Summer Music: Thee Sacred Souls' Rapid Success

August 27, 2020 at 10:24 AM PDT

Speaker 1: 00:00 Speaker 2: 00:40 Speaker 1: 01:13 Speaker 2: 01:31 Speaker 1: 01:33 Speaker 2: 01:43 Speaker 1: 02:35 Speaker 2: 02:49 Speaker 1: 03:11 Speaker 2: 03:18 Speaker 1: 03:29 Speaker 2: 03:38 Speaker 1: 04:01 Speaker 2: 04:04 Speaker 1: 04:07 Speaker 2: 04:43 Speaker 1: 04:44 Speaker 2: 05:02 Speaker 1: 05:44 Speaker 2: 05:51 Speaker 1: 06:21 Speaker 2: 06:45 Speaker 1: 07:34 Speaker 2: 08:46 Speaker 1: 10:05 Our summer music series continues with some sweet soul over rare grooves, San Diego band, the sacred souls have a sound that hearkens back to the sixties, Motown and Stax record era. The trio only started playing a year ago, but by their second show, they were signed to the funk and soul label. Deftones records that brought a Sharon Jones and Amy Winehouse, the sacred souls don't just replicate. What's been done. They bring a fresh spin on the oldies or as the soul music revival has come to be known. Soul-Ties here's the sacred souls performing they're single. Can I call you? Rose Cannot call you. [inaudible] cannot call you [inaudible]. It was the sacred souls performing. Can I call you Rose? The sacred souls are Alex Garcia drums, Alex. Welcome. Hey, thanks for having us South Amano on base Sao. Hello. How's it going? Pretty good. And Josh lane on vocals, hijack. Hello Today, and welcome to midday edition. All three of you. And let me start with you, Josh, where did you get the inspiration to write? Can I call you Quick story on? That was me, Alex and Sal would meet to record in Alex's garage. And so I looked back in his garage and his garage and he has these really big blankets you get from like the, you know what I'm talking about, like the big squat meet blankets, and then there's this really big one with all these roses. And so just out of necessity for writing, I was like, okay, jump on. The roses. That'll help me. Okay. Rose is a romantic, it flew out in a very organic way. Usually what I have to do is go back and like change words. And, but this time it just flew together. And I think it was a good thing that had happened that way though, because that was the first song, technically as a three piece that we wrote together, it was the first full song, right Alex. So, I mean, to me, I think it was really important for it to flow that way. Cause it just gave confidence in us as a band to be like, Oh, we have an energy together. And we know your influences include indie folk and black soul. And I think most people are familiar with both of those genres, but there's also Chicano soul and Sal, what is Chicano Chicano soul is, it was kind of more underground. You know, there was a groups like, uh, the Midnighters, um, Sonya Suda and the sun liners. They all had their classics that were huge. And the Chicano community, you know, it all kind of went along with, you know, the low rider scene and it was kind of just its own little scene of like traditions and stuff. It's like that. Is there a different kind of cultural field from Chicano soul and black soul? What is Chicano soul? Okay. Say like the music style is a little different, you know, the singing style is different. It's a little, it's a little more raw. It's mostly sounding pretty groggy production-wise and Chicano soul build sort of a bridge between that soul era and what came after it. Did it keep soul going Josh? I think it did because as soul kind of started to evolve in the eighties and nineties, more people were kind of going to R and B and listening to rhythm and blues going on in that pop R and B. And I'm sure like my family, my, my grandma and grandpa, when we barbecue, they, they got their soul hits and they throw them out. But as a collective culture, I feel like Chicano soul took black soul. Some of the Chicano soul artists, that salad bar Up the two of those things and just kept it moving forward. Let's hear another song from you guys let's hear week for your own [inaudible] That was the sacred souls performing week for your love with Jen scene, Benita's on backup vocals. How did you discover, how did you guys discover soul to begin with? I mean, you know, this is sort of your parents' music, so how did you get there? Well, I've always grown up with it. You know, I feel like soul and, and having a barbecue with the family is just something that just goes hand in hand. I grew up on like the Delfonics and Brentwood and stylistics kind of more of like the classics. But when I was like 18, 19, I discovered DAP tone and big crown records, coal mine records, all these, all these labels that were bringing soul back to life. I'm putting out soul records, you know, and, uh, through them I started listening and some more deeper stuff. Uh, I met Sal, we started, uh, talking about this project and started getting into collecting records through Sal's dad. Who's also a big record collector. Alex, let me ask you, what was it like being signed to adaptogen records and one of your inspirations? Oh man, that's pretty much like the craziest feeling. You can imagine. It's it's, I've always wanted be a part of the label of Dapsone and I've always respected them and what they stood for. So just being able to say that I'm working with them, we're working with my heroes and, and can consider them my friends. I feel like that's just a, it's a big honor and it feels like I accomplished something, you know, at my age already. I tell you, I'm really just fortunate to be a part of the label. Part of the sort of idea of music at this time, at the time that you guys are reaching back in the past and you're pulling it forward, like from Sam cook to Marvin Gaye musicians that used to use their voices for social change. And I'm thinking about your song, give us justice. And Josh, was it hard to write, give us justice. The song kind of wrote and spoke for itself because these things were fresh. And I was listening to a change is going to come as lyrics and realize that it was void of some of those social justice meanings to me because it was just a pretty song and it's on movies and all these things. But that first line I was born by the river in a little tent. Oh, just like a river I've been running ever since the idea that a river never stops running, unless it dries up and in his life as a black man, he'd always been running or looking over his back or thinking he might be killed there. His economic choices were slam. If any, it just really felt, I felt the weight of it because I might not have been someone who was murdered, but it doesn't matter my social class or how my friends see me in a certain situation. I could have been any of the people who had lost their lives to police brutality or just to brutality in general. And so it was real easy. Let's hear it. This is give us justice by these sacred souls. [inaudible], there's a shot gun shot, gun smart. [inaudible] [inaudible] onto this dress. That was the sacred souls performing give us justice. And I've been speaking with Alex Garcia and sail Samano and Josh lane, the three members of the sacred souls. If you want to hear the full interview and see the sacred souls music video for, can I call you Rose? You can go to kpbs.org/summer music series. I want to thank you guys so much for sitting down and talking to us and sharing the music with us. It's really been a pleasure. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you for having us. And next week, our a summer music series continues with songwriter, Alfred Howard, an artist, Marianne Howard.

By KPBS Public Media

The San Diego-based trio only started playing a year ago. But by their second show, they were signed to the same label that brought Sharon Jones and Amy Winehouse.