In 2020, Rudy De Anda moved his homebase out of California for the 1st time. He was headed East. Somewhere in the back of the U-Haul, among the boxes and stuff, was a mostly finished record. Once getting to Chicago, Rudy quickly found the final pieces of his new LP, ‘Closet Botanist’. It’s due out April 28th on Colemine/Karma Chief Records. The album was recorded in Austin, Texas at the Electric Deluxe recording studio, owned & operated by friend of the proGram Adrian Quesada, who helped produce & engineer this new LP. Rudy’s previous releases have grown synonymous with California sunshine. He was born in Los Angeles and spent most of his formative years in Long Beach. ‘Closet Botanist’ isn’t a total departure from Rudy’s beachy, psych-rock roots, but it does sound more mature. Most of the songs were written back in California with the help of Rudy’s previous bandmates. “Tu Mirada” was one of the first songs he wrote in Chicago. Then, a local friend helped him find “Hey Mr. Sun.” Rudy connected with Blake Rhein (Durand Jones and the Indications) during the final weeks of writing and the two worked on Blake’s tune, another step of maturity as this was something Rudy previously had not done to date. To get the sound just right, Rudy called his California bandmates to the studio. Jon Rivera played bass, Daniel Villareal laid down the drums, and Kyle Davis took care of the organ, piano & synth leads. Adrian Quesada produced the album & Aaron Glembowski engineered the sessions. The band recorded directly to tape to channel a classic rock n’ roll sound. Rudy points to The Velvet Underground & The Kinks for direct inspiration. Rudy dedicates the album to those who love so hard that they neglect to water their own garden. Even in a much colder climate, the closet botanist continues to grow.
I had the pleasure of spending a little time talking with Rudy ahead of his April 26th event in Madison at The Bur Oak. We painted a little scene of what event goers should expect when in that space together. We got pretty deep into the new album – learning how things got accomplished, how Adrian and he worked and how the final product, in my humble opinion, is a step into the future of this psych soul sound. With that, Rudy takes the question on of building a setlist with a track off ‘Botanist’ and as usual, I feel the listeners would not mind if another artists took over the driver’s seat of the show. HA!
