We were lucky to catch up with Red Padilla recently and have shared our conversation below.

Red, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I didn’t ever think of music that way. I had dreams of being known for music but I didn’t actually pursue a career until I was 36. Growing up I never really knew what I wanted to do but I think that was because all I’ve ever wanted to do was music. I went to college but never finished and didn’t do well. Not because I wasn’t smart, it was because nothing interested me. The traditional path was never for me. I grew up with an incurable immune deficiency. I will always need insurance to afford the medicine to keep me alive. So I always though I just had to have a 9-5 job to live. I was doomed to it since birth. Forced to live a normal uninspired life, my potential always held in the chains of our system. I gave up playing all music for 10 years. I always wished and dreamed but never acted. I went through a rough divorce. I started going out to live music for the first time in probably 15 years. I went to a bar called Brickyard on Dauphin St and saw a band play and Jennifer Hartswick was sitting in on trumpet. The place was packed and they were killing it. It was at that moment that I stopped saying to myself I wish and started saying I’m gonna. That shift in mental perception changed my life that night. That was 5 years ago. I went from that moment to have one album, to having a growing successful band, to getting ready to put out a second effort and working with platinum recording artsit and grammy producers.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I lead and front Red and the Revelers an 8 piece high energy original swamp soul band out of Mobile, AL. I grew up playing and singing music from the age of 3. Started piano around the age of 4-5 and was classically trained until I was 18. Started guitar when I was 15 and never looked back lol. We are currently set to tour the southeast over the next few months in support of several releases we have coming up. We have a brand new single “Shattered Lives” off our upcoming album “Real Big Deal” that is coming out on March 4th with the album to follow in August. I work very hard to market and brand ourselves in a way that is not only appealing and fun but dynamic and memorable. When I first started out I was just a solo acoustic artist and then I met my brother Abe Partridge. He is a fantastic songwriter, visual artist, and podcaster out of Mobile, AL as well. He was like a mentor to me starting out. He knew the path I wanted to take and had walked it before. He gave me some great trail advice that saved me a lot of time and kept me from just wondering around trying to figure everything out. One night back at Brickyard the same bar that I decided to go for a career in original music we were playing a show and during break we were approached by some gentlemen. They turned out to be the popular rock band Collective Soul. They had played the Civic Center that same night earlier and came to check us out afterwards. We got hooked up with Will Turpin, founding member and bass player, and we’ve been working with him since.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I’ve become very driven almost obsessed with “making it.” I think a lot of that stems from thinking for so long that it was absolutely out of reach for me. I still work a 9-5 and tour on weekends. It keeps me super busy but I love it. I don’t mind it right now. Eventually I will leave my job when it makes sense financially but right now I use it as a tool to fund what I really do for a living. Most people will my immune deficiency do not leave normal healthy lives. Most are very sick. I was lucky to have been diagnosed early in live before a lot of damage was done to may body. As a matter of fact majority don’t live past the ages of 40-45. I will turn 41 in April this year. I think that drives me a lot. I have been lucky. I lead a normal life. I am not sick much but I feel it catching up to me as I get older. I feel like I’m living on borrowed time. I was blessed with it so I am going to push as hard as I can to make that time worth as much as possible. Money is not my measure for success. I am driven to created something that will last long past my life. That will touch someone’s life 400 years in the future. That’s a big task. I put that on myself so I don’t have the choice to stop or slow down. It’s not a luxury I give myself.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect is seeing people enjoy what I make. Being able to create not only a piece of music but an entire experience that allows people to let themselves go and just enjoy life. Seeing them dance no matter who is watching, or just singing along or screaming, just seeing people’s true selves for a brief moment. That and validation from your heroes lol.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.redandtherevelers.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/redandtherevelers
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/redandtherevelers
• Youtube: youtube.com/channel/UC_OHLBDYOo00UVMfjiZpgbQ

Image Credits
Robin Miller