Eric “Shrizz” Rohner joins Musicians Reveal with Joe Kelley for a deep dive into his journey from discovering funk in Europe to working directly with members of the P-Funk universe.

In this full interview, Eric shares stories of seeing George Clinton live for the first time, immersing himself in the Parliament-Funkadelic catalog, and eventually stepping into that world as a collaborator. He talks about his band Shriz & Maze, the creation of Dope Frequency, and the persistence it took to connect with the artists who inspired him.

Along the way, Eric reflects on musical influences, global funk culture, recording sessions, and the mindset required to turn passion into real-world opportunities.

This is a must-listen for fans of funk, P-Funk, and the stories behind the music.

What's happening, everybody?

This is the Shriz, Eric Schwiz, Rona from Shriz Amaze.

You are watching Musicians Reveal with Joe Kelly.

Check it out.

Welcome to another edition of Musicians Reveal.

I'm Joe Kelly and we are really excited.

We have a true funkster right on our show today.

He is one of the leaders of Shriz and Maze.

They put out a great CD album, dope frequency with a lot of people we know collaborating with.

He hails from Africa, Switzerland, France, Paris.

He is the real deal.

He was just here visiting his good friend Greg Boyer here in the States.

He's got lots to talk about.

He was gigging last night.

We welcome to the show Eric Shriz.

Rohner.

How you doing, Eric?

I'm good.

I'm good.

Paris?

Yeah.

The gig.

Yep, all good.

Who were you gigging with last night?

Last night I was gigging with Omar, a singer from London.

Okay.

You know his.

His hit.

His hit is his song Worldwide.

That world that made him known worldwide was a worldwide hit like coming from the.

It was in the 90s from the acid jazz label and which is called Talking Loud, I think Enough by Giles Peterson.

And it's called.

The song is called.

There's nothing like this.

You can check it out on YouTube and you.

I mean, if you listen to.

You might recognize as a pretty.

Pretty significant baseline.

Yeah, check it out.

Yeah.

So there you go.

Yeah, I was getting with him.

Last night was great.

Where.

Where's the venue?

Where did he play.

New Morning?

It's the.

The venue is called New Morning in Paris.

The venue.

Yeah.

My wife and I were talking about that because, you know, Prince.

Yeah, Prince played New Morning, I think, for an after show.

And how many stages are there?

Just one.

Yeah, there's just one.

Okay.

That's just one.

And you've played there numerous.

Did an after show there.

Yeah, I confirm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Classic.

Yeah.

Play a lot there.

So I noticed.

I was talking to Greg Boyer a few weeks ago, your really dear friend.

You came here to the States and you've got.

I don't know if you picked this shirt up, but you got a sweatshirt, the Florida a. M. University.

Yep.

Yeah,.

I picked that up in Tallahassee.

Yeah.

On this trip or your previous trip?

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

So why don't.

Because it's a really interesting story that I got to give you a lot of credit because you love the funk, you love the players in the Parliament Funkadelic and other Group.

You made it happen.

You.

You've a lot of people just say, oh, I love those group.

But, you know, they say it.

But you went ahead and recorded.

Now you're recording with these legends.

How did.

How did all this happen?

Yeah, we just came.

Everything kind of came to an end.

I mean, we just came to, you know, finishing off the songs off of the album Dope Frequency and we already had amp fiddler on it.

I was running after for quite a while as well.

But he eventually dropped his vocals and keyboards on a song called True Love.

Yeah, I love that.

And thanks.

And Greg Boyer is on I Never.

That was the first single.

Both songs have video clips.

But then.

Yeah, so, yeah, we came.

We came to.

Came to the end, you know, producing of the production.

And I was just like this song heredity.

I'd always heard George on.

I was like in my mind I heard him on the track.

So it was like a dream, you know, it was like an unfold.

It was an unfulfilled dream up to then.

And I said I was trying to reach out and I could.

I didn't have no direct contact to George.

And although we already actually recorded in this very place where I am here we were.

Oh, really?

George on another album that's yet to be released by Under.

On another band who I'm part of, which is called Horn Dogs.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah.

Yeah, a clip is on that.

But the next album we're working on we're about to release hopefully in.

In throughout the year 25 will be the one George recorded on in this very studio.

Anyway, back to the Schw Maze one.

So, yeah, it was.

It was a.

It was a.

It's a trip.

It was a trip.

It was a trip because I just, you know, I didn't get anywhere via the management.

They were like keeping me.

They were, you know, they were king.

They're kind of making prom.

They were like trying to make, you know, make me believe.

Yeah, that would.

Would happen.

But then eventually, you know, the time.

The time was passing and we just didn't get anywhere.

And.

And that was right after.

It was kind of all still very tricky.

2022 Was.

It was a tricky year to travel from Europe to.

To the States.

You know, all these.

How do you say?

Obstacles.

Yeah, Precautions.

Yeah.

Covid and certificates and all that stuff.

It was a hard one.

And George had actually stopped coming to Europe.

So there was no way he's going to come this way.

Right.

So I said to myself, you know what, man?

Let me.

I mean, let me just try and get over there.

And I, and I, And I, you know, I just.

The communication with the manager, management had stopped supposedly.

And when I got.

It was crazy.

I got into the.

It was.

Got into the plane.

When I literally boarded the plane, I was boarding the plane, and I.

And I never go to my spam Gmail.

I never do that because, yeah, I'm pretty, pretty, pretty.

You know, my filter, you know, is.

Is.

Is pretty set to.

How do you say, you know, it doesn't.

It doesn't.

Yeah.

To fill.

Yeah.

You're not much gets through.

Exactly.

So necessary stuff.

Yeah.

And then, and then I. I never go to my spam folder, the Gmail.

And I did that day.

I don't know why.

And I discovered this very last mail from the management telling me that I should not bother flying over to the States.

They tell me, you know, George, George is busy with his art exhibition and he won't be.

He won't be having no time.

And I'm reading this while I'm in the plane ready to fly over.

So I said, you know what, man?

Destination Tallahassee, here I come.

Yeah.

And so which is what I did, you know, I landed there.

And of course, you know, fortunately, I had reached out to Danny before that.

Oh, Danny.

He was.

Yeah, Danny Pedrosian.

And he was really helping me out, you know, giving me hints where to, where to get a hotel in front of the studio, tell me where the studio is, etc.

Etc.

Of course, he didn't know if George was going to be in town as well.

So I was just.

I. I got to Tallahassee, and the first who I saw was possibly Danny.

And then I went over to the studio, saw trail, Trey Lute, his son, George's son, Tracy Lewis.

Right.

And, you know, I just hung out.

I hung out in Tallahassee at the hotel for five days, and I hung out with Danny Bedrosian.

And then, you know, I went to the studio every day and.

And they said, you know, there was like the first word that was out there.

Yeah, George is going to be at the studio on Wednesday.

So I waited till Wednesday.

Something, I think something happened and he couldn't come around.

So Thursday came around, and then, you know, Friday I get this call that was the Friday I was already kind of frustrated hanging in Tallahassee for five days and still had no, you know, George wasn't showing up.

So anyway, somehow you know, the.

I don't know.

Suddenly on Friday morning, Carlon calls me.

Carlon Thompson, George's wife.

Okay.

Facebook.

And said, hey, hey, Erica.

You.

You in Talah.

See, Right?

So yeah, I'm in Tallahassee.

Okay.

Let me, Let me hand, Let me hand you.

Let me hand you George.

I'll give you.

I'll hand you over to George.

Now I'm speaking to George and George knows me and say, hey, man, horn dog.

He knows me on the horn dog.

Horn dog.

Yeah.

Yo, horn dog.

You, you, you and you and you.

I didn't know, man.

I know you wanna, you wanna meet at the studio.

So.

Yeah, man, I got, I got a track and said, okay, so when should, when should we meet?

And said, 5, 5pm so I got there for 5pm and there he was.

He was there waiting for me at the studio.

And we, you know, we just started.

He was.

Started laying down on the track.

So you talk about.

Yeah, you talked about the studio.

So it's separate from his home.

It's.

It's.

It's a separate place in town.

Okay.

What kind of studio is it?

What kind of studio that he records on Tallahassee?

Could you describe any of it?

Well, this is a recording studio.

I have to remember.

I don't remember the name of the.

The studio.

Is it called Conspiracy or something that I'm not.

Yeah, yeah, like, yeah, but.

But Records is the label.

But I'm not quite sure.

I don't remember about the name of the studio.

Anyway.

Oops.

So there we go.

You know, I mean, he was there, he was there and I was.

I got lucky.

So you had the track Heredity.

Was.

It was the track called Heredity back then, right before you gave it to him?

It was called Heredity?

Yeah, it was called.

Our vocals were already on there.

The vocals.

Okay, came up with and the lyrics and everything I wrote.

And so it was a nice, you know, it was a nice topic to, for him to.

Not only.

Not only music wise, but also from the lyric side, you know, since we kind of re.

Consider ourselves as the heredity of.

Of.

Of the whole funk.

The whole p. Funk universe.

You know, we're like the, we're like the next clones.

Yeah, you're.

You're.

You're the ones that got a big responsibility, you know, whenever people retire.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

So let's talk about when you first got into funk music.

I know I mentioned in the.

The opener that you've lived in that.

What part of Africa did you live in?

I was born in Kigali, Rwanda.

Okay.

And that's pretty much in the heart of Africa, you know, next to Uganda and Burundi, Kenya, you know, my father was working there.

He's Swiss.

And my parents are Swiss.

By the age of 10, we moved then in Rwanda I was born.

And then we moved to Kenya and that's where I went to school, you know, British school system.

Because Kenya is a, is a British colony, you know.

Okay.

So.

So I went to school there.

So my first language is English.

I grew up with English.

Right.

And then When I was 10, when I was 10 years old, we moved to Switzerland.

Back to Switzerland.

Beautiful place out there.

Yeah, huh?

It's a beautiful country, right?

Switzerland is a beautiful country.

Yeah.

That's why here.

Yeah, yeah.

Very beautiful, very beautiful.

But there I.

Here I am.

I had to listen, I had to learn German, right, You know, in, in Switzerland, so, so I'm learning German and then, you know, you learn Swiss German, which is the dialect.

And then, and then the next, then.

And we have four, we have four languages in Switzerland.

We have German, French, Italian, and there's a fourth, like a very kind of rare Latin one.

Okay.

But nobody, I don't understand that language.

But it's a very little minor.

How do you say the minor part of the country.

Oh, okay, yeah.

Speaks that language.

But anyway, as, as you know, if you're German, if you're Swiss German, then you got to.

And then you have to learn French, like compulsory.

And then.

Yeah.

And then from French, you know, you, you have access to France, you know, kind of.

Because.

Yeah.

At least you understand the, the language.

And that's what, what led me kind of led me also to.

I'm not, I'm not sure if I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, you know, getting off the, the topic, you know.

Oh, no, my show's free form, so whenever you want to.

Whatever you want to say about it.

Yeah, yeah.

Because you know what, what happened in Switzerland was I, I saw George, you know, first of all, I saw, I saw, you know, the unit got the Montreux Jazz Festival.

Yeah, that's.

I watched so many concerts on videos from there.

Yeah, yeah.

So I went to Montreux, which is like, you know, an hour, let's say an hour away from where I.

From where?

From Bern.

Okay.

One hour and 15 minutes.

I don't know, something like that.

It's not far away.

And that's you.

That's in the French speaking part of Switzerland, you know, Montreux.

And so I saw in 89 I saw.

I went to Montreal for the first time.

I saw Miles Davis for the first time.

And then saw Herby Hancock and the Head Hunters for the first time.

No, I only saw.

I only saw Hervey Hancock and the headhunters.

Roman 2 it was called.

It was.

It was a different ver.

It was.

There was different musicians on.

Not the original musicians, but you have Wawa Watson playing on the guitar.

So there you go.

That.

I saw that and that made that, that influenced me like heavily because I discovered that kind of music, that funk, jazz, funk, Herbie Hancock stuff that I never, I never heard before.

So I dug into that and a year later I saw Miles Davis.

I saw.

I saw George.

That was.

That was crazy.

That was crazy.

That was.

That the concert was.

Wasn't it like a really long concert?

It wasn't as long as they, you know, as they usually did back then.

You know, they did their four or five hour shows I think.

But that very particular show was part of a long night.

So they.

Okay, you know, they started at 4am in the morning.

Wow.

It was called, it was called the Long Night.

Oh, you had artists playing from 7:00pm until 7:00am oh, okay.

That's what I thought.

I heard you mention.

Yep.

It was a 12.

It was a 12 hours a bands playing all night long until the break of dawn.

And you know, I saw the yellow that night.

I saw yellow jackets.

I saw things.

There's a sting.

I saw take six.

And then at 4am Comes.

Here comes George along with his band and I'm crushed already.

You know, I wasn't even able.

I wasn't even able to process what was going on.

It was like 25 musicians on stage all of a sudden.

I had never seen anything.

I've never heard the notes of P. Funk before.

Here comes George and literally just like, you know, crushes me.

So.

But I, and, and also, you know, I couldn't process anything of that music back then because I was also extremely exhausted.

And.

But my mother, she recorded the, you know, there was broadcast on, on.

On radio station on, on, you know, the main radio station.

That was a great thing about the Montro Jazz Festival.

You could.

It was all broadcast like top notch quality.

And the next, the next day I, you know, I was, I was recording on long play VHS cassettes.

Yeah, you know, you had your four or five hours of short play and you made it.

You can make it.

You can record up to 10 hours long play.

Audio and the art, the audios was superb, you know, so, you know, my mom, Mom, I just told her, hey, you know, because since it started at 7:00am at 7:00pm it went on to two, I reckon I told her, you know what, Just maybe try and, you know, change the cassette, you know, so we have the whole night and she, she kind of, you know, took, you know, stop the recording it to him, put another cassette in and made sure that I had the whole, I have the whole show.

That's the kind of mother you got.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I made sure she was able to do that.

Yeah, that's nice.

Simple instructions.

Anyway, she did that and, and, and made sure she recorded the most.

And I did not know what you.

That was, was going to come, but, you know, eventually, at the end of the day, she recorded the most incredible piece of funk played performed ever.

Up until, up until today.

For me, it's, it's a constant recording.

I go back to and in order to, to like, you know, to understand and remind myself, this is the Bible.

This is the, this is, this is, this is what's up.

This is what's up.

Well, when we talked to Danny, I realized how much I didn't know about P Funk history.

And someone like yourself who it oozes out of, out of his pores in his mind.

Yeah, I got a lot more studying to do.

You guys are, you guys are the mentors, the professors.

Yeah, it's true.

I, I, I, I, I just found myself completely.

It was a total identification going on, you know, it was like when I suddenly started diving into the P. Funk universe, I just, I, I.

And that gig, I just started and X raying that gig, you know, and listening to it so many times.

Who was in the horn section that night?

Greg Boyer.

Okay.

Greg Thomas.

Okay.

And Benny Cowan.

Okay.

So those guys are well known as a great trio.

Yeah, yeah, the P Funk horns.

Yeah, yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

So, so were you, you playing the saxophone and were you starting to get into funk or you were heavily into funk music back then?

Oh, you know, I was up, up until then.

I was, you know, listening to mostly Herbie Hancock stuff and other stuff that was, you know, I guess I was listening, starting to discover the Blackbirds, the weather reports, and I was, you know.

And then, you know, I started really getting interested in, in the whole, in the whole repertoire.

How do you say the whole.

The whole.

Catalogy.

Yeah.

Discography.

Yeah, catalog.

And it was so vast and it really took, you know, really a.

Really caught my attention, you know, it was like, wow.

Yeah.

Mind blowing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, the, the psychedelic part, the con.

The country part, the soul, the.

The.

The.

The Detroit, you know, the.

It's just like.

And then Parliament Parlette, and everything is like, wow, these.

These guys are really so vast.

You know, it's so vast and it's so funky in.

And the attitude towards it, you know, the base.

The basic attitude is.

Is all the same kind of that.

That.

But you know, they took it to.

And, you know, they let.

Incorporate a lot of styles and it was.

This is like super interesting and I, you know, and it meant kind of to me it was like, wow, okay, this is the.

This is.

This is kind of.

This is the music that really, really caught my attention and really started influencing me.

And yeah, from then on I was hooked.

Yeah.

Well, back then there wasn't YouTube.

There wasn't, you know, some radio stations, they played the music that we're into.

But how did you keep up on it and go back to.

We.

Did you buy a lot of records or did you have a.

A friend who had the music?

How'd you keep up?

Yeah, exactly.

You know, there was a friend of mine whom I actually had my first band back then.

You know, it was in.

In Burned.

I mean, in the outskirts of Burned.

And you know, we were really young.

We were like 19 years old.

I mean, literally the day after the George George gig at Montreal Jazz Festival, I.

We had to go and.

And do military service, you know, because that's what we have to do in Switzerland.

That was as a.

It's a compulsory thing, you know.

You know, so that was.

That was the next day.

Huh?

How.

How many years do you have to put in?

I is.

Well, if the first.

The first stage is 20, like about 17, 18 weeks and then.

And then.

But you have to go back and do, you know, repetition type of stuff every two years.

Yeah.

Up until a certain age.

But anyway, he was, that guy, the bass player, he started collecting like big time.

You know, I mean, we went to a lot of record fairs and.

And we, you know, back then there was no.

There was no, like you said, There was no YouTube, there was no Spotify.

There was nothing.

No.

And you.

If you wanted to get hold of the music, you.

You had to buy that stuff.

Yeah.

You had to spend money.

Oh, yeah.

And we spent some and he spent some serious money on the music.

And I did too.

I started buying a lot of vinyl and stuff, but he, he really, he really went for it and, and through, you know, through his stuff and he really started buying so much P Funk that, you know, through him I was keeping up.

And then, you know, we got in touch with all, a lot of collectors in the one in Germany and one in Holland and you know, people in via forums and stuff, you know, and, and you know, there was the P Funk.

What was it called?

The New Funk Times thing going on Germany and.

Yeah, so, you know, through these people we kind of found out what, what, what music was out there.

And you, you jumped on stage, jam with P Funk the first time.

It's on YouTube, right?

Yeah, yeah, I heard you talk about before.

What, what year was that?

That was, let me think.

2009.

Oh, okay, two.

And it's just something I wanted to, you know, get with.

I want to mingle with P. Funk.

But, you know, I didn't know how to, how to pull that off, you know, because I was still, I was shy too, you know, I was like, I mean, I, I, I, I, I.

These people were idols to me, you know, like crazy.

I like George Gary Scheider and you know, but, you know, they, we, we became, they started to recognize me also because we once did a kind of gesture.

We came up with a, with a T shirt that we did and oh, okay, really nice teacher problem with Funkadelic T shirt.

And then, you know, we, we kind of had, everybody had it.

We had a sample for everyone.

So, and then from then on, you know, we, we had full access to the shows.

Every time they came down, they came down to Europe and you know, but then I never, you know, I was, it was like, it was like a dream to me.

And, but again, you know, I just didn't know how to pull it off.

And, and you know, the years went by and, and it's, it's, it's just literally.

I went to Holland to see a show at the Paradiso.

I don't know you know, if you know that vet and venue.

Yeah, I know the name.

Yeah.

I mean, that was a sacred, that's a sacred place, you know, that's a, that's a holy place because it's a chart.

It used to be a church.

And when P Funk played in, in that venue, it was, there was no show like a show like a P Funk show in, in that venue.

It was just like, you know, it was so Sacred.

So holy.

It was so.

It was like.

It was the way supposed to be, you know, the joy.

It felt like home, you know, I saw.

I must have seen three or four shows in the Paradiso because.

And.

Because that was the show to me, out of the whole tour they did.

That was the best place to witness.

George was at the Paradiso.

So that's where I went one year again and actually saw.

You know, I saw somebody sit in with their.

Within the.

A Dutch saxophonist called.

I know.

I think she's German, Susan Alt.

And.

And she sat in with it, and I was like, damn, man.

And she really is like.

I was like, damn, man.

How did she do that?

And she really.

She's responsible kind of.

And I gotta tell her.

I've never told her about that, but.

And I'm not too much in contact with her, but she kind of sparked me one more time, you know, it's like, damn.

She's like, okay, you.

If you can.

If you succeed in getting on stage with these.

With these peeps, man, I want to do that too.

I'm bringing my sacks every show.

Yeah.

And I went to the.

I went to the next show in Rotterdam, which is also in Holland, and there I just.

I just hung out and I didn't know how to get in there.

I just hung out.

I was there waiting at.

At the side of the stage and, you know.

You know, and then suddenly, George.

I was waiting there with my saxophone, and George suddenly called me in and.

And I played.

I played a solo on.

I don't know what track it was.

Must have some.

Some Funkadelic track.

And it was.

It was a very unconventional way that happened.

I just.

And it felt.

I felt stupid because I just waiting there with my horn, and I'm like, oh, man, I'm just.

Oh, I just.

You know.

But it happened.

You.

And that was a pretty crucial.

That was very crucial moment because here I am back in Paris, and I.

And I.

We realize a friend of mine had already seen them in holiday.

They come.

George is back on tour, like, every year in the summer, and somebody tells me who has seen them somewhere else before they came to Paris.

They told me, hey, you know what, man?

Okay?

A year later.

And they tell me.

And he tells me they didn't die, that he didn't come over with that.

There's no horn section in the band.

Oh, wow, that's rare, you know, that.

He didn't come over.

He Could.

And.

And yeah, and you know what, Gary.

I don't know if Gary Scheider was still.

If he still was alive.

I think he died in June.

Okay, yeah, Gary sh.

Was not on.

On tour with them and the horns were not on tour with them, but out of a different reason because I think they didn't get offered enough money or something like that, however, or they had something else where they were offered better money.

And so here they are here.

Here.

Here is Parliament Funkadelic on tour in Europe, and they don't have a horn section.

Prior, prior, prior for them, prior to them coming to Paris.

I, I learned about that fact and.

And I was like, damn, okay, this could be this.

And he said, there's a moment where you.

There's a moment where there's.

The horns are really missing.

And he said, you know, the mothership connection.

What is the mothership connection?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, yeah, that.

That whole thumpasaurus line there, you know, and we said, you know, we can play that.

And we, we.

We rehearsed.

Okay.

Before they came as a horn section with that, we were like the Horn Dogs or the, the horn section from Malka Family.

We rehearsed the two, three.

Rehearsed two, three songs and just, you know, we took our chances and we, we stood there again and.

And here they are in Paris.

And we just stood there standby and waited for our chance and jumped.

Jumped on.

Jumped on stage as a horn section.

And they reacted super cool.

They just, they just.

We just walked on stage, you know, when, when they played, Ah, We Want the Funk, I think it was We Want the Funk.

And we walked on stage and we.

And they, they, you know, the sound engineer image immediately reacted American.

It wouldn't be, you know, if.

I'm not sure that we would react the same way, but he was part of the.

The American crew, so he.

Oh, here's a horn section.

Okay.

Just pulled up two microphones and here you are, ready to blow.

And we, we.

We.

We sat in.

We sat in on two, three tracks.

And George was super thrilled about that.

And we, we.

And he asked us to carry on, you know, do the rest of the tour with them.

Oh, wow, great.

He did.

Yeah.

So we did another five.

We did another five gigs with.

With.

With George and.

See, that's impressive.

Yeah, it was crazy.

It was really crazy.

It was really pretty crucial, you know, from starting from then, you know, he knew who we were, that we had a thing going on with Horn Dogs under the name of Horn Dogs, by the way, Lich Curry, the bass player, he came up with that name.

Right.

And Clip.

Clip is on there.

Yeah, Clip is on.

Clip is on.

On the amp is on the record.

Clip is on the record.

Greg Boyer is on the record.

And so, yeah, I think Lights lynch is on the record.

Lights on the record, too.

Yeah.

And Fred Wesley is on.

On one of the Horn Dogs eps, too.

Yeah, he's been on the show.

Great guy.

Real nice.

Yeah.

Fred.

Yeah.

Good guy.

Yeah, yeah, you got it.

Yeah.

I was on tour with.

I was on tour with Fred last year.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah.

With his band, the new jbs.

Okay.

Enjoy his daughter.

Yep, exactly.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

There you go.

So let's talk about you.

You've got some great friendships.

One of them, Greg Boyer, we talked before, and you mentioned before, you came out to the US on a pilgrimage, stayed with your buddy out in Baltimore area, Greg Boyer, he told me a lot.

You know, you.

You packed a lot of living musically in a short amount of time.

What.

What did you do out there?

Sounded exciting.

Oh, he told you about the trip?

Yeah, yeah.

Well, he didn't tell me everything, but he told me stuff that you were doing.

Yeah, well, literally, you know, I came over to the.

You to.

It was like I. I wanted to come over and.

And put the word out in.

In the U.S. you know, that that album was out, so.

Yeah, and I hope I had a pretty.

Yeah, exactly.

Sure is amazing for dope frequency.

And, you know, it was.

It was in last October into November, and I. I just said, you know, it was.

It was a kind of a quiet month for me.

So I said to myself, let me, let me.

Let me.

Let me seize that moment and go over to the States and.

Because I wanna, you know, Wanna kind of.

Yeah, it was.

It was some.

Some kind of intuition I followed, you know, and I just wanted to.

Wanted to get with the.

With the Source.

Because funk, jazz, it all comes from the state, from America.

You know, it's from the is.

It was.

It was created in the US of A.

You know, so that's where.

That's where the Source lies.

And I just needed to get back with the Source, Got with the Source in order to record.

The record.

The record.

And then I had to get back with the Source in order to, you know, kind of let them know it's out.

It's out.

I need a right.

I went to the Funkateers Ball, which was held in Washington, D.C. okay.

And, you know, I. I was able to play, to sit in there with the guys.

I'm.

Well And I was able to meet a lot of people at the Funkateers Ball and.

And, you know, and was able to sell a couple of records there, and people got to know about the band.

And it was.

It was a.

That was an incredible.

It was another incredible trip because.

And also Greg Boyer took me to places where, you know, to Go Go Go Funk concert.

Yeah.

Chuck Brown's band with this.

With his son now.

Right.

Singing.

And another Go Go band he has with his other horn.

Horn.

With his horn section, Beltway horns, called Jogo, I think the Joko Project.

And.

And then also.

And I also went to Detroit.

I also flew to Detroit.

Wow.

And got.

And that was another trip there.

That was another trip because I got with Gabe Gonzalez.

Oh, yeah, the drummer.

Yeah,.

I got with Gabe.

He took me around to Detroit.

That was a trip.

That was another trip.

Did you.

Did you do a gig with P. Funk on that trip?

Yeah.

Okay, where was that a gig in?

That was.

I flew from Detroit after that week.

Hardcore week in Detroit.

I flew from Detroit to Dallas because their.

Their gig that they had.

They had a gig, right?

They had two gigs throughout my stay.

My month.

It was.

My.

My stay in the States was a month was like, of a month's length.

And so, you know, there were two dates, and the first day was called off because of the hurricane, because I.

And, you know, that was in Savannah, Georgia, that got.

That got canceled.

And the second gig, which I thought maybe I won't even be able to make it, but we made it happen.

We literally.

Greg was really encouraging me to make that happen, and we.

And.

And, you know, we made it happen and made it.

And thank you.

Thanks to Greg.

You know, he was really trying to.

We were trying to make it happen, you know, so, you know, and he was helping me, trying to get me a place to stay at the hotel and, you know, and everything.

And we were trying to sync the flights and stuff.

But anyway, I flew from Detroit to Dallas, and from Dallas, I drove.

I. I rented a car and I drove up to.

To Tulsa, Oklahoma.

That's where the show was.

Yeah.

So, yeah, that's where I was.

I got with Foley's.

I got with Foley saxophone player Joe Blow.

He lives between Columbus and Dallas.

So that's when I went, You know.

No, no, I don't know Joe Blow, but I know Foley had spent time in Dallas, and he was friends with Bernard Wright and all those guys.

Exactly.

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

Wow.

All right.

I got to tell you about Greg Boyer.

This is a compliment to you and Maze and, and the crew you guys are recording.

He told me, he actually said this on air.

He said that he's really inspired by the music you guys do.

You know, it's like you.

You.

You're a big fan.

I'm a big fan of what they've done and still do, but he's.

He's got the energy by hanging out and, you know, seeing what you guys are doing, so.

Really?

Yeah.

Yeah.

He paid you a lot of respects.

Yeah, yeah.

Wow, that's a.

That's.

You're doing something right.

Really.

Honor.

It's an honor to hear that.

Yeah.

You did something right.

Yeah, yeah, no joke.

I mean, he.

He thinks the world again, so I was gonna.

Something.

I. I wanna.

First of all, I want our listeners, viewers to.

To buy dope frequency from beginning, from the interlude into the Funk.

You know, you got Shriz and Maze.

Maze, a great guitarist and vocalists as well.

You guys got a tremendous band.

So what's the best website?

We'll have it in our description for people can go to Sris Amaze.

Well, you can buy it on Bandcamp.

Okay.

You can get dope frequency.

The.

The vinyl, the cd.

It's available through.

Through Bandcamp.

Okay.

And.

But even if you go to shrissenmaze.com, you.

You know, the.

The.

You'll get.

You'll stumble upon that link.

The link will be there, the band camp link.

So then you can get it through that.

You.

You made some great videos for the record.

Where did you record?

My wife and I were watching it the other day.

Where did you record these videos?

You're walking through the park in downtown.

Yeah, the.

The first one.

I never.

Yeah, that one.

Yeah, that one was.

That was.

That was recorded on.

On the.

On the roof of my flat on the Paris rooftops.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

And you weren't.

You weren't tied down.

There was a little slope.

Right.

There was a slope on.

On the roof.

On the roof.

It looked like it was slanted a bit.

No, Maybe it was just a video.

What.

What did you say?

I. I didn't quite understand.

No, I sent in the video.

It looked like it was a little slanted.

The.

The roof.

Slanted?

What is slanted?

Sorry.

Yeah, it wasn't.

It wasn't flat.

Yeah, the roof was not flat.

You're right.

Yeah, right.

You're right.

It was.

It was.

It wasn't.

It wasn't horizontal.

They had this, you know, it was.

It.

So.

Yeah, we had to.

We had to.

I mean, the.

You know, I went up there a lot of times.

So I knew, I knew, well what I, I knew pretty much.

I had experience being on that roof there.

But then the, of course the idea occurred of doing a video.

Shooting a video up there, which is, which is of course, you know, a pretty risky thing and you got to be careful and stuff.

And.

But we pulled up an amp on.

We, we pulled up Maze's amp on up onto the roof and the microphone and, and yeah, we just shot that video up there and, and also downtown Paris.

So that's the first video clip that we shot.

And then the second video clip is True Love, I think.

Yeah.

Damn, Fiddler.

And True Love.

Yeah, and True love is.

We kind of spent all our crowdfunding money.

We spent it all on that damn video.

Wow.

Yeah.

Yeah, it wasn't, it was, it was.

See, we were just tripping off the idea.

You know, the concept that we have is that we're, we're, we're coming.

We, we want to.

We wanted to go.

George claims that he's.

He came from the outer space and brings the P. Funk to the earth.

Yeah, and we're doing.

We want to.

We want to go.

We.

Our mission is go.

To go vice versa.

Right?

Go the other way.

And, and we want to go to where he came from.

That, that's, that's our concept of, of, of.

Of dope frequency and SCHW Maze.

We want, we wanted to get with the source, the outer space source, the unknown Martian funk though the so called dope and come up with dope frequency.

That's our brewage, you know.

Right, you, you've got some.

You can see that in the video.

You can see that in the video.

Yeah, yeah.

You got the concept of all the artistic and, and video stuff like that.

It's pretty intense.

Who is that?

Maze or yourself or collaboration putting it together.

As in the video clip?

Yeah, yeah, the video like, you know, in the spaceship and all that.

The, the pictures on the album cover.

Yeah, I mean that's, yeah, that's that we came, we came up with that.

We came up with that concept, the two of us.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then Maze designed the spaceship.

The, the dopes.

The, the, the.

The spaceship is called the Dope Star and which you can get with the album.

You know, it comes with a construction kit tutorial that you can find on, on YouTube.

You know, it's, you know, you need to fold it, you can fold it out into a spaceship.

And so he designed that and my brother this, you know, came up with that too.

They both, you know, kind of develop that thing.

And then the whole.

The COVID The COVID design is.

Is made by my brother.

He's a graphic designer.

And.

But yeah, in the video.

The video is we got with.

With some Spanish crew who I initially.

I initially reached out because I, I was heavily influenced by the video clip.

By Funko, by the Soul Clap record.

The Soul Clap remix of in the Car, which is a track of the Funkadelic, the latest Funkadelic album called Shake from the Gate, or what's it called again?

Shake to the G. Shake the gate.

Shake the gate.

Shake the Gate.

Okay.

I think it's called like that in the Car.

And there's a video of a remix of a remix of in the.

In the Car, which is a, you know, Funkadelic George Clinton track.

You should check it out.

Do you know that clip?

I don't know the clip.

I.

You gave me some homework.

Yeah, you need, you need to check.

I gotta look.

Yeah, it's absolutely amazing.

And you're band Frizzen Maze and the Horn Dogs.

You got a lot of stuff up there.

Which it would keep.

Keep on putting it up there.

Yeah, yeah, we need to, we need to.

Yeah, yeah.

So we got, we got, we got influenced by that, that clip.

And so, you know, we wanted to get.

And I wanted to get with the director of that clip.

And then he, he transferred me to somebody in Madrid.

So we got with them and did that clip True Love, which we shot in.

In three different places at the club.

You know, there's the club scene, there's a, there's a, There's a, There's a chain, there's a.

There's a pursuing scene with, with, with the enemy after us.

You know, there's always the Eve, the good guy and the bad guy in the video.

And because they, you know, we, we, we got, we got the dope, we got, we got the dope frequency.

And now, and now, now we got.

We captured that and now they're after us.

So that's.

Well, if you're going somewhere else, if you're going the other direction, make sure you send the music down to us.

I'm sure.

Yes.

Yeah, we will transmit.

We'll make sure.

Transmitted down to planet Earth.

Yeah, we're counting on you.

Yeah.

Hey, I wanted to ask you specifically about.

I really dug the.

It looks like a show where you guys are playing in a vintage musician gear studio.

Greg Boyer and Shriz and Maze.

That was.

I love that clip.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

What's that show about?

Yeah, yeah, that's great.

Yeah, that show no longer exists.

It's by Q West and Quincy Jones was part of that.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah, he was.

This is his Paris crew who came up, you know, had this, it's a guitar shop, but they had this, these series, you know, of, of whenever an artist came through Paris.

They had them come down to that studio with all those vintage keyboards and everything going on.

I went there with Omar, by the way, with whom I played last night.

Okay.

Oh, okay.

We went there too and did, did a similar did to say it did the same thing, you know, and what was it called again there?

La Clock Studio.

Right, that's right.

Yeah, yeah.

And, and, and yeah, so we did that with Greg, we went down there with Greg Boyer after a new morning gig.

Is it only one song that they, they put up?

I think we only did one song.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, you knocked it out of the park.

That was great.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's a good question.

If we only did one or two,.

How, how many versions of your, your one piece jumpsuits you guys got?

Seems like you got a few.

Yeah, I got about three.

Yeah, is, is a hot performing in those?

No, it's all right, it's all right.

Well, this, this one is a little bit thicker than the other, but it's, it's, it's, it's, it's super, super.

How do you say?

Oh, you can breathe.

Yeah.

Convenient.

Yeah, it's, it's really con for me.

I love it.

I love being in those suits.

And actually amp used to always perform in, in, in, in those jumpsuits.

Oh, okay.

So yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean we've got possibly.

There's some influences from there and Breaking Bad that we like that concept.

Right?

Breaking Bad, Yeah, yeah.

In the.

Well, I'm not.

But they were wearing the suits in the meth lab.

Not that you guys are doing that.

They were wearing suits in the Met.

Well, yeah, I mean, not.

Yeah, they were wearing those one piece things while they were cooking the methamphetamine that it means and Breaking Bad, so.

Not that you guys are doing that.

So.

Yeah, I, I, I, Not yet.

Not yet.

Oh yeah, I was saying with the suits.

Foley, he's got the fireman's jacket on, right?

Or something like that, playing drums.

Yeah, that, yeah.

He looks like somebody just got off the, got off the London Underground shift.

That's right.

No,.

On the Shrin Maze website.

Yeah, but it's not going to be until June.

Okay.

Yeah.

But this.

Yeah, we, we are currently looking for more dates and there's going to be stuff in December, hopefully happening, and then also, you know, in the, in, in.

In the summertime and.

Yeah, so we're still, we're still in the, you know, in the booking.

In the booking phase of what's going to happen around fall and, and, and into winter.

Right.

Oh, one last, one last thing.

You.

You've collaborated with another one of our favorites, Judith Hill.

Yep.

Yeah.

Well, what did you.

What'd you do with.

I mean, only, Only life.

Okay.

On stage.

Yeah.

Where was this New morning.

This was the first time I got on stage with her was in Zurich in Switzerland.

Oh, okay.

So, yeah, yeah, they, you know, I just went up again like I did.

Like I do with a couple of other peeps.

I did the same with Omar.

Right.

Have sex, we'll travel and we'll play.

Yeah.

You know, sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't.

But I try to take chances.

Yeah.

You know, you can only lose.

I mean, I got to give you a lot of credit.

That.

That's right.

And you've won a lot of that because you, you go out there, you take the chances.

You said you were shy, but you've accomplished all this and come on, you collaborated with hall of Famers.

Yeah, I guess I was shy back then.

Super shy.

Yeah.

You know, when.

The first time I got on stage with P. Funk, I was like, I'm.

I'm peeing on myself.

Yeah.

But then eventually, you know, I guess that was kind of, you know, breaking into the ice, you know, cracking up the ice.

How do you say?

Just.

Yeah, breaking the ice.

Breaking that.

Breaking the ice.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And now.

Yeah, right.

We've got.

Yeah.

And then.

Sorry.

No, you go ahead.

Yeah, I guess, you know, you know, with time, you know, you get.

You can, you.

You can.

You start to know how to pull it off.

But, you know, it's.

It's a.

It's a tricky one, you know, you gotta.

Sometimes, sometimes, you know, sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't.

And if it doesn't happen, don't be.

Don't.

You can't, don't.

Don't let yourself down.

You know, don't.

Don't be.

You know, it's.

It.

You know, it's just.

That's life.

You know, sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't.

Yep.

So we, we got to thank you, Eric Schriz Rohner, for coming by.

Great to meet you.

And hopefully we'll see you.

When you come out, I'm sure you're going to be making your way out to the States again.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I would love.

I would love to come over again.

Yeah, I'd actually love to.

I'm trying to get into Montreal, you know.

Oh yeah, Montreal Jazz Fest.

Yeah, we went.

We used to go every year.

I saw Prince there.

I was in the second row and I had Prince's hat in my hand and some girl ripped it out on my hand and my wife was pissed.

Yeah, yeah.

So yeah, Roy Hargrove was on stage that night.

Yeah, we saw Prince a few times that in Montreal.

But yeah, you.

You Shriss and Maze or whatever, you horn dogs, you guys would.

They would love you there.

I'm trying to.

I'm trying to work myself in.

Into the Montreal and you know, there's a French Connection going on there, you know.

So, yeah, there's this band out of.

Out of Montreal called the Brooks.

I don't know if you know them.

I don't know specifically.

Yeah, yeah, they're.

They're really.

I love these guys.

Super cool guys and great band also.

And they came over.

They've been coming over to Paris so many times and I'm trying to do the same.

I'm trying to come over with SCHW over there, but you know, still working on it.

And of course, you know, I mean, what if we come over to, to the States, then we, we got, we got Greg Boyer on board, so.

Wow.

Yeah, sure, he's played there.

Yeah.

So that's kind of a.

That's kind of a plan I'm on, but I don't know.

I'm not sure if it's going to happen this year.

Hopefully.

If not this year, then hopefully next year because.

And then if we make it to Montreal, you know, it will.

We could make it down to the States.

Yeah, they have Saratoga Springs Jazz Festival.

I mean, it's not, not straight up jazz.

I mean, Corey Wong's played there.

Greg Boyers played there before.

Okay.

Yeah, in years.

He broke his foot before a gig.

He told me.

Who?

Greg.

Greg.

Yeah.

He was playing basketball before the show and broke his foot.

Yeah.

So you got plenty where you live?

That's where I live.

Right?

I'm.

I'm four minutes from the concert venue, Saratoga Springs Performing Arts Center.

Okay, Jude.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I gotta, Gotta make it happen.

Yeah.

So, hey, get dope frequency.

Our viewers, our listeners.

And this guy's an incredible performer.

We want you to go to YouTube, Shriz and Maze.

Maze is a Great performer as well.

Killer on the guitar and vocals with yourself, Shriz.

And look forward to meeting you in person and also seeing you live.

And thank you so much.

It's been nothing but a pleasure.

Thank you, Joe.

Now you got to get some rest.

You.

You were gigging last night.

You know what?

I can't.

I'm here.

I'm here.

This is.

I'm actually at the studio.

I'm at the studio where lots of the Dope Frequency was recorded.

Oh, wow.