Eric McFadden

Eric is a celebrated guitar virtuoso/songwriter/vocalist. He’s toured the world both as a solo artist, as well as with funk legend George Clinton (Parliament/Funkadelic), and rock legend Eric Burdon (The Animals). McFadden is a member of the new supergroup, T.E.N, alongside Thomas Pridgen (Mars Volta) and Norwood Fisher (Fishbone). McFadden spent years touring extensively with the Eric McFadden Trio (EMT), which features bass phenomenon James Whiton (Tom Waits) and drummer extraordinaire, Paulo Baldi (Cake, Les Claypool). Eric is also a member of the all-star band, Stockholm Syndrome, which also includes notable players such as Dave Schools (Widespread Panic), Jerry Joseph (Jack Mormons), Wally Ingram (Sheryl Crow) and Danny Louis (Govt Mule). Between 2015 and 2017, Eric spent 2 1/2 years touring as guitarist for New Orleans favorite, Anders Osborne.

Today, we welcome Eric as we explore the intersection of consciousness, psychedelics, and creativity! 

QUOTES:

“My folks were part of the 60’s NYC beatnik scene so I grew up with access to their vast record collection of jazz, rock, etc. In fact, Allen Ginsburg helped my mom when she got evicted, which is pretty cool!”

“First time I took acid, I was 14 & I remember it so vividly. I remember it having a profoundly mind expanding effect, like suddenly things that had previously made no sense in the world were suddenly making sense”

“Psychedelics opened up my mind to be able to receive more and to not see things in such a sterile and rigid way”

“We like to create an illusion of ourselves & then we do everything to keep supporting that illusion, and presently with social media that process is in warp speed”

“We’re all aware on one level or another that we’re really good at deceiving ourselves”

“There’s the pain that’s born of growth & self-discovery vs. the pain that’s simply self-destructive & full of misery. If you’re gonna be in pain anyway, you might as well go for the former!” 

Daniel: “We know that Bill W. liked his LSD & that it helped him sort of get clear with himself. The process of geting clear is actually pretty basic!”

“Once you get a taste of clarity, you really wanna keep going with it. And the farther you go down the road of self-healing, you’re like ‘why the hell would I wanna go back to the old ways?’

“Being able to chip away at your own crap is just amazing, chipping off the stuff that’s not your best self & revealing the magic that’s underneath the layers.”

“There are a lot of musicians who when they get sober, we perceive their music as being less powerful as it was before. But, there are some artists who seem to get better when they sober up, like Tom Waits”