Presenting: Before The Moment with Nile Rodgers

Nile Rodgers (0:09)

A lifetime spent making music is a lifetime made up of individual moments. And no moment is more important than the one before the big change. That turning point where a hobby becomes a profession, when struggle becomes success, when pretty good becomes legendary. I'm Nile Rodgers, co-founder of the band Chic, and producer of Pop Hits with some of the industry's top artists. I'm driving around the country in my Lincoln Navigator SUV, talking to some of the coolest, most interesting people in music to discuss their journey before the moment.

Today, I'm in Los Angeles to talk with my friend Miguel. Miguel's musings on romance and intimacy flow seamlessly through his work and a style that always keeps you guessing. And that's because Miguel has never let one genre define him. His latest release, CAOS, arrived after an eight-year hiatus. Inside every song, you can hear an artist still experimenting, still pushing, still reinventing himself. It's a great privilege to sit down with an icon, Miguel.

I'd like to welcome you to Before The Moment with my special guest today, Miguel.

Miguel (1:47)

Thanks for having me now, man.

Nile Rodgers (1:48)

Brother, I'm so happy that you're here.

Miguel (1:51)

Stop. No, seriously, come on. Let's just stop.

Nile Rodgers (1:56)

I'm watching your career and it just makes me proud, man. It was your style, your powers of interpretation and just everything is great. So, now I get to learn more about how you became you. What makes Miguel, Miguel? Or Miguel?

Do I want to say it with a Mexican accent or something? It's good. You grew up in New York.

Miguel (2:25)

You know what I'm saying.

Nile Rodgers (2:28)

I know that in your music, you really push the envelope. I really respect you. I love where you're coming from. And I just want to see if I can get a vision of how you view yourself.

Miguel (2:43)

Sheesh.

Man, I'm a black and Mexican kid from San Pedro, and I grew up in Inglewood as well. I never liked to be boxed in. And I think that's a big part of both of my parents. Both of my parents, I think, for the time were very, they may be colored outside of the lines. I mean, even them being together at the time in LA was just not typical. And it may have been different in New York because I think that the relations between Latino people and black people on the East Coast, just historically, have just been a little more like this on the East Coast. And in LA, it just was different.

And so I think that has always been a part of my DNA. And it's made a big, it has so much to do with the way that I, you know, approach music even. And like to push myself to not, I guess, just play in the same sandbox, so to speak. Right. Or abide by the expectations. I just, I just, there's a defiant something in me that feels like what we get to do with what we're given to us greater than us is to maybe connect people to ideas that they wouldn't naturally, you know, connect to.

Nile Rodgers (4:11)

Right.

Miguel (4:12)

And find some universality in that. And so that's, that's, that's really me. I'm just kind of like defiant with love, though.

Nile Rodgers (4:19)

So let's, let me get you to go back. Tell me about the young Miguel, like Miguelito.

Miguel (4:26)

Yeah.

Nile Rodgers (4:29)

Like how'd you find your voice?

Miguel (4:30)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was, that was just pretty much like not stopping. My dad loved all kinds of music. Jazz, funk, a lot of punk music, a lot of classic rock now, a lot of anything that was like danceable at the time. And he's, he's 64, like so his year is 64 So he's kind of gone through all of the great music and absorbed all of that. And also as a Mexican, you know, he's Mexican, he's actually full Mexican and grew up in the States. I think that also has something that pushed him to want to learn everything about what was happening around. And so he was really voracious with his, with his taste. And that really is the, at the core of it, just loving all the music my family played. And, and just falling in love with the way that that made me feel. One song specifically, I think, let me know that I wanted to write music and write songs and what I felt it was about. And that's For All We Know, Donny Hathaway.

Man, to feel that song, and for anyone out there who hasn't heard this song, please go listen to that song. It's amazing.