'd you get into metal music?

My cousins, you know, were.

You know, introduced me to Kiss when I was 10 or 11 years old.

And once we saw that, you know, I think it was Kiss Alive 2 or Kiss Alive 1.

We saw the back cover with Gene Simmons blowing the fire and the blood all over his face.

We're like, okay, we're gonna be a band.

You know, so five of us little kids, you know, everybody picked an instrument and started learning how to play.

We didn't know what the heck we were doing.

And then once Kiss came, then that's kind of like the gateway to the British heavy metal invasion.

You know, the Judas Priests and the Iron Maidens and, you know, all that stuff.

And then early, you know, the thrash metal scene started in our backyard.

So, you know.

You know, Metallica, you know, you know, Testament and bands like that, you know, and, you know, and Machine Head, all those guys are right from our area.

You know, the bass player from Metallica, you know, lived up the.

Lived, like, the next town of the town I was born in.

He lived.

He lived in that town.

So all these.

Yeah, so that whole thing, Birth and, you know, and Death angel and all those.

All those bands were right from the Bay Area.

So once it.

Once the thrash metal thing happened, and we were all a bunch of little skateboarders and, you know, BMXers.

We all listened to punk and metal, and it was the most stuff.

Fun stuff to play on guitar, you know, then.

And then we got into, like, the.

The funk thing, you know.

You know, my sister, older sister was listening to Parliament and Rick James and all that.

So it was a natural progression for us.

Yeah.

I don't know.

Have you heard of the band CRO Mags?

No.

No.

They're like A Heart.

They're a hardcore rock band.

And I had the drummer, but he was a. I met him through Bernie Worrell because he played drums with Bernie Worrell, Gary Sullivan, and he.

But he was with the CRO Max as well, and I did an interview with him.

And for New Year's Eve, I had a DJ gig.

So.

But I was also.

It was a night I was on radio.

I just stuck our interview to be played while I was doing the DJ party.

And for some reason, other songs were supposed to come in, like, a regular loop, but my interview was on for, like, 10 hours until the next DJ came in.

And it was just all heavy metal.

And somebody thought, what happened?

This is not his regular show, but.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Intense.

It's like an old school hardcore metal band.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, We.

Yeah, we're all 80s.

You know, me and my drummer Tony used to be in a band called A Band called Pain.

And.

And, you know, we, we toured all over and, you know, we have a song on the.

When that movie, the Saw 2 came out, so we had a song on the Saw 2 soundtrack that was kind of like our thing that kind of put us out there in the public eye.

And so we've always been.

Been metal guys.

You know, I play in.

I play in a hard rock metal band to this day called the Court of Blood Technique.

So, you know.

Okay.

Oh, yeah, that's great.

I was checking that out.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

My rock root, my.

My hard rock and metal roots.

You know, Bay Area, if you grew up in the Bay Area, you know, at a certain point in time, you know, you was going to get sprinkled with that music.

You're gonna, you were gonna hear it all the time.

So as a guitar player, putting the emotion into the different fields to funk and metal, Is it different?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, I mean, because we, we play more of, you know, our metal is more of a fast, more of a, you know, aggressive metal.

Not a much, not as much space in between, in between notes.

And, you know, with, with the funk thing, you can kind of lay back more, you know, be more bluesy with it, you know, and express yourself a little bit, you know, more, you know, and lay back in the groove with it more with.

Than you can in metal.

Metal's like go.

Our style of metal is like, go, go, go, go, go.

You know, I mean, it's kind of like hitching, but.

Yeah, I would say that would be the biggest difference, you know.

Is it a more exhausting show?

I'm sure, yeah.

We were playing battle, man.

Yeah, we were going crazy.

Yeah, you lose about five pounds during the night, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Water weight, you at least ten pounds a show, man.

Right?

Yeah.

How about funk R B guitarists?

Who are some of your top ones that you were inspired by, man?

You know, you know, Eddie Hazel, you know, you know, you know, the Kid, Funky, you know, Jesse, you know, I mean, there's, you know, the, you know, but I, I, you know, I, I'd have to, I don't, you know.

My favorite guitar player, you know, my biggest is Hendrix, man.

You know, I can't really put him in too big of a box, but he's a, you know, anything that kind of is blues.

Based.

I'm gonna be attracted to that, you know.

Okay.

Because.

Just because of the.

Just because of the phrasing and the scaling that Hendrix did.

But I don't think I've ever, you know, you know, in Prince, of course, you know, but, you know, but Prince and Hendrix are very similar in their style, the way they express themselves on the instrument, you know, So I was always attracted to guys like that.

We were a little too young to see Hendrix in his.

In his era.

Yeah, man, that would have been.

That would have been amazing, man.

You know, I. I worked at.

Worked at a music store and this soul hippie guy used to come in all the time, and, you know, he's like, oh, what's your favorite guitar player?

I told him and he's like, man, I gotta.

I got something for you.

So the next time he came in, he brought me a.

A print of Hendrix and Berkeley and he took all the.

Yeah.

Taking all these pictures back then in the 60s and the early 70s of Hendrix and Janis Joplin.

So he.

He gave me.

He gave me actually, hold on a second.

35 minutes away.

40 minutes away from Berkeley.

It's right next to Oakland.

So.

Yeah, yeah.

Hey, we got to give props to a mutual friend, Paul Altamirano of Funk Clone Radio.

Yeah, yeah.

For our show and introduce.

Talk about Paul and his support for your music.

Yeah, Paul, reach out to me on.

On Facebook, you know, probably.

Shoot.

When did that.

When did the feng shui come out, man?

It's been like five years ago.

And he was like, hey, man, you know, would you, you know, mind me featuring some of your music on the station?

I'm like, absolutely.

Anything you need from me, man, drops or whatever.

So that's kind of like how we started, you know, connecting.

And then I do a project also called Shawnee B Fresh.

It's like a.

A throwback hip hop project because I used to be a B boy and a popper and a breaker, which was big out here in the Bay Area too.

So he's a fan of that as well.

So ever since then, we've been like buds, you know, we chop it up on the phone, you know, but what a great guy, man.

He just.

He's really a lover of the music.

You know, we can sit there.

We're like, me and you, like, we sit there and talk about music all day with that.

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

And.

And the cool thing, you know, I'm sure people.

Well, you hear saying, oh, there's no good music out there.

Not shows like Funk Clone and your Own music.

People who are in their prime making music.

And, and he's, he's showcasing them.

So, yeah, you just gotta.

You just gotta dig for it a little bit more, man.

You know, it's like anything if you look, if you, if you're, if you're looking in corporate spaces for, for funky stuff, man.

Ain't gonna happen.

I know.

So is there a difference?

Do you get down to LA to see some of the funky or is, you know, you stay.

No, I haven't been down south and, you know, probably about five, five years, six years.

I need to get back down there and we need to play.

We need to get out and hit the road with the Blackstone and even with the Quarterblood technique.

We need to get out and.

And start moving around a little bit, you know, and, you know, you know, we got.

We gotta wait for.

We gotta wait for things to settle down down south, man.

You know, one minute is on fire, the next minute you got riots, you know what I'm saying?

So we gotta.

You know, I was.

I got.

I got trapped in LA back in.

Back in 91 or 2 during the Rodney King riots, you know, so I learned my lesson about going to that town, you know, during Upheaval, you know what I'm saying?

So.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

My other brother.

My other brother in la.

My other brother lives in that area and his wife is gonna have their first kid, like, maybe tomorrow morning.

So.

Yeah, and prayers.

Prayers up for.

For the Southland, man, because, you know, it's just.

It's just crazy.

We live in a crazy time right now.

Yeah.

Insane.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Hopefully we'll.

We'll live long enough to see some improvement.

God.

God willing.

Yeah.

You know, because I really want to get back down there and play the Viper Room again and, you know, and, you know, play the Whiskey again.

I haven't been those places in a long time, so, you know, I want to get back out there.

Yeah.

I'm familiar with the east coast, like the, you know, the Bitter End.

And I, I didn't go to CBGB's, but I heard a lot about, you know, legendary clubs like that.

But inside you mentioned, you know, the Viper Room and Whiskey Go Go are.

What's the vibe in there?

Is it still, like, kind of, like ripped up, kind of dirty inside?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's the appeal.

That's the appeal.

You know, you walk on the floor, your feet are like, sticking, you know, I mean, it's like.

Yeah, it's disgusting, you know, but, you know, I don't.

If it's not a little bit disgusting in the club, then it's not a good club as far as I'm concerned.

It's not a good.

It's not a good music venue.

At least, you know, it might be a good dance club.

You know what I mean?

If you want to listen to dance music, then so be it.

But if you want to hear good music, it's got to be a little bit beat up.

It's got to be lived in, you know?

Yeah.

Nobody's passing you the towel or giving you the mint in the bathroom at those clubs.

Absolutely not.

You got to step over people, you know, pass that on the floor.

Yeah, yeah.

It's like.

But, you know, they, they.

Everybody wants to go visit and play at those places at least once.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we played it.

We also played.

I'm trying to think of the name of the club, man.

It's.

It's right across the street from, from the Viper Room.

It's the same club that Cheech and Chong when they did the rock fight.

I tried to think.

I always forget the name of it, but, uh, we played there when I played with the band called Pain.

And I, I remember.

I remember us pulling up in our.

In our, in our cars with all our gear, and I'm like, we're going through a rock fight, you know, because it's the same club.

We're teaching John perform.

I was like, oh, that's like, I've made it now, man.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah.

Those records, growing up, hearing them, they were.

They were definitely fun.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So were you a big collector of vinyl?

Still are, yeah.

Oh, yeah, still am, yeah.

Yeah.

So, yeah, you know, we're.

We're always shiny.

Be Fresh is always releasing vinyl and stuff like that.

But, you know, I. I come from that.

The old school hip hop DJ, you know, era.

So I was.

I was a DJ in high school, and, you know, I was DJing all the high school dances and stuff like that.

I would just call me Dr. Scratch.

So I was, I was always.

I always was into all that vinyl, and I still, you know, it's, it's.

It's a.

It's a warmth of the analog, you know, that.

That you really can't get in any other medium.

So I still listen to records all the time, you know.

Yeah, I did mobile DJing to the parties like that.

And it's the worst part is, like, lugging the equipment.

1200s in it, you know.

Right.

Yeah, it's like.

When you were DJing back then, was it people bugging you?

The requests and the drunk customers?

This is why I stopped.

Yeah.

This is why I stopped.

You know, I would be.

I would DJ at high school, you know, and every little girl would come up and they want, you know, play Madonna.

I want to hear Like a Virgin.

I'm like, sorry, we don't do that.

You know, we're.

We're playing.

You want to hear some Planet Rock, we got you.

Right?

That's right.

I got.

I got the bottle that.

Somewhere in the closet over there.

There you go.

Yeah, we.

I catered strictly to the B boys.

I didn't care about.

I didn't care about pop music.

You know, I would play some prints and stuff like that, but I didn't care about nothing else.

But, like, if the.

If the.

If kids weren't spinning on their heads while I was.

While I was.

While I was in the mix, it was a failure, you know?

Wow.

Were you a big fan of Soul Train watching?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah, I was a fan of Soul Train, but even before that, when I remember being a little kid, I used to catch that.

Don Kirschner's rock concert.

Oh, yeah, and the Midnight Special.

I think that's where I first saw Prince was like on one of those late, you know, 1:30 in the morning or something after Benny Hill, you know.

Yeah.

You know, you stay up late and you watch like, Don Kirchner's, you know, or reruns of it, you know.

Right.

Yeah.

Great memory.

A lot of people don't.

I mean, today the young, young kids, they don't seem to be talking about stuff like that.

Nah, they got.

They got everything at their fingertips on their phone, you know, too much information.

That's right.

We got too many files.

At least I do in.

In my brain, so.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So how were you on the dance floor, B boy yourself?

I was pretty proficient as a popper and a breaker, you know, some.

Usually, you know, where I grew up, you know, you either pick a side, you know, you're going to be a boogaloo strutter, popper, or you're going to be a guy that get down.

But I was.

I was with both of them.

I love both of them.

When I moved out to.

From Oakland, I moved out to a town in the Central Valley, Tracy, California, and started hanging out on the south side over there and.

And all my friends over there were just.

We saw Beach Street.

That's right.

When beach street came out, and that was it.

We had to Learn every single move from that battle.

And we did, you know, we used to go to, you know, Rest in Peace to my buddy Ray McDaniels, used to drive us kids all in a big van and take us to battles and we.

We battle other crews and, you know, and just like in New York, it squashed a lot of violence, you know, because at that time, it was a lot of gang banging and stuff going on in the Central Valley, so.

But, you know, the breaking, the breaking and the popping, you know, squashed a lot of that.

Yeah, it was.

It was just great time.

And, you know, it's still.

There's still some pretty strong interest in those times where it comes back.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

And that.

That.

I just popped in to go see Egyptian Lover.

I heard he was playing.

So I just popped in to go go see Egyptian Lover and I was like, damn, everybody in here.

Everybody's in here strutting and popping.

And I was like, oh, that inspired me to get back into, like, you know, my electro funk and get back into my whole group.

Because I was like, it hasn't went anywhere.

You know, it's just gone underground a little bit, that's all.

Yeah, like you.

Like you mentioned before, you just gotta do the work and dig harder to find all this good stuff.

Yeah.

Oh, I'd be remiss.

I gotta say that.

We were talking about Paul Altamirano and Funklone Radio.

He and sold do it.

It's on MixCloud, so.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know.

Funk clone.

Every Friday, they usually publish a new show.

Yeah, yeah.

Get great music.

They did.

They did a killer mix.

Blackstone Funk Revival.

And he, like, he went back.

He's.

He was pulling tracks off the.

Off that first album, and I was like, damn, I forgot.

He forgot about that song.

I listened to the whole show.

You know, I was in the.

I was in my kitchen, you know, just grooving.

I was like, damn, I forgot.

Maybe we should perform that song live, man.

That's kind of funky right there.

Yeah, so he.

He digs it.

He digs.

You know, he.

He's not gonna just play your most popular stuff from an artist.

He's gonna.

He's gonna get.

You gonna get down in the nitty gritty of it.

Yeah, definitely.

So, hey, let's talk about your current band.

Maybe go give a little background to some of the players in your band.

Sure, sure.

So we gotta.

We got Derek on guitar.

We got my doppelganger Sean.

Sean on keys, Christian on keys, Kenny on bass, and Tony on drums.

And me and Tony been making music together.

Probably I'm gonna push in 25 years now, you know, from the metal.

From the metal days, you know.

So I go back to him, and then I was working at a music store in San Mateo, California, and I met Sean, the keyboard player, you know, and, man, he.

He's like.

He's like the rest of us.

He plays a bunch of different instruments and, you know, he's a.

He's a.

He's a.

He's a.

He's a math professor, so he's a smart dude, but he.

He just has in.

He has a lot of the classic gear.

Same, same.

Same with Christian, you know, they got.

We use all old Roland sense, analog synths.

Live.

We, you know, so we can get that sound, you know, and then.

And like, you were talking about Derek, you know, just, you know, another good brother, man of God, Just a.

A solid keyboard player like me.

I don't read music.

I don't know anything about music.

Like, technically, I couldn't tell you what key any of the stuff I write is in.

But these guys will communicate with each other and tell each other, okay, this is an E flat, blah, blah, blah.

And I'm like, I wrote the song.

I don't even know what the hell they're talking about.

So it's good to have people in your band that are.

That are smarter than you, you know.

Right.

And I got some really solid, solid players.

These dudes are super better on their instrument than I am.

You know what I mean?

So they're just really, really solid, I think.

Where, where.

Where is writing and producing?

I've been producing records since I was a kid.

I've been in, you know, studios and getting record deals ever since I was, you know, 18, you know, so, you know, 40 years of being a studio rat into gear and stuff like that.

But the band, those dudes.

Those dudes are gods, and those dudes are all amazing players and, you know, and writers in their own right, you know.

Of the studios you've been to throughout.

Throughout your whole time.

Do you have a favorite?

I would say my favorite, where my memories the best is Fantasy Studios.

They're no longer there.

They're in Berkeley.

You know, I was a kid and we.

I was in a group called the Wild Boys, and we got signed to Fantasy Records and.

Same label as Creedence Clearwater Revival and, you know, and the Cybertron.

They did clear, you know, so.

So there was a lot of history there and they did a lot of film work and stuff like that.

So, you know, they would do a lot of movie soundtracks and.

But they, they signed us to.

They had acquired the Volt label and Volt and Stacks, actually.

So as a hip hop group going in there, we were able to sample anything from Isaac K's to any of that, any other old Volt Stack stuff.

So.

But being in that, in those studios, as a, you know, 18 year old kid, 19.

All those, all those engineers were the nicest to me because I asked them a billion questions about how things worked and they not once did I ever get.

Hey, get out of the way, kid, you're bugging me.

No, this, this is a LA2A compressor.

You know, this is a, this is this kind of compressor.

This is, you know, this is how this work.

This, this everything.

So I was able to soak up a lot of knowledge.

You know, being in Fantasy Studios, probably my favorite.

That was in Berkeley, you said?

Yeah, in Berkeley.

Yeah.

Right.

For our viewers and listeners, where are the best spots people could get in contact with you in the band?

We're the Blackstone Funk Revival.

You can get on our Facebook, you know, or you can just go to my, my.

I'm really active on my Sean Bivens Facebook.

S H A U N B I V E N S You can reach us on there.

And I'm always posting stuff about shows and stuff like that on there.

Yeah.

And I'm sure there's gonna be a lot more added with, with the new record out and people are digging.

I've been reading the comments and you know, somebody, I don't know if you saw the comments, somebody said this is the best ballad since Purple Rain.

You could read that one.

That's crazy.

Yeah, you got a super fan out there.

It's a really nice song, you guys, man.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And just say it's like a Prince.

You get.

You got falsetto, but you got your own version of.

But the music is just like an R B funk feel.

Real nice.

Yeah, somebody left me a really good comment on there and they said, you know, the, the vocal kind of reminds them of Blue Magic.

And I was like, you know, I was like, yeah, you know, but I really did grow up on, you know, on the Stylistics, the Shylights and Blue Magic.

Because my sister so.

And Prince.

So though when I, when I do the falsetto thing, which I'm really not that good at, you know, but.

Well, when I, when I do it, I kind of try to mimic those, those Were Eddie Kendricks, you know, those type of people that had those nice falsettos, you know.

Yeah, well, that's the ones to emulate a little bit.

Gotta steal from the best, you know.

If you gotta steal.

You don't try rapping in.

In falsetto, right?

No, not yet.

You know, it could be done, I guess.

Anything possible, right?

Yeah.

So.

So everybody, you got to pick up Blue Tears, the EP Blackstone Funk Revival Band, Sean Bivens.

We're gonna have all the links in the description, whether on the audio on Spotify and Apple.

And also we'll have it, of course, on YouTube.

People can click go right to where you can hear and buy the new music.

Yeah, so, yeah, Sean Biven's YouTube page, you know, it's got all the music on there.

That's right.

Some great.

Oh, last question.

Where.

Where did you record the.

The single for?

Maybe I'll forget you.

The.

The video.

Oh, the video.

We did it at my.

At my buddy Rick.

Rick Hayes's club.

It's not.

The club's closed now, but he had a club in the Tenderloin in San Francisco and.

Okay, you know.

Yeah, he's a guy, he has a club for like a year or two, then he moves another spot and has it for a year or two, moves another spot, you know, so he was like, hey, you know, come in.

You guys want to use it?

Come in and shoot.

So we shot it.

Yeah.

Right, right, right.

In the thick of, I think, Eddie street in San Francisco.

It's wild down there, you know, it's crazy, but, you know, I don't.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I only.

I only went to the nightclubs.

I don't know how people do, you know, managing and licensing and.

Crazy.

Yeah, yeah, you got to have friends with.

You got to be friends with everybody, you know, in order to.

Or survive in that.

In that industry, you know.

Right.

So thanks, brother, man.

It's been great to have you on and the first of hopefully many times, you know, hopefully.

We still all got a lot of years to talk about music.

Yeah, God willing.

And God bless you, bro.

I really appreciate your time and the platform and, you know, thank you so much for having me, man.

And.

And I.

And I just.

I hope we get to.

We get to do it again sometime soon, man.

Yeah, we definitely will.

So.

Sean Bivens, Blackstone Funk Revival.

Thanks, brother.

All right, peace.

God bless Sam.