Robert Mercurio, the distinguished bassist and producer of the renowned New Orleans funk ensemble Galactic, graces the Musicians Reveal podcast with Joe Kelley to discuss the intricacies of their latest album, a collaborative effort with the legendary Irma Thomas. Our dialogue delves into the profound impact of the New Orleans music scene on their careers and the invigorating experience of performing at the Jazz Fest. Mercurio elucidates the challenges and rewards of transitioning from a rigorous touring schedule to a more balanced lifestyle in the wake of the pandemic. The conversation further explores the collaborative spirit prevalent in New Orleans, highlighting the significance of preserving musical legacies through artistic partnerships. As we navigate this engaging discourse, we gain insight into the creative processes that underpin the making of their latest record, which promises to resonate with both longtime fans and new listeners alike.

Takeaways:

• Robert Mercurio discusses the exhilarating yet exhausting nature of performing multiple shows at jazz festivals, emphasizing the physical toll it can take on musicians as they age.
• The conversation highlights the communal and supportive atmosphere of the New Orleans music scene, where established artists actively mentor younger musicians without a competitive edge.
• Mercurio explains the creative process behind their new album with Irma Thomas, detailing the transition from merely covering songs to creating original material inspired by their collaboration.
• The significance of preserving musical legacies through collaboration is emphasized, showcasing Galactic's dedication to working with legendary artists like Irma Thomas and the impact of her life experiences on their music.
• In this episode, Mercurio reflects on the evolution of Galactic's sound and the importance of adapting to different influences while ensuring authenticity in their music.
• The discussion touches on the challenges of balancing artistic integrity with audience expectations, particularly as Galactic explores new musical directions and collaborations.

Links referenced in this episode:

• GalacticFunk.com
• TipitinasRecordClub.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Galactic
• Irma Thomas
• Tipitina's
• Dragon Smoke
• Evan Neville
• Stanton
• Eric Lindell
• Rick Rubin
• Def Jam Records
• LL Cool J
• Bootsy Collins
• Bernard Odom
• James Brown
• Bad Brains
• Government Issue
• Dag Nasty
• Sex Pistols
• Cyril Neville
• Macy Gray
• Mavis Staples
• Frida
• Heady Wax
• Soul Life

Welcome to Musicians Reveal.

I'm extremely excited.

Today we are going to be joined by bassist and producer from the New Orleans funk band Galactic, a brand new record they have just released with Irma Thomas.

Fresh off a jazz fest, we welcome Robert Mercurial.

How you doing, Robert?

Great.

Thanks for having me.

So have you all rested up from jazz festival?

Yeah, yeah, I just spent a few days at the beach in Florida, which is kind of a nice way to.

To recuperate.

Yeah, Jazz fest is.

It doesn't get, you know, we do a lot of gigs.

I do a lot of gigs outside of Galactic.

Galactic does, you know, three big shows.

It's.

It's a pretty busy time and.

And it doesn't get easier as you get older, so.

But it's really exhilarating while you're in it.

But kind of like the second it's over, your body just goes like, like, oh, give me a break.

You know, I'm just not used to.

I mean, literally some nights I play two or three, some days I play three shows.

Oh, wow.

Which is, you know, that's a lot.

Most musicians, you know, I mean, in New Orleans, it's not unheard of for a musician to do multiple gigs in one day.

But I'm just, I'm not conditioned to do that.

So it, it takes a lot out of me.

Yeah, not in your 20s.

I.

I hear you.

Because I used to DJ parties and I remember three parties in 24 hours and, you know, I can't lug the equipment like that anymore.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

The move.

Well, just the moving part of it around and all that is.

Is exhausting.

Yeah.

Where did you play a jazz Festa?

On the big stage and other places.

Yeah, with Galactic, actually.

With this other band, Dragon Smoke, that I'm in, which is with Evan Neville and Stanton from Galactic as guitar player Eric Lindell.

We played on the main stage and then Galactic also played on the main.

And then we played Galactic played each weekend at Tipitina's, of course, since that's a club that we current we own.

All right.

So as far as Tipitina's, you played there now getting into.

We'll get to the new album in just a bit.

But you guys went in, became club owners.

Wow.

To a legendary club.

You pretty much.

Is that.

I mean, you know, in, in some ways you could look at it like that, you know, I mean, it's like somebody was gonna save it, you know, and, and yeah, we were the ones that that bought it.

It needed new ownership.

The previous owner was.

It was just.

He was financially not in a good spot with it and was.

Was not being able to kind of pay the bands and make a lot of the improvements and pay the employees and stuff like that.

So, you know, we look at it like we were just kind of taking over the ship, keeping it going, and we're making.

We've made some nice improvements to the club for.

For the bands and the.

The patrons and.

And our staff.

So, you know, I mean, we're definitely trying, you know, trying our hardest to keep it going, and it's been really rewarding.

You know, the city has really gotten behind us and.

And have really been supporting us and coming out to a lot of shows, and it's, It's.

It's showing, you know, like we've been putting in an effort and the city's putting in an effort.

So.

Yeah, it's been really gratifying.

I like so many your tribute nights.

The print.

I'm a big Prince fan.

So you got the.

The Prince June 7th birthday bash going on.

Yeah, that's actually.

Yeah, that's like a DJ night.

Uh, yeah.

Soul Sister.

Dj.

Soul Sisters.

And she's done it.

I think this might be her third or fourth time doing it.

And obviously it became something, you know, post his death, but, you know, she.

Yeah, it's a killer night.

You know, who.

Who doesn't love some Prince?

Yeah.

Rick James.

Yeah.

So do you remember the first time you walked into Tipitinas when you were way back?

Wow, that's a great question.

I definitely can remember the first time I played there.

Yeah, I do remember the first time.

Yeah, the first show I went to, I was a freshman at Tulane.

It was late September.

I went with Jeff, the guitar player in Galactic, and we went to go see the Funky Meters and.

Yeah, on like a Thursday night.

And yes, I do remember specifically the whole.

Now that you.

You jogged my memory.

Well, and we were in the front row and just getting down and like, back then there was no air conditioning in the venue.

Right.

And so you would literally.

And you could smoke cigarettes and stuff.

So it was just like smoky, you know, you remember that time, but in New Orleans with no air conditioning, you would just come out literally just soaked to your underwear in.

In sweat.

There was just.

No.

Especially at a pack show like that.

Right.

So I remember.

And we were.

Right.

We rode our bikes there.

And I just remember coming out of there just like dripping every piece of my clothing, socks, shoes.

Probably had like a puddle of sweat in them and.

But I remember just like, man, I can't wait to go back.

And you did.

So.

So you and Jeff were from Chevy Chase, Maryland, right?

Yeah, we grew up together, and we played music together before moving to New Orleans.

And I went to Tulane.

He went to Loyola, and we started the band together.

He went to the Jesuit school.

Right?

Was that a Jesuit?

Yeah, you're right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I worked Fairfield University, the Jesuits.

Yeah.

So.

Oh, yeah.

Great, great educators.

Why'd you guys go to different schools?

I.

You know, it.

I think it was.

I don't want to be.

I don't want to sound pompous, but I think he couldn't get into Tulane was easier to get into.

His grades weren't as good as.

Right, right.

But, you know, and.

And truthfully, he wasn't even supposed to come down to New Orleans.

He kind of got into Loyola late, I guess, like, there was kind of like a later acceptance.

Right.

And we were.

We were.

He was actually going to be going to school in Colorado, and then about maybe a month or two before school started, he got accepted to Loyola.

And.

And I think back to how much my life would have changed by just that acceptance into Loyola for him, because, you know, I just had a partner in crime down here from.

From day one, and.

And I, you know, we had already played music together, we had already been in a band together, so, you know, would I have been as inspired or would we have pushed each other to, you know, create Galactic?

I don't know.

So once you started playing music, were you skipping out of some classes and just waiting to get out of school?

You know, I mean, I was.

I did it.

I.

I respected going to school.

I knew that it was an important thing to do, and it was expensive, and I didn't want to, you know, let down my parents, but, yeah, I was definitely more inspired and excited about going to see some shows.

You know, I just thought that.

I always thought that that was like a great lesson in life.

You are always going to have temptations.

You're always going to have work to do, and you're going to need to, you know, make.

Make the right choice and balance it all.

And that, you know, New Orleans, it was.

It was a tough choice sometimes, but.

But, you know, I think I made the right choices through college.

Maybe I did go out a night or two that I shouldn't have, but it was, you know, it did set me up to kind of gonna.

Kind of know what life is about.

I wish.

I wish I had spoken to you back then.

Because my freshman year of college, I was at nyu, and.

And I only got.

Wow.

You know?

You lasted a semester?

Yeah, I came back to Connecticut.

But the thing is, I found out later, Rick Rubin was living in our dorm, starting Def Jam Records, and LL Cool J was coming with demo tape.

Yeah, it's in some Rolling Stone documentary on it, so.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, I definitely knew he was an NYU student, and I've seen all the stuff.

Videos of him making, you know, tracks with Run DMC and whatnot and.

Yeah.

So wild.

So he was in your dorm.

Wow.

Yeah.

And he was just out of.

They showed him out of his dorm room.

I didn't at the time.

I had no idea he was there, but I guess he had get.

Was getting so much demo tape sent to the mail room in the dorm that they had to set up a special section for.

And his roommate walked in.

You know, you walk in and your roommate, like, I'm going to take this side of the room.

You take that side room.

His roommate walked in, he had a board across already set up to put his turntables and mixer to.

To do his thing.

Right.

In taking up half the room.

Like, all right, good.

You find a little space, but I'm going to be taking over all this.

Yeah, that's it.

Yeah.

I hope you can deal with it.

So, yeah.

So you guys came to New Orleans and obviously soaked up the culture, music culture, and you haven't left since then, right?

Yeah, no, that's.

It is crazy.

I mean, moved here when I was 17 to go to college and never left.

And, yeah, we definitely sucked it up.

I mean, we were, you know, Jeff and I were running partners back then.

Wait, you know, we were both in college.

Not that we're not now, but, you know, we're older and families and whatnot, but, man, we were going out and seeing so much music and soaking it up and buying tons of vinyl and, you know, at that point, start CDs were coming out and stuff.

So, yeah, I mean, we just.

It was kind of brand new to me, too.

I was not that familiar with.

With a lot of the New Orleans music.

I'd heard of the Neville Brothers, and I kind of heard of the Meters, but I really hadn't heard that much.

And I remember when I came down to orientation, seeing all this stuff around town about Professor Longhair and that name just, you know, piqued my interest.

That just is one of those names like, who is Professor Longhair?

So, you know, I definitely dove in and soaked up as much music as I could at that point and still do.

When you guys formed a band, did you have any established veterans around there that reached out to you musicians that helped you out?

That.

You mean any established.

Better at that point when we started the band.

Yeah, New Orleans.

Do you remember any of those?

Well, you know, we were.

That was the other great thing about, about.

And that is a great thing about New Orleans is that you know, there.

And something that I noticed right off the bat was just the community, the musical community here is very encouraging and very like elders are working with youngsters and everybody wants to kind of bring everybody up.

There's not a lot of competition here.

It's.

It's very communal.

Very let's, let's do what we can to help each other and it's a beautiful thing.

In, in other cities I could see that there would be a competitive element.

And so, you know, we would go to these shows, Jeff and I, and you know, it was very easy to approach some of these artists, you know, George Porter, and talk to him.

You know, our original singer for Galactic was, you know, Theral Houseman de Cluett and he was a good 20 plus years older than us and we just met him at this club that he would perform at called Benny's Bar.

And a slew of musicians that I met through that bar because there was literally no, there was no stage.

It was like a room and you just like there was nowhere for the artist to go.

So they kind of had to interact with the musicians.

But everybody was so encouraging and always has been.

It's, it's really a beautiful climate to, to create music in.

Yeah, I was revisiting some of those early Galactic records when I first got in.

Into your music and I'm listening to it and I'm going to give you guys a big compliment of this artists in the, in the business.

I can hear they definitely were listening to your records back then because I'm hearing other artists.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean I'm not gonna call people out because I love these artists, but I, I got a feeling they were listening to Galactic.

Those there's first two or three records.

I mean, you know, that's how it goes, right?

I mean, yeah, we got inspired and we were inspired by, by current musicians as well.

I mean I remember loving like the great Boy All Stars and Modeski Barn and Wood.

They were kind of our contemporaries at that time and, and they definitely influenced us in ways as well as, you know, or previous artists as like the Meters and you know, stuff I had mentioned.

But, but Yeah, I mean, thank you.

And I think that's.

That's kind of part of the game, though, right?

I mean, yeah, kind of.

You kind of gotta.

Everybody kind of picks a little bit from here, a little bit from there, and we all get inspired.

Right.

And plus, you guys are on festivals together a lot of.

A lot of the bands.

Yeah, yeah, that doesn't hurt either.

You were kind of forced to see each other in a way and in a beautiful way, but, you know.

Right.

Yeah, it was.

You're hanging around and you're like, wow, I've never seen this.

Wow, this band's killing.

I.

You know, there's so many times that.

That somebody would come into the backstage or a trailer or something and be like, man, you got to hear this band out here.

They sound killer.

You know, and we had never heard of them or something.

You know, it's pretty amazing.

I remember going to see John Schofield at Irvin Plaza in New York, and it was like the record release party.

So we.

It was like a meet and greet before with the record company, and then so after that we.

I go to the railing to watch.

I'm on the second level.

And this lady next to me goes, oh, you're gonna love this band opening up.

They're called Soul, Soul Life.

So I had.

I had no idea who they were, and I didn't know Kraz or any of those guys.

And I was like, wow, super band.

Yeah, yeah, they were killing.

Still are.

Yeah.

So kind of a.

They don't place it too much too often, but they just did play during Jazz Fest down here at a night show.

Yeah.

I think Eric Krasno has, like, a separate project going on it.

I remember.

Oh, I think he has, like a million separate projects.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

That's it.

Right.

Let me ask you, as a bass player growing up, who are you inspired by on the bass?

You know, growing up, like, pre New Orleans, I was inspired by, you know, Bootsy Collins, Bernard Odom from James Brown's band, you know, really early.

I was definitely like, more of a punk kid.

So I was inspired by bands like Bad Brains, DC Stuff, because I grew up in dc, Government Issue, Dag Nasty, you know, even like, Sex Pistols and stuff like that from the uk.

You know, that was what.

That was the music that I was listening to when I got my bass when I was, you know, 13, so kind of.

And Jeff got his guitar at the same time, so we were, you know, definitely influenced by punk music.

But I think we grew up a little bit in, you Know, when we were about 16, we started really getting into a lot of the funk music that had come out in the 70s and, and then of course moved to New Orleans and we're just, you know, a whole new pool of stuff to listen to and be inspired by.

Did you ever meet Bootsy Collins?

I did in Japan once.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, we were, we were playing the Fuji Rock Festival right before him and yeah, actually got a picture with him.

I don't know where that picture is, but yeah, that was awesome.

We had a great set at Fuji Rock.

And then they came on and I believe they, at that point they were doing kind of a JB's tribute thing.

Right.

And so, yeah, I did get to meet him.

Character for sure.

He was, you know, full outfit, the hat, the, you know, the glasses and glasses.

Yeah, yeah, of course, the Mutron, right.

Oh my God.

Has million 70 pedals in front of them and you know, it was so cool.

He's, yeah, he's, he's amazing because, you know, if you listen to the early James Brown stuff, you know, he's super like pocket player and you know, just like really stone cold simple grooves.

And then he grew and then the stuff he did with P.

Funk was, you know, a lot more elaborate but still so rooted in funk.

And he's just, you know, such a badass.

Yeah, he's, he's got a brand new record out too, so.

Yeah, I think it's called the best record.

Yeah, yeah, something like that.

Yeah.

He just doesn't do tours.

I don't know, he just, hey, did you see the, I don't know if you saw on YouTube the, the tour of his studio?

No, I gotta check that out.

Oh, you gotta check that out.

Yeah, I mean that's right up your alley.

Oh yeah.

I mean I love studio stuff.

I love, you know, I always, I forget how much stuff is on YouTube.

It's really like I, I, I need to, like when I'm looking around, you know, there's just, so, it's endless.

Right.

And I know people talk about like I stayed up till 4:00am going down the wormholes of, of YouTube and, and I, I forget that there's just so much stuff out there that, that would interest me.

I, I, maybe I need to stay up till 4am More time.

More.

Yeah, definitely.

Before you go out this weekend on, on the road, maybe tonight.

Look, look at the Bootsy because it, he, he filmed it, it's hers, his channel.

But it, it's really great stuff.

They talk about all the, all the pedals you talked about, right?

Yeah, yeah.

He's a master of effects.

Yeah.

So you.

You guys Notorious for being live performers and you're going out your message.

Yeah, this weekend, right?

Notorious means known for being bad.

Well, I meant it in a good way.

You cut out the audio.

Notorious for great shows.

Notorious.

That's like a.

I guess you.

All right.

That's like.

That's like saying like, dude, that guy was so bad.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Something like that.

All right.

The 80s version of bad.

Yeah, yeah.

All right.

Yeah, I'm.

I'm almost 61, so that.

That brings me into the 80s.

Yeah, yeah, you're there.

All right.

Well, thank you for that.

That compliment.

Yeah.

A roundabout compliment.

So where are you playing this weekend?

It looks like a three day festival.

Yeah, we're playing Friday night in Greenfield, Massachusetts at.

I think it's called the Strange Creek Festival.

Not super familiar with it, but it'll be our first like festi of the season outside of New Orleans Jazz Festival.

So those are always fun.

It's always a fun feeling to like, begin the summer festival season.

Yeah.

I was looking at your itinerary.

You can go to GalacticFunk.com, right?

Yep.

Yeah.

And the travel schedule.

You mentioned Japan.

You're hitting Japan, then you're coming back, I think a week later you're in Delaware, right?

Yeah, For.

I mean, that's how we do it from Tokyo to Delaware.

Yeah.

We're going to France in late June.

We're doing.

Yeah.

A bunch of U.

S.

States, and then.

Yeah.

Going to Japan in late July.

Do you prefer a little lighter schedule now that you.

You got families?

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, and it really came.

We really started doing a.

More of a lighter schedule post pandemic that, you know, we had just hit it really hard for like 25 years where we really had never taken more than a month break, you know.

And then of course, we had the force break of the Pandemic.

And that just.

I think, kind of.

I think everybody really enjoyed being home more and being with our families and being able to do other things and other projects.

It opened up time for Ben and I to do more producing.

It opened up time for Stanton to be able to play with other bands that he wanted to play with.

It's.

It.

Yeah, it's been nice.

I mean, we're pre pandemic.

We were probably doing 90 to 100 shows a year, and now we're doing about 40 to 45.

And it's.

It's.

It's a lot more manageable.

You don't feel like you're just constantly spinning and, and out of town all the time.

We, we got to get in to talk about the new music.

Love this record.

You can go to Galactic, the YouTube channel, and they've got videos up for probably half the record, right as far as.

And really good breakdown on the making of the record.

Audience with the queen Irma Thomas, your long friend.

You guys did a track before making a whole album with, with Irma Thomas.

When did you first broach that with her?

We, I mean it was, it was a long time in the making of a record.

I mean we probably started.

But the premise is, you know, there's where it's like some live recordings, there'll be some like archival live recordings, there'll be some, some reissues of extremely rare records, there will be some new, new music.

And like this Irma Thomas record just came out on the record club.

But to back up, you know, Ben and I are always trying to scheme and think about what new records we could create for the record club.

And you know, we know we're in a city that has a lot of legends and some of them are still living.

And you know, we thought, wow, we should do one with Irma.

You know, she's, she's still here, she still sounds great.

And we were imagining it to be maybe more like it would be a bunch of covers.

We would bring in a stripped down band, maybe it would be like a stripped down gospel kind of thing.

Knock it out in a couple days, you know, put it out on vinyl.

Bam.

But and concurrently we were, you know, talking about what the next Galactic record would be and we were internally talking about how great it would be or how we've done so many records with various artists collaborating.

So let's just go back and like make a record that's just like one concept, one, one artist, one collaborator.

And so it just kind of clicked where it was like, well, why doesn't Galactic be the band for this Irma record?

And we'll.

Once, you know, Galactic was on board, we thought, okay, well we, we don't want to just go into a bunch of covers.

You know, if this is going to be the next Galactic record.

Let's, let's really put in the effort and write new material.

As we were writing the song, she would come and record them.

So it was just kind of a long process and.

And we wrapped it up about, you know, maybe eight months ago.

And her voice, I mean, 82 years old, 83.

Amazing.

84 now, but she was 83 when we were tracking and.

Oh, my God, it's.

It's amazing.

I mean, I.

I don't know how she does it.

She's still performing.

She doesn't really leave town too much, but she still performs in town pretty regularly.

And.

And yeah, she's.

She really.

She really got the goods.

So she was at Jazz Fest.

I saw some clips.

Yeah, she did.

She came and sang three songs with us at the festival, which was great.

We did one song off the new record.

And then we brought her up on Time Is On My side.

Wow.

Kind of had to do it.

And that Lady Liberty.

Wow.

Power.

Powerful song.

Powerful lyrics.

Yeah, it is.

And really timely.

Right?

I mean, yeah, yeah.

The song was written, you know, probably two plus years ago, but when it came out, it couldn't have been more like.

I mean, sadly, it's.

It's kind of a timeless concept, you know, of social injustice.

But man, when she sang it in the studio, it.

It made my hair, you know, in the back of my neck.

It was, it was.

You just feel her in that song and, you know, it couldn't be more real coming from somebody like her who really.

She went through civil rights, she went through all this bullshit, you know, that's been like, for decades and.

Right.

You know, she had to go through the back door to perform at a white club.

And, you know, I mean, all the stupid stuff that, that people have had to do in New Orleans is, is.

Was really late in the game of accepting, you know, the, the civil rights movement.

So, you know, just couldn't have been, I don't know, anybody more perfect than her to sing that, that, that song.

And, and you guys mentioned.

I don't know, I think it was you.

You might have said about having to say something, could you do it with a little more emotion?

There was definitely times, you know, I mean, that's just kind of producer talk and, and, you know, as our jobs and, and sometimes like, we would.

She would just get Better and better as we did more and more takes, so.

And sometimes she would get better almost the more frustrated she got.

Oh, okay.

And the more she.

She'd just get a little fiercer, you know, and there was songs that needed that vibe.

They're like.

Like, Lady Did Liberty should sound like you're.

You're a little angry.

You're mad, you know, and it's not a sweet love song.

It's.

It's.

And there's a couple tunes like that on the record.

Um.

And, yeah, it is hard to.

To tell a woman that's been in.

In the business for, you know, twice as long as you have and has major hits to be like, yeah, can you do that a little better?

You know, it's.

It's not easy, but we know, as our job as producers is to try to get the best out of an artist.

Yeah.

And I like how you.

You're.

You're preserving the.

The greats who.

You know, a lot of times the bands I grew up, and I'm sure you love growing up.

You look at the discography, and it's like, wow, their last record came out in 85 or something.

And it's like, you.

You're.

You're doing your duty to preserve the legends by involving them, and one day somebody might be doing it for you guys.

That's pretty cool to think about.

I never really thought about that.

Yeah, that'd be wild.

I stole that from.

I stole that from Prince.

He was talking about Larry Graham and Chaka Khan while he did records for them, but.

Right, right.

Kind of like that.

Yeah.

I mean, you know, New Orleans is such.

I mean, we've collaborated with people outside of New Orleans as well.

You know, we've done, like, Macy Gray and.

And Mavis Staples and stuff like that.

But, yeah, Nolens has just got such a rich pool of artists here, you know, so we.

We kind of have a long list of people that.

That you can collaborate with there.

It's great.

I had a question because you.

You guys blend so many influences.

You know, funk, jazz, jam band and.

And James Brown P.

Funk and your own stun New Orleans, of course.

How do your fans adapt?

Can you feel.

When you guys go in a different direction, can you.

How do they adapt to that?

You know, it's hard.

It's.

I don't know if I feel it.

You know, I mean, with social media, you definitely see what people say.

And.

Yeah, we have.

Which I think is one of the reasons that we have had such a long career, is that we haven't just stayed in the same lane the whole time.

You know, it's like you got to grow, you got to expand, you gotta.

And I think collaborating with a bunch of different people has done that for us.

And probably the biggest shake up is, you know, when we change up who we're touring with as our singer.

You know, we've toured with Corey Glover, we've toured with Cyril Neville, Erica Falls for many years.

We're currently touring with Jelly Joseph.

And you know, they're all like stellar singers.

But of course, everybody has their personal tastes of what they like and they don't like.

So sometimes there's some pushback, sometimes there's a huge acceptance.

People seem to really be loving Jelly a lot.

I love her to death.

She's an amazing person.

And that's a drumstick for some reason.

Yeah, yeah, I saw that you were.

Is that you were endorsing Son for Stanton.

Yeah, I should say.

Yeah.

This is his Vic Fir drumstick.

You can get it at any music store.

That's right.

He would love that.

Right?

But yeah, so, you know, yeah, we take some turns and, and at a certain point we've learned that you kind of just got to do what you like.

What we like.

And we can't be second guessing or, you know, trying to.

I think you get into a vicious cycle if you're just trying to appease the fans all the time.

Yeah.

And stay off of social media.

Right.

As much as you can.

Yeah.

I mean, as much as you can.

Yeah, it's.

It's tough, you know, it's like you love seeing the good reviews.

It's like when you see somebody just like I.

You dump on it.

You're like, oh, that's painful.

But, but I mean, truthfully, this record has kind of.

I haven't really seen any bad.

Anybody say anything bad and it might just be because, you know, how can you say anything bad about Irma Thomas?

It's really.

It's kind of hard to hate grandma.

No, I mean the, the music's.

It's authentic music.

It's real.

You know, the instruments sound great.

And I was going to ask you about where you're recording those, those promotional videos.

Is that where you actually record?

No, though that was.

We went into like a pro studio like too.

No, we did everything here in Galactic Studio.

I mean, this is.

Okay, this is like the room, the main room here.

That's where all the magic happens.

Yeah, yeah.

And where I was.

I was upstairs before where the, where the Internet wasn't working was right up there, that's our control room.

Okay.

Yeah, Irma, we would just set her up here in the main room and you know, we record everything here and we record.

You know, we've done a lot of records here.

Pretty much every Galactic record for the last 15 years and then tons of other stuff, tons of overdubs.

You know, we try to stay pretty.

Active and you meant, I was thinking Frida.

You guys work with too, right?

Yeah, yeah.

You know, Frida's collaborated with Galactic.

Ben and I have like co written and produced.

I think we're on our like fourth song for Frida and so fun working with, with Frida.

Just such a character and, and it's, it's just fun for us because it's a totally different kind of music and we don't have to like when we're writing stuff or producing stuff for Frida, it's like we don't have to make it be Galactic, you know, we don't have to.

Our fan, you know, it's just we can dive in and make it as, as fun and weird as possible as.

As she wants it, you know.

Yeah, my friend booked her.

My friend Barbara Thomas books the residencies for the artist, the big events at Berkeley College of Music.

And Frida was up there I think two or three years ago, I think.

Cool.

Nice.

Yeah.

Oh man.

Love freedom.

Any collaborations that you guys, you know, you and Ben would love to work with off the top of your head.

You know, I mean, we've been talking about like we need to do.

We.

It's kind of crazy.

I mean, we toured around a lot with, with Cyril Neville and we never recorded anything and, and I did a show with him over Jazz Fest and I, and I, you know, did some dates with him in Europe last year.

And you know, he, he's like, he's up there with Irma where it's like, you know, he's still here, he still sounds amazing and we really need to take advantage of that.

We're here and he's here and we need to do something.

So, you know, he's high on our list.

I always love working with like, with you know, like legend artists like that, that just have a timeless sound.

But you know, I mean, would I love to like work with Robert Plant?

Yeah, that'd be awesome.

Hey, he could be open, right?

Yeah, I mean, you know, if you're, if the, if it's open or D' Angelo or somebody like that, right?

Yeah, D' Angelo, he puts out a record every 20 years or so, right?

Yeah, right.

So he's done.

Totally gonna jump on working with us.

Yeah, yeah.

Who knows?

Yeah.

Tipatina Record Club.com.

right.

People should go to.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's like.

To.

I mean, you can get.

Yeah, you can check out.

You can check out our past releases and current.

Current release, which is our Galactic record, and.

And a few.

A couple of our future releases.

So.

Yeah, a couple things going on.

I mean, we're running a club, running a record label, touring artists, producing.

It's sometimes seems like a lot.

Well, you'll always have a.

Yeah.

I mean, it's all works together so that it's, you know, it's not like I'm a.

I'm a chef and I'm a.

You know, it's like.

It's like it all.

Oh, I'm a podcaster now, too.

Right.

You're right.

Yeah, that's right.

Let's talk about it.

It's cool, you guys.

You and Ben have a great rapport on the podcast.

Where can people go to?

Don't do anything.

I'm glad to hear that.

I never know.

It's so weird hearing yourself back, you know, and it's like, I'm always like, do we sound just, like, goofy?

Are we boring?

Or.

We, you know, But I guess we're just being us.

And it's really funny.

I went out to dinner with somebody a couple months ago, and they were like, oh, what are you up to?

And, you know, I kind of listed all the stuff I was doing, and the thing that impressed him the most was that I have a podcast.

Oh, really?

Yeah, that was the, like, it wasn't.

Oh, you're producing a record with Irma Thomas.

It wasn't, you know, this and that.

It was.

It was.

Wow, you have a podcast.

Like, you know, I think some people think, like, they generate millions of dollars and, you know, it's like, no one knows that.

No, it's just a few people listening to this.

Yeah.

The reality is not that.

Yeah, just a handful, I guess.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, it's like, yeah, there's a handful that are super successful.

But, you know, we're.

We're still a very independent podcast.

We don't have a lot of.

We don't have any advertisements reaching out.

To us yet, but the YouTube that you can get monetized, so.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right.

And I mean, all the, all the.

All the DSPs too, you know, you do slowly get, you know, but it's hard, you know, when you're only getting about.

I don't even know how many people really watch, Watch.

Listen to our podcast.

But.

Right, well, you got a lot.

You guys got a lot on your hands.

Who's running the club when you guys are on the road?

Well, that's, you know, we don't.

We're not like there like every day.

You know, that's one thing.

From the beginning, we knew we wouldn't be there to lock up the door.

And even the previous owner wasn't a active owner in that he was there all the time.

You know, we're.

We're definitely more active than the previous owner was.

And we have great staff that.

Most of them actually all of them were there when we took over the club.

The gm, our operations manager, our talent buyer, our ticketing, They.

A ticketing promotion guy.

They.

They were all there and we came in and we're like, you know, they know what they're doing.

Let's.

Let's see how it goes with them.

And gosh, we're on almost our seventh year here of owning the club and we're still working with all those guys, so.

Guys and girls.

And so they.

They really are the ones that.

That put in the work over there.

You know, I'll go over for a weekly meeting.

I definitely am, you know, you know, replying and.

And going through tons of emails and phone calls, but I don't really have.

The show will go on without me being there.

I'll just say that.

Without any of us.

Right.

So you probably get hit up once in a while by friends asking for a book in there, right?

Yeah, that is the difficult thing because, you know, it's.

It's a big club in town.

You know, it's.

It holds 800 people and sometimes it's a really small band and they want to play there and.

But we have a talent buyer, so that kind of takes the band away from that position of having to.

Yeah.

Tell somebody like, you know, maybe you're not big enough or whatever.

You know, put you in a bad spot like that.

So that's good.

You got.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We go through that with radio too.

Yeah.

You know.

Yeah.

Where you're.

You got it.

So, yeah, it's nice to have a talent buyer.

And he's really great and he's really grow a lot since we've taken over the club.

And his name's Nick Logan and he.

He is.

Is really good at handling and knowing what's appropriate and who's appropriate to play there.

So before.

Before we say goodbye, I want to thank you, Rob, for coming by.

Honored to have you on the show after all these years.

Yeah, Joe, it's great to chat with you, man.

I love you.

Really do a lot of research and it's really impressive.

Hopefully some of it sticks in my mind.

You're doing a good thing.

And I don't know how many times, you know, you do an interview and it's like, so where are you from?

And you know, it's like, it's really refreshing to talk.

It happens.

No, I appreciate that.

Yeah.

So go to GalacticFunk.com get the new record.

Sign up for Tipitina's record Club, but see them on the road.

They're heading out on the road.

We're going to see them in Albany, New York, July 12.

I think it's Empire Live.

An audience with the Queen Irma Thomas and Galactic.

Standout record by the vinyl.

You get like a spark.

You still have copies of the Sparkly Blue?

Yes, well, you know, we did four different variants.

Oh, okay.

So the Sparkly Blue was the, the.

I believe that was the independent record store one.

Did you buy that at an indie store or.

Yeah, the indie one.

Yeah, yeah.

So, yeah, we, we understand that, you know, that people love like these different variants, you know, in the record club and stuff like that.

And then we made a specific variant for our record club subscribers.

We made specific for indie stores and then another variant for like big box retail.

And then like a fourth variant for this small group of music lovers called Heady Wax.

I think they're out of Colorado and there's like maybe four or five hundred people up there.

So.

Yes, we still do have those.

The, the variant that you're talking about that it's.

I think it was like a blue with a gold sparkle in there or something.

Yeah.

Yes.

But the music, it's smoking.

Another.

Another great record officially.

Studio record and live combined.

You have a number off the top of your head.

How many you guys have released studio records?

Cut off the top of my head, I would say probably 10.

Okay.

I would guess.

Would you say live shows?

Yeah, yeah.

That I would say is easily around.

Wow, that's a great question.

Wow.

Insane.

Yeah.

That means people love to go see a plane.

You guys haven't lost a step.

So that is.

That is kind of crazy answer.

That's right.

Somebody's documented, you know.

Do they still come to your shows?

I remember going to see some shows, they got the, the audio sticking on a pole in the crowd.

Yeah.

You know, tapers that that's kind of faded a bit, or maybe, you know, we're.

We're like a little less of a jam band than we were when you were coming to see us.

More in the 90s and stuff.

Right?

Yeah.

And.

And, you know, maybe we're a little out of that circle as much where people are recording us, but I know people are doing it right.

All right, Robert, appreciate you coming on the show, and enjoy the road, and we'll see you in July.

Yeah, thanks, Joe.

Appreciate it.

All right, say hi to everybody in the band Galactic.