For their first-ever ACL performance, The Point got funky, taking us through a genre-bending hour of the eclecticism we’ve come to love from the trio. The group is made up of Joe Roddy on organ, Jack Montesinos on guitar, and Nico Leophonte on drums. Just last year, The Point performed at Local Live – a set that got all of us dancing. The band brought that same energy to their ACL stage, fusing improvisation with well-loved tracks and delivering on a psychedelic hour.
After their lively set, we sat down with The Point to talk about their ACL debut, what drives artists to create, and more. Check out our interview with The Point below.
It’s your first time at ACL! How are you guys feeling after that performance?
All: Great!
Montesinos: The weather's nice; the trees are beautiful.
Roddy: I’m glad we’ve been able to stay in the shade.
Leophonte: We have friends with us, family here; it couldn’t be better.
You guys performed at Local Live before this album came out. How does life look different since that performance?
Roddy: It’s a lot different. It’s been a pretty busy year for us, but I go back and listen to that taping a lot because the mix is so fucking good. The bass and drums are so punchy. And all those songs we played back in the day, we play differently now, so it’s nice to go back and hear what we used to do.
Montesinos: Lowkey, we’re just trying to chase the sound we had at KVRX. It’s our favorite recording.
Roddy: That KVRX sound; hip ass shit dude.
For those that don’t know, you started out as a duo making hip hop beats. How did the group get where it is now?
Roddy: I don’t know what the driving factor was behind us needing a drummer. Do you remember?
Montesinos: We wanted to get more gigs at certain venues.
Roddy: It’s kinda hard to convince people, you know, “Yo! We got beat machines!”
Montesinos: We were like, we gotta start a real band because this sampler drum machine is not cutting it.
Roddy: We had to get legit.
Leophonte: And let me send a shoutout to the first drummer, an Italian drummer, Alberto Tello. He’s actually a genius – he fixes amps…
Roddy: He’s a mad scientist.
Leophonte: He's a phenomenal drummer, and I love his playing because he’s so unique. Nobody plays like this guy. I couldn’t play with these guys the way I play if it wasn’t for Alberto. He made them just right.
Nico – you were originally a cab driver and drummed on the side. Are there any lessons or tricks you learned as a driver that you carry with you in your musicianship today?
Leophonte: It teaches you one thing: humility. You’re at the bottom of the ladder in the minds of people. Second: it teaches you about people. You’re more than a shrink, and when people get into your cab, they open up like they wouldn’t open up to anybody because they think they will never see you again. After five minutes, you can tell if they want to talk, and you listen and learn a lot.
Any interesting stories from that time?
Leophonte: Oh yeah, the craziest was a good one. Because of a lady who came into my cab, I ended up buying a piece of land I really love. She told me I should buy there, and I listened.
You guys went on a European tour over the summer and performed with Mdou Moctar. How do you stay sane on the road?
Roddy: I was wondering that same thing before we went out. I was a little nervous because that was our first long tour. But once we got out there, just travelling and hanging out with each other, it didn’t feel like I was going insane one bit. By the end of it, I was like “dude let’s just go another couple weeks.” It was just so cool to go to these places that none of us had ever been to. And that we could experience it for the first time together.
Montesinos: We bring lots of books, and we talk a lot to each other.
Roddy: It’s like a book club; a travelling book club.
Are y’all reading anything good right now?
Leophonte: Always.
Roddy: The People’s History of the United States. It’s really good. Howard Zinn. And I’ve been reading this book by Tad Williams called Otherland; it’s a sci-fi book.
Montesinos: I’m reading Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.
What did the writing process for this new album look like?
Montesinos: We just got in there and played everything we had been playing in our live set. We had been playing all the songs for maybe six months to a year. And we recorded it in two days, and that was it.
How do you know when a song is done – at least in the studio?
Montesinos: When the record was long enough.
Leophonte: We record pretty quick. What you see now is kind of instant. On the new record there are several tunes that were one take. For the others, we rarely do more than three or four takes. Take one or two is always in there, and we just add on top to make it a bit richer. If that bottom isn’t there at the very moment it’s recorded, it doesn’t work. But we kind of know. We don’t even have to talk about it; we know if it felt good.
You’re all well-established in the Austin music scene. What are some of your favorite venues as performers and audience members? Is it different?
Roddy: I think it is a little bit different.
Montesinos: I love playing at The White Horse, but I don’t really like seeing music there because I don’t dance.
Roddy: That’s a perfect example. I like going to The Gallery, and I also like playing at the gallery. It doesn’t happen a lot, so when it does it’s a big deal. It’s very cozy there.
Leophonte: The sound of The Gallery is one of the most amazing sounds in town.
Roddy: Radio/East, too.
Lastly, why are you making music?
Montesinos: Well, I think all artists have a thing in them that drives them toward it. They have no choice. If it’s really you, then I don’t think you can escape it. I think I play music because I have to play music. I don’t know anything else. My great-grandfather died so early because I think he was supposed to be a musician his whole life but wasn’t allowed to be. We all have to do what we do. If you’re a poet, you have to write poetry and share it. It doesn’t matter if you make any money. You do it anyway.
Roddy: It’s about how it makes you feel, you know. There’s this undeniable thing within an artist hat like drives them to make art. You can feel the way it makes you feel. There’s that connection to the soul that you can’t get in any other way. Or maybe you can, but this is my way and our way.
Leophonte: I just can’t imagine my life without music. The more you play, the more you wanna play it’s crazy. some people stop learning, we still wanna learn. I want my best time to be my last time. I want that to be the moment where it’s like “ahh, that was badass.” And we share a lot of what we listen to, and it’s cool because you hear from other people expressing themselves. It’s all about feeling, like Joe said. I mean music is magic; music is medicine. It makes us feel all good — look at all these people here braving the heat and dust just to listen to music. It’s still mind blowing to me that we get to do this.