{"id":15296,"date":"2018-10-18T05:30:25","date_gmt":"2018-10-18T09:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=15296"},"modified":"2018-10-18T07:24:44","modified_gmt":"2018-10-18T11:24:44","slug":"fantastic-negrito-we-can-turn-it-around-part-4-conclusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/18\/fantastic-negrito-we-can-turn-it-around-part-4-conclusion\/","title":{"rendered":"Fantastic Negrito: We Can Turn It Around (Part 4 \/ conclusion)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part Three<\/a>…<\/i><\/p>\n

And even though Fantastic Negrito is now a high-profile Grammy-winning performer and recording artist, he still feels and maintains a close connection to that neighborhood. \u201cThe people I started my collective label [Blackball Universe] with, they\u2019re all guys I grew up with,\u201d he says. \u201cWe did everything \u2013 committed crimes and everything \u2013 together. And now we\u2019re all in business<\/i> together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Xavier feels a responsibility to the old neighborhood as well. \u201cI figured it out,\u201d he says. \u201cEvery day you wake up, the way that you carry yourself, and the decisions you make: that\u2019s your responsibility to your community, to your family. It starts with you.\u201d For him, it’s not about \u201cstarting a nonprofit and marching down the street with a fucking sign. It starts with how you treat people.\u201d But he doesn’t hold himself up as a model. \u201cI\u2019m still a major fuck-up. But that\u2019s my struggle, that\u2019s my fight, and that\u2019s my aspiration and goal. When you want to contribute, that changes everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The way he sees it, America currently has people in power who advocate internal conflict: \u201cMe against you, and you against them, and this group against that group,\u201d Xavier says. \u201cBut I think music does the opposite. It says, ‘Hey, let\u2019s all get down. Let\u2019s all jam on this, because this is beautiful. We\u2019re gonna all party and be beautiful, and be amazing.’ And hey: in history, that\u2019s the side I wanna be on.\u201d<\/p>\n

He takes the making of an album very seriously. \u201cArtistic expression is so profound and so necessary,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen we look back at other civilizations, what are we looking for? We\u2019re looking at what they created, what they left behind. And I think that that\u2019s probably why we\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n

True to Fantastic Negrito form, his lyrical themes are placed inside a compelling musical context. Xavier characterizes Please Don’t Be Dead<\/i> as \u201ca riff album. There’s something about a guitar riff that unites people.\u201d He says that the new songs \u201chave teeth.\u201d And as much as he thrives on the contact of live performance, Xavier sees something special about the recording studio. \u201cThe studio is very spiritual,\u201d he says. \u201cIt becomes the most honest place there is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The basic musical recipe for Please Don’t Be Dead<\/i> follows the approach used on The Last Days of Oakland<\/i>. \u201cI use the same tools for Fantastic Negrito: drums, bass, guitar, organ, piano and vocals. That’s it; I don\u2019t let anything else into the kitchen,\u201d he says. The personnel for the album are the same as last time, too. \u201cI use these guys because we all know each other and we can get it done,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just have one and a half hands because of my injury,\u201d Xavier says, \u201cbut sometimes the playing is so original that it\u2019s like, ‘Damn, that feels amazing, and that\u2019s it<\/i>. I\u2019m gonna keep it.’\u201d When it’s suggested that Django Reinardt did pretty well with missing fingers, Xavier snaps back, \u201cHe was a genius, and I\u2019m not.\u201d<\/p>\n

One way in which the new album departs from its predecessor, though, is in the use of more live drums. \u201cAnd I’m braver,\u201d Xavier says. \u201cIt’s more experimental. I\u2019m doing things that are different, and that\u2019s what we should do. I wanna push, always. Push, push, push.\u201d<\/p>\n

Live performance does inform Fantastic Negrito’s studio work. At the 2017 LEAF Festival, Xavier led the audience \u2013 one that grew significantly in size as the concert went on \u2013 in a chant. That chant (\u201cTake that bullshit \/ and turn it into good shit\u201d) forms the basis of \u201cBullshit Anthem,\u201d the 11th<\/sup> and final track on Please Don’t Be Dead<\/i>. \u201cI wrote it just right on stage,\u201d he says, \u201cand now it’s turned into a song. It’s about, ‘This is bullshit, but you know what? We can turn it around. Let’s do that.’ It’s inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n

The optimism that has been a defining feature of Xavier’s life and music remains strong. \u201cAmericans are a resilient bunch,\u201d Xavier says. \u201cI don\u2019t think one thing can really wreck it. I think we\u2019ll be all right. We\u2019ll recover. We\u2019ll come to our senses.\u201d But he’s sure that positive change won’t come without effort. \u201cIn the hour of tyranny and fascism and totalitarianism, the people they get rid of are the thinkers, the intellectuals, the artists,\u201d he says. \u201cSomeone on Twitter got mad for me saying this, but that’s how I feel: artists are the last line of defense.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part Three… And even though Fantastic Negrito is now a high-profile Grammy-winning performer and recording artist, he still feels and maintains a close connection to that neighborhood. \u201cThe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15309,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,31,41,49,60,69],"tags":[2868],"class_list":["post-15296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-funk","category-interview","category-new-release","category-rb","category-soul","tag-fantastic-negrito","cat-9-id","cat-31-id","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","cat-60-id","cat-69-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15296"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15369,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15296\/revisions\/15369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}