photo by Merrick Ales

Austin-based group Black Pumas will release their self-titled debut studio album this Friday, June 21, and today we offer a sneak peek at the full LP.

The band—led by vocalist Eric Burton and Grammy-winning guitarist/producer Adrian Quesada, who met after a mutual friend turned Quesada onto Burton’s impressive busking efforts in downtown Austin—craft soulful songs with timeless melodies and heavy influence from R&B and hip-hop.

“We just take to the same kind of music,” Burton says of his relationship with Quesada. “I listen to East Coast hip-hop, old soul music, folk music. When Adrian sent me the songs, it was like I had already heard them before. We were on the same wavelength from the get-go.”

“We didn’t want to just do throwback soul and pretend that hip-hop never happened,” Quesada adds. “It had to feel sincere coming from us. I have a certain aesthetic in the studio, and Eric has a voice that evokes a certain era, but I don’t think we reference that too directly.”

Listen to Black Pumas below. The band plays a hometown album-release show this Friday in Austin before kicking off a run of summer tour dates next week. See their full schedule here.

Black Pumas Tracklist:

1. Black Moon Rising 
2. Colors 
3. Know You Better 
4. Fire 
5. OCT 33 
6. Stay Gold 
7. Old Man 
8. Confines 
9. Touch the Sky 
10. Sweet Conversations