Eric England Interview

0:00 Eric England Music Appreciation 101

0:11 Luke F. Walton Hey everybody, welcome back to the Music Appreciation 101 podcast. I am joined with a very special guest, Eric England. How's it going, Eric?

0:20 Eric England Yeah, good. How are you?

0:21 Luke F. Walton Doing great, man. Today we're going to be talking a little bit about bass playing, about groove, kind of a life of touring with music, music school, all that good stuff into, you know, all the things that...

0:33 Luke F. Walton When you just go to a show, you might not realize all of those individual players have got this really interesting background networks, all these things that go into being a sideman, being in your own project and growing as a musician. So we'll just talk about a whole bunch of stuff. How's that sound, Eric?

0:50 Eric England Great, man. Great.

0:51 Luke F. Walton Cool. All right. Well, let's start off just talking about some of our mutual friends. I'm curious, do you know, I saw you. or like connected on Instagram like Nick Campbell or like some of those some of those guys

1:07 Eric England Yeah, for sure. I know Nick.

1:08 Luke F. Walton I used to live with Nick like 10 years ago in LA

1:13 Eric England Oh, okay.

1:14 Luke F. Walton yeah yeah like forever ago but great great dude uh but yeah saw a bunch of bunch of mutual friends in there uh was just curious like how how did you because you moved from uh miami to la is that correct how'd you get integrated into a new scene how did you start meeting people and and kind of growing that network because i'm looking down your friends list i'm like yeah oh yeah brendan bay slamming guitarist ben rose great drummer john schroeder one of my favorite guitarists a mentor to me

1:41 Luke F. Walton me just like guy after guy after guy it's like oh yeah hell yeah kyle crane nick klingenberg i'm like these are my homies how did you how'd you get into the scene like how did you meet these guys what what's what was your strategy coming into a new town

1:53 Eric England Um, well, I it's funny, I did actually just kind of kind of get off the plane and it's like, you know, I'm just here I didn't have any really a plan or

2:06 Eric England I just kind of did it. I finally, you know, made a decision to get out of Miami. Miami is a great place, but I felt like there was a ceiling to my opportunity there. So I wanted to, you know, kind of expand the universe for myself, I guess, if you want to say.

2:23 Luke F. Walton Yeah, I get it. Exactly.

2:25 Eric England So I had a couple of friends already here that moved before I did, mostly people from Miami, some other people, school, like college friends from

2:35 Luke F. Walton For sure.

2:36 Eric England New York and stuff that also moved here. So I had some introductions through those people at first, which was really helpful because, of course, a trusted recommendation is always, you know.

2:49 Luke F. Walton So

2:49 Eric England kind

2:49 Luke F. Walton that, yeah,

2:50 Eric England of like a certified whatever you

2:52 Luke F. Walton exactly.

2:52 Eric England know kind of started like that um i there was a one of the staple gigs in la that actually just started back um at the w hotel that was sort of going maybe for 10 or 15 years before i moved here and it was sort of like one of the main sort of scene hangs when i was fortunate enough to um Somehow through different events,

3:18 Eric England they were willing to, the friend that was supposed to do it with me ended up not being able to do it, but they were, their bass player, sorry, it's a little confusing.

3:28 Luke F. Walton No,

3:29 Eric England There

3:29 Luke F. Walton no worries.

3:29 Eric England were a couple different crews of people involved and the people ended up doing it.

3:32 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

3:32 Eric England Their normal bass player couldn't do it, so one of my friends was like, well, I told my friend just through the town that he was going to be doing this.

3:42 Eric England and they were cool enough to kind of trust you know at least try me out see how it went and

3:46 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

3:47 Eric England it ended up being a really great relationship and that was one of the first circles that started and I met a bunch of people just doing that gig because everyone would come through sort of like a sit-in thing that

3:59 Luke F. Walton Yep.

3:59 Eric England was one thing that happened I ended up with like a church gig that's always good you know

4:06 Luke F. Walton Totally.

4:07 Eric England But it's really just kind of like hanging out sitting in word of mouth and

4:12 Luke F. Walton For

4:12 Eric England eventually

4:13 Luke F. Walton sure.

4:14 Eric England You know uh most humbly like it's sort of like if you can play you can play you know yeah

4:20 Luke F. Walton right no exactly if you

4:22 Eric England yeah

4:22 Luke F. Walton can play and you're a good hang there's opportunity for sure but i also think it's interesting where you know like identifying those those influence kind of centers like that w hotel for sure it's like one of those things like if you're outside of la you probably don't know about it but when you're in la for a little while you go oh yeah that's that's like a place that you know legit players will go play same thing like a like a baked potato or

4:42 Luke F. Walton or blue whale which i think closed down that

4:44 Eric England unfortunately yeah that

4:46 Luke F. Walton sucked man that brutal i love that place it was some of my favorite concerts

4:50 Eric England was that was a big blow yeah

4:51 Luke F. Walton yeah for sure it sucks man but you know there's there are those there are those centers and new york's got the same thing i'm sure miami does too where it's like like the watering hole that we all kind of we all kind of gather at for sure yeah

5:04 Eric England it was a major one for sure

5:06 Luke F. Walton i totally get that so i want to talk to you about um kind of how you started Now, how did you come to music? What drew you to it? What drew you to the bass guitar? And how did your journey just kind of kick off?

5:19 Eric England Um, yeah, that's a good question. I there's there's a lot of music in the family. My father was a guitar player, sort of semi professionally, he didn't do it like full time, but he played since like the 60s or something. So he he was pretty, pretty rooted in it.

5:38 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

5:38 Eric England And I went through a couple of different phases like I started on drums actually then

5:43 Luke F. Walton Oh, really? That's awesome.

5:44 Eric England I took

5:45 Luke F. Walton Drummer

5:45 Eric England some piano

5:45 Luke F. Walton first.

5:46 Eric England lessons none of them really um you know stuck and then I kind of just went along with life after that for a little bit and then as I got to like I think about fourth grade I started to like all of a sudden I was like I wanted to learn honestly the first song I ever learned was um you for the green bass song and my dad was nice enough to teach it to me on guitar but

6:08 Eric England Yeah. i learned guitar first and then my dad was borrowing a bass and it's funny it was actually um like a beatle bass like the palm apartment

6:17 Luke F. Walton Hoffner kind of, yeah,

6:18 Eric England the Hoffler thing and uh and i was like well this is a weird looking thing and uh i i opened the thing and i strummed it and i was like oh oh this sounds terrible what is this that's like that's the bass i'm like what is the bass like

6:31 Eric England Yeah, i don't um

6:31 Luke F. Walton yeah.

6:32 Eric England and then i just sort of like i happen to be into the beatles as well at the time

6:36 Luke F. Walton Cool,

6:36 Eric England right

6:37 Luke F. Walton perfect.

6:37 Eric England so i was like oh you know and then i just kind of like somehow started like being interested in it but really what happened was they didn't have a guitar in the school band in elementary school yeah

6:50 Luke F. Walton I've heard that from other bassists, yeah.

6:53 Eric England so I started playing bass playing like tuba parts in the concert band you know basically and then I from then on I was just like sort of always a music kid like

7:05 Luke F. Walton I Mm

7:05 Eric England I played some sports but like I was never really it wasn't ever going to go anywhere you know and I was just always like it just kind of just clicked you know ever since

7:17 Eric England like fourth fifth grade and uh and then my dad my dad always enforced or reinforced that you know there's a bunch of guitar players but like a good bass player is like really hard you know yeah

7:30 Luke F. Walton so true so

7:30 Eric England so

7:31 Luke F. Walton true absolutely

7:32 Eric England he was he was a really smart guy like in that way like you know yeah yeah

7:37 Luke F. Walton were able to were able to like play with them like connect on that level um guitar bass kind of

7:42 Eric England honestly he was kind of funny we really didn't didn't play that much

7:45 Luke F. Walton yeah

7:46 Eric England i don't know why it's funny about it you would think that very

7:50 Luke F. Walton right

7:51 Eric England rarely like i think once or twice maybe

7:54 Luke F. Walton wow yeah i i hear that too sometimes but like i also kind of get that where you're you each like love this thing but it is also kind of you have your own your own world your own lane with it for sure um so i've actually i've talked to a few uh bass players um

8:12 Luke F. Walton who have started in that same way where like they're like playing tuba parts that's always fascinating to me because i kind of came to bass later i started playing bass in like high school um i still feel like i'm primarily a guitarist more than a bassist but i'm getting better and better

8:27 Luke F. Walton But I've always been kind of fascinated about the people that like from an early age were getting ingrained in like root movement and looking at the bass guitar from the perspective of a tuba or from, you know, like Bach etudes or something like that, that, you know, it gives kind of a unique perspective. Can you talk a little about that?

8:46 Luke F. Walton I'm just curious personally, like how does that sink into the fingers and the soul?

8:52 Eric England So, sorry, can you simplify?

8:55 Luke F. Walton Yeah, yeah. No, you're good. Basically, like thinking about like learning to play bass parts that aren't written specifically for electric bass that are like a tuba bass part and like how does that inform musicality, like learning and playing, I don't know, just bass register rather than bass part.

9:19 Eric England Right.

9:19 Luke F. Walton Thanks.

9:20 Eric England Well, in my case, from

9:23 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

9:23 Eric England what honestly has been obviously a really long time,

9:25 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

9:25 Eric England but from

9:26 Luke F. Walton for sure.

9:26 Eric England what I can recollect, it pretty much was the function of the bass in

9:32 Luke F. Walton Cool. Yeah.

9:33 Eric England those compositions.

9:34 Luke F. Walton Uh-huh.

9:35 Eric England So it wasn't anything that like laid crazy on the bass, you know, you know, to like, like, so it would be mostly be like half notes and like, you know, or fifths or, or

9:45 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

9:46 Eric England basically what what a bass function is so actually it's it's actually a common thing even more so in the old days like some of my jazz heroes like paul chambers actually he actually played to the you

9:59 Luke F. Walton Cool. Yeah.

10:00 Eric England know so

10:01 Luke F. Walton Right.

10:01 Eric England and you know like a new orleans thing so it's definitely

10:04 Luke F. Walton That's

10:05 Eric England very

10:05 Luke F. Walton a good point.

10:05 Eric England closely uh you know in as far as functionality they can be very close and i think in in my experience

10:15 Eric England There wasn't necessarily something significant about like the tuba parts or playing that sort of role that

10:23 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

10:23 Eric England really I

10:25 Luke F. Walton Really something.

10:25 Eric England think, yeah.

10:26 Luke F. Walton Yeah. Yeah. I guess jumping off of that, I want to talk about articulation. I think that's one of those things that because this pod is kind of trying to be there for, you know, players that have been doing this and do this professionally, but also people that are just music fans. I think articulation is one of those things that's easy to kind of miss when you're listening, but you still feel it.

10:47 Luke F. Walton um like horn articulation all this kind of stuff bass is one of my favorite articulation instruments just because you have all these options with your hands and muting and fingers and muted notes and stuff like that um can you talk about maybe some of your musical heroes or some of the people that you draw from or like just on that kind of broad subject of right hand playing making the bass sing and making it you know sit in

11:11 Eric England Yeah, I... like my some of my influences are they're basically all the people that you would you know you would expect you know all the jazz guys on upright paul chambers ron carter ray brown uh electric like marcus miller like for slapping he was like him and victor rooten were like the you know they're very different and so i kind of took some from both of them

11:41 Eric England Yeah. um and then and on upright i would say like in terms of like more harmonically i probably studied ron carter a little more but like the feel and the and the attack like you were saying probably more like ray brown style which also transfers to like christian bride there they have a similar you know um But to expand on the idea,

12:08 Eric England it is it's an extremely important to be very clear and articulate on base, which a lot of people I hear express that aren't bass players are like, well, you know, some people just aren't very clear. You know, you always want to know you're kind of like, as you know, like between the time and the. uh harmony everyone's

12:29 Luke F. Walton Right. For sure.

12:30 Eric England kind of looking to you as like literally the bass or the anchor and

12:35 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

12:35 Eric England the direction sort of so like you know you have to be everyone should always know where you're at all the time you

12:42 Luke F. Walton Cool.

12:42 Eric England know it

12:43 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

12:43 Eric England shouldn't be like guessing it shouldn't be like muddy and

12:46 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

12:47 Eric England muddy muddy like you know you can be playing like sub bass like on the neck but that doesn't mean muddy right you're still Yeah.

12:56 Luke F. Walton I like that. I like that intention. I think that's huge.

13:00 Eric England right everything wouldn't every note is with intention whether whether you know if you want it to be muddy then they should be muddy but

13:07 Luke F. Walton yeah cool go go yeah there's

13:08 Eric England but like yeah

13:09 Luke F. Walton no rules in this but yeah i

13:10 Eric England every every every note especially for bass since most of the time you're playing single notes it should have a meaning behind it i feel like yeah

13:17 Luke F. Walton love that i love that when you were when you're coming up and you were trying to like improve your feel and improve like your ability to like lock and create pocket what kind of techniques did you turn to what what were things that were instrumental in when in growing that that intentionality that sense of feel cool

13:33 Eric England Mm hmm. That's a good one. And actually, that that was probably one of the most important things that I did. And honestly, the way that I pursued that was I played with records, along with records, played along with records every style. And that's it. Like, it was just like, you know, if I want to play salsa one day, I'm going to turn on from old um mania record stuff like hector lavo you know

14:02 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

14:02 Eric England just like

14:03 Luke F. Walton I

14:03 Eric England whatever the thing is you know um just kind of match it and that was always my thing i always basically learned from playing with records that was really how it started even

14:14 Luke F. Walton like it.

14:14 Eric England before i could read or anything

14:16 Luke F. Walton Yeah. I mean, I feel that. I guess the best skill you can have, right, is being able to play in context. I understand the metronome has got plenty of value, but rooting most of your practice in actual genre and in

14:32 Eric England Yeah,

14:32 Luke F. Walton conversation,

14:32 Eric England I

14:33 Luke F. Walton yeah.

14:33 Eric England would say like, you know, that was a good point. I don't know I don't maybe I missed out on something but I never really like sat there with just like a metronome like real military sound like like that's

14:46 Luke F. Walton Yeah, totally

14:47 Eric England cool for dexterity and stuff but I was always like playing songs and like making it make the practice sort of fun but make sense towards something not to say that that sort of practice or the other sort of practice is not useful it absolutely is is but in my experience i didn't do as much of that you know maybe i should have but

15:08 Luke F. Walton Well, yeah, but I mean, like I can I can say that coming from like the guitar perspective, I spent so much time just shedding scales and like hybrid picking and all this stuff. I don't play like that. I'm not trying to be Yngwie Malmsteen like.

15:22 Luke F. Walton flying and up and being like look how fast i can play this scale not like there's anything wrong with that that's dope too but that's not how i play so it kind of feels a little bit like not wasted but inefficient of

15:34 Eric England Yeah, I mean, I think it has a place if you're, if you're, you know, obviously

15:38 Luke F. Walton course yeah

15:39 Eric England for technique and pedagogy. uh you know there's always room that's it is very important for that you know like kind of well you know on upright because i play upright and Yes. electric i

15:51 Luke F. Walton Yes.

15:51 Eric England did study a little bit more classical with the bow and that was a little more like technique you know but you know other than that it was always like but then i would go and put on the jazz record and play along you know with it um and then like you know different types of styles too within that like you know playing with

16:12 Eric England not just like you know like uh oscar peterson trio is way different than like bill evans or something so

16:18 Eric England Yes. i took all that stuff and like the different approaches and then eventually when real life comes back around you start playing with people who who sort of

16:27 Eric England lean towards these sort of greats in certain ways whether they need to or not and

16:31 Luke F. Walton Yeah. Yeah.

16:31 Eric England for me between that and you know usually in like a trio setting it's more intimate so like if it's piano trio i'm like okay what am i what am i kind of turning on today which sort of like with in my arsenal what which approach are we taking today so it's

16:47 Luke F. Walton I like important that.

16:48 Eric England to have all those options available and approaches i think you know

16:52 Luke F. Walton That's cool. It's almost, it almost feels like you're building like archetypes. like and then you're like okay yeah i know how to play like in the same way that when you you know you meet certain people you go oh that's he's like sort of like my friend x and then you it's like you kind of have like a jumping off point you're like okay yeah we kind of get each other right off the bat

17:09 Eric England yeah yeah i mean you never want to really like equate always equate but naturally do that naturally do that but i can just tell like you know if someone's playing like very definitive this is mostly I'm talking about in the jazz world but

17:23 Luke F. Walton Yeah, totally.

17:23 Eric England I'm

17:23 Luke F. Walton You don't have to play in any genre.

17:24 Eric England very definitive chords you know I'm going to play more like Ray Brown I'm going to play down beats you know very clear but if someone's a little more spacey or something then we might go a little more Scott LaFaro etc like

17:37 Luke F. Walton yeah yeah

17:38 Eric England you know a little more in the holes a little more flowy

17:41 Luke F. Walton for

17:41 Eric England and then there's stuff in between that too so yeah

17:44 Luke F. Walton sure exactly but it at least gives you some like waypoints something to work with and then you you make it up from there you

17:49 Eric England there

17:49 Luke F. Walton know that's a good

17:50 Eric England you

17:50 Luke F. Walton starting

17:50 Eric England go you

17:50 Luke F. Walton yeah

17:50 Eric England know you gotta have your

17:51 Luke F. Walton yeah

17:51 Eric England your

17:51 Luke F. Walton your tools exactly

17:52 Eric England your toolbox right

17:53 Luke F. Walton that's one of the things i do like to talk about is like like building a toolbox and then practicing for what you want and like i think what i'm what i was trying to drive at is I envision practice to be miserable, like when I was young, like I thought if I wasn't just unhappy, I wasn't practicing.

18:10 Luke F. Walton And once I kind of scrapped that and I started actually just like playing and creating and being in more musical contexts and all that kind of stuff, that was when I got better. It's like, oh, go figure. It's like actually put yourself into the conversation and you're going to learn how to speak rather than just like running flashcards kind of language learning equivalency. Yeah, totally.

18:32 Luke F. Walton I want to talk to you about kind of transition from the jazz world. into pop world into the funk world um how like i i sometimes think that it's interesting especially like when you are playing with somebody either in a band or as an artist that doesn't come from as much of a like

18:52 Luke F. Walton structured musical background like say say that you're dealing with like a front person that has really bad time or or somebody that doesn't really have a musical vocabulary so you're having to you know kind of experiment with that can you talk about that transition there's a little bit of a mentality shift going from you know jazz into pop and funk and then you know navigating those worlds just personally like talking to people and and finding finding ways to speak music with somebody that might not have the same like

19:18 Luke F. Walton like jazz or music school vocabulary, I think is what I'm driving at.

19:21 Eric England Yeah, sure. Well, the first part of that, I basically started. I was always sort of an old soul so when when I was talking about when I first started like learning I was learning like Motown and the Beatles stuff

19:39 Luke F. Walton Yes.

19:39 Eric England like that and I just liked it even though that's sort of what people tell you to learn anyway first I just like it I just was always an old soul um so I just always liked those like like really like simple bass

19:53 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

19:53 Eric England lines that were really catchy that you can grab onto and like and funk stuff like that's actually where i started um and then i also did the rock thing mostly on guitar but i still had that sort of feel mentality so i started off as someone that didn't really know much about theory or

20:16 Luke F. Walton Cool.

20:16 Eric England you

20:16 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

20:17 Eric England know so i sort of remember what that was like and what i'm saying and then eventually i studied you know more jazz and harmony and stuff um but i would say in my experience uh so in other words what i'm saying is for me both of those worlds you know pretty natural like i don't really feel like a jazz person that's more like a funk person because like i kind of look

20:42 Eric England My whole thing is like if I'm playing something I don't want anyone to know what my thing is

20:46 Eric England yeah yeah yeah yeah i totally Like oh, know what you're saying right this is what he does but

20:51 Eric England but he's he's gonna do this today yeah yeah yeah no But where was I going with this?

20:59 Eric England i like it i like it it's free flowing i'm enjoying this You were talking you were talking the

21:05 Eric England Oh, evolution yeah, yeah. of getting theories and To coming back. relate Yeah. to playing maybe with an artist or someone that I think that unfortunately most of the people I work with have some understanding of

21:19 Eric England Yeah music on a greater level. And if they really don't, it's usually more like they'll be telling. us to do something you know i'm saying like

21:33 Eric England Gotcha. if so Yeah. You're like interpreting it would be like rather. oh why don't you try doing this uh you know minor run here you know like it wouldn't you know it would either just be really simple like you just sing something to someone or

21:45 Eric England Yeah. it would yeah all I mean, it doesn't, you know, you don't really have to sit there and explain after

21:50 Eric England right here's all it is music what it's yeah yeah exactly about so right

21:56 Luke F. Walton no yeah yeah i mean it's like i feel like it's the same thing with like language where like yeah we can sit and talk about grammar all we want but fundamentally we're just having a conversation so you know might as well just say it yeah i totally get it

22:10 Eric England what I would say is different is sort of like If people coming like that don't really play jazz or they don't necessarily have the same exactly conversation mentality,

22:21 Eric England they're Yes. just kind of playing through. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. But that's different. They may not understand, you know, that sort of thing. And also something for me is like. something that's dragged on from my jazz side is

22:35 Eric England Mm i -hmm. have a hard time i mean i'll do it if i have to but Yep. i usually never play like if i'm playing a show on tour or something i'll

22:43 Eric England Yep. never play it exactly the same like Yep. every note you know what i'm saying some people are like locked in and that's like oh i'll play the same guitar solo every night of that song they will every night in the same place i just have a hard time like i don't really that's not something so that's where i kind of meet The world's like

23:01 Eric England I like it. it's like I'm still always improvising Yes. to some extent you Yes. know even if it's just like playing a note in a different octave you

23:10 Eric England Uh-huh. Totally. know what i'm saying like i'm Right. always but that's how things stay fresh for me when start you know some people complain about things getting stale and you're playing the same shit every night or whatever like that's how i keep it fresh because i'm like well i don't really know how i'm going to do this part tonight or i'm

23:25 Eric England That's going to so cool. there's that element and still that element of like excitement or whatever you know

23:31 Luke F. Walton Yeah, totally. I want to talk about listening and like, especially in a live context that, you know, bringing jazz into into pop and pretty much any improvisational art has got this where you're playing off of each other, making those decisions, listening to each other.

23:47 Luke F. Walton do you have do you have any like eureka moments where you're like oh hey like that's that's what i'm listening for this is like this is like how um like things are starting to connect if not i can give you like kind of an example of stuff for me yeah so like a big a big thing was i so i was doing some touring stuff on guitar

24:11 Eric England I was playing with some Nashville guys that were very like studio and they play together a ton and they just tuned me out the entire time and I was on the road for like about a year with them and then I get off that and I come back to LA and I'm playing with people that I kind of know and they have more of a jazz background and all of a sudden I feel like wind in my sails and all of a sudden I have so much so many more ideas because before I was just it was almost like playing to a backing track.

24:37 Eric England where I'm like on top of their thing and then later it's like hey like that guy's giving me a rhythmic idea that I'm gonna jump off on my soul and then the drummer's gonna pick it up and then like we're all writing this together rather than just being a soloist that's just kind of you know the baby in the cradle that doesn't really have any room to fly so that's like an example for me of just like the importance of listening or or just like a little anecdote of where it kind of I don't know dawned on me

25:03 Luke F. Walton just how important it was because I felt it, you know.

25:05 Eric England Yeah, I... Well, a playoff that I do Yes, please. think that, you know, there are times when, for instance, I don't know what that gig was, but there are some in some cases where people want that or

25:19 Eric England Totally. the artist wants people. Sure. I mean, I'm not going to I won't name it, but I've heard even some really big musical acts, you would be surprised they want like the same exact thing every night. And it's sort of like that and people are. people are like are complaining and I'm like man are you kidding you're on this amazing thing

25:41 Eric England Yeah, they're totally. like yeah but I don't have any freedom you know I don't have you know um but also in terms of playing with people I think if it's not that then a lot of it has to do with personality and I think that maybe maybe maybe you can um uh back me up or not on this but I feel like

26:02 Eric England it kind of relates to the relationship like you were saying with Yeah. the people in life just like me me and you having a conversation I bet you your interaction with with someone that doesn't really pay attention you're not you probably don't connect with them as much as

26:18 Eric England Yeah. a person either you Yeah. Yeah. I think you. Yeah. know um and it's just a matter of personalities like some people are like not about it i i i think that most people naturally do want to have a little bit of interaction because like nobody wants to talk to some the back someone's head right like

26:35 Eric England Right, right, you know so usually some people have some sort of like you yeah. know you know a little bit of conversation of course you know it just kind of depends upon the people but obviously if it's your friends and people you know it's always better always

26:54 Eric England because you have that chemistry and always better yeah great point it's so true and like it's funny because you like you're saying there there's a there's a flip side of this where you like you can say hey they're so steady or they're locked in and they're like doing their thing and then on the opposite side you're saying oh i don't have creativity from them where i would i would sacrifice a little bit of steadiness and

27:14 Eric England and sureness in order to get that spark of idea and and joy and freedom so yeah it is interesting there's it's a balancing act and it's not saying either is necessarily wrong or bad they're just different yeah

27:27 Eric England Yeah, I think it's just it starts it starts with an approach and intent and then the other half is, you know, what are people willing to give up how selfish or not, you know, are they willing to It's like a mentality, you know, basically.

27:41 Eric England For sure. For sure. I know that it's been a kind of crazy COVID time, but I know that you're playing, you're going out. I'd love to talk to you just a little bit about the realities of touring, of playing live, and to start, do you have any like rituals or anything like that? Because like I kind of had like a specific way that I packed and like had to do certain things that would make me just take the load off.

28:05 Eric England Do you have any like rituals or things that just make the whole trip? traveling touring experience easier for you you

28:11 Eric England um no i don't have any rituals it's just no don't have that teddy bear under the arm and yeah

28:18 Eric England nothing like that just hopefully everything is smooth and there's no good accommodations and i mean for me it's more about like you know are we being taken care of in that way like sometimes i won't do something if i'm like Well, I don't really want to, you know, we're not really going to be taken care of. So, you know, it's, I'd rather just stay home or something, you know.

28:41 Eric England Yeah, for sure. For sure. I don't want to be like, you Yeah. know, sort of superstitious or

28:47 Eric England Yeah, anything yeah, totally. like that. I guess I'm boring. I don't know. No, no, no. It's probably for the best. In terms of, yeah, getting taken care of, you know. you talk about just the difference between having a good and a bad tour manager not to throw anybody under the bus just for somebody that's like looking into this lifestyle um just how important the tm actually

29:08 Eric England Well, yeah it's pretty much as important as anything else that's involved in the situation. I mean, you know, it's like, you know, are you going to get fed today or, you know, are things on time? You know, are the flights cool? You know, it's a huge deal. I mean, it's

29:27 Eric England Yeah. pretty much, you know, you're at sort of at other people's in other people's hands to

29:33 Eric England Yeah. some extent when you're out on the road, you know, you can only control so much. So, you know, there is sacrifices that are made sometimes, you know, and usually it's better if you're cool about it unless it's something real crazy because sometimes you just got to eat it. But usually, you know, it's, you know, a good manager is priceless, you know, and a good sound guy.

29:57 Eric England yeah and a good sound guy right yeah exactly the fillers the fillers of a good time that's so true um yeah i has it has it been different like coming back post covid did it feel like shaking off cobwebs or anything like that or um how's that transition back been

30:17 Eric England yeah that there was there was a period i think it's been a while since that Yeah, now unfortunately

30:21 Eric England totally. uh but also me and uh me and some guys some new guys that i met and some people i knew um over the pandemic we started playing outside in santa monica and just sort of like busking and it was actually pretty cool i mean it kept the kept the fingers going kept the mind going kept the uh you know a little bit of safe hanging going and

30:47 Eric England So I was fortunate that I was doing some playing at least at some point, you know, after,

30:52 Eric England Yeah, you know, half a year or something. totally. Like right now I kind of, I feel fairly normal. I mean, there's still like this funny thing like, oh, I can't believe I'm here right now,

31:03 Eric England Yes. you know, like Right. I'm in front of a show of people right now. Yeah. This is crazy.

31:07 Eric England Right. but luckily i'm sort of past the point of like oh my god i'm playing with someone

31:13 Eric England like oh man yeah but it's still like seeing people is crazy like like a house like a show of people it's just like

31:21 Luke F. Walton yeah exactly all packed together is it still has got that feeling i wonder how long that'll last um i want to ask you about uh you know choosing your gigs like once you're established a little bit and you have multiple opportunities potentially on the table you only have a couple months

31:36 Eric England they you know maybe you're going to decide hey am i going to tour am i going to go in the studio am i going to make these decisions navigating your career um because you you know you're a contractor you're fundamentally your your own career how do you navigate that how do you make those decisions what do you weigh i

31:53 Eric England Um, a know every little, situation yeah, is different for sure yeah, there's a lot of. I think most of it is just like basic logical I

32:02 Eric England Okay. mean logical to me logical Yeah. things like you know is something especially right now like it's how far is something how

32:09 Eric England Okay. far am I gonna have to drive versus how much it pays you Yep. know which one's earlier blah blah blah you know is there another gig that I you know that one's really late one's earlier and then there's one in the middle so maybe I'll do the earlier one the late one so I have two gigs you

32:24 Eric England Yeah, know yeah. it's you know and then as far as career it's like well what am i aiming towards so maybe this gig sort of feels like it's more in that direction as

32:36 Eric England Yeah, I opposed to get that. the other one but Right, right. sometimes it's hard to really kind of estimate what really i mean i think you do always sort of have an idea of what

32:49 Eric England is for me it's always like what what is closer to getting towards goals or what i'm into as

32:56 Eric England Yeah. opposed to just like okay i don't have anything to do i'll do that Yeah. Totally. On that same token, what do you think with like music school? Because I know some people have that decision, do I try and get on the road at 18 and just like grind and have to sit outside the club in between sets? Or do I go to music school, hone some skills and then build that network and then go out?

33:16 Eric England Like looking back on that, how do you kind of weigh those things and has that evolved over time for you?

33:23 Eric England Yeah, um... That's a good question. I think that the network that you get going to school, depending on what the school is or whatever,

33:36 Eric England Yeah, is pretty priceless. Like looking back on it over the years, you have people, especially if you go to a school like my school was like people coming from different, it wasn't like a state school. So, you

33:49 Eric England yeah know, people were coming from different places and then everyone leaves again.

33:53 Eric England five ten years down the road you got so-and-so in Chicago so-and-so and then you have all these connections some people aren't even in your field directly they

34:03 Eric England Yeah, uh may be some movie composers or something or not even in music so that sort of thing is priceless also like I feel like the knowledge like for me like I said for me like I basically didn't really know anything about actual like i never knew what i was playing i

34:24 Eric England Yeah. could play but i really know any theory or anything but mainly for me it was those two things it's like the network and like it was sort of like a um

34:34 Eric England speed it up version of like i'm not sure how much i would have learned of that stuff on my own i don't know over the years i really don't know

34:41 Eric England For sure. i mean nowadays there's so much information that you could probably make it happen without going to school honestly but

34:47 Eric England Yeah. then uh that for me was was really priceless like learning learning like harmony and that kind of stuff um

34:56 Eric England Absolutely. and then of course playing with people because now like you know the world isn't like it was back in the 50s where you know there's like four clubs open all night like and everyone's jamming and you just went on the street like that was still happening like it used to be then you know i would say you know I don't know, think about it more, but also if you don't go to school, it's okay too. You

35:19 Eric England Yep. might, you know, if you're like more on the prodigy sort of side or you're really good on the road right away, I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. You know, you can still learn stuff, you know, that's like real world stuff. So I'm not going to say that it's not important to go to school, but, you know. you're not gonna get hired at the at the law firm with a music degree you

35:45 Eric England Right. know it's It is not the job fair week for still the you. same thing like i'm out here doing the same things as someone that maybe didn't go to school you

35:53 Eric England Right. know Yeah. i just got some more things kind of spoon fed to me on Yep. the internet lives yeah

35:58 Eric England Yep. Totally. And it creates a it's like a framework to learn some of those things. Some of those things are they're not the most fun just out of out of space.

36:07 Eric England exactly so you know i think if you can go to school you definitely should because you know there's a lot of benefits to it but

36:16 Eric England For sure. yeah I'm But yeah, it's still workable either way. I feel that too. I'm always curious when people are like deeper in their career when they look back at music school because it seems.

36:26 Eric England glad I did it I I it's always funny to me because I'm always thinking like well the one thing I think would have been My track obviously would have been different depending on where I went to school. So that's another thing to think about,

36:40 Eric England For you sure. know what I'm saying? Because I stayed where I was for a while just because I started working and I was like, these are the people I know. But if I had been somewhere else, my trajectory would have been, you know, either different or faster or slower, who knows?

36:56 Eric England yeah exactly exactly who knows without that but i love i love your point about like that spread out network and i think that's really important um even even just like maintaining contacts with people that move away because not everybody stays in la all the time but they're still making music and stuff so it's like hey okay this person is chicago this person is in seattle

37:14 Eric England to meet up like maybe make a like a quick you know collab or something like that when i'm coming through on tour i got like three days off let's go hit the studio you know all those different opportunities just keeping those those connections those networks fresh

37:27 Eric England yeah you never know like somebody Right. you know might become the MD and some talk show in New York and they're like hey

37:32 Eric England Right. man you know I hit you up and whatever so Exactly. And then you got like a steady gig that plays plays well and you're living it. I love it, man. Well, anything that you'd like to plug or anything like that, anything you got coming up that you'd like people to check out or hit you up on on IG? it's

37:55 Eric England Yeah, eric I england music mean really right like that's your that's your handle right eric england music yeah so yeah give give this guy a follow he posts dope videos some some great great funkin going on there yeah

38:08 Eric England Yeah, for sure for sure it's it's great big fan a big fan of your playing um definitely inspiration to somebody like me that feels still like a like a three quarters bass player but i'm working on it so maybe i'll hit you up for a lesson one of these days

38:24 Eric England For sure, man. Please. Yeah, I really appreciate you taking the time. This is a really fun conversation for me and maybe we'll circle back and our musical futures will connect someday. It'd be really cool.

38:36 Eric England For sure. Thank you for having me. It's my pleasure.