"What is 25-year-old Adrian doing?" I ask Quesada from the couch at his Electric Deluxe studio on Austin's Eastside. Success can suddenly arrive in a hurry for those willing to stay in the game.īut what do you do once you've got everything you dreamed of? What does superstardom look like for Adrian Quesada in real time – especially when he's decided never to act as one? It's rounds of hurry-up-and-wait, being the right people, with the right people, at the right time – an idea to which Black Pumas serve as an example. Superstars, real ones, typically aren't forged overnight. Quesada's work ethic and willingness to be patient are even more impressive than his grace and humility – even if it was often involuntary and unplanned. However, it is the opposite for Quesada he's incredibly concerned about the feelings and lives of those within his various concentric circles. The "spoils" can occasionally include frosty temperaments and gratuitous self-pats. Few would publicly condemn Quesada (or Pumas lead singer Eric Burton) if they "went Hollywood," to whatever extent these things tend to come part and parcel with ascendance and financial gain. Here the Austinite is, a full-blown, article-prefixed star – as in, the Adrian Quesada, who could easily care little about anyone's feelings, even those of the people (very technically) working for him. The preceding, seemingly inconsequential story proves informative. Almost as quickly, he texted that the talented drummer was not on his new album, his first official solo release, Boleros Psicodélicos, and didn't want to "ruffle any feathers" because only one other Pumas member made the record. Please take the following anecdote: I texted Quesada for the phone number of Pumas' pacesetter Stephen Bidwell, which he promptly sent over. None of this seems to register with Quesada. Argentinian singer and longtime Thievery Corporation collaborator Natalia Clavier described the 45-year-old Laredo native as "the most talked-about man in the Latin music everything right now," aside from the current reggaeton galácticos.Īs a person in demand, he's always on the move, like then-Mos Def on "Travellin' Man": " I'm a travellin' man/ Movin' through places, space and time/ Got a lot of things I got to do." He has released a fantastic new record of modern psychedelic boleros.
Of course, Quesada has built out a homegrown world-championship-level team as the Black Pumas' player-coach, to use a basketball analogy he would appreciate.
Yes, things are very good for the multihyphenate, to say the least. Somehow, Adrian Quesada remains unimpressed with himself. Adrian Quesada at Electric Deluxe (Photos by Jackie Lee Young)
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