Read on to find out what inspired his latest record, just what his “Honest Music Movement” is really about, and what he’s aiming to do in 2012!<\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> What gave you the inspiration for your latest record, \u201cMister Nice Guy\u201d?<\/em><\/p>\n ER:<\/strong> It\u2019s funny. I started recording the album more just passing the time. I came off the road for the first time in a long time expecting my son, and it\u2019s been a long time since I had time like that (laughs). So I was just writing. I don\u2019t think I was necessarily trying to write an album. I always just have a good time writing and recording songs. And then my son came, and I just kept writing and recording. It was just a fun time. I think a lot more comedy and light-heartedness showed up in this album. As far as the title, it was really inspired by a good friend of mine named Wally. He\u2019s a spoken word artist who actually has a poem called, \u201cMister Nice Guy\u201d. I used to always have him say the poem all the time, and I was really inspired by it. That started the talk of the whole Mister Nice Guy Coalition. Let\u2019s bring the nice guys back into play! Let\u2019s dispel the myth of nice guys finish last.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Something else you\u2019ve been talking about a lot lately is what you like to call the, \u201cHonest Music Movement\u201d. Can you tell me a little bit about what you mean by that?<\/em><\/p>\n ER:<\/strong> Well, for me, music has never really been about genres. On top of that, for me, this has always been about following my heart and just following when I feel that it\u2019s the right time. Honest music to me is just music that I dig at the time. I\u2019ve kind of followed that process for a long time. It\u2019s what works for me and a lot of other artists that I\u2019m friends with. I just try to lean towards that. That\u2019s what attracts fans as well. I\u2019m trying to grab music lovers who really like this kind of music. That\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to share with people.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> You write pretty much all of your material, right?<\/em><\/p>\n ER:<\/strong> Yeah, for the most part.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Tell me a little bit about your writing process. Where do you usually start from?<\/em><\/p>\n ER:<\/strong> It really ranges. The majority of the time it really starts with the music. I\u2019m writing lyrics all the time. I\u2019m chasing inspiration pretty much 24 hours a day. That\u2019s my main 9 to 5. I\u2019m just trying to find something on TV or something a friend said or pulling from something that I went through. You can really start from wherever! I can start from anywhere in the house\u2014 the bathroom, the studio, the dinner table (laughs), wherever whenever. It can start when I put my hands on the keyboard, or just when I type something into my iPhone. This record was really done with my just going downstairs, turning the equipment on, and then sitting in front of the mic and starting, I wrote the majority of this album, 95% of it, without a pen or a pad. I was just being the character that I was portraying. My last three albums I really started leaning towards that more. It\u2019s about process and product. The more I try to sit down and work and quickly write something down, I get in the way of the original objective that the character in the song had.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Have you been listening to anything or anyone lately that has really inspired you?<\/em><\/p>\n ER:<\/strong> I\u2019m still always stuck on some old acts, but lately, that Robert Glasper project has been burning in my car and all that. That\u2019s a tight record. Then there\u2019s Phonte\u2019s new album, which I\u2019m happy to be a part of. I still play that a lot.<\/em><\/p>\n But I\u2019m always listening to my old Stevie records or Bill Withers. There\u2019s just so much creativity in those records. I\u2019m still listening to them, and have been for over 20 years.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> You\u2019ve been in this business for quite a while now\u2014 at least 14-15 years now, right?<\/em><\/p>\n ER:<\/strong> Yeah, it\u2019s been a while now. I\u2019ve been really fortunate.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Have you found yourself changing the way you do business over the last ten years or so to adapt to the changes and challenges in the music business now?<\/em><\/p>\n ER:<\/strong> The crazy thing is that in the early part of my career, I got signed to Warner Brothers in 1994. I understood that part of the business, but I also didn\u2019t work too well in that business. I had a good career as a songwriter for other artists, which I was really fortunately and blessed to have that opportunity to write songs for other people, but about ten years ago, I just started to put out my albums independently. It\u2019s so much easier with Twitter, Facebook, and a lot of the other social media things that can really help now, but this was a little ahead of that. A lot of people looked at my like I was crazy then. The business has now really turned more toward the direction that I was really already in, so it hasn\u2019t been that crazy.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t have to adjust too much compared to other artists who had been with big labels and then had to step out as independent artists. I just try to adjust to the changing times. I saw the time where 90% of my albums were sold as hard copy cds, and then I saw the next album where 20% of them were digital, and then 40%, and now 70% of the stuff we sell is digital. It\u2019s still the same thing though\u2014 we still do shows, get tour support, people buy records from me at shows, and we stay in touch with the mailing list or Twitter and Facebook. I had to adjust a little bit, but it was a much bigger change for the majors. They\u2019re still figuring out how to adapt in the new culture of listening and buying music. I think our kids and nieces and nephews have a whole different approach to learning and buying music than I did.<\/em><\/p>\n I grew up in the time of record stores, you know? I don\u2019t know how old you are (laughs), but I had records. We were buying records for the house then.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> I\u2019m still holding onto my records for dear life (laughs)!<\/em><\/p>\n ER:<\/strong> You\u2019ve got to! You still can\u2019t beat the sound of vinyl. It was also amazing to read the liner notes and see who played bass on it, who sang backgrounds. I\u2019m a credits fanatic. To download something and not know who is playing on it, produced it, wrote it, that\u2019s sad. One of my greatest pleasures I got from buying music was reading the credits. Then I\u2019d study the artwork while I was listening to the music! I loved that!<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> I\u2019ve got to ask\u2014 are any of your records currently available on vinyl?<\/em><\/p>\n ER:<\/strong> Oh man, I wish! That\u2019s been the one challenge from a distribution standpoint. If I had one challenge though for this year, it\u2019s to make that workable. With the resurgence of DJs right now, I think it\u2019s something that is more doable now than ever. It was actually one of the first things I ran into when I went indie because it\u2019s a difficult process. It was a lot harder to sell vinyl on the road and tour with it, plus, the distribution is just so much more limited. But I feel like the resurgence of DJs and some of the vinyl shops will help in the long run and we\u2019ll get there.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> I\u2019m looking forward to that! That has to be one of the most awesome things I run into\u2014 when people bring vinyl with the rest of their merch, I find it pretty much impossible not to buy it (laughs).<\/em><\/p>\n ER:<\/strong> (Laughs) You know what\u2019s funny actually? I\u2019ve been bootlegged, and I\u2019m actually a supporter of this, but there is actually some vinyl of me, but it\u2019s nothing I\u2019ve actually made! As much as I could make a big deal of it and get all mad about it, I think it\u2019s helped me grow. It helps get me out there.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> That\u2019s awesome, but you\u2019ve got to get the bootleggers to send you some copies!<\/em><\/p>\n ER:<\/strong> Yeah! At least send me a couple copies (laughs)!<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> What are you most looking forward to about coming out to San Diego and playing Anthology?<\/em><\/p>\n ER:<\/strong> I actually did a show there last year, and it\u2019s a lovely venue\u2014 really a beautiful spot. I\u2019m looking forward to playing there again!<\/em><\/p>\n We’re looking forward to having Eric back! Be sure to get your tickets now since they’re moving super fast!<\/p>\n Oh, and Eric, if you’re looking for some new friends to discuss your awesome record collection with, I’ve got some sweet old Stevie Wonder records, the entire James Taylor collection, and the essential Dazz Band’s,\u00a0Keep It Live, <\/em>to start with. And I promise that when I come across a bootleg copy of your stuff on vinyl, I’ll send it your way.<\/p>\n Eric Roberson on Spotify<\/a><\/p>\n WHAT: <\/em>The Mister Nice Guy Tour ft. Eric Roberson<\/strong><\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An Interview with Eric Roberson By: Casey Pukl I think I’ve found my new best friend. I’m not even close to kidding. Mister Eric Roberson might have to be my new bestie. We have all the makings of a match made in best friend heaven. We agree on the important things in life\u2014 showing people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1442],"tags":[11512],"class_list":["post-5929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-artist-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5929"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32920,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5929\/revisions\/32920"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/ericroberson.jpeg\" "\\"ericroberson\\"")
<\/a>I think I’ve found my new best friend. I’m not even close to kidding. Mister Eric Roberson might have to be my new bestie. We have all the makings of a match made in best friend heaven. We agree on the important things in life\u2014 showing people that nice guys don’t always have to finish last, really embracing the characters that we write about in songs, how awesome the Robert Glasper Experiment is, and the need for a massive vinyl collection. Oh, and did I mention\u00a0that his music is awesome?<\/p>\n
\nWHEN: <\/span>Thursday, April 26, 7:30 pm<\/strong><\/em>
\nTICKETS: $10-$46 <\/span>Buy Tickets<\/a><\/em>
\nMORE INFO: <\/span>Artist Profile<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n