Robert Jon and The Wreck Press Photo / Bryan Greenberg with permission
We’re back to kickoff Season 4 of The Load Out Music Podcast with Southern California-based up-and-comers Robert Jon & The Wreck, speaking with the band’s understated founder and frontman, Robert Jon Burrison.
The Wreck, which has been together since 2011, has a tremendous new record out called “One of a Kind.” It’s the first of a series of singles and EPs to be released in 2023, and the songs have been created in partnership with legendary producers including Don Was (The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt) and Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, Jason Isbell, The Highwomen) among other producers, and are being released by blues legend Joe Bonamassa’s Journeyman Records.
With 10 records released over 13 years, it’s been a painstaking yet satisfying tenure for the band which presently includes Burrison on lead vocals and guitar, Andrew Espantman on drums and background vocals, Jake Abernathy on keyboards, Henry Schneekluth on lead guitar and background vocals), and Warren Murrel on bass.
“We’re growing up as we’re doing this,” said Burrison. “We’re learning what takes priority in each other’s lives…We were all in our early 20s, you know, and the early 20s and late 20s are the most formidable years.”
Burrison said the band collectively writes all of The Wreck’s music. It’s an organic process to songwriting where, he said, “We just start jamming and somebody plays something that’s cool…It’s a brotherhood. We’re a family and we’re all working together and sacrificing together.”
Known for its electrifying live shows, The Wreck has built a global following with soaring guitar leads, boogieing grooves, rich vocal harmonies, and memorable tunes. And like the legendary band Little Feat—whose founder, Bill Payne, we spoke to last season on The Load Out—the band brings a diverse dynamic blending southern roots music with blues, rock, funk and country among other styles.
“We thought you were from Atlanta or Georgia or Jacksonville and you’re not,” Burrison said he is most often asked. “And then I say, ‘You’re right and you’re right. We’re from Southern California. We’re playing music that we love.’”
So have a listen to our conversation with Robert Burrison of Robert Jon & The Wreck to kickoff Season 4 of The Load Out Music Podcast.