Philip Lassiter: Prince, Paisley Park, Funk & Finding His Own Sound

0:00 I walked into Paisley Park. It was this dark hallway and I couldn't see who was walking at me, but. And then I saw the afro, and it was him. And I didn't really see his face until he was right up on me. Hey, Phil Prince. Hey. This is Philip Lassiter, and you're watching Musicians Reveal with Joe Kelley.

0:16 Up next here on Musicians Reveal. An artist who I've wanted to have for many years. We almost made it happen one time, but we've making it happen today. Multi Grammy winner, horn arranger, writer, string arranger, producer. He was the section leader, horn arranger for Prince and the mpg. And he has his own great bands, Filthy Funk and his own music.

0:38 Philip Lasseter. How you doing, brother? I'm doing great. Thanks so much for having me. Yeah, it's. You're outside. You were talking in the Netherlands and what's it like out there while you're making. The weather is changing. You know, it's September 9th, and, you know, the. The weather is starting to get a little chilly.

0:59 But I love September here. It's beautiful. You don't miss the hot summers, sticky summers down in Alabama? Well, I love the heat, actually, but I'm acclimating to the weather here. Right. Yeah. The. We were talking before we started this up about the new record year. We're going to talk about your history and your last release as well.

1:24 But you're. You're in the midst of getting ready for another release pretty soon, right? Absolutely. My eighth album. And when's the single going to drop officially? So Shoes is dropping on October 2nd. Okay. Vocal Records, it's like a neo soul kind of neo soul pop R B song. A little bit of a different sound for me for sure.

1:52 And it's got my classic trumpet stacks and some great musicians, you know, from Tony. Tony, Tony. Brian Collier on drums, the great Jon Snow on guitar. Josephine Marie doing vocal stacks. And. Yeah, it's a. It's a cool song. I'm excited to bring it out and it'll be the first single for the. For the new album.

2:14 And the new album, you said Shoes, right? Is the title. Shoes is the name of the song. The album is yet to have a title. I'm still kind of kicking ideas around, but the idea is I'm leaning towards something like Reimagined, because this album is very different. It's still got a lot of the classic elements that my fans would expect, but I'm also really experimenting with some more commercial sounds and kind of genre hopping around within that as well.

2:50 Even the funky stuff like Half the record is funk soul with lots of horns, but even within that it's a bit more focused and, you know, three and a half minute songs, four minute songs, not a lot of improvisation, just like kind of straight to the point and trying to reach, perhaps reach a broader audience.

3:11 So you mentioned members from Tony, Tony, Tony and different players. Are they recording coming out to you or are you doing it? Training tracks back and forth. When I'm working with musicians that are located in other places, we just do it remotely. They record at their place or they have a studio. But I'm still doing quite a bit of live recording here in the Netherlands with my band and even remote recording with members of my band here.

3:38 In fact, we have a session coming up on Monday. We're going in with a 14 piece band to the biggest studio in the Netherlands to record the. What will be the final track on the record. And I'm really stoked. It's. It's going to be an epic jam with lots of. We're kind of throwing out what I just said earlier about being like focused and commercial.

4:02 Yeah, it's called the universe is ready for you. And it's kind of a divergence from everything I just said about being focused and you know, commercial sounds. It's. It has a great hook but then at the end it just goes, you know, I throw in everything in the kitchen sink. You know, it's like it goes completely jazz and, and, and just crazy.

4:22 Which I think is a great way to end the album. So for a track like that, you mentioned so many different players. Do you send them how far in advance a track or do you just say in the studio, okay, we're going to roll, let's go? Oh no. I send him the song. Like I made a demo for this and, and I wrote this with a, with a drummer who just moved to the Netherlands.

4:45 He was Bilal's drummer for a while. His name is Joe Blacks and he sent me a beat that inspired the song. So he's gonna be playing drums on this song and everybody will study the song and then we'll go into the studio and cut it. So no, everybody gets a, gets a clear vision well in advance because the tune isn't.

5:06 It's not easy. So yeah, they're gonna have to prepare. Right. And you always have top quality musicians where you could tell. You just go to Philip Lasseter's YouTube page. There's tremendous live performances. You listen to all the music and where's the best spot you want people to go to buy all your catalog of music.

5:25 You know, I think Bandcamp is the one. Yeah. Right. I've been hearing a lot of artists. They're doing band camp. Yeah. Bandcamp seems to be the best. The best place. Okay. Because, you know, it's like you get most of the profits, and they. They don't keep a lot. And it's. It's really set up for the artists, which I think is.

5:46 It's a good thing. Oh, yeah, definitely. Your journey, your life journey and musical journey is really amazing. And I wanted to kick back to where we started. We talked about Alabama. You. You were raised up in Mobile, Alabama. I was born there. My father's side is from Mobile, and. And when I was 11, we moved to.

6:07 We moved north, actually. We moved to Illinois, and then I graduated high school in St. Louis. So I'm kind of a combination of the deep south and the Midwest. Okay. What was it like growing up in a household with a preacher as your father? Is it really that strict? Are you. It was intense. Yeah. Okay.

6:25 Wow. You know, and I. I. I had a great dad, so I'm not. I. I'm so grateful for that. But, yeah, there was. There was a. There was definitely layers to it. And, yeah, it could be very strict. I mean, this was like, in the 80s, you know, and we were definitely on the fundamentalist side of things and Pentecostal, but that's, you know, that's also where I got my.

6:50 My fire for music from. And my. The. The emotion, you know, I think it comes from, you know, the. My. My father's preaching style, which he was quite. Quite a talented speaker, public speaker, and he could tell stories, and, you know, he was a lot of humor, but there was also a lot of passion and emotion and that raw, old school, you know, evangelical kind of style that.

7:21 That he had, but he had a big heart for missions and for. For helping people. And, you know, he. He did amazing things in his life. So. Yeah, I like to say, don't throw the baby Jesus out with the bath water. You. You always got that humor and things to say through your music as well, so. Absolutely.

7:43 Yeah. Where did you. Were you allowed to listen what you wanted in the house or you had to sneak it? No, in fact, sometimes my parents were super supportive with the music. Okay. But there was even times where I played, like, Christian music that was a bit too, you know, a bit too heavy. And I was told, like, don't play that again in this house.

8:08 You know, it's like, it was pretty strict in those ways, but I would hear like secular. I was only listening to Christian music, first of all, like, growing up, it was a lot of CCM and some gospel, and then I was allowed to listen to jazz because most of that was instrumental. But as far as, like, secular music was concerned, you know, I was just so caught up in Christian music that I didn't really pay attention.

8:32 I would hear it at the roller skating rink, I would hear at the mall, and, you know, from neighbors would play. You know, I remember hearing thriller in like 84 when it came out at my neighbor's house and she dropped it, the needle on it, and it. It scared. It scared me, man. And then another friend, I remember this was probably before that when he played me another One Bites the Dust, My Queen and that one too, man.

9:01 I had never heard anything like that before. So it was, you know, it was pretty. It was pretty scary. I was like, you know, have you. Ever incorporated any of those songs in, in your modern day set? The songs that freaked you out? Those. You know, you're giving me some ideas. Maybe, perhaps I should.

9:20 That's a good idea. Yeah. Food for thought for the next one. Yeah. We started to play with covers in our set and we're doing stuff like James Brown, get up off that thing, and we have a rock medley that we're doing with Lenny Kravitz. Are you gonna go my way? Going into Chili Peppers, Give it away. And it's my own arrangements, so the horns are going bananas and it's a lot of fun.

9:44 Wow. Yeah, your. Your live performance with your band's always exceptional, so you to be commended on it, you know. Thank you. I mean, we're just having a good time, you know, I love to bring a lot of different people together, you know, and, and, and, and create together on stage. It's just. There's nothing like it, man.

10:03 You know, that, that collaboration and we were just all getting energized, you know, from each other, and it's just so fun to play music with other people. I do a lot of studio work. I work a lot at Home Alone, which is also very, very fulfilling. But I'm really now at this point in my career, I'm always looking forward to every gig when it comes along.

10:31 Right, right. Going through your. You know, I read the credits on albums since I was a little kid and everything. And reading the studio credits with the people you work with, I could sense where you were at a time to make these connections with certain musicians. I mean, Jeff Coffin, Royal Wooten, the Nashville connection.

10:49 Right. With those guys, that was My Nashville connection. Yeah, man, everywhere I lived, I just was so, you know, fortunate to find or they found me, you know, great musical mentors and great brothers, you know, who. Who. Who held me up, both musically but also just like, personally, you know, I lived with Jeff Coffin for a few years, and he was such a genuine soul, you know, and just such a big heart.

11:20 And I think anybody that knows him will tell you that he's, you know, just. He was just such an awesome person to be around. And we're still in touch to these days, but, yeah, I got to be around the Wooten brothers and jam with him every Monday night in Dallas. I was around the great Bernard Wright for a year and a half.

11:39 We were inseparable. Bobby Sparks was a big influence of mine. My big brother Keith Anderson, Sax player Jason J.T. Thomas, Mark Letteri, you know, snarky puppy, right. The late, great Sean Martin, you know, Kirk Franklin. These cats. I was. I was just really fortunate to be around them. And they. They.

12:00 They saw potential in me and. And my growth just, you know, it. It shot like a rocket from being around them, you know, and then I lived in New York for a while and got incredible experiences there. So Bernard Wright, when you were. I mean, was toward the latter part of his career, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

12:21 Was. Was Foley out there at the time? Foley came through a couple times, right? Yeah. And I met him. I got to be around him, and he. He performed on my show, like, four hours in the studio with him and two other musicians and spinning Miles Davis records in between the talk and live performance. So he's a very cool guy.

12:41 Yeah, man. Only one Foley. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. I always tell the story. He drove from Columbus, Ohio to Connecticut eight and nine hours. Four hours in the studio, hopped in the car, drove back the same night. Wow. So, yeah, a lot of energy. Yeah. What'd you learn from Bernard Rice specifically?

12:59 You know, you mentioned he's one of. Your mentors, so, you know, it was just the way he approached music in general. It was like, melodically, like, his. His relationship to intervals, his phrasing, his timing, his placement, his harmony. You know, just hearing him play and playing with him on the regular, you know, it's just by, like, you know, you just become influenced.

13:36 You know, they just rub off on you. You know, it's like by osmosis or something. You know, it just. It just seeps in. You got to pay attention, and the more mindful and the more, like, open you are to. To receiving, then the more you discover when you're hanging out with someone, especially like someone on that level.

14:05 It's like all about just being like. What's the word? You know, just having the awareness, you know, to be able to. To really catch as much as you can. You know, you're a master of so many different instruments. I wanted to ask you about when did you decide you want to tackle horn and string arrangement?

14:31 What goes into the process? You want to take it all on for that? Yeah. You know, with horns, that was something that I got into really early on because I'm a trumpet player, so. And I also play keys so I could figure out harmonies from my, you know, relationship to the piano. And with trumpet, it, it just made sense.

14:50 I just knew how things laid on the horn and I just had to kind of figure out the range of the tenor sax, alto sax, the trombone, Barry sax, this and that. I started in high school with a friend of mine, just me and him, you know, sax and trumpet, creating stuff. And. And then eventually, you know, when I was in college and I started to, to work on, you know, three piece horn section and then it became four piece and then I did a lot of arranging for three piece.

15:16 Horns, trumpet, trombone and sax did a lot of that. And then it just kind of grew. But I, I just, it was inevitable, I think. I just. Because I'm a trumpet player and because I love horn bands and all that, I was just doing a lot of it and I. I learned a lot from this salsa band that I played with in college.

15:38 And they were all untrained musicians. They were just all like. But they would come over and clap, you know, the beat and they would sing horn parts to us and then we would, you know, transcribe them down. And that was a key influence as well. To see them creating on the fly and the way they did it just by singing and not necessarily through some kind of analytical thing, but it was more of a feeling.

16:04 And that's how I approach it to this day, you know. And the strings, you know, it was Robert Spud C. Wright that one day said to me, yo, Phil, you should write for strings, man. You'd be really good at that. It's my Robert Sputzy Wright impression. And I was like, man, I don't know anything about strings.

16:21 That scares me, man. I don't. I never studied that. And he was like, man, just write it like you would write for horns. And I was, well, okay, that's a good point. And then I would be working with these string sections and they were like, oh, we like, the way you write for strings, it's like. It's like you're riding for horns.

16:38 I'm like, that's all I know. So. And then eventually I, I got with a friend who's a proper string arranger, and he was like, phil, man, you need to learn, like, some things about. If you're going to do this. You. Here, let me show you some things. Like, okay, your cello, your bas. You tell you can write for them like this and.

16:53 And then fill up the middle. And then, you know, he, He. He taught me some of the. The key essentials to, like, string arranging. And. And so I, I kind of learned through experimentation, but also, you know, just from hanging with people, having them show me stuff here and there. And then I started doing orchestras because Mike Lee recommended me to the Metropole, and I had never done an orchestral arrangement.

17:19 And they called me and I was like, yeah, sure, I can do that. And then I'm like, with my other phone, I'm like, calling my buddy in Oklahoma, like, hey, you want to help me ride for the Metropole? Right? He studied, you know, he studied composition at, At a. At an Eastman School of Music. So. Okay. He knew what he's doing and he made me look good.

17:36 And Joel Mott, and so that's my partner in crime. We. We haven't arranged in a while, but. But that's a bad. A bad cat, man. And so, you know, I just do experimentation. And then, you know, if there's something you're not sure about, you just ask for help. Yeah. At least you have that. That backup with great friends you can lean on.

17:55 And I'm sure they lean on you for stuff, too. You gotta. You gotta have a. Like Quincy would say, you know, it's a. Every great producer has a great Rolodex. Right? And that's, that's what it comes down to. Knowing who to call for what that means. We go back to the Rolodex days. You know, it's a word I still like to use.

18:15 Yeah, yeah, I remember those. Now. You can just talk to your phone. I know. Yeah. And it pulls it right up. Give me Jimmy Wyatt. Yeah, connect me with Jimmy Wyatt. See, there she is. There you go. So for. For live performances with that many horns on, On a different stage, is there a technique that you line up each different instrument?

18:39 Does it matter? You know, I use. Again, I use the piano. If it sounds good on the piano and it's within the range of the horns, then it's. It's going to sound good, kind of you know, so to speak. It just kind of depends on, like, where do you want it to. Do you want it to be, like, thick and in the middle or down low and, you know, and.

19:03 And. And saucy and thick down low, or do you want it to be, like, widespread, you know, from top? Depends on how many horns you have. Then you could spread the notes out more, too. Even with three horns. You can spread the notes out okay. And get a fuller sound with three horns just by spreading them.

19:20 But clearly you can do that with five or six or seven or 11, you know, and then you start getting into, like, the. The sound of the big band. That's what we were doing with Prince. Right. He wanted a sort of a big band. It was more of a horn section, like a fat horn section. He called it a gang of horns.

19:39 Yeah, yeah. Could go rob a bank or something. You know, you definitely could. Speaking of Prince, apropos time to get into your introduction to his world. Who was the person who opened the door for you to get in with Prince? That would have been Andrew Gouchet, the great bass player for, well, many, many, many gospel records.

20:03 But then also he was with Chaka Khan, and Prince took notice of him, hired him, asked him, do you know someone, particularly someone who writes. Andrew and I had played on so many gospel records together, we didn't know each other that well. We had maybe met once, but he recommended me to audition, and then they got in touch, and next thing you knew, I was in this, like, extensive, like, six months, you know, audition for Prince's band.

20:37 What was that first encounter with Prince? Meeting him and the first rehearsal with him. That was lovely, man. I walked into Paisley park, was this dark hallway, and I couldn't see who was walking at me, but. And then I saw the afro, and it was him. And I didn't really see his face until he was right up on Behave.

20:53 Phil. Prince shook my hand. He's like, I really loved what you did with. With Days of Wild. It was one of the arrangements I had done as an audition. And before I could even say thank you, he spun around and started off like Morris Day and was like, follow me. Come with me. And he's like. And then I'm.

21:12 He's walking me through Paisley, and I'm seeing pianos shaped like spaceships and, like, awards everywhere. And the murals on the wall, like, with clouds, and I'm hearing, like, real doves, like, you know, crying. And. Yeah, we. We had a. Awesome day together. Just talking and. And about, you know, him mostly just sharing with me, his vision, what he wanted.

21:40 And I just told myself going in, just don't say anything more than you need to say. He's not. He didn't invite you here today to hear you talk. So you got it. You're here, you're in the room. He loves your work. Just shut up and listen. Listen to what he has to say. And that's what I did, man. I'm a talker.

21:59 So give me a couple of cups of coffee and, you know, I can talk. But I, I really, I shut myself up that day and just try to be all ears, give him a good feeling, you know. And then we went. He would say things like, let's make history. Look at him. You forget, like, who's saying this to you? You think, well, of course, like, if Prince says that to you, like.

22:25 But it was still weird to hear anyone say that because I had never. No one had ever said that to me before. Like, it felt like I was in like the, the Mighty Ducks movie or something. You know, it's like, let's make history. But then later, I didn't really realize the, the magnitude of that statement until after he passed away.

22:45 Right? Because then it was like, oh, damn, he's gone now. Yeah. Yeah. And that was one of the last things we did. And it was one of the biggest things that he did. He always wanted to do was to create this huge band and go to Montreux and make a statement and play a lot of his more musical pieces. And we did that.

23:06 We made history. Three. Three different. Three different nights, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was incredible. An incredible time. It changed my life. And I'm so grateful for it, you know, and it. I'm so. But I'm also grateful for where I am now and what I'm focusing on now. And I know that if he was here, he would tell me that.

23:29 Yeah, you're doing exactly what you need to be doing, which is focusing on your own thing. Right. Did you ever pass your solo CDs to him? I did. Okay. I gave him the Dreams album. Yeah. Because that was 2014, right? Yeah. And I, I, you know, I gave it to his bouncer, Romeo. Okay. So, Romeo, would you hand this to Prince when you say goodnight to him?

23:57 Because I knew Romeo would be the last person that he would see, you know, Bodyguard. Right. And Prince don't have pockets. Like, he's not going to carry around my cd, Right. So I'm not going to go hand it to Prince. That's stupid. So I give it to Romeo and then the next day, we played Essence Festival, and we're playing the show, we play the whole show, and Prince comes walking off stage, walks right by me.

24:23 And I'm. We're all watching him to see, like, what is he going to do? Is he going to do another song? We're watching him like a hawk. And he looks at me and he goes, okay. And I was like, what? And then he turns around and he struts off like Mars day. And then he turns back, he stops, and he turns back around and looks at me again, and he goes, okay.

24:47 And he struts off. That's all he ever said about it. That's a double thumbs up. Right. And I had no idea, like, what any of it meant. And then till, like, a few hours later, I was talking to my lady about it, and I was like, he listened to the record. Yeah. Yeah. That's what he meant by that. The last time I saw Prince, you were on stage.

25:08 It was Mohegan, Sun Casino, Wolf Den. Not the Wolf Den in Connecticut. You were there. Yeah, I saw the third show, the last night. That was the night Dougie Fresh played after Janelle Monae. Yeah. And I think you guys began with Big City, I think. Okay. Possibly. Yeah. So that. That's the night. Actually, I think Kalindo Parker wheeled him out on that handcart that.

25:34 That. You saw that picture, right? That sounds about right. Yeah. Yeah. It was like, wow, that's a. That's a strange picture. Yeah, he would do that. He would do that. But at that point, it was similar to what you talking about. Montreux, you had the funk section, the horns, and then it went to the Third Eye girl configuration would, you know, going into each night, how much time you'd be on stage.

25:57 Brother Joe, we didn't know anything at all. We didn't know what was happening. We usually didn't get a set list. We didn't know anything. We didn't know where we were going next. What We. We had not a clue. And we didn't have a clue because Prince didn't have a clue. Oh. Because he was just in the moment, and that's how he wanted to live his life.

26:21 And can you blame him? Like, I don't know if I want to commit to that schedule because I might not feel like doing that at that time. Right, right. It was like doing something else. It was like that with gigs, right? Pretty much. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. We. The only thing that he would ever commit to was something that.

26:45 It was so epic and big that he had to commit to it. Like the super bowl or like, yeah, Montreal, you know, of course, that's something that he's like, okay, I'm gonna commit to doing that. But he was so picky and choosy and those. I could imagine in his life. He probably had, like, one or two things a year, if that.

27:04 Right. That he committed to. Yeah. Change his mind so frequently. Yeah, he was just in the flow, man. Just with what he. With what he felt like doing, and he could afford to do it. And, you know, it wasn't necessarily convenient for all of us, but, you know, you just learn to, like, you want to be on the ride because you can get off the ride anytime you want.

27:28 But, you know, if you want to be on the ride, then you got to ride the ride with Pete and, you know, it's his. Get on the flight and stay at the Chanhassen Inn. Right. You got to take all the ups and downs, loops, and. Yeah, yeah. You just gotta. You gotta. Oh, go ahead. You gotta roll with it. And it's worth it.

27:47 It's worth it because, man, the experience was just, you know, unlike anything I'll probably ever experience again. Maybe I can recreate my own version of it one day. That's what I'm trying to do. Right. Yeah, that's what I'm trying to do on a smaller scale, but musically, it feels like it's. You know, it feels like I'm right in the pocket where I need to be.

28:09 Yeah. John Blackwell was a good friend of ours, and he used to say he didn't. Especially in the beginning of his career with Prince. I don't want to say anything to. To lose my job. He was always like. I listened back to, like, the first interview I did with him, I think he said, I don't know if you could play a Prince song.

28:25 I don't want to get in trouble. But he loosened up, like, because Prince. Was listening to everything. Yeah, yeah. He requested a couple radio shows of ours, so. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I. I got my hand smacked a couple of times for. For. For telling. For telling stories, but they were all positive stories.

28:43 Like, I would never say anything bad, even if I had something bad to say about that, man. Which I do not. Not from a personal experience, I wouldn't. I'm not stupid. Especially when I. When I was still working with him. Right. But even then, like, I would never. You know, he. He did too much for me, so.

29:07 And too much of a great influence on me, you know, for that, even if there were something. It was true. I wouldn't go there, but it was all positive. But he still was just very, very private. Yeah, yeah. And I had to respect that, you know. What was your, if you can recall your first studio experience with him and your last studio experience.

29:31 Well, there were not very many studio experiences. Okay. So there was a three day stretch where we were in studio A at Paisley and it was just marvelous. It was John Blackwell on drums, Cassandra o' Neill and Morris Hayes on keys and Andrew Gouchet on bass with my man, the guitar player who plays with Justin Timberlake now.

30:00 Mike Scott. Yeah, Mike Scott on guitar. Brilliant. 11 horns in one room. And then Prince was at. He was behind the, the spaceship. You know, he was, he was behind the mixing console, the, his classic like custom ssl. And he was like directing us while we're cutting to tape. He's like on the mic, go to the bridge chorus.

30:26 And we, because he just like taught us this song and we just like, we're playing the sections and he was just calling it and then he's like, phil solo,. You gotta be ready, man. And you know, that was, that was an incredible experience. And I remember later, after the first or second night, he was like, they were like, he wants you to write some stuff on what, what you did today, what you recorded today.

30:58 And they, they gave me a cd, slid it under my door, my hotel room that night. Listen to this is what we did today. I remember popping it in and hearing it. And this wasn't mixed, it was just a board dump, you know, straight from the recording. It sounded like a record. You know, it's tape and it's all that, all that gear, man.

31:24 And it just, it sounded like Quincy Jones the whiz, you know, with a big fat horn section. It was just so warm and so incredible. I was like, wow, man, this, this is what I want to do, man. I, I could be in a big studio like this recording to tape every day, man. Incredible. Live, live wise. Do you recall any moments where you were really up against the gun when a quick change and had to arrange something for a particular concert for him.

31:55 There was a lot of stuff like. But what's. Once we started playing shows, like he was all about being prepared and, and everybody like being over rehearsed over, over, over. How many songs did you have in, in your head from him that you had to know? Well, he allowed, he was a realist and he allowed us to use iPads because it was just too much music.

32:15 And, and we did memorize like our features so we could go out Front and. And dance and play. But it was too much music for us to memorize a whole show. Yeah. Yeah, that was impossible. That would have been. That would have been suicide. Musical suicide. Right. Who was the impetus to get everybody dancing and playing?

32:38 And how difficult is that? There were a variety of people. He had a dancer sometimes that would come out and hype everybody up. But I think the horns were, like. We were really key in that. You know, we were just moving the entire show. And that was something I had never done before, personally, you know, So I was really out of shape, and it was.

33:01 It was difficult for me to. To acclimate to moving that much while trying to play. I had a hard time with that. But it. It taught me to do how to do it and made me a better entertainer and a better. You know, it just. It. It got me over the hump of that. And now I'm performing all the time, and I incorporate some of that, you know.

33:23 Yeah. I mean, you learned a lot from. From the best, so. And you're putting it right into your own bands, obviously. Yeah. You know, and the horn section was beautiful. It was a beautiful thing because, like, you know, it was like a war at first, because it was like two. Two horn sections coming together that didn't know each other.

33:39 And we were both very different. Like, me and my crew, we were a little older, and we were all about the playing. You know, we were just used to sitting and playing. And the other crew, they were, like, into the smooth jazz thing and into, like, really entertaining and dancing, and they were younger, and they, like, you know, we.

33:58 We look. They dressed different. We. You know, we were all just different. So at first, it was kind of like Clash of the Titans. I think Prince loved it. And then, because he already. He's always ahead of all of us, right? And he knew that, like, I was gonna. You know, I was gonna kind of crap them, crack the musical whip and.

34:18 And get it. Get the horn section playing tight. But he also knew that what they had to bring to the table, we didn't have. And that was something that we had to accept and kind of get out of our ego and be like, man, we can learn from these dudes, you know, And. And it took some time, but, like, eventually they brought so much to the table from the show perspective.

34:42 And now that I then, you know, now that I had a chance to, like, step back and see it all. And then. And even. Even when we were performing, I had that realization. It was like, this would not be the same show if we were just standing there killing it. Right? I mean, we. We could play the music and it would be.

34:59 It would be hot. But it was a totally different dynamic when you had that many horns on two sides of the stage blowing at Prince. And with all of this choreography and all this movement, it created so much energy. And I remember people that came to the shows talking about it, they were just like, man, it's just impossible not to move because you guys are putting out so much, you know, so much energy from the stage.

35:23 And I remember feeling it even when I was reluctant to do it. And then I'm on stage and I'm performing in front of all these people with prints, and we're playing all these great arrangements, but we're also, like, breaking a sweat and dancing and going crazy on stage. And I remember just feeling that energy and being like, yeah, this is fun.

35:42 Actually, I didn't want to dance, But Adrian Crutchfield, B.K. Jackson, Marcus Anderson, man, they were like,. They had to do this. Yeah, we doing this. Phil, who's the best dancer of the. Oh, man. Oh, man. They. They would. They would kill me right now if I pick one. I don't want to put you on the spot.

36:02 I would say it's probably pretty neck and neck. Those guys are, like, the best of friends. You know, they all have something. Something different to say musically and. And artistically and, you know, so I don't. I don't really know. I'm not. I'm not a. I'm still not a dance expert. Right. So. So I'm going off to my memory, just, were the two guys you mentioned, the two factions, the gangs, quote, unquote, like that, Were they on bank robbers?

36:28 Yeah, the bank robbers. But were you guys separate on the sides? Because Adrian was on the right. Right. And Lynn. Yeah, yeah. If you're looking at the stage, Adrian, Lynn and Marcus and BK and Steve, they was on the. On the right. Joey, they was on the right. And then on the left was me and Nick and Sly and Keith and Roy.

36:46 Yeah. Okay. And after all these years, man, those names are just. That's right in the front of my brain, man. So you made history, man. What's that? We made history. And what's crazy is, like, Keith. Keith I met in Dallas early in my career when I was, like, 25. Okay, okay. Roy I met in Nashville when I was, like, 32, and we became really tight and worked together a lot in Nashville.

37:12 Nick, I met in New York through Mike League and at the. Thad Jones, he plays in the. In the Village Vanguard Big Band. Okay. Nick is one of the most brilliant lead trumpet players. I met him in New York. And Sly, who was younger than all of us, he's from Texas, but I met him in New York in Brooklyn, and I would hire him to come over to the house and play on gospel records with me.

37:37 I was kind of mentoring him a little bit, and he was with me when I got the call, and I was like, man, you're gonna have to play Barry if you want to be in this horn section, because Keith has got it on tenor. He's like. He showed up the next day with a berry. Oh. And so it was. It's wild. If you look at my horn section, it was like kind of the trajectory of my career up to that point from.

37:57 Wow. That's. I brought someone from each city. Yeah. I'm gonna go back and. And watch some of the shows. I just called my favorite, like, my favorite players from, you know, and favor people. You know, I knew they would hold it down for me and kill it, and they did. So Prince is passing. An immense loss for everybody.

38:18 But for those who were right in his orbit and friends and colleagues, what was that like regrouping after his passing? Horrible, man. You know, it's like. It's just to lose him as a friend and mentor and everything, and to lose the gig and everything and the security and all the beautiful things that come with feeling like, oh, I have a ride.

38:39 I made it. I finally made it. You know, all of that, it was. It was devastating. But, you know, some things that I wasn't ready for was like, how many people disappear when you. When you don't have that. That one degree of separation from someone that they want to get at. Because everybody wants to meet Prince.

38:58 Right. Right. You know, so, you know, everybody wants to be your friend when you're on a gig like that, like, overnight. Yeah. People that just. You thought hated you, all of a sudden, they love you. Yeah. You know, and then. But then people you think love you or they. And now they love you more. Right.

39:16 And then you have this close bond with them, and then all of a sudden, overnight, you know, you're dead to them. It's like, I died. Yeah. Like, I'm still here, man. I'm. You know, I'm still. I still earned that. I'm good at what I do. Like. Right. It was tough, man. And then I chose to move to LA because I just.

39:36 I had never tried out that town. And I thought, you know, that maybe it was the land of opportunity. And in Some ways it was, but I mostly. I mostly just learned a lot there, Made a couple of great records, made some connects. But I decided to get out. After five years, the pandemic happened and, you know, LA has a lot to offer, especially someone like me who writes and stuff.

40:00 And I could have stuck suck around and by now I'd be in my, like 12th year there, so I'm sure I'd be into some things, but I just realized it wasn't what I wanted. I wanted to just focus on my own artistry and Europe has allotted me the opportunity to do that. So I've been able to get on, you know, stages like North Sea, Black Sea and tour all over the world and see the world, but not as a sideman, but now as.

40:24 As a frontman. Yeah. What was the decision to go to the Netherlands? You know, my lady is Dutch Caribbean, so we had family over here. It was really. It wasn't a career move. It was. It was a lifestyle move, quality of life. And we got over here and after three weeks I was like, I don't want to go back.

40:43 I'm good. So we made the. We made the decision and we. We've been here six years now and, you know, I just. Best decision I. I made, you know. Yeah. Yeah. My wife's from a Canada, so it's like. I know she moved down here for me, but, you know, who knows, Maybe I'll be going up north one day. I wouldn't be surprised in this current state of affairs.

41:07 Yeah. You're not missing anything where you are. You're in a better spot. No, I'm good, man. Yeah, Good. And I hope to come back and tour at some point. I would love to, but, you know, we'll. We'll see. Well, what's it like? The. You mentioned some of the festivals like that, but the local gigs or maybe heading into.

41:25 I know you played Ronnie Scott's, right? Yeah, I've played there five years in a row. Wow. It's one of our favorite places to play. I love London. It's. It's been great. We did North Sea Jazz two years in a row. We did Black Sea Jazz in Batumi, Georgia. We've done that twice. We played all over from Italy to, you know, Finland and the Nordics and East.

41:51 East Eastern Europe, from Romania to Croatia. You know, it's been a ball, man. Spain and Portugal and, you know, Armenia, just like random places, but we still have a lot on our bucket list. I really want to hit Asia. So. Yeah, Taiwan for three years, but that. Was that's definitely a bucket list too.

42:15 That tiny little island man. Yeah, that's right. They say it's like the state of Ohio, the size. Yeah. But I, I'm a free agent now, so I'm working with a variety of different agents now. If there's any agents listening right now, I'm a free agent. Filthy Funk dot com. That's right. We'll have all the, the links up there.

42:34 Yeah, yeah. And my, you know, my artist name is now Philip Lasseter, but the website is still Filthy Funk, but also philip lassetermusic.com works as well. And you know, I, I'm looking forward to seeing what's around the corner. It's a slow build and I'm okay with that because, you know, I'm doing exactly what I'm passionate about, what I want to be doing, what I want to be putting out into the world.

42:58 And I'm excited for, for, for bigger and better opportunities and, and more, just more gigs because it's just so much fun. We want to, we want to, we want to get out there and, and, and bring it to as many people as we can. So I'm excited about this record for that reason because I believe with it being a bit more commercial, it's gonna hit a wider audience and that's what we want.

43:21 So Shoes comes out October, beginning of October. October 2nd. And just so you know as well, I'm doing something a little different on September 16, which is next week. I'm doing a Zoom pre release party. Right. So I've been, I've just, I've invited a bunch of people, fans and friends and some of the collaborators from the song to join me on Zoom.

43:48 It's going to be at 7pm Amsterdam time. That's like CET. It'll be noon, I believe, for New York and the east coast and it'll be 9am for the West Coast. We're gonna get together and watch the music video. We're gonna listen to the song, I'm gonna break down the stems, solo up stuff, talk about how we made it.

44:11 Just try to get everybody excited about it, right. And what I'd like to do this a regular recurrence. So starting in January when I release the next single, we'll do it again. And then every month, anytime I release a song, we'll have like a, like a, a little intimate, you know, who, who's, you know, who's in the know, you know, kind of gathering or we can get inside of the music.

44:34 I can talk about it, answer questions, just Have a, A little fun little gathering to get people grassroots, like, excited about it and then talking about and sharing it, feel, feeling connected to it. I, I think that's a really great idea. We, we did one recently with Maya and Morris Hayes. They released an ap.

44:53 So we did a live listening party. And people, People love that. You know, the people, they say do more of that stuff. Yeah, yeah, I'm going to. Because, you know, it's like you can't. It's. I'm learning a lot about, about how to cultivate the fan base and, and one of the ways is. Is doing these smaller gatherings.

45:13 And another thing I'm going to do is even locally, I'm going to start having listening parties. Try to have a listening party in Amsterdam and maybe one in Rotterdam and just go around and just like get, get people together to talk about the song. And even if it's like 20 or 30 people showing up, it's that.

45:30 That can be really powerful because now you're creating like super fans, you know, and those 30 people can reach, you know, easily, you know, turn that into 300. Yeah, you know, that's. That's like free. Free publicists, you know, I think. And it's fun. It's fun to get people together and just to really share the experience with them.

45:54 Not just like, okay, here's a post and here's the. Here's the video and here it is. And if you get a few of those and then the momentum kind of goes, you know, you run ads and you do this and that, but really trying to go back old school with like, the whole, like, you know, personalized experience. And I want to do more of this kind of stuff on a larger scale.

46:16 I'm kicking around the idea of starting my own funk cruise. Oh, I would like to do this. I would like to port out of Amsterdam, get my favorite funk soul bands together. And this is my wish list, man. I'm just like. I'm just like manifesting like, you know, ghost note, mono, neon, you know, some of these, you know, these kind of.

46:39 These. Some of my favorite, you know, funk bands out there, you know, that are doing it. Nikki Glassby and her thing, you know, the possibilities are endless. Getting us all together for like a curated, like, raw funk cruise and giving people that experience. So now they come and they go on the boat with us and they get to interact with us and they get to experience this level of raw funk and.

47:06 And musicality all together for like a week on a vacation, you know. Yeah, people will love that, especially The Die Hards, like us, we love that stuff. Yeah, I believe it. And I believe that if I curate the right combination of bands and artists, right, you know, people who know they're going to lose their mind.

47:23 They're going to be like, I have to be on this. Like, are you kidding me? There's like, every single group is like, is bringing the fire. You know, they'll be like, oops, it's all booked. I got to wait till next year. You know, maybe we have to do, too. Yeah, right. I think. I think it's something worth exploring.

47:39 I can't really do it on my own. I need to connect with the right people. I'm talking to some people about it, but I think catching a residency on one is the place to start. Right, Right. You work with a. With a cruise line, and so, yeah, y' all out there listening, you know, stay tuned, because we gonna bring that funk.

47:56 Yeah. To you. He's got some great ideas and manifesting. That's. I wanted to ask you about the MPG members, the ones that you still keep in contact with. Shelby Johnson. Yeah. She plays with you out there, right? She does. And we have a new song coming. We have two new songs coming. Oh, okay. One for her and one for me.

48:22 So Shelby is a one of a kind sister and friend and artist and singer and songwriter and performer, and I just. I can't say enough good things about her, man. She's just been such a light to me and my family, and, you know, she's. She plays a role in How I Met my. My lady as well. Oh, that's another story.

48:47 Yeah. She told me to stick around on Curacao for an extra day, and because of that, I was able to spend more time with my wife and get to know her. So she played a role in that as well. But Shelby and I have a song that I wrote, like, 20 years ago. I wrote the hook. I only had a hook, and I had, like, a bass line and a groove and some chords.

49:07 And then we got together. I played it for her. She was like, yes, I want that. It's called Sweat. Okay. Mama told me long ago Never let them see you sweat Leave your feelings out the door Never let them see you sweat and then together, her and I, we. We wrote the verses, and it's from her personal experience.

49:27 And it's. We. We went and had Pino Palladino play bass on it. We have the great Calvin Rogers on drums from Chicago. We have Russell Alavato mixed it. That's the d' Angelo Mixer. Yeah. You know, and it's a. It's a powerful, powerful, soulful, funky song. She's going to be releasing it. We shot the video here in the Netherlands and she's going to be releasing that.

49:55 I can't say when, but it's coming soon. Right. And then in January, we're releasing our song. It's called Magic Maker. It's a song I wrote. It's kind of in the style of Bruno Mars. And it's a song called Magic Maker. And it's a song for creatives. You know, we're magic makers. And I feature Shelby on it.

50:14 She's in the video. The video is crazy with like the 12 piece band and it's just like me next level from the standpoint of the arrangement, the song, the mixing, the video, all of it. It's just a. It's. It's, you know, it's me, you know, 2.0. It's like. And so that'll be really the first funky single of the, of the.

50:41 Of the album. Kind of like a signature song of the album. So I'm stoked about it, man. And sound it. Yeah. January, it's going down. You'll be seeing Shelby and I online, talking about it and playing for people. We'll do another virtual thing and so hopefully you can be there at that. Yeah, that'd be awesome.

51:01 Yeah. And I'd love to come back on here and do. Yeah, you're definitely gonna come back on in. In January. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe Shelby could come on with me because we'll be talking about Magic Maker. Yeah. Shelby's been on the show when radio like five or six times on my show. She's always bringing the positivity.

51:17 Yeah. So that's what she does, man. You're both welcome on. You got the open stage. You know, she's just, I think about something that she says is that she said and that she wrote a song that I'm helping her with. It's one that's going to be coming out later next year and it's called Focus on the Good.

51:39 Focus on the good. And the good will get better. And I think about that all the time. Focus on the good. Because it's just a choice. And I told my son the other day, I was like, you know, through this life simultaneously, we have always. There's something negative happening, something that irritates us or something we don't like or something we feel that is not fair.

52:03 If we had it in our control, we would choose for that thing not to be happening. Right, right. So that's the negative thing. And, but also, if we just think about it for a second, there's also something positive happening. And these two things are happening simultaneously, like, every single damn day.

52:22 And it's just kind of like if you're wise, then you could just choose to expect it. Expect the good things to happen, expect the negative things to happen, and know that sometimes those negative things, even though in the moment it, like, really sucks, a lot of times positive things will happen as a result of those things that wouldn't have happened if you hadn't had to go through those things.

52:42 And it's easier said than done. But, you know, I tell you what's really, really easy. It's really, really easy. The easiest thing in the world for me to do is to complain. And, And I, I, I think about Shelby and I think about that song, and it, I want to go back to. We were talking about her, and she's such a light.

52:59 And, and it's, it's, it's for things like that, her just reminding and she's been through a lot, man. So, you know, she's, she has a lot of wisdom to give through her experiences. And that's, that's something that she's given to me, is. Come on, Phil, like, just be happy. She said to me, what? Just be happy, right?

53:17 Yeah. I was like, yeah. And I say, now I'm saying that to my kids. Come on, just be happy. They're getting it early, so that's, that's good, you know? You know, I hope, I hope that we can. That's what we try to do as parents is we try to, like, just give them a little bit. Get them a little further down the road than we were.

53:35 Hey, Philip, I gotta thank you, brother, man. It's been, it's just flown by and, you know, we gotta save some for January because. Absolutely love to have you back on and talk about the new record in full and awesome shoes coming out October 2nd. Yeah. Philip lassetermusic.com Filthy Funk ph just like that and amazing artist and thanks for, for everything.

54:00 And as Prince said, you got a lot of butter to go, right? You got a lot of butter to go. Yeah. Thank you, Joe. Appreciate it, man. Yeah. Peace, brother. And best to Josephine, right? Absolutely. Yeah. You got it. Take care. Take care.