Eric Krasno is not a name you may associate with Bonnaroo. In fact, you may not know his name at all.
Besides curating/performing in this year’s Superjam and performing with Lettuce, Krasno also has his hands in albums from Bonnaroo performers Allen Stone, The London Souls, and Lawrence. He has been involved with curating four Superjams at Bonnaroo, and performed in the festival’s inaugural year.
“It’s been incredible”, says Krasno. “Bonnaroo is a huge thing for me. I get to do it so often. Throughout all of the Superjams, I’ve had the opportunity to meet so many great musicians and players that I’ve ended up collaborating with. It’s a huge part of my musical past.”
Krasno is no stranger to working with different musicians, and creating friendships with them that have influenced his career.
“I had done a collaborative event in New Orleans with Paul Peck, the organizer of Superjam. Him and I became good friends and we got into a good rhythm of working on these things. Over the years, I got used to the rhythm of how that works, putting people together, communicating with people, and putting together setlists. He just kept putting me in there and I’ve always been like “Alright, coach! Let’s go!”. It’s been great and I feel blessed to do it.”
It takes a special appreciation and respect of different genres and musical styles to be able to organize some of the truly unique Superjams that Bonnaroo has provided over the years, which Krasno believes is necessary when curating.
“That’s the big thing,” he says. “Being able to understand, put on different shoes, and bounce between genres. I am a fan of music generally. I like so many different styles of music and I’ve collaborated with many different styles of musicians. It’s a blessing to do that. I grew up on so many different influences, and I’ve tried to absorb that as much as I can and feed that into my own music.”
He recently finished producing Aaron Neville’s new album, Apache, which is out in July. He says working with Neville on this album was a “dream come true”.
“It was a very in depth process to work with him and I’m a huge fan of his,” says Krasno.
“He sent me all of his poems that he had been working on, like 50 poems, and I was able to work with my partner Dave Gutter, who I write with, and we just shaped them into a bunch of songs. We got together with him (Neville), some of the Lettuce guys, some of the Dap Kings, and got all of these great musicians. Watching that come to fruition, with one of my heroes, was awesome.”
Krasno’s new solo album, Blood from a Stone, will be released on July 8, via his own label Feel Music/Round Hill. This is the first time Krasno has performed lead vocals on an album.
“I started piecing together songs that I felt I could represent with a band. I started crafting a vision of what I wanted it to be. It just caught fire after I started,” he says. “I think I was finding my voice, but also finding the sound and genre and blend that was going to work for me.”
However, he says that this process did not come quickly.
“There was a lot of time that passed from starting the project to finishing the project. In the middle, I was doing a lot of other stuff, but I always had it on the backburner. I had time to think it over, listen to the tracks, and was eventually able to reel it into a cohesive album. It definitely took time.”
When asked if he prefers producing or performing, Krasno says he “always wants to dabble in both”.
“I’m still trying to find this balance so I can do both, because I love both,” he says. “It reaches people. There’s no thrill better than listening back to a track you put together, though.”
“I listen to music constantly every day, as most people do, and I have a curious mind with it comes to music. I always want to know how they did this, how they did that, what gear they used.”
When it comes down to it, Eric Krasno is the musician we tend to love. His passion and enthusiasm for creating, producing, and performing all styles of music is contagious, and it’s that authenticity that the listener thrives for.
“You never know if people are going to love what you love. If you love what you’re doing, it’s going to carry through. I make music because I love it.”
