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Black Pumas’
Mighty Roar
A
FEW SHORT years ago, no one
had huge expectations for Black
Pumas, including its two founding
members. Guitarist and producer Adrian
Quesada had left the Grammy- winning
Latin funk band Grupo Fantasma and
needed a singer for instrumentals he’d
cut in his home base of Austin. A friend
turned him on to Eric Burton, a busker
from L.A. who had grown up with gospel
and was 13 years Quesada’s junior. Neither
man had heard of the other, and it took
Burton a few days to return Quesada’s
call. “I was talking to my friends, and they
said, ‘Dude, hit that guy back up,’ ” Burton
recalls. “They kind of scoffed at me for
leaving him hanging.”
In the studio, Burton’s voice, which
recalls a more somber Curtis Mayfield,
proved to be a natural addition to
Quesada’s punchy R&B and retro-soul
tracks, and before long they had forged
an entire, self-titled album. The next
surprise came when the two began gigging
at a local club. “I remember telling my
wife not to come — give us a few weeks
because it might suck the first couple of
times,” Quesada recalls. To his surprise,
Burton, who starred in school plays as a
kid and still aspired to an acting career,
displayed what his bandmate calls “James
Brown-level frontman chops.” “As soon
as we stepped off the stage the first time,”
Quesada says, “we pulled each other aside
and said, ‘There’s a spark here.’ ”
Within months, Black Pumas were pack-
ing Austin clubs and landed a record deal.
In another shock, they scored a Best New
Artist Grammy nomination, putting them
up against the likes of Billie Eilish and
Lizzo. “I can hardly believe we are part
of the conversation, because we haven’t
been a band very long,” says Burton, who
no longer has to earn a living delivering
packages for Amazon, but is feeling at
least some pressure related to his new
fame. “I’ve had to be more professional,
or else I’m going to get fired.” DAVID BROWNE
24 | PHOTOGRAPH BY David McClister
The Mix
The Austin duo surprise even themselves
with the retro-soul magic that happens when
they team up — and the Grammys agree