An Interview with Fernando Perdomo

0:00 Fernando Perdomo I think the worst thing that could ever happen to an artist is if they get successful doing something that's not them.

0:06 Luke F. Walton What's good, everybody? Welcome back to Love Music More. I am Scoobert Doobert, and my guest today is Fernando Perdomo. He's an absolute powerhouse guitarist and bassist. He's played with just about everybody in the industry. I'm literally talking about Jacob Dillon, Fiona Apple, Brian Wilson, Nora Jones, Regina Spector, Cat Power. You know, he's on records with...

0:27 Luke F. Walton Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Stephen Stills, and he's played Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Hall, The Greek, I mean, come on. So, really cool guy, really into the industry, and as a...

0:42 Luke F. Walton guitarist that works in the live works in studio he's has just a really interesting arc of how he's made it happen and how he's turned those breaks into long-term opportunities was a great conversation I think you really enjoy it the dude knows his stuff before we do I'd like to introduce our title sponsor distro kid distro kid makes music distribution fun and easy with

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1:28 Luke F. Walton A million plus artists rely on DistroKid to get their music onto Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, TikTok, Tidal, Instagram, and all the major streaming services. One of the things I love about it is I can jump on my phone and hit the app and I can go on there and just, you know, cash out my money to my bank account, can check on my songs. I can even like upload music. I did that once. Don't tell my label.

1:53 Luke F. Walton I once did that where I was on the go and I had to put the song up. So I did it on my phone. Oh, and guess what? It worked fine. That's pretty powerful because that's like the biggest thing with music is being able to be flexible, being reactive, meeting the moments when the moment comes and talk about a guy that did that, Fernando Perdomo. So enjoy that conversation.

2:12 Luke F. Walton But before you do, sign up on DistrictKid, districtkid.com slash VIP slash love music more for 30% off. Enjoy the conversation. What's good, everybody? I am Scoobert Doobert, and I am joined with Fernando Perdomo. We're going to chat about your incredible music career, your studio, your guitar playing, and just kind of what it's like to live a day in the life. So how's it going?

2:41 Fernando Perdomo Great. I had a wonderful session today in my studio with a great artist named Keith Hosmer. We're actually trying to figure out his stage name for his record because

2:48 Luke F. Walton Oh, really?

2:49 Fernando Perdomo you've got to be able to market yourself.

2:51 Luke F. Walton Yes,

2:52 Fernando Perdomo So

2:52 Luke F. Walton so

2:52 Fernando Perdomo we've

2:53 Luke F. Walton true.

2:53 Fernando Perdomo come up with something and he's looking into the legal. legalities of calling himself what he wants to call but it's a great record and it's really really cool I'm having a lot of fun working with him he's awesome yeah

3:05 Luke F. Walton Fantastic, fantastic. So I want to talk about kind of your musical journey and really what the show's whole goal is for the listeners to walk away loving music a little bit more, but just by like knowing more about it, knowing like what goes into it, the blood, the sweat, the tears, the guitar collection, everything that goes

3:22 Fernando Perdomo you

3:22 Luke F. Walton into

3:22 Fernando Perdomo know there's

3:22 Luke F. Walton it.

3:23 Fernando Perdomo a lot of there's a lot of sides to the job I mean what started as a fascination with music at an early age my mom she was a journalist but she also played piano introduced me to a lot of

3:31 Fernando Perdomo a lot of great music like the Beatles and like a lot of really cool like French soundtrack music and stuff like that and then I just gravitated towards the guitar even though my mom was a pianist and in the end I regretted because I had to learn a piano myself I kind of taught myself in a wonky way but I'm known as a guitar player one of my main jobs is doing a lot of session work I've played with some really cool people and that's been awesome but you know it started off as a fascination with the instrument

3:57 Fernando Perdomo instrument and then it became an obsession especially during high school and pretty much I spent all day playing guitar and working on my skills and then by the time I got out of high school I joined a bunch of bands and that kind of led to where I am today I'm from Miami Florida which is where I met my friend our mutual friend Sam I live in Los Angeles I run a recording studio I tour with a pretty pretty legendary artist named Marshall Crenshaw I play in a couple bands I release my own records

4:24 Fernando Perdomo I do a lot of production. I've lost count how many records I've produced because I have a lot of clients and they're always inspired and they always come in with new stuff and we work on it together and they come home with a product that they're proud to show, which is really cool.

4:40 Fernando Perdomo So it's been a really fun journey because I started playing in tiny little clubs and one day I was playing in Miami at a tiny place and this songwriter from Columbia named Nicholas Tavar saw me play and said, man, do you do any recording? I'd love for you to play on some of my demos. He's a songwriter. I was 21 years old. I played on a bunch of demos and I got a call from him saying, guess what?

5:02 Fernando Perdomo Christian Castro, this major Latin artist on Universal picked one of the songs, but he really likes your guitar playing. So he's keeping your guitar playing for the demo. You're going to get paid twice.

5:13 Luke F. Walton Amazing.

5:13 Fernando Perdomo And when the song got to number one, a song called No Hace Falta. they ended up bringing me in for the rest of the records so i'm on this big record on universal bmg and we do a tour my journey playing on big latin records i played for on a song for jennifer lopez i played on a for paulina rubio another album by tango calderon but it hit a glass ceiling a little bit because even though it was awesome to play on these records that i still hear today in restaurants and stuff like that i

5:39 Luke F. Walton Yes.

5:40 Fernando Perdomo wanted to play with rock and roll people and i did that in miami but there's not a lot of

5:44 Fernando Perdomo a market for rock and roll in Miami it gets a little difficult so then I ended up moving to Los Angeles which is funny because my first album I put out as an artist was an album called Dreaming in Stereo which did really good and introduced me to a lot of people I opened up for Todd Rundgren and a bunch of different stuff but it had a song called I'm not going to move to LA but in the end moving to LA was something I had to do to be able to move to the next level and it's been everything I ever wanted and everything I've been ever warned about

6:10 Fernando Perdomo about because the music industry is not the nicest sometimes there's a lot of promises that are made that are broken there's a lot of false hope but i'm a working musician and my idea of success isn't driving around in a nice car and living in a mansion my idea of success is doing music for a living not having to work a regular job and making music every day even if it's not for myself i'm very selfless

6:37 Fernando Perdomo And the way I look at it is like working with other people inspires me. to be better because when somebody comes in and just aces a vocal in one take it makes me want to be able to do that it's something i'm not naturally good at i mean i've gotten a lot better as a singer but you know my true my true gift is musician being a musician playing guitar bass drums keys and you know working on these records but it's been great because when i moved here i i had a chance of a lifetime which was i was playing at a place called

7:08 Fernando Perdomo It's called Canthers on Fairfax, which is a Jewish deli, and they have a jam night every Tuesday. It's not really a jam night. They have an event every Tuesday where a bunch of musicians play covers all night, and they switch musicians constantly. And it's not open jam. You kind of got to know them. But I got brought into that scene pretty quick by a guy named David Goodstein from Miami who brought me in.

7:30 Fernando Perdomo I was just playing guitar there that night, and some guy came in and heard me play and said, So if you've got to play on a record I'm producing, it turned out to be this guy named Andy Slater who produced Fiona Apple's first album title, Macy Gray, Wallflowers, he was the president of Capitol. And next thing you know I was playing on a record. by Jacob Dillon that was going to be a tribute to Laurel Canyon 60s folk.

7:53 Luke F. Walton Yes.

7:54 Fernando Perdomo I was impressed that I already knew all the songs. I didn't need charts.

7:56 Luke F. Walton Amazing.

7:57 Fernando Perdomo I didn't need help with the songs.

7:57 Luke F. Walton Amazing. This was Echo in the Canyon,

8:00 Fernando Perdomo Echo

8:00 Luke F. Walton yes?

8:00 Fernando Perdomo in the Canyon. Well, the thing about it is he said, well, all these songs are going to be duets. And then I started getting the text messages of my dreams. Hey, you remember my room that's Fiona Apple now. Hey, you remember Bells of Rhythm, that's Beck. Hey, you remember You Showed Me, that's Catman.

8:17 Fernando Perdomo cat power all these different amazing situations nora jones josh homie of uh he's a stone age and then it started getting crazy when he told me that i he's like i got good news and bad news you're no longer playing the solo on questions eric clapton is but i'm keeping your guitar track your rhythm guitar track so i ended up on a track with clapton then there's a track with there's two tracks of neil young

8:39 Fernando Perdomo and as a track with Stephen Stills the album became a movie when we did a concert and it was filmed and they said oh this will probably make a better movie than an album so next thing you know we're doing the tour of like Ringo stars in the movie we did a scene backing up and interacting with Brian Wilson which is who's a god to me and

8:57 Luke F. Walton Of course. Yes.

8:58 Fernando Perdomo you know all these really amazing people and you know the movie was a dream come true to me especially because When I was 12 years old, I idolized Buffalo Springfield, Neil Young, Crosby, Stills and Nash. So it was pretty amazing to be in that, an experience that's led to a lot of work. It really definitely

9:17 Luke F. Walton It's

9:17 Fernando Perdomo helped my

9:17 Luke F. Walton total sense.

9:18 Fernando Perdomo band,

9:18 Luke F. Walton you Yes.

9:19 Fernando Perdomo know, a little bit.

9:19 Luke F. Walton Yes.

9:19 Fernando Perdomo I still have clients that I've been working with from before then, but a lot of people came out of the woodwork and started working with me from that. And that led to my situation now, which is I'm playing lead guitar, singing backup vocals with a guy named Marshall. Marshall Crenshaw, who is a very cult singer-songwriter, to know him is to love him.

9:39 Fernando Perdomo And he also had a bona fide hit called Someday, Someway in 82, another one called Whenever You're On My Mind. And then he went on to be Buddy Holly in the movie La Bamba. And then he wrote the song Walk Hard for the famous movie Walk Hard. And he also co-wrote some of the hits for Jim Bloss. And it's great because we toured the country.

9:58 Fernando Perdomo We play thousand-seat theaters that are usually packed, and this is a guy that I've been a fan of since I was 16 years old, and he's a huge influence on my guitar playing, on my songwriting, on my singing, and now he's a friend, and we send each other silly text messages every day, and you know, we have a group chat that gets really goofy, and we've really become really good friends, which is really awesome.

10:24 Fernando Perdomo And, you know, it's a cool thing because I have a lot of friends that are also in the same boat as me that are Sidemen. and their goals are like oh i want to play for gwen stefani or shania twain or

10:35 Luke F. Walton Right.

10:35 Fernando Perdomo keith urban or you know be on american idol you know saturday night live no you know what i'm really happy here like my ultimate gig would be mccartney and i consider marshal

10:47 Luke F. Walton Yes.

10:48 Fernando Perdomo crenshaw mccartney quality but attainable because mccartney's had the same band almost 20 years now and uh he's not gonna be switching any of those guys anytime soon

10:56 Fernando Perdomo soon but you know playing with Marshall he's an incredible songwriter incredible guy and a very well respected guy and anytime I mention him in the industry they're like wow that's a good gig all this stuff that I do making money as a producer and as a touring musician I put into my own career making my own music on my own terms because I'm independent I'm a little all over the place I'm pretty well known in the progressive rock world one of my biggest breaks is I got to play with Yes

11:24 Fernando Perdomo at the allen white memorial because steve howe couldn't make it and me and another guitar player filled in for him i also work for a guy named dave kersner who's an incredible prog rock artist who through him i've been launched into this progressive rock world where i've gotten to work with members of genesis i've gotten to work with members of kansas and it's really cool but it's it's a whole world away from martial crenshaw power pop uh

11:48 Luke F. Walton Yes.

11:49 Fernando Perdomo you know But then I also work on albums that are many different genres. I actually just produced a Hanukkah record for

11:57 Fernando Perdomo No a guy named Andy Henry, who's amazing. So that came out now. It's called The Circum Guys, which is crazy. But it's a cool record, and it's getting around now. But see, I love the variety of being a musician because it's really, really fun.

12:14 Luke F. Walton I agree. And there's so much in there that I think is such good advice for somebody that's.

12:18 Luke F. Walton that's trying to break in especially if like you have a primary instrument like guitar or you want to be doing session work or being in the studio or being on the road finding those jam sessions showing up and doing the best work even if it's a demo because you never know where that demo is going to go I think all that's really good lessons

12:33 Fernando Perdomo I got paid 50 bucks for that demo and I brought my best gear. I remember in Miami, just to get technical, Miami's kind of known as the birthplace of Pro Tools because the first big hit that was done on Pro Tools was Living La Vida Loca. And that was in Miami.

12:51 Luke F. Walton I didn't know that. That's

12:52 Fernando Perdomo And it

12:53 Luke F. Walton a great

12:53 Fernando Perdomo was the

12:53 Luke F. Walton bit of trivia.

12:54 Fernando Perdomo first song mixed on Pro Tools that went to number one. The first album on Pro Tools was out here. That was the Beach Boys' Summer in Paradise, but it's also considered one of the worst records of all time. But Living La Vida Loca was the first hit that was mixed on Pro Tools and recorded on Pro Tools.

13:09 Fernando Perdomo Another thing that got popular in Miami was something called the Pod by Line 6, which is a small red shaped thing that you just, instead of micing an amp.

13:19 Fernando Perdomo amp just plug into that they were expecting me to just use the pod but i brought a tube amp i brought a pedal board i brought like five guitars i was ready for big time even though it was not big time money the person putting those recordings are all over that record and they are all over the radio and it's just you know bringing my a game

13:37 Fernando Perdomo no matter what i'm getting paid and i know sometimes you know people get very offended when they get underpaid but you never know what's going to come of a project as a producer i do a lot of psychiatry and psychology because when i'm dealing with with clients sometimes they might be shy or they might not know what to do or they

13:57 Luke F. Walton Absolutely.

13:57 Fernando Perdomo might they might overthink things and oh you know i don't want to release that because i don't think anybody's going to buy it no you know okay yeah there's a good chance no one's going to buy it but the minute that you get an email from somebody that bought your record and said i play this song for my kids you know that's that's that's real success there because there's lots of people that have a billion streams on spotify that don't have any real fans i'd rather have my

14:25 Fernando Perdomo 500 real fans than have 20,000 fake ones, you know, because they're not going to be there. They're not going to have your back.

14:33 Luke F. Walton The tour you're on is the perfect example of that.

14:36 Fernando Perdomo Exactly. People, we interact with fans every night and they'll bring out photos and say, hey, here's a photo of us from 1982, 83. I've been going to see Marshall every time and they stick with him because they believe in him because that's the beautiful thing about cult success is my favorite artist of all time is a guy named Todd Rundgren and Todd did have number one hits. He had Hello It's Me.

14:59 Fernando Perdomo He had I Saw the Light. He had Bang on the Drum all day. but his experimental nature always stopped the momentum like right after he put out hello it's me he went on a midnight special and he was already in full prog rock mode

15:15 Fernando Perdomo dressed up in this like crazy psychedelic clothes with multi-colored hair and he played hello to me at this new song that he had at the time called black mariah that's like totally like prog and seven eight different stuff and he lost people because there was like oh that's not what i imagine the guy singing hello to me looks like but and even though he doesn't play huge venues he sells out every show

15:41 Fernando Perdomo And everybody there doesn't even care if he doesn't play his hits. They're there because they love everything he does and they truly love him with all their heart. And that's why he has these big fan conventions every year.

15:54 Fernando Perdomo Todd Stock and all these different things. Sometimes he even opens his house in Hawaii to people that just like, you know, camp on his yard because he's accessible. He's real. He's a human being.

16:04 Fernando Perdomo he doesn't have a huge amount of bodyguards or you know minders and handlers you can talk to him he's a good guy his wife is wonderful and it's just like he's a good friend when it comes down to it the best thing about Todd is that he doesn't have to play just the hits since last tour was all deep cuts and then he did a little medley of the hits at the end but he was doing stuff he's never played live

16:28 Luke F. Walton And they eat it up. And that's the difference between those two fan bases is like. is like one is the hey stay in the box that i want you to be in forever and the other one's like no go into the catalog you know totally

16:38 Fernando Perdomo oh no no people listen to everything even released the stuff that was unreleased like the disco album that never came out and people ate it up you know and he's still he does collaborations like he just worked with the lemon twigs who are my favorite bands right now they're a fully independent band and he's worked with a bunch of people you know it's really really cool

16:58 Fernando Perdomo constantly doing interesting stuff because he's a creative that's the difference there's people that go into the industry and think oh i'm just going to pay i'm just going to get songs from a songwriter get a beat maker and get a press team and uh you know buy use bots to get views and stuff and in the end i think the worst thing that could ever happen to an artist is if they get successful doing something that's not them

17:24 Fernando Perdomo because next thing you know it's like wearing a mask and if you come out without the mask it's like why aren't you wearing the mask you

17:30 Luke F. Walton Yes.

17:31 Fernando Perdomo know if a silly suggestion from a manager oh you should do a dance remix next thing you know you're a dance artist and uh you're not you don't like dance music and i love everything i put out i do stuff on my own terms Do I sell a lot of records? No. But every time I sell a record, I get feedback from people, you know, and it's great.

17:54 Fernando Perdomo It's nice to be able to work like that on demand, not just from a money demand, but also from people that really want to hear your stuff and really are excited for new things and are excited for you. And I'm not talking about fanatically excited. I'm talking about excited on a friend level. you

18:12 Luke F. Walton Wow.

18:12 Fernando Perdomo know my fans are my friends i interact with them and i've had some really cool opportunities too i haven't announced this yet so this is an announcement on this podcast i'm being flown to new zealand in january to play my own music at a festival on a farm in christchurch new zealand

18:30 Luke F. Walton Amazing.

18:31 Fernando Perdomo and it all came through the todd rungren world basically it's like he loves my music and bought me a plane ticket and i'm heading out to new zealand To start the year for the first week of January to play this festival, the Revitalize Organic Farm Healing Music Fest. And it's like the fourth year that they've done this.

18:51 Fernando Perdomo And it's like organic food, healing, yoga, all sorts of stuff. And I'm going to be playing my own music in New Zealand, which is really amazing for independent artists with no management, you know, just looking

19:02 Luke F. Walton Absolutely.

19:02 Fernando Perdomo at opportunities and saying, hey, this is something that I can do that's going to grow my identity.

19:07 Fernando Perdomo a dextie as an artist and then one of the things i also want to say is advice for musicians because a lot of people are very money oriented and it's like oh you know i gotta sell i gotta make this could do that there's two bank accounts we're all dealing with there's the one in your wallet and there's the one in your heart and when it comes down to it you gotta you still gotta make money to survive but i do a lot of projects

19:30 Fernando Perdomo for little or no money just because i know it's going to make me feel better as a human being so charity stuff i've done i've done entire albums for charity through todd's charity called spirit of harmony which gives instruments to schools i've done stuff for cancer charities i recently had a song that i did for hurricane charities in north carolina you got to always do stuff for both bank accounts the one in your wallet the one your heart

19:59 Fernando Perdomo You know, that'll make you better artist, you know, it'll

20:02 Luke F. Walton Yes, I

20:02 Fernando Perdomo make you more honest artist It'll make you really understand the power of what you do

20:08 Luke F. Walton agree with that and I like to think of that too is like you need that fuel that thing that's going to make you want to do that next record or or the thing that yeah allows you to maybe do something that you need to do to eat balance out the scales.

20:20 Fernando Perdomo Exactly and it's a good thing and you know, I really love my job and I There's an artist I'm working with that literally said I was thinking of quitting. This was going to be my last hurrah. And now he's all inspired. He wants to write more songs. So that's a really beautiful thing because nothing's worse than giving up to me. You know, that's really worse than death to me.

20:45 Luke F. Walton I've got some big news everybody my vinyl record is out we didn't make a ton of these so these guys are gonna sell out and I'd love for you to get your hands on one of them because they're so dope they're so dope and it comes with a whole bunch of like liner notes and pictures and Those special stuff, the things that really went into making this record, and I want you to get your hands on it.

21:06 Luke F. Walton So go to scoobertdoobert.pizza or check out my Instagram for a link or click the link in the show notes or the bio or wherever you're watching this to pick up your copy. You know, they're going to sell out. We really did not make very many of these and I want you to have it. It's like a collector's item. So thank you. Thank you for supporting my music and I can't wait for you to hear it.

21:27 Luke F. Walton hear it actually on physical vinyl. Enjoy the rest of the episode.

21:30 Fernando Perdomo Yes. you know because sometimes death isn't a choice but giving up is definitely a choice and i'll never give up i want to do this till the day i die uh one of my favorite guitar players peter banks who was the original guitar player of yes he didn't show up to a session one day and they went to his house to check on him and he was

21:49 Fernando Perdomo ready to go to the session and had a heart attack you know and it's like he was working the day he died you know and that's what i want to do i don't want to

21:57 Luke F. Walton Yeah

21:57 Fernando Perdomo give up i don't want to retire well this is a big thing my music teacher in high school was my mentor his name was doug burris he passed away about six years ago was a music teacher in miami who taught classical guitar rock ensemble studio recording studio class and he had progressive multiple sclerosis so when he first started teaching He walked with a cane, and by the time he taught me, he was quadriplegic. So

22:22 Luke F. Walton Wow.

22:22 Fernando Perdomo he couldn't play guitar,

22:23 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

22:23 Fernando Perdomo he couldn't move, he could only move his head, but he taught by telling us what to do and having older students show us what to do. And it was so inspiring because I know now... That my hands can be taken away, my legs can be taken away, and I can still make music. There's a famous guitar player named Jason Becker, who was the guitar player for David Lee Roth. He got ALS, and he can't even talk or move.

22:53 Fernando Perdomo The only thing he can move is his eyes. And him and his father worked out a way for him to compose music by using his eyes to control a mouse.

23:02 Luke F. Walton Amazing.

23:03 Fernando Perdomo And literally, note by note. writing music on a sheet music using

23:08 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

23:08 Fernando Perdomo his eyes and

23:09 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

23:10 Fernando Perdomo you know he's a happy dude and you

23:13 Luke F. Walton Totally.

23:14 Fernando Perdomo know can't can't play anymore but he can still compose you know the human spirit is amazing it's incredible what we are capable of

23:23 Luke F. Walton I agree. And it's incredible how, yeah, how elemental music itself is. And that's part of the reason why I wish more people would play it even if they didn't have the intention of getting great at it, just doing it, interacting with it, knowing it more.

23:40 Fernando Perdomo Well, there's a joy to being creative. It's kind of like drugs. It's like you figure out drugs, they unlock the parts of your brain that you didn't even know you had. To me, playing music is like a drug. It just makes me feel good. Everybody who plays music has had weird experiences where they'll play some type of what they call soul-killing gigs, you know. But I try to avoid, like,

24:02 Luke F. Walton Life happens.

24:03 Fernando Perdomo cover bands and stuff like that and start doing stuff that's strictly for the money. I really enjoy doing what I do. And do I make a lot of money? No. Do sometimes I struggle? Yeah. But you know what? When it comes down to it, I wake up every morning. and I'm just excited to get to work and because this

24:24 Luke F. Walton Yes.

24:25 Fernando Perdomo is a beautiful thing because in the end what do you have to show for if you're flipping burgers in the end I have these wonderful records that I've made and I have this music and you know there's a pretty important thing which is for people that are not releasing their music or making it or not really

24:46 Fernando Perdomo releasing it it's going to outlive us all when we all are dead and gone it's if Mozart didn't write write down anything he did he'd be forgotten all these 1920s blues artists we are at the mercy of the material being cataloged and saved preserved and

25:03 Luke F. Walton Yes.

25:03 Fernando Perdomo when it comes down to it look I've had a couple artists I've worked with that had albums that came out and nobody gave a crap linda pair hacks was one of the artists i work with that her first album came out and sold 50 copies and then it took a guy reissuing the record that led to her having huge fans like beck and daft punk and next thing you know we're making her second record 43 years after her first because she was just working as a dental hygienist you know and we made two more records she's retired now but

25:37 Fernando Perdomo You know, there's three Linda Parhax records because something that she made that she thought nobody liked, suddenly everybody liked it. And it's happened to a few different artists. It's a beautiful thing. A song is only as old as its newest pair of ears. Just because nobody likes it now, you never know. It might get picked up in a movie.

25:56 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

25:56 Fernando Perdomo Years later, it might get picked up and put in a commercial. You know, Nick Drake never knew how good Pink Moon was.

26:03 Fernando Perdomo And then it ends up on a Volkswagen commercial and everybody knows who Dick Drake is now.

26:09 Luke F. Walton Yes.

26:12 Fernando Perdomo The old adage of like the artist that dies and never sold a painting and now everything's worth billions, you know, Van Gogh. It's a thing.

26:19 Luke F. Walton I agree. That's part of what I think also can console some artists that are lost in the digital noise right now. And yeah, that idea of quitting or giving up where it's like redefining goals maybe where it's yeah, maybe you're not the biggest in the world. Maybe you're not supporting yourself exclusively on the songs that you write.

26:37 Luke F. Walton But the act of continuing to write those songs and put it out there, you're giving something that you have that nobody else could give and you never know where that'll go. It's not about the vanity is what I'm trying to say, even though it might end up coming along later.

26:53 Fernando Perdomo Yeah, look, there's very few artists that go out there and say, I'm going to be a star that actually become stars. Half the time, it's always. uh either hard work or luck the

27:06 Luke F. Walton Yep.

27:06 Fernando Perdomo more you get yourself out there the more people will remember you and the best piece of advice i've gotten in la was also from andy slater the director of echo in the canyon and i said hey you know should i change my look should i lose weight should i just like said don't change a thing because you're memorable and you own it he says that that the thing now it's no longer like oh well you got to be 22

27:32 Fernando Perdomo 85 pounds soaking wet good looking you got to be able to dance blah blah blah no these days you see artists that are going viral just because of the wow factor of like you know sometimes it's being completely original to the point where you can't think of somebody else you can compare them to

27:56 Fernando Perdomo and that's still creativity is key if you come up with that thing that you are known for that is only you are known for like there's all these artists that are coming out these days that are young kids that are have old souls like Grace Bowers you know who's only 16 years old and is an amazing guitar player and

28:16 Luke F. Walton Yes.

28:17 Fernando Perdomo it's like that wow factor and that unique factor she's got crazy hair and she's incredible and that's the cool thing it's like

28:26 Fernando Perdomo that's what making what's making her successful is she's different and she's owning it you know it's a lot of incredible trans artists that are that are making it big right now that are you know

28:38 Fernando Perdomo totally just memorable it's like what what is going on i can't even label this you know that's a beautiful thing some of my favorite bands right now are either completely original like parcels which i love who are like uh basically they're like a cross between both peck and team impala and they're playing coachella this year and they're an independent band you know they're not they're on any label

28:59 Fernando Perdomo and they sold out Red Rocks just based on how badass they are you know bands

29:05 Luke F. Walton Yes.

29:05 Fernando Perdomo like Wolfpack that are you know completely independent don't even have management but they came up with original ways of selling their music and making us making us think you know

29:18 Fernando Perdomo I think there's still the beautiful thing about music is it's one of the few places where creativity is rewarded and uniqueness is rewarded. In sports, it's not about coming up with a new way to throw a football. No, it's being the best at something that people have been doing for decades, for centuries.

29:37 Fernando Perdomo Music has always been the innovators. It's always been the people that came out and came up with something. Carlos Santana mixing Latin and rock. Mahavishnu Orchestra creating jazz fusion. Michael Jackson bringing black music to the white audience. I recently watched a movie about yacht rock.

29:53 Fernando Perdomo Yacht rock is an amazing thing because it created its own sound that was based on musicianship that was being played on the radio. You got the guys at Toto playing on all these records.

30:04 Fernando Perdomo and it wasn't garage music it was to the next level that was packaged into something that could played in a dentist office you know and it all had soul you know it's a beautiful thing but the Beatles are a perfect example they were innovative a friend of mine had a great point he said that they were innovative they were really amazing but they also evolved with the technology

30:28 Fernando Perdomo They were on the perfect crest of the wave when they made Please Please Me, it was two track, you know, three track maybe. And then, you know, they moved to four track, then they moved to eight track, then they started playing with all the new instruments, fuzz bass, Mellotron, miking stuff closer, you know. There's innovation in every Beatles record and Yes.

30:47 Fernando Perdomo that's something that gets rewarded, you know, these days it's still rewarded. I mean, innovation is a big thing. New styles that are coming up, people coming up with really weird ideas like slowing down music and putting it through reverb on TikTok. It sounds ridiculous but record labels are putting it out now.

31:03 Fernando Perdomo You look at people's releases, Todd Rundgren, he has stuff that's, I saw the light slowed down and reverbed. And it's a crazy time too with AI. And, you know, believe it or not, I'm finding ways to use it that's not the evil side of AI. I'm using the first step separation. I use Moises. To take a two-track recording create stems and build upon it

31:26 Luke F. Walton For listeners that don't know what stems are, could you describe kind of how that

31:30 Fernando Perdomo Basically

31:30 Luke F. Walton works?

31:30 Fernando Perdomo when you hear a song it's stereo two channels and you can't turn up the bass or you can't turn down the vocal But through AI now you can take any recording and separate the guitar separate the lead vocal from the backup vocals separate each drum individually and Years ago, if you lost the master tape, that's it. You can't remix it.

31:57 Fernando Perdomo I've been able to take a recording of the free design, which was a brother-sister vocal group, singing in front of an orchestra, and I could separate each instrument of the orchestra, each singer. One of my best friends in life was this guy named Eddie Zine, who was a drummer for Hall of Notes in the 70s, and he passed away.

32:18 Fernando Perdomo He was my drummer in Miami in Dreaming and Stereo, and I still spent a lot of time hanging out with his widow. and i was able to separate his drums from a performance of hollow notes that's mono on youtube and just play her eddie's drums you can do full-on acapellas of anything it's

32:36 Luke F. Walton Amazing.

32:36 Fernando Perdomo incredible this technology is only going to get better too it's really amazing so you know i'm not anti it the suno song generator

32:44 Fernando Perdomo I I've actually had a lot of fun with it lyric generation if you're stumped you could have it generate lyrics from you for you can type in you know The song title and it could help you with coming up with ideas. I'm not into stealing. I'm into being inspired and finding ways to be creative with the technology It's cool. It's a lot of fun.

33:03 Fernando Perdomo It's good time to be a musician too because one of the things that nobody ever talks about is I have friends that were in a band

33:11 Fernando Perdomo that was on a major label they put out a couple records on this label and then they got dropped well they broke up because after being on a major label they didn't want to go back to selling their records out of their car these days you don't need a label distribution distro kid you can get you can put out a song right now on bandcamp you can record you can be in the studio record

33:31 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

33:32 Fernando Perdomo the song the amps are still warm You could put it on Bandcamp and somebody in Croatia could listen to it and buy it.

33:38 Luke F. Walton Yeah, totally. And they do. And they do. And that's that's a really nice thing. The underside, though, is that it is very hard for anybody that's splitting money to make their money on putting out music these days.

33:49 Fernando Perdomo Yeah, it is.

33:51 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

33:51 Fernando Perdomo But, you know, still. I find ways to make it happen. I've got a Patreon. I put up a song on Patreon every week, and I've got like 40 subscribers. And, you know, it pays the bills. It pays a bill.

34:05 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

34:05 Fernando Perdomo But it's great.

34:05 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

34:06 Fernando Perdomo It's

34:06 Luke F. Walton exactly.

34:06 Fernando Perdomo fun. And it keeps me creative. It keeps me creative every week. I come up with a song, and it's great. I was just turned on to Cameo today because of all things Robert Frick from King Crimson did a cameo for a friend of mine and jammed along to a song I played drums and guitar on.

34:23 Fernando Perdomo which blew my mind but you know there's ways for you to make money anybody can make money but even if i wasn't making money and i had to take a job it's great that i could just create music and find an audience you can be painfully shy to the point you'll never play a show and still have a music career you can be at home all day just doing nothing but making music and you can still have a career the youtuber aspect is incredible i love youtubers abigail devoe who is this

34:50 Fernando Perdomo This 27-year-old girl in Vermont who does nothing but talk about her records, and she'll pick a record and talk about it. Her passion has ignited, has reignited my interest in listening to my old records, you know, just seeing through her 27-year-old fashion art inspired.

35:09 Fernando Perdomo view and all these great guitar youtubers it's like all these incredible people that are just constantly talking about music music is win and uh and uh danny sapko there's they're introducing us to music it's awesome it's all these great youtubers i follow them

35:26 Luke F. Walton Sorry to interrupt this very important broadcast, but it's time for one more advertisement for myself for this podcast. What I'm asking for is for you to rate at five stars, share it with your friends. Your friends, this is like the most important thing for this podcast to grow. So if you want to do this, you go onto the podcast screen, right? You click on the dot, dot, dot on Spotify.

35:45 Luke F. Walton Under there, it says rate show and you go and you click it five stars. If you could do that for me, that's the best way for the algorithms, all that stuff to share it out with the world. I know that it's a lot to ask, but if you could please, please, please, just please just hit those three dots and a five star would really help us out and helps us, you know, get the word out and spread the love of music.

36:03 Luke F. Walton music. So thank you. If you're listening on YouTube, you know what to do. Like, subscribe, all that good stuff. Thank you so much. And here's the rest of the episode.

36:10 Fernando Perdomo I even discover stuff I thought I knew everything and now I'm discovering stuff you know it's cool I love it I love music right now it's a beautiful thing

36:19 Luke F. Walton I agree. No, I think where music's at, especially on the creation side, is really special.

36:25 Fernando Perdomo There's still labels, there's still independent labels, there's still people, bloggers and people like you that are doing these podcasts and introducing people to new people, opening people's minds. It's a good thing.

36:36 Luke F. Walton I love to hear that. So I'm really curious about a little bit more on the process of making the movie. And I know that we were talking about the soundtrack and

36:45 Fernando Perdomo Yeah,

36:46 Luke F. Walton this is the experience of different people getting brought in from different places to play on different songs. Could you dig a little more into that? Like, how did it actually go down? How did it feel?

36:56 Fernando Perdomo it was almost improvised actually

36:58 Luke F. Walton Amazing.

36:59 Fernando Perdomo a lot of it was improvised a lot of it was just putting people in the room like for example we were at united western studios and we were kind of recording this mob as the papa's tune and in comes michelle phillips and she just kind of improvised with us and a lot of her lines and nothing was scripted Everything is all improvised.

37:18 Fernando Perdomo For example, when we were working with Brian Wilson, we were at Capitol Studios running this Beach Boys song, and we were told he was coming in 45 minutes. He showed up 15 minutes later, so all our reactions are really genuine because Jesus Christ walked in the room. You know, he is our

37:38 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

37:38 Fernando Perdomo God, you know. Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson, you know, these are my... about Rushmore's you know and I still get excited every time Todd Runker gets on stage you know it's a beautiful thing and whenever I meet people from my record collection but it was really just about recreating the spirit of 1965 to 67 Laurel Canyon the birds The Buffalo Springfield, Mamas and Papas, Beach Boys, Love, Turtles. It was a beautiful thing.

38:15 Fernando Perdomo And they also wanted to film all these studios before they get torn down. So we were recording at all these amazing studios, and one of them has already gone under and united. You

38:29 Luke F. Walton Yes.

38:30 Fernando Perdomo know, you gotta preserve these studios because unfortunately churches will never get torn down But recording studios will and it sucks because you know I got to record at Abbey Road and that place is hollow ground I mean to be able to breathe in the air through the same vents and make music there Just like close your eyes and imagine you're in a Beatles session.

38:53 Fernando Perdomo That was glorious That was one of the greatest days of my life, you know pretty amazing i recommend

38:59 Luke F. Walton That sounds amazing.

39:01 Fernando Perdomo it to anybody who has an opportunity to work at a famous studio i got to produce a bunch of records with artists in uh in uh in memphis you know where big star made all their records and led zeppelin made led zeppelin 3 and rem and uh jim blossom was where everybody was just like When you walk in just takes your breath away, you know, it's time machine,

39:22 Fernando Perdomo you know I love the time machine aspect of what I do a lot of my production is retro and

39:29 Fernando Perdomo I enjoy working on tape and working with all these vintage instruments and, you know, coming up with sounds that make people feel things that they did when they heard the Who and Crimson and Yes and all these different things. But I also, I'm not a 100% cover artist. I'm not ripping off other styles. I'm using it as vocabulary in my own language. You know, it's a beautiful thing. I love it.

39:55 Fernando Perdomo I love speaking a language that everybody can understand. Just making music, making a variety of music. It's a beautiful thing. I love it.

40:04 Luke F. Walton Speaking of a language that everyone can understand, you have a beautiful guitar collection back there. Can you talk a little bit about some of your favorites in your collection?

40:14 Fernando Perdomo Well, this is the guitar that I've been playing with Marshall Crenshaw lately. Rose Rite Ventures.

40:20 Fernando Perdomo which is a guitar that's mostly noted by the Ventures, Iron Butterfly, and it was a small company in Fullerton, Bakersfield, California, and they were kind of not a success, but now they're very cult, and a fan of mine, who I met on the Blue Cruise, who I was performing on, said, hey, next time you're in Nashville. I used to collect Mazda rides. I've still got a bunch of them. Try them out and

40:45 Fernando Perdomo No pick one out. This was given to me. And this is the main guitar I play with Marshall. And I don't even tune up my backup anymore. This is the sound. And it's a beautiful instrument. I adore it. It's quirky. It's definitely not a Mercedes-Benz. It's more like a really cool custom chopper. Might not do you too much good on the highway. But it definitely is going to turn heads, you

41:09 Luke F. Walton Yes,

41:09 Fernando Perdomo know.

41:09 Luke F. Walton yes,

41:10 Fernando Perdomo It's really

41:10 Luke F. Walton exactly.

41:10 Fernando Perdomo cool. It's very cool. I love the, what the hell is that aspect of it. My other favorite guitar lately couldn't be more different. This is a Ibanez clone of a guitar called an L6S, which was the pivotal 70s.

41:27 Fernando Perdomo like Prince he used to use one of these Keith Richards and then a lot of really cool prog guys Rich Williams of Kansas this is the guitar that's used on Carry On Wayward Son and you know all that stuff but it was a failure and nobody plays this anymore but it's a time machine when I play this guitar

41:47 Luke F. Walton Amazing.

41:47 Fernando Perdomo it really sounds like 1978 And this is an Ibanez clone of the Gibson L6S, which has come from their lawsuit period. But this guitar is just so me, you know, it's

41:59 Luke F. Walton Yes.

42:00 Fernando Perdomo so me because I'm constantly, you know, I love... I love quirky guitars. I'm not impressed by Les Pauls or, you know, nice strats and stuff like that. Even though I do have a nice Les Paul and a nice strat, I really more into guitars that fight you. You know, guitars that are quirky,

42:22 Luke F. Walton I love that. Yeah,

42:23 Fernando Perdomo have bizarre things like this is my newest guitar this is a custom guitar that was made by my guitar tech named lisa gutierrez and this is a jazz master that has fender wide range pickups in it so it's a jazz blaster blaster

42:37 Luke F. Walton Jazzmaster!

42:37 Fernando Perdomo And these pickups were in Dave Kirzner's Telly Deluxe. that he upgraded to the new Fender Cudefees. So I said, you still got those old pickups? He sent them to me and I put this in this guitar. And this is like total like Nels Klein, Wilco, Bizarro caster, you

42:57 Luke F. Walton dude

42:58 Fernando Perdomo know, and it's a lot of fun. It's really great in the studio too.

43:01 Luke F. Walton what might be fun for non-guitar players is to hear like i think a lot of people see guitarists and they see the collection they go oh it's because they look cool or it's because like whatever they maybe they sound like a little bit of a genre John, can you talk about how they actually change the way you play and the way you think? I feel like that's an under-discussed topic for guitars.

43:20 Fernando Perdomo Well, look, everything serves a purpose. This is a guitar that was made by my friend Jan. It's called Electrophonic. This is a funny story. I got this guitar to be on a game show. I had been somehow picked through my friend Toby to be on Let's Make a Deal.

43:40 Fernando Perdomo And I saw a video, because basically the way it works is you are a guest of someone and then you get first choice to be a contestant. And they showed a video and I saw someone playing acoustic guitar on the show. And I said, I want to play electric guitar. I would love to play electric guitar on the show. And I remember this company from NAMM called Electrophonic. That makes guitars that have a

44:06 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

44:06 Fernando Perdomo built-in amp and they sound great and they play awesome and I told them I was gonna be on let's make a deal I got an artist deal on it and even at the regular like, you know thousand dollar price of it It's a great guitar to have And when I got it, I was like, holy crap, this thing plays great. And I take it on the road as a backup because

44:29 Luke F. Walton Perfect.

44:30 Fernando Perdomo I just played it in the hotel room.

44:31 Luke F. Walton Exactly. Yes.

44:32 Fernando Perdomo And I could write songs on it. And I've even played this busking. I've played this watching a sunrise in Hawaii. I played this outside of Abbey Road, you know, and it's really cool because it actually plays great, sounds awesome, and it's got this built-in amp and it also has. Built-in effects

44:52 Fernando Perdomo Uh-oh. Show to this but it's really really cool, but it's really really amazing and has a good vibe and

44:59 Luke F. Walton Yeah, right? No, it's awesome. And...

45:01 Fernando Perdomo those are a small company that makes them one by one in america and it's really cool and it's

45:10 Luke F. Walton That's great.

45:11 Fernando Perdomo fun it's fun to have volume around because i've got i've used this for recording you know it's got a really great sound and you just mic it up and it sounds great and also you can run the effects out of the out of the output and uh the only guitar of mine that i used in echo in the canyon because in echo in the canyon i was pretty much using

45:33 Fernando Perdomo The director's guitars and the main guitar that I use was a cult It's called a Gretsch 6120 his is a 63.

45:40 Fernando Perdomo I bought this 67 because I was tired of borrowing his I wanted my own because I love the look of the big Gretsch So I've got this but I used all his guitars from his collection Except for one thing he didn't have which is a electric sitar and this is a rogue it's a chinese copy of something called a denelectro coral electric sitar but it's like you know you hear on science still delivered you

46:07 Luke F. Walton Yes,

46:07 Fernando Perdomo hear it

46:07 Luke F. Walton totally.

46:07 Fernando Perdomo on and i use this all over the record and there's one point in a song called what's happening on the echo in the cane song i'm playing this dueling with neil young as

46:18 Luke F. Walton Cool. Amazing.

46:19 Fernando Perdomo cool as hell because again it's it's unique and it's a very niche instrument that has a great sound it even has like a little harp on it and it's just quirky and i love that because you know i love instruments that are going to be that give you creativity and that's the reason why i have a lot of guitars is because every single one of them brings something different out of me i play my hot finger bass different than you know my jazz bass or my rickenbacker bass it's a different vibe and it's it makes me feel like a different

46:52 Fernando Perdomo person you know I love that I love guitar I love synthesizers I love old reels for pianos and old drum kits and I'm not as crazy as my friend Sean who says he he uses only old drumsticks because he says the way they make drumsticks now is crap so

47:09 Luke F. Walton What? I've never heard

47:10 Fernando Perdomo he that buys

47:10 Luke F. Walton one.

47:10 Fernando Perdomo old

47:10 Luke F. Walton That's a good one.

47:11 Fernando Perdomo drumsticks from the 60s and 70s but you know When you have a lot of guitars, you don't change the strings on them. So I've gotten used to dead strings, which

47:19 Luke F. Walton totally

47:20 Fernando Perdomo is my

47:20 Luke F. Walton same

47:20 Fernando Perdomo sound,

47:20 Luke F. Walton it

47:20 Fernando Perdomo which

47:21 Luke F. Walton is

47:21 Fernando Perdomo is nice burnt.

47:21 Luke F. Walton no i i think it's underrated i think people change their strings sometimes too often

47:26 Fernando Perdomo They do, I don't like that bright. I don't like that bright Taylor acoustic guitar sound. I like the warm.

47:33 Fernando Perdomo You know, and I love quirky instruments like my Martin is currently with my landlord in front, but because he's working on some recording stuff But this is a maintenance acoustic which is made in Australia and It best known by Tommy Emmanuel and it's a beautiful instrument and it has a gorgeous sound and again I love the fact that it's not the typical tool for the trade

47:58 Fernando Perdomo anybody could get a taylor but they all sound the same a lot of the new martin sound the same a lot of gibson sound the same this has got its own beautiful warm but also kind of it's got a beautiful sound and it's a great instrument and it's also made by a luthier in a small company and i love that i've got a guitar by a guy named All these Shabbats in Israel. Now he's making guitars for Dweezil Zappa and all

48:26 Luke F. Walton amazing yeah

48:27 Fernando Perdomo these other people and he's doing great, you know, and I love that. I like the supporting local growers, you know.

48:34 Luke F. Walton right right well there's such a there's this whole musical ecosystem just like you were talking about nam it's like you go there and the some of the coolest stuff is the stuff that people are like spent all their money to get like a little 5x10 booth and they're like i invented a new guitar pick it's like okay great let me Let me try a new guitar pick, man. Like I'm here for it. Yeah.

48:52 Fernando Perdomo That was Javi. He had four guitars and now he sells out, he sells 20 at NAMM show. And they're really amazing instruments. It's really, really cool. I love it. I love relationships. I love having relationships with my clients. I love being friends. I love hanging out. I love talking music. It's really kind of one thing that I think sets me apart is that I'm not out to get something from you.

49:15 Fernando Perdomo I'm out to actually be inspired and talk to someone and get that old school, like, you know, people just text these days. Sometimes it's great to just sit down and have a meal with somebody and just like say, how are you doing? You know, what are you going through? Mental health is the worst issue in America right now. And one of the most important things is to be able to get through everything that happens.

49:36 Fernando Perdomo It's rough, you know, people feeling alone is the worst thing. And it's like now with the internet.

49:42 Fernando Perdomo you feel less alone because you know that there's a whole group of people that are going to check out your post and like it you know but it can be difficult because you know this is an industry of disappointment i recently had my worst disappointment in my career i i was asked to have a song in a movie i even signed a contract and in the end that scene got cut you know so it works it it's tough to be able to keep going after setbacks like that but

50:10 Fernando Perdomo I like to call it the disappointment to inspiration filter, you know. If something goes wrong, it's not going to be the last thing that goes wrong, you know. Focus on something that's going right. Get in a different lane. Exit on a different, go off on a different exit today, you know. Discover something. Listen to something you've never listened to before. Learn a new technique.

50:32 Fernando Perdomo Branch out and discover something that you weren't capable of. A new superpower, you

50:37 Luke F. Walton Yes.

50:38 Fernando Perdomo know.

50:38 Luke F. Walton Yes.

50:39 Fernando Perdomo Whether it's, you know, trying a new instrument or getting out of your comfort zone.

50:47 Luke F. Walton Totally.

50:47 Fernando Perdomo Sometimes it can be very scary to get out of your comfort zone. I recently had a client and it was recommended by somebody and it was like this super heavy riff rock. It was very intricate. And at first I was like, I kind of wanted to, you know, say, hey, I don't think I'm the right guy. But in the end, I was the right guy. I did my own thing and it went great.

51:07 Luke F. Walton So on that note, I always close every single one of these podcasts with the same question, because it's the whole point of the podcast. You're alluding to it here. It's the question of why. Why do you love music? What is it about it that keeps you coming back and that makes you want to be this evangelist for it, to pull people into the music world, to grow fans that become friends, to fly out to New Zealand?

51:32 Luke F. Walton What's your why?

51:36 Fernando Perdomo it makes me feel what's the point of living you don't feel stuff you know and i watched a movie the other day and i cried it was a movie called here tom hanks and robin wright and i cried like a baby in the end scene you know and that's the beautiful thing one of my favorite feelings in the world is to get chills and music gives me the chills

51:58 Fernando Perdomo music has also made me cry music has also made me scream and and uh in horror or this

52:07 Fernando Perdomo is going to sound stupid but if you don't like something guess what it's still making you feel and you say well why don't I like this oh it's being made for the wrong reasons well you move on or you find something that you can learn from it

52:23 Fernando Perdomo whether it's something you don't want to do you don't ever want to be like that but that's the beautiful thing about musicians is we're all opinionated you know that's why there's all these videos top 10 bands i think are overrated uh top top 20 albums that suck you know from good bands it's entertainment but really let's go back to the heartwarming thing

52:46 Fernando Perdomo I'll never forget when I first heard an album called Todd Rugman's Utopia in a record store, and I couldn't stop jumping. It just made me want to jump, and it was an actual feeling, you know. The first time I heard Maybe I'm Amazed, my favorite song of all time, and I was just like, man, this song is perfect. This song is perfect. That's the feeling.

53:14 Fernando Perdomo It's a good thing, man, you know, to have something move you so much that you do something ridiculous, you know, it's a good thing.

53:26 Luke F. Walton That

53:26 Fernando Perdomo I

53:26 Luke F. Walton is a

53:26 Fernando Perdomo good love

53:27 Luke F. Walton thing.

53:27 Fernando Perdomo it.

53:28 Luke F. Walton So where can people get in touch? Where can they listen to your music? Where do you recommend people start?

53:33 Fernando Perdomo Well, a good place to start would be my band camp, which is fernandoperdomo.bandcamp.com. Everything I've ever done is on there. But there's also like, you know, iTunes.

53:45 Fernando Perdomo youtube uh just type in my name and you'll find stuff i've made a lot of music and uh i sometimes get uh criticized for releasing too much music you know what i need to get it out of my system so i can move on to the next thing i'm always experimenting every song i record is for my big chance i want to get on waffle records which is waffle house's record label and

54:09 Fernando Perdomo Hell yeah. i've written a song To get on that label because

54:13 Luke F. Walton What a good goal. That's such a good goal. I love it. It's so specific and awesome and yes.

54:20 Fernando Perdomo And if you go to any Waffle House, unfortunately, they don't have them in California Which what my song's about if you go to their jukebox and there's all this music that's on waffle records and songs about Waffle House and That's stuff that inspires me a prompt. Oh a challenge Write a song about something as trivial as a restaurant with no glamour to it. It's very simple.

54:47 Fernando Perdomo And that's the thing I love about it. I love going there because of the experience. You watch the people cook. You sit with normal people. There's people that just went to church. There's people that are truckers and whatever. And it's that American experience of going to Waffle House.

55:01 Luke F. Walton Totally.

55:02 Fernando Perdomo You never know.

55:03 Luke F. Walton You got to keep that antenna up.

55:05 Fernando Perdomo of course man that makes me feel alive when you set a goal and achieve it you know or at least give it a fighting chance it's

55:13 Luke F. Walton Totally.

55:14 Fernando Perdomo a good thing man we're creative and being creative really makes you feel alive it makes me feel alive the minute i stop being creative i turn i tune out you know if it's some type of like What I call busy work. Oh, we don't have our teacher.

55:29 Fernando Perdomo So here's the busy work I like being creative like doing something where it's like I'm bringing out something not doing something completely technical I like stuff where you actually are given a chance to make something up from from thin air It's a beautiful thing. I love that I say that's a beautiful thing. Music is a beautiful thing. That's all I've got to say.

55:49 Luke F. Walton That's the quote of the episode. Well, thank you so much for joining. I hope the listeners came away with this loving music more. I don't see how you couldn't. Your passion is infectious. And man, I'm pulling for you on those Waffle House records. You better update me and be like, it happened.

56:04 Fernando Perdomo It's going to happen,

56:04 Luke F. Walton I'm

56:05 Fernando Perdomo man.

56:05 Luke F. Walton going to pull it next time I'm in Waffle House. I'm going to be on that jukebox. You know, I will

56:09 Fernando Perdomo Hey,

56:09 Luke F. Walton be.

56:09 Fernando Perdomo go for it, man.

56:10 Luke F. Walton Yep.

56:10 Fernando Perdomo Dude, you're great. Really,

56:11 Luke F. Walton I'll

56:12 Fernando Perdomo really fix fantastic.

56:12 Luke F. Walton that.