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FN: I learned music by sneaking into the University of California Berkeley pretending to be a

student. There I would sit in the piano practice room and imitate what was happening around me. I
would come to find out later in life those were scales.
LL: What artists have influenced your music?

FN: Everyone that was great. I like the classics. Robert Johnson, Skip James, David Bowie, Prince,

OutKast, James Brown. My influences are vast and many.

LL: Could you tell us about your early career …. your path to where you are now?

FN: Earlier in my career I was
idealistic. The idea of fame
was comforting to me. I signed

a huge deal that ended up
being a complete failure. I
ended up getting out of that
deal due to a near fatal car
accident that destroyed my

playing hand and left me in a
coma for three weeks. That
was the end of one thing and
the beginning of another. I
think the journey of Fantastic
Negrito was an artist that
wasn’t looking for fame. It

was more of a midlife crisis of
busking in the streets. At that point of my life, I just wanted to contribute something. It is a much
different feeling than wanting to have something.

LL: When and how did you find your “artist” voice?

FN: I think I found it on the street busking in 2014. This was the birth of Fantastic Negrito,
unapologetic, bold, fearless.

LL: Let’s talk about your latest release “Have You Lost Your Mind Yet”. Could you talk your
concept and vision for this album?

FN: This album I was trying to talk about mental health and how it affects myself and those around
me. I like to say mental wealth. “Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?” is exploring the consequence of the
social media era. We live in this age of mass information and disinformation. We live in this era of
many truths which seems ridiculous. I looked around and wrote this album about my peers, my
friends and how we were coping in the age of followers, likes, proliferation of gun violence, police

brutality in an overly medicated society.

LL: I hear a lot of Prince and The Beatles in “Have You Lost Your Mind Yet”, but not much
blues! More of R&B Pop influence. Did you want to cross into that genre?