1. What is your creative process when making music?
Good afternoon! I like questions about my process, as it really gives me a chance to self-examine a little. It all typically starts with a plan to “get it done.” That is, I pick a date that makes sense with my life and my muses, and then I go about putting the plan together. Like, “Okay, we have a September deadline. It’s now January. Let’s lay the steps out…”
Being structured helps me stay disciplined. I am no longer waiting for divine inspiration or major life/world events to move me into writing mode. In fact, my life has enough going on all the time that if I take even a long breath to reflect, the time seems short and I am motivated to get to work.
Words and guitar riffs come easily to me. But non-cliched, non-repetitive from my career, meaningful-but-not-pretentious words and guitar riffs are harder to come by. Because Little King generally functions as a power trio at its core, I need to make sure that I can sing and play our songs simultaneously without missing a beat. As such, I defer to guitar as the entry point of song creation. Once every note and chord and riff and change has been beaten to a bloody pulp, the rest of the band comes in and writes/rehearses their parts. It’s all pretty seamless, or at least it is now 28 years into my career (see above notes on organization and work discipline.”
When the bed tracks are recorded, I take them back and make sense out of a general theme for the words. From there, I bring the same amount of discipline to the lyric writing process as I do to the music side of things. It may not be perfect, and it may not be for everyone, but know that Little King songs have been worked on diligently and that choices have been made, for the most part, with a conscious effort towards serving the song and the overall album.
2. Have you ever taught or mentored another musician?
I was a high school teacher about 18 years ago at a place called JM Hanks High School in El Paso, TX. I taught “Junior English” and a creative writing class. I LOVED it. My educational background is in Creative Writing, so it was a way to stay with something I loved while passing on some of what I had already learned about the writing process.
Those kids were hungry for music. Technically, I wasn’t a music teacher, but our last period of the day always devolved into jams that would last well after school was out. I felt fortunate to share my passion for songs and guitar with those kids, and it’s a great honor that many of them are still in touch and following the arc of Little King’s career.
Beyond that, I used to mentor a lot of bands and artists in El Paso as a way to kind of give back to the community. I learned a lot in the late 90’s and early 2000’s about publicity, radio, A&R, production, and all of the dirty bits of the music biz. It’s a lot to navigate now, and it was back then, too…without the online resources that we have today, it was even harder. Information was scarce and closely guarded. We hosted seminars in El Paso with other artists and biz people, and I hope that we helped some of them get a little further ahead. El Paso is wonderfully talented city, and because the financial resources haven’t always matched that talent, having a handle on that side of music is of paramount importance. Could say that about most places, I guess…
3. Do you prefer to work alone or collaboratively?
I have worked alone, for the most part, over my entire career. When I was making records back in the day, my bandmates were all local, so there was a more collaborative spirit. That’s like 1997-2007. After that, though, I moved away from El Paso for good but kept working with musicians and a studio in town. So, unfortunately, I was isolated a bit. It’s not a preference, but I made it work and wrote songs I am very proud of. The guys and gals are PROS, so creating and rehearsing from distance, while not ideal, wasn’t an insurmountable obstacle by any means.
My ideal scenario is having a full band in town. To trade riffs and ideas and just the whole push and pull of the band dynamic is inspiring. For the new record, Lente Viviente, I worked with a new drummer named Tony Bojorquez here in Tucson. Eddy Garcia has been the drummer and studio engineer for Little King since 2007, so this was a big change! But because Tony was close by, we had a ton of focused and intense rehearsals. I think his drum parts reflect that! He’s a meticulous guy and a fabulous musician. When you add Dave Hamilton, another El Pasoan, to the mix…well, we found some collaborative magic for sure.
4. How do you think your previous bandmates would describe you?
Ha! That’s a funny questions because there have been SO MANY of them. Since 1997, Little King recordings have featured 5 bass players, 5 drummers, and too many other instrumentalists to count. I am sure they all had different experiences, to an extent. Having said that, though, I always make sure that everyone I work with is certain that I do what I say I’m gonna do, pay on time, follow through, give everyone a lot of creative input, celebrate their successes, and make them feel like the valued members that they are. I learned a lot in my “work” lives, and I try and bring those lessons to the band dynamic.
I’d also hope for funny, quick-witted, handsome, reliable, debonair, hung like a bull moose, and loyal as hell. That would be mostly true.
5. What inspires you as an artist?
When I first started my journey in school as an aspiring writer, the thing that was drilled home was that to maintain authenticity, one should write about what one knows. I don’t totally subscribe to that theory anymore, but I do tend to stick to my current timeframe as the touchstone for my art.
I am a son, father, partner, business partner, and citizen of Tucson/Arizona/USA/Earth. There are SO MANY things happening every second. I never really understood “writer’s block.” I mean, just take a look around! Those experiences form my ideas, which in turn are synthesized through the filter of writer/guitarist/producer.
This album, which is translated as “Living Lens,” was inspired by a new business I co-founded last year here in Tucson. We are called LivingLens Memoirs, and our mission is to interview and document/edit beautiful stories from clients who want to preserve their stories forever. Needless to say, it provided more than enough fodder for the new record. But I also delved into nostalgia (“Catch and Release” and “Dawn Villa,” the first two songs on the album, are drawn from memory) and current surroundings at my studio downtown. I see it all down there, and anyone with some artistic empathy would be moved. I was! So, “Pass Through Filters” and “Who’s Illegal?” were both born from time at the Pennington studios.
6. What interests or hobbies do you have outside of music?
I’m not really good at much else. I used to play a ton of sports, but my knees protest, so I’m left with a lot of casual frisbee with my son, who’s really into Ultimate Frisbee. It’s a great sport! I ride a motorcycle every day as my commute vehicle, even in extreme heat. Love the gym, love to travel, and at this point in my sober life, I chill. A lot. It’s my default position, really.
Parenting has been a full-time job as a single dad for the last 12 years. My son just went to college here in Tucson today, so while he’s finally flown the coup, he’s only 25 minutes away. I think that suits us both. My daughter is grown and a few hundred miles away, so we see each other as often as we can. I moved here to be near my mom, who is single and in her 80’s, and I have a girlfriend named Jessie James who I adore.
Life is productive and full. I am grateful for all of it. But DAMN WE NEED TO TOUR! It’s time.
7. New Album/Ep In The Works?
Yeah, as I said before, Lente Viviente will be released 9/26/25. I hope…shenanigans by my distributor aside, I have a couple singles (“Catch and Release” and “Dawn Villa”) coming out 8/22 and 9/12, respectively. The album only has 7 songs, as that is my preference in this short attention span world we live in. I think it was more than enough to get our point across, musically and lyrically. Tony and Dave were amazing, my production team equally so, and I am thrilled with the results. Best Little King ever!
The band coined the term “Micro-Epics” somewhere in rehearsals, and that just kinda stuck. It’s how we felt about playing complex epic-style songs that almost all come in under 4 minutes. I think this is the best Little King has ever done in creating really interesting music that is compact yet complicated. We would finish a song in rehearsal and swear it was 7 minutes long, then we’d look down at the stopwatch and say “3 minutes and 25 seconds? What the F?” I hope this is a good thing…it FEELS good, anyway.
8. How would you describe the music that you typically create?
In addition to the aforementioned “Micro-Epics,” I like the terms “Progressive,” “Dynamic,” and “Melodic” as they relate to our sound. Our new publicist, Jon Asher of Asher Media, is in for some fun with all of that. Seriously, we don’t always “fit” in any musical genre, which honestly is totally fine by me. We are Little King, dammit! Seriously, though…not too progressive, especially when 85% of the songs clock in at under 4 minutes. We certainly aren’t Metal, as there’s more singing and softer passages than anything you’d find in the modern or ancient versions of that genre. Hard rock? Alternative rock? Sure…I guess those fit.
What do YOU think we sound like, Audience? I’d love to hear it. We get a lot of comparisons to Rush, The Who, Porcupine Tree, and even Alice in Chains and Foo Fighters. I’m cool with all of that, of course. Those are the luminaries! But at the end, I think there’s too much going on in there to pigeonhole our band…the new album, especially.
9. What is your favourite song to perform?
We played just a few shows last year. Our schedules and proximities are irretrievably fractured, but we did pull it together last summer for a few shows on the East Coast of the US. Our set was static, and the one that I looked forward to the most was either “The Skin That I’m In” or “Amuse De Q.” They both stretch nicely and have some balance of heaviness, softer nuanced passages, and some sweet rhythm section playing. I was very comfortable singing these, too. As I said, that’s not a given in Little King…we have some madness sewn in, so the woodshedding paid off on those two tunes. We did a version of “Skin” in Delaware that just found its way onto our YouTube channel, and it’s a very fine representation of LK Live.
10. What is the best advice you’ve been given?
“In a collaboration, whether artistic, business, relationships, etc., accept all criticism and deflect all praises”
Kinda makes sense, no? We all want to be around humble people who prioritize gratitude over ego. I aspire to be that leader.
