Free Nationals
American musical group
Free Nationals are an American R&B band formed in Los Angeles, California. The group consists of José Ríos (lead guitar, backing vocals), Ron "T.Nava" Avant (keyboard, rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Kelsey González (bass guitar, bass synth) and Callum Connor (drums, percussion, backing vocals). They frequently accompany Anderson .Paak as his backing band.
History
Guitarist José Ríos and keyboardist Ron Avant met Anderson .Paak while studying at Musicians Institute in Hollywood, California in the late 2000s. Bassist Kelsey Gonzalez and drummer Callum Connor joined them soon after and they formed the Free Nationals. The band went on to produce for Anderson and frequently tour with him. The idea for their name came from their mentor Shafiq Huisayn. Free Nationals is a term which means the first settlers of America before Columbus came, the people indigenous to the land. They took their own interpretation of this, being 'indigenous to the music' by paying homage to the influential musicians before them.
Their performance with Paak at his NPR Tiny Desk Concert in August 2016 is possibly their most significant appearance to date.
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This entry incorporates text from “Free Nationals” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.