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Adrian Quesada was standing on the set of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” last week, the latest milestone in a lightning-quick rise for his band Black Pumas, when he was struck by the surreal nature of the moment.
It was just two years ago that the guitarist had linked up with singer and lyricist Eric Burton in a teaming of two Austin, Texas, hot talents. And it was just seven months ago that the Pumas released their self-titled debut album, a deeply textured collection of old-school-but-bright-eyed soul-rock that prompted a best new artist nomination at next Sunday’s Grammy Awards.
As Quesada soaked in the scene at the “Ellen” taping — for a segment to air Monday — he flashed back to the group’s less-glittery origins.
“I was looking around the studio, thinking back to when we decided to officially make this a band. I remembered joking to Eric: ‘Let’s play for a month at C-Boy’s (a small Austin bar) and see if anybody cares,’” he says. “And people cared. I think our sincerity, just doing it for fun, and making music we would want to listen to ourselves is helping people connect to this.”
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The Black Pumas’ sound is a fresh mélange of familiar parts, a sonic world where shades of Bill Withers, Motown, Shuggie Otis and the Dramatics swirl around searing rock licks and a hip-hop undercurrent.
That combination — and electrifying live presence bolstered by five band mates — has spurred an impressive rise for Burton, a former street musician, and Quesada, a veteran player who spent time with the Latin-funk ensemble Grupo Fantasma. Within months, the Black Pumas jumped from small clubs to packed theaters across North America and Europe, including a scheduled Wednesday show at Saint Andrew’s Hall in Detroit. The group will jet to Los Angeles after the gig to prep for Grammy night.
Earlier this month, the band performed its breakout hit “Colors” on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” and spots at high-profile festivals such as Coachella and Michigan’s Electric Forest are on tap.
“We’re just trying to take this in,” says Quesada. “It’s been happening so fast, we’ve hardly had a chance to stop and think about it.”
Burton, who grew up in sometimes troubled circumstances in the Watts district of L.A., was a newcomer to Austin when he connected with Quesada in 2017. He’d carved out a career as a sidewalk busker, playing guitar and singing in cities up the West Coast and now in the Texas capital.
“You could feel the receptivity, the passion there for arts and music,” he says. “If I didn’t know Austin was the live-music capital of the world, I could definitely feel it.”
On his own, Burton was “doing more folksy, singer-songwriter, neo-soul type of stuff,” as he describes it. But his versatile voice and fast-blossoming reputation around town had would-be collaborators knocking at his door — and it was Quesada who ultimately lucked out.
The guitarist had already worked up a set of instrumental tracks intended for a solo project, music inspired in part by the vintage hip-hop of Wu-Tang Clan.
“At the time, I was listening to a lot of soul music,” Quesada says. “But (the hip-hop) came specifically on a run one morning when I was listening to some Ghostface Killah, the way he used soul samples in his songs, how he looped things, the vibe he created. That’s literally what inspired me to sit down and work on some tracks.”
Now his music just needed lyrics and a strong voice, and Quesada scored both with his newfound partner. Burton came armed with compositions of his own, and together the pair fitted them into the existing tracks or — as with “Touch the Sky” — built them into new originals.
“I felt it right away, as soon as he started singing,” Quesada recounts. “I noticed we were on the same wavelength once he started showing me his songs. That’s when I realized his songwriting and my production fit together like a glove.”
For Burton, working with Quesada found him channeling a gift he didn’t quite realize he possessed. Though he’d grown up singing in church, his folksy solo inclinations had led him to a different musical place.
“Adrian kind of reintroduced me to soul music,” says the 27-year-old. “The production reminded me of an era I’d never actually experienced. When he first sent me the tracks, I thought, ‘I don’t know how to sing on this.’ I went back and listened to Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Otis Redding, and to my surprise, I was able to fall in and absorb that stuff pretty easily.”
The studio stuff was clicking. But playing live would be a different test. When the pair embarked on their trial residency at C-Boy’s in Austin, enlisting several area musicians to join them, it was a jump for Burton, who’d cut his teeth as a solo player on the street.
“I kind of had to sink or swim: ‘All right, we’re onstage now. This isn’t busking for change at 6th and Congress anymore,’” the singer recalls. “So it’s been an evolving thing, and I think it gets better every show.”
These days, Black Pumas’ live stuff is the band’s calling card. On YouTube, the group has drawn millions of views and rave reviews for its assortment of “Live Session” clips, and several new ones were recently taped in Austin for posting in coming weeks.
While the band’s original tunes dominate the nightly concert set, a dramatic interpretation of the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” — inspired by the Four Tops’ 1969 version of the song — has been a staple onstage.
“It’s something I’d always wanted to approach, but I’d never known anybody who was able to bring the right fire to singing it, so I filed it away in the back of my head,” Quesada says. “Luckily Eric was into it. It’s fun to take chances like that.”
They may be Grammy longshots in a best new artist field that includes bookmaker favorites Billie Eilish and Lizzo. But the nomination is impressive enough on its own — a sign that Black Pumas’ organic, word-of-mouth rise has hit the wider industry radar.
The band was in England for its first-ever London show when the phone call came from the States that November afternoon.
“It was very much a surprise,” Quesada says of the Grammy nod. “We all got into a group hug and everybody shared some words. We went through all the emotions — at some point everybody cried a bit, smiled a bit. Then our tour manager took us to a pub to have a couple of celebratory drinks.”
“Then it was right back to work!” says Burton.
Sunday’s Grammy festivities will be followed by a busy touring schedule that will roll into autumn, including bigger venues and multi-night bookings as Black Pumas’ rise continues gaining momentum.
The band is clearly resonating with its blend of explosive, deftly grooved soul. But there’s an additional factor in play, Burton reckons: While Black Pumas didn’t set out to make a political point, he says, the group’s “message of sincerity and love” is clearly hitting a 2020 sweet spot.
“We say it all the time — we’ve got male, female, white, black, Hispanic in this band,” the singer says. “I guess we’re a symbol of unity, and it’s nice to be appreciated by people who think we represent a statement that needs to be made today.”
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
With Seratones
7 p.m. Wed.
Saint Andrew’s Hall
431 E. Congress, Detroit
313-961-6358
$22 and up
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