volume 138 - interview with the oracle (part 2)

celebrating 3 years of Run It Back 🥲

ICYMI, you can find part 1 here:

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part 2 will continue that journey going through what my dad listened to when we moved to SF and beyond 🙏

and with that, let's get to the music for the week ❤️‍🔥

- claudio / claud / @offballscreen

p.s. - today’s playlist will consist of artists / songs my dad would play a lot growing up as well as the tracks from last week. hope y’all enjoy :)

😌

this week’s music ⤵️

what did you listen to once we moved to San Francisco?

When I lived there in the late nineties, I started learning about different music and began branching out on my own. I met my friend Alex and he introduced me to his friend [Jose] who played world music.

His day job was at a bakery or a deli shop in Berkeley. [His other job] was to buy international music for Amoeba, so of course he would listen to it all.

oh wow

He was a DJ at a club called El Rio. We would go there every Friday 'cause they'd play world music. Every week he would wheel in big cases of CDs that were like four, five feet high. He had his own numbering system so he knew what to play and when.

oh my god

He was a good friend of Alex's, so we convinced him to let us borrow his collection. He said, "Sure. Take my CDs but I need them by next Friday seven o'clock [at El Rio]."

You name the genre, he had it: African, Arabic, Indian, Latin, etc. His music was such a cool thing to experience.

You'd open up the album and it's the original CD. [The album] would have little stars next to some of the tracks. So we're like, "Okay. For whatever reason, he's called out these numbers." And we would write them down.

I had a big 4 in 1 burner so we copied all of them. [editor’s note: this thing was massive] We used it so much that I had to ship it back and get it cleaned, and they're like, "We've never seen this before."

that's incredible

And just that kind of blew it open in terms of respecting and admiring all genres of music. Music is like food, right? It’s a way to connect with other cultures.

He used to do an Arabic night on Thursdays where he'd just play Arabic music. He would tell me like, "Hey, I'm playing a party in the peninsula. It's a Cuban family, so I'm just playing Cuban music.”

And he would do it. And then he would go play at another party and just play Nigerian music.

what would you do with all those CDs?

When I traveled, I would spend half my time figuring out what CDs I wanted to bring. A third of my bag would be CDs. Back then there was no other way.

😭😭 oh my god

I still have all my CDs. My collection sits right there [on the shelf] and I'll never get rid of them, ever. Those CDs have only been played like once or twice.

It's different now, but I do think that like vinyl, CDs are gonna make a comeback. I haven't done the test myself but everyone says the quality is better.

I remember once I burned them all, Apple came out with iTunes. I can't tell you how many hours I spent uploading them all to iTunes. 20,000 songs that I still have on my laptop and hard drive.

[the itunes era] felt so brief. i would spend all this time meticulously changing the song info, the album cover etc. then once streaming hit, it's like, alright i don't need to do that any more 🤪

switching gears a bit, what did you play for [my sister and i] when we were younger?

Anything I had, I wanted to expose you guys to it. Like pretty much everything I listen to, you guys listen to. Really. I remember playing CAKE all the time. I remember Moby. I remember Fatboy Slim.

[At the time], I wasn't really listening to traditional Colombian music [back then] although it's still a part of me today.

CAKE especially. i'll always forever associate CAKE with you. how did you find them?

I heard them through [the radio station] Alice 97.3 in San Francisco. They used to do those free concerts in Golden Gate Park. They really caught my eye.

how do you share music nowadays with [my baby sisters] Rosa and Raquel?

They get the CAKE treatment for sure. It's obvious they get the Tom Petty treatment.

[editor’s note: my dad’s wifi name is “Full Moon Fever” after Tom Petty’s album and my sisters regularly sing “I Won’t Back Down” lmao]

😂😂 yeah, yeah

When they were younger it was just playing music while in front of them, not necessarily for them. [Nowadays,] I like to share music with them as well listening to what they like.

We ask them, "Hey, what do you want to hear?" [Especially] if we're on a road trip. They go through their phases for a while [like with] Dua Lipa, The Greatest Showman soundtrack, or Mamma Mia!.

wrapping things up, Run It Back is basically the manifestation of all the stuff you share with me and it's the same love of connecting with people over music

it's so cool that you've subscribed and read it and stuff, because i'm like, man, this is like... this is all [because of] you. you know? so like, what do you think of it now?

I think it's great. It's funny, it's witty. [editor’s note: i’ve gotten all the validation i need for the rest of the year 😌] You open up and share your feelings. Like the... What was that tax joke? What state did you file your taxes in?

a classic

oh my god 😂😂

Some people who don't know you might read it and think, "Oh, he's just telling a joke." For people who do know you, they probably are able to read a little bit more into what you write.

I like the fact that you stuck with it. It’s another way to learn something about you.

And the music itself. There was this one artist I forget. You're like... Oh, I can't remember the artist now, but like, you talked about this hip-hop artist but who's kind of chill and not intense or something like that?

Larry June?

Yeah, so I listened to it. I went over to Alexa and was like, "Play Larry June." I get to know you better through listening to what you like.

You open up new music to me and I think that’s awesome. I'm so happy for you and I think it's something you should continue. And yeah, it's pretty cool to read them.

i appreciate it. it's a generational thing. [your dad] passed it to you, you're passing a version of it to me and the girls. so whenever we have kids, it's going to be the same thing

it's like i mentioned in the beginning: [all the music you’ve shared with us], we're always going to think of you when we listen to them

i appreciate you doing this, Papi

Yeah, of course. Love you, Claudio.

love you too 🥹😌