Where Are They Now with Randiesia Fletcher and Erick Grillo

On this week’s episode, we’re going to take a look back at two guests we’ve had on Randiesia Fletcher and Erick Grillo. They both had some big events recently and we’re going to catch up and talk about those and reflect back on an interview we did with Erick back in 2022.

Today is January 29th, my name is Tom Heath and you’re listening to “Life Along the Streetcar”.

Each and every Sunday our focus is on Social, Cultural and Economic impacts in Tucson’s Urban Core and we shed light on hidden gems everyone should know about. From A Mountain to the U of A and all stops in between. You get the inside track- right here on 99.1 FM, streaming on DowntownRadio.org- we’re also available on your iPhone or Android using our very own Downtown Radio app. Reach us by email [email protected] — interact with us on Facebook at LifeAlongTheStreetcar and follow us on Twitter @StreetcarLife

Transcript (Unedited)

Good morning. It’s a beautiful Sunday in the old pueblo and you’re listening to KT. DT Tucson. Thank you for spending a part of your brunch hour with us us on your Downtown Tucson community sponsored, volunteer powered rock and roll radio station.

On this week’s episode, we’re going to take a look back at two guests we’ve had on Randiesia Fletcher and Erick Grillo. They both had some big events recently and we’re going to catch up and talk about those and reflect back on an interview we did with Erick back in 2022.

Today is January 29, 2023. My name is Tom Heath and you’re listening to Life along the Streetcar. Each and every Sunday, our focus is on social, cultural and economic impacts in Tucson’s urban core and we shed light on hidden gems everyone should know about. From a mountain to the University of Arizona and all stops in between. You get the inside track right here on 99.1 FM streaming on downtownradio.org. Also available on your iPhone or Android using our very own Downtown Radio Tucson app. Can make sure you put the Tucson in there.

I think you end up with the.

Irish radio station if you just put in Downtown radio and it wouldn’t be.

A bad thing, but you wouldn’t be.

Getting the cool Downtown Radio Tucson music and information on the show. You can reach us through our website lifelongstreetcar.org. Also have information about our past episodes, our book and ways to contact us. We’re also on Instagram, Facebook and of course the podcast is out there on all kinds of different platforms. So we’ve been talking a lot about the Tucson Gallery, something that I opened with a couple of business partners at the corner of Fifth and Congress.

And it’s been fun because we have.

Sort of intersection of all these lives coming together. Rendissia Fletcher is one of the artists who’s been had her artwork displayed in the gallery and she was the very first feature of something we’re doing through the Tucson gallery called Meet the Artist. So last week on Thursday Randicia came in, we celebrated her. She had a ton of fans, 40 or 50 people showed up to celebrate her talk about her art. She got to interact with them and share her process. She recorded a video that’s going to be on the Faces of Tucson website and she also recorded a podcast called Meet the Artist which will eventually air on the Tucson Galleries website. It was just fun to talk with her in an artistic setting because when she’s been on the show, we’ve always talked about her and her husband Herman. Their efforts to help with sustainable, sustainable farming and people growing their own gardens within their own communities, affordable housing and her community work. So to have a chance to sit and talk with

her and enjoy her artistic side was just a lot of fun. So I was excited to see that. And when the podcast is done, meet the artist with Randy CF Fletcher. We’ll post to that from our pages as well and then also at the proper shops in which the Tucson Gallery is housed. They brought in some entertainment and I was surprised. I walked out front. It was Eric Grio, who we had interviewed about a year ago, and I got talking with him and asked how his things were going because about a year ago when we spoke, he said he was working on some singles. Well, just on Friday, a couple of days ago, his first single dropped. So I thought in honor of that, we would circle back to that interview we did in May of 2022 so he can learn a little about his history, his background, how he came here to Tucson. And then we’re going to wrap up the show today with his brand new single, which you can find all kinds of places like Spotify and others. So here’s the interview we did back in 2022 in May with Eric Grio.

So, Eric, I appreciate you taking some time out of what I imagine is.

A busy day to chat with us.

Here about all kinds of stuff. I mean, first of all, I found about you because you are a musician and you played a lot of restaurants and clubs in downtown.

Yeah. So I guess I play at Charles Stake in Del Rey. I also play at the Monica. I play at high wire. Where else? I play at La Chingada. Those are the spots that I play at regularly right now, playing at Borderlands, I played at Arizona Sands Club, which is inside of the U of A stadium, football stadium. Yeah, I played at a lot of spots.

It might be easier just to ask you the places you haven’t played. That could be the best way.

Yeah, I’ve been trying to, I guess, play as many places I possibly can.

So you haven’t been in Tucson that long. When did you move here?

So I moved to Tucson just about January of 2020. I actually moved from Maui, Hawaii. I was living there for about three years and before that I was born and raised in Miami, Florida. But yeah, I moved right before the Pandemic, funny enough. And then I wasn’t tending on getting gigs as soon as I moved here, but once the Pandemic hit, everything, as you know, went to like a screeching hole.

It’s a perfect time to be in the entertainment business. Is March of 2020.

Correct?

In a new city. But obviously it’s working out. People are coming back. There’s a lot of life and a lot of the places you mentioned are in the downtown area or surreal, lots of people out there. How does a musician go about getting that type of business? Do you have an agent? Do people call you or you just go in with your guitar and start playing until they kick you out? How does that work?

Yeah, I guess at one point last year, in about maybe I’d say probably in June or July, I set myself the goal to get one gig. And I just incessantly was going around asking tons of places to let me play. And obviously, I don’t have any sort of background here locally in Tucson. I literally moved here knowing a handful of people that live here and that aren’t in the entertainment business. And so eventually, through, like, a friend that was a bartender at the University of Arizona, the Arizona Sands Club, rather, they got me a gig there. And so in August, I played my first gig. It was like, late August, I played my first gig at the Arizona Sands Club. And then it just kind of kept moving on from there. Once I played that gig, I was like, I want to be a full time musician. I want to do this and nothing else. Just this. And so I set myself the goal of essentially acquiring as many recurring weekly gigs as I could possibly get so that I can support a career in music as a musician. And yeah,

I mean, it’s exactly what it sounds like. It was a lot of phone calls. It was a lot of, like, researching different restaurants, bars, clubs, and then literally visiting them like four, five, six times until I got a yes. Most places I got nos at most places I got knows that. But the places that I got yes is that they love me. So they’ve had me recurring with them for a minute.

What type of music do you play? I saw the guitar on your Facebook. But do you play the guitar singer, or are you part of a band?

Correct.

So as of right now, I’m just doing like a singer songwriter situation where I sing and play acoustic guitar particularly. And I play mostly a lot of Latin music and RMB as well, and some pop. So I essentially just play the music that I love personally, which I think is incredibly fulfilling for me, quite frankly. I do know that as a culture, I feel like perhaps Tucson, as it pertains to singer songwriters, is very heavy on the country music side of things. And I think perhaps as a singer songwriter, that’s something that makes me stand out a bit is the fact that I do Latin music and I also do RMB. And even more specifically, the Latin music that I play is not necessarily, for lack of better words, it’s not Mexican music because of the fact that I’m actually Cuban. So I play a lot of Latin music that I guess is a little bit more reflective of my culture, like acoustic covers of Regatta and artists like, for example, Bad Bunny, like Jay Balvin, like Maluma, like Balix, these artists that

essentially put out Regatta music. I figure out my own little acoustic guitar riff to these things and I sing them nice.

Are you writing your own music as well?

I am. I’m currently working on two songs that have that sort of same exact vibe to them, like Latin RMB. I do have elements of afrobeat as well because I love afrobeat and these two songs that I’m working on, and I’m looking to release them hopefully sometime in the next two months. I’m just trying to finish mixing and mastering my vocals, but for the most part, the instrumentation is done already.

Well, I’m going to have to connect.

You with the DJ who does the.

Show right before mine.

His name is DJ Bank and he does an RMB set on Sundays. Actually, it’s a lot more than that, but the show is called the Art of Easing, and I’ll tell you, on a Sunday morning, I can’t find a better place for music than what he plays. And it sounds like you’re going to be I mean, the influences that you have are right in line with the.

Stuff that he has that’s exciting.

And there’s a couple of others, too, that do it here on Saturdays and Sundays. So I’ll make some introductions because they might we’re always trying to promote that local artist.

Thank you. And, yeah, I would love that.

Love what you’re doing. And I don’t know, have you had a chance to look too much at Tucson’s history? Because you kind of sound, as you’re talking about all these different influences coming together. We have a very famous Tucson and Lolo Guerrero. He grew up in the barrio here and he’s considered like the father of chicano music, and he started here in Tucson and ended up in La. I don’t know if you’ve had a chance, but he’s someone that you might want to take a look at.

Just give him yeah, I have to quite frankly, I have to educate myself a lot more. Yeah. And to zone in history, for sure. I guess upon moving here, I kind of was just in my bubble with how the pandemic was, and then after that, I just hit the ground running as far as my music goes, so it’s kind of been a little bit head down type situation. But, yeah, I definitely need to educate myself. I definitely need to educate myself on the history.

Yeah, you haven’t been sitting around with too much idle time on your hands.

So, a couple of quick questions.

First of all, you mentioned from Hawaii to Tucson, and a lot of people are going the other way. How does that I get this question a lot, man. What happened? Are you on the run?

Yeah, something like that. No, one of my best friends of life is actually a Tucson local native, if you will, born and raised and lives here, and he actually opened a gym in Marana called Pursuit Fitness. And at the time when I was living in Maui, I had helped another friend of mine open some similar style gyms on the west side of Maui. My best friend here kind of enticed me with a move to Tucson to help him open this business. And I don’t know if it was island fever of having lived on the islands for so long and kind of like wanting to do something new and different, but it was, I guess, a good enough deal for me to just pack my bags and come on over to Tucson, change the scenery a little bit.

Wow. So are you from Hawaii? Were you born in Hawaii?

So I was actually born and raised in Miami, Florida.

Wow.

And moved to Hawaii sometime in like late 2016.

Okay, so you, you’ve been in some of the hot, some of the hottest music scenes then if you were in the Miami area.

It’s true, it’s very true. Man. I have never been this active in music like I am in Tucson. I did have gigs in Maui, I did have gigs in Miami, but it was never my point of focus. It was never something that I was entirely focused on, I think probably more than anything just because I didn’t know if I could sustain a career in music. But it’s obviously doing its thing here in Tucson. So kind of sad. I’m starting it a little bit late, but at the same time, the present is always the right time.

Yeah, exactly. You start when the timing is right.

Exactly.

So we’re in the middle of an interview we did back in 2022, may of 2022 with Eric Grillo. He’s a local musician and plays a lot of different places here, especially in the downtown and urban area. Just on Friday released his very first single and we’re going to play that as we wrap up the show today. And we’re back to the second half of that interview in just a moment, but I remind you that you are listening to Downtown Radio 99.1 FM and streaming on Downtownradio.org.

Greetings and salutations, downtown radio listeners. Paleo Dave, your unfrozen caveman DJ, here to spread the good word about the Scrambled Sunrise rock mix happening every weekday morning from seven to 09:00 A.m. Right here on Downtown Radio from the earliest days of Psych punk and new wave to 80s college rock, 90s alternative and the ongoing wave of 21st century indie rock. It’s all right here on the Scrambled Sunrise. So tune in via 99.1 FM if you’re in the greater downtown area or streaming worldwide via Downtown Radio.org.

All right, let’s get back to that interview we did back in 2022 with Eric Grio, local musician, very excited because we had talked about new music coming out on our show last year and you know what?

Just hit the streaming services on Friday.

Just a couple of days ago. So let’s finish up with that second half of our interview with Eric Grio.

And so you mentioned you came out here to help with the training. That’s something you do as well right, that you’re a physical trainer, correct?

I used to I used to be a personal trainer.

Personal trainer?

Yeah, I used to be a personal trainer. That was basically, let me see, like, I want to say since like, 2014, 2015 to just about this year, that was like my primary mode of income. That was my profession, my job, and before that, I was actually a mental health nurse for a little bit, and I actually left the nursing field for personal training because of how depressing and anxiety inducing the medical field is. I actually worked in psychiatric crisis, adolescent psychiatric crisis for quite some time. But yeah, now that I’m essentially got a full calendar as a musician, I am no longer doing personal training. I’m just doing the music thing, which is really fulfilling.

How does your friend feel about that? Does he feel a pain?

Honestly, my friend is just one of the most kind, loving people ever. So he was incredibly supportive and really, I guess, helpful when it came to the transition. I’m blessed, man. I have some of the best friends that any person could possibly ask for, and he’s one of those people that definitely would like to give the shirt off his back for you. And so he really helped me facilitate, essentially, the process of changing careers over.

Well, that’s pretty impressive. If after just a few months you’ve been able to really transition more into a full time Spot, there a couple of questions that people are going to ask. Where do they find your music? Are you on Spotify SoundCloud? Or where do you have your music hosted?

You know, this is something that I personally need to do a lot better about, and as a matter of fact, I’m getting with somebody next week in order to start the trademarking websites and all that stuff, but I don’t have any music on Spotify right now. I do have some covers on Instagram as far as, like, if you go to the video section of my Instagram profile.

What’s your profile?

So it’s Eric Grill. It’s E-R-I-C-K-G-R-I-L-L-O music. That’s my instagram username. And if you go on my profile under the video section, you’ll see a lot of long form video as it pertains to, like, acoustic covers to Latin songs as well as English songs, RMB style, regret, a whole bunch of stuff. However, hopefully I’ll be having a lot more covers on YouTube and even more on Instagram as well. The goal is more than anything, though, for me to put these two original songs out on Spotify and on all streaming platforms within the next two months or so.

Okay, and so the best way for people to kind of keep up with you is through Instagram.

Correct. As of right now, it’s the best way to keep up with me.

We’ll definitely link to that from our pages so that people can find you. But what if they want to hear you live? You’ve got to be playing. If you’re playing every day, what are some upcoming dates that you’ve got?

Yeah,

basically Thursdays. Every Thursday I’m at La China downtown, which is off of Pennington and Scott. I’m there from six to nine. Every other Friday I’m at Highwire from seven to nine. So on the 13th, which I think this is going to air on Sunday actually, so the upcoming Friday I will be at Charles de Gaulle Rey, and then the next Friday I’ll be at Highwire.

Okay, so the 20th you’ll be at Charo, and then 27th you’ll be at Highwire.

Correct. And I alternate Fridays like that, on and off. And then Saturday morning I play at Chaturo Viva, which is like a vegan restaurant. I play their brunch from twelve to two.

Okay.

And then on Saturday nights I play again at Chad Rose and Del Rey. But this time I play on their seafood side. Because if you guys are familiar, they have a steak side and they have a seafood side. Essentially two different dining rooms right off the fifth in Broadway. And then Sunday I play at the Monica. I play at the Monica from eleven to one, and then I play from four to six.

Okay, so not only with all of these places are you going to hear good music and some nice drinks. You’re going to get some fantastic food as well.

For Rio, it is really good vibes as well. A lot of really cool places.

Yeah. Talk to me. We have a few minutes left here. Talk to me about the vibe. When I’ve met you, we were at Charles stake. People were coming up to you and just like, talking to you, even the musician was playing. Is this a tight community here in Tucson or are you finding a good fit within this group?

I must say, I absolutely love Tucson, having moved from Miami and Maui, Hawaii, obviously completely different as it pertains to the physical geographical landscape, if you will, or even the climate. However, as it pertains to the people, I really do enjoy a lot of the people here. People are very kind, polite, they will just come up to you, have a nice conversation. And yes, particularly at these restaurants. These restaurants do a great job at creating a vibe that is really welcoming and makes you feel like a community, to say the least. Especially, I would have to say, like Flores Concepts restaurants. They’re so amazing. To be honest, I love them quite a bit.

Yeah, a lot of the places you mentioned are under that umbrella. And we’ve had Ray on the show talking about that culture that they’re creating within all of their restaurants. And that’s sort of the idea behind this umbrella corporation of Flora’s Concepts.

I would have to agree with that. He definitely has created a culture that goes beyond the food, the people that he hires or that they hire, and just the service that they provide in the community that they create is pretty awesome. It’s pretty amazing.

Well, Eric Grio, you are what I think we would call an upandcoming musician. And I’m kind of excited because really, we can say your career started here in Tucson.

Yes.

It’s crazy.

And we’re going to follow that. We’ll link to your Instagram page, and I’m sure we’ll see you out and about at these clubs and restaurants.

I appreciate your time.

I look forward to hearing the singles.

Yeah, you know what I was going to say, if you don’t mind, can I add one final bit here?

Of course.

So I am looking for essentially a recurring gig downtown on Wednesdays. So if there are any business owners, restaurants owners, bar owners downtown that are interested, please check out my Instagram, check out my videos. You can see essentially live and in studio recordings of what I sound like. And if that’s something you’re interested in, I’m interested in, I would love to essentially do that for you.

Do you want to throw out an email address or anything, or they just get you through Instagram?

It could be my first and last name. E-R-I-C-K-G-R-I-L-L-O. Eric [email protected]. That will work perfectly fine. But quite frankly, if you DM me on Instagram, that’ll work even better.

Okay. All right. So if we want to have one more night of Eric Rio downtown, let’s find someone that will take him in on Wednesdays. Eric, do it. I really appreciate your time, man, and I look forward to hearing you play live.

Thank you, brother. It was a pleasure meeting, and thanks for having me on.

That was Eric Grio back in May of 2022. Since then, I have heard him play on a couple of occasions live, most recently in front of the proper shops on Fifth in Congress. And that’s where I got to talk with him and found out that he had just about, at that point to release a single. It is now out, and we’re going to wrap up the show here with that single in just a couple of minutes. But first, I want to remind you that my name is Tom Heath, and you are listening to Life Along the Streetcar on Downtown Radio 99.1 FM and available for streaming on Downtown Radio.org.

You’re listening to Ktdt, Tucson, Arizona, 99.1 FM, downtown radio. I’m Brother Mark, host of a show called Radio Club Crawl that airs every Tuesday at 03:00 P.m.. We try to focus on most of the bands that are coming through Tucson, and we give you a tasty taste of their music. You want to check out what’s happening around Tucson check out Radio Club Crawl, Tuesdays, 03:00 P.m. Right here on KT DT, tucson, Arizona. 99.1 FM, downtown radio.

Thank you very much.

Enjoy your evening.

Bye bye.

It has been certainly a musical theme here on downtown radio life along the Streetcar. For the last few weeks, if you remember, we had Brian Laidlaw, he’s a musician out of Moab, Utah. He’s going to be in town today about 2 hours over at the Tucson Poetry Center performing songs from his album Silently Loud in which he wrote the music for the to accompany the words of non speaking autistic artists, two of which are from Tucson and will be in attendance today. So after the show I’m going to head over to the Tucson Poetry Center and check out that free concert. And then today we had eric Rio was actually an interview we did about a year ago in May of 2022. In that interview he had talked about doing mostly covers and just getting his feet wet as a club musician and playing a lot of places here in Tucson and also working on a couple of his own original music, hoping to get that out soon. Well, it has happened and as of just a couple of days ago, on Friday, he released a single called One Night.

We’re going to leave you in a few minutes with that song as we wrap up for the show today. But it was fun to catch up with him and it was really exciting to see Randisi as we talked about the beginning of the show in a different light than we normally talk to her as her artistic side because quite honestly, her art is a big chunk of the fundraising she does to fund those community actions. So a really good interview called meet the artist will be out. We’ll link to that. And then also you might want to head over to a web page, faces of Tucson.com. She did a video interview over there, really talking about her community involvement in that crossover with art and community. So it was fun to catch up with her. Man, all kinds of cool stuff happening, but we’re probably missing something and that’s where you come in. If there’s something we should be talking about, a show that you want us to highlight, something that’s a hidden gem that everyone should know about, hit us up on our Facebook or

Instagram, maybe head over to Lifelongstreetcar.org. There’s a contact button there. Just find a way to connect. We’ll stick around. We got Ted Prazelski coming up with words and work as he interviews writers and members of the labor movement. And then Ty Logan at the top of the hour. But we’re going to wrap up today with that promised song from Eric Grio. He is that local musician new to Tucson in the last couple of years, working hard to get this out. And on Friday he released his single one night. I hope you have a great week and tune in next Sunday for more life along the Streetcar.