Meet Bobby Easton | multi instrumentalist, producer, director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Bobby Easton and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Bobby, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I’ve been an artist ever since I was very young. Drawing, painting, creating. When I went to college, I was an art major. I was getting more into playing music, and soon I was just drawn to music as a much more powerful a medium than any that I had created with before. Soon, I had converted completely to an artist using music as my medium. I began playing in bands with musicians who were much more experienced than me, which pushed me to get good fast. After years of playing in bands, years of touring, I found myself immersed in a world as a working musical artist, and here I am still to this day on the same path.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Ever since I started playing in bands, I was always in original bands, so I never did the cover band thing coming up. My band Delta Nove was formed around 1995, and we self-released several albums and toured heavily all around the country. Because we were self-produced, I had to learn to take on many skills and wear many hats, including writing, rehearsing, production, promotion, and lots more. This led me to found and produce my own festival the Long Beach Funk Fest, which I produced for 6 years. This was truly one of my proudest achievements and I constantly hear people praising it to this day. During all of this, I was also teaching a lot, working a lot as a substitute teacher in Long Beach. So I had one foot in the education world for a very long time. This led me to being tapped to be the director of the Watts Conservatory of Music, which has been a project long in the making and we are still working on launching it, hoping for a summer 2025 launch. A few years ago my band lost our longtime drummer and co-vocalist Dominic Feedam to cancer, and then our longtime bassist Viking lost his wife to cancer right after that, then our keyboardist Fingaz was diagnosed with cancer. This was devastating and life changing. The message from the universe to me was that this chapter of my life has concluded, and new chapters will emerge. I have since been performing, recording, and producing with many other artists and enjoying a diverse range of collaborations. I’ve worked with and/or performed with a wide range of artists like Long Beach Dub Allstars, Ozomatli, George Clinton, the Big Ol Nasty Getdown, legendary drummer Tony Allen of Fela Kuti fame, Black Flag, Sergio Mendes, and lots more

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would take them to the beach, the mountains, or some great local hike. This is one of LA’s hidden treasures, all of the pockets of outdoor adventure. An outdoor concert like at the Hollywood Bowl or Greek would be a great one too. And if they felt like it, a visit to a studio session at one of the many great recording studios in LA.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I am dedicating my shoutout to my greatest inspiration and hero, my son Elijah Sol. He was born in 2020 during the lockdown, and was diagnosed 1 year later with cerebral palsy. He is my world, such a bright shining light, and the hardest working person I know, often doing therapy up to 6 times a week. Because of his disability, he has to work much harder than most people to do basic things in life, and I will be there every step of the way to encourage and support him, as well as to support the greater community of people with cerebral palsy and other disabilities.

Website: https://www.bobbyeaston.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drfuzzyfunk/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobby-easton/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bobbyeastonmusic

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BobbyEaston

Image Credits
Tony Turrieta