Anderson .Paak writes his music for localities. His first album was named Venice, followed by Malibu and Oxnard. Now, coming off the high of winning his first Grammy (Best Rap Performance for “Bubblin”), he’s releasing another in April, Ventura, produced at the same time as Oxnard. “Growing up in Oxnard gave me the grit and the church to find this voice of mine. One town over, I went further and found my depth,” he said when he announced it. Read more…

His North American tour, which kicks off in May, is anything but local. .Paak is hitting Madison Square Garden and Red Rocks, among other massive venues, bringing with him Earl Sweatshirt, Noname, Thundercat, and more. But he still knows the value of a neighborhood dive bar to musicians, even as these places start to disappear.

“My band grew up playing tons of hours in local bars,” .Paak says. “It was a lot of our foundation, a lot of our instinct, and made us tight as a unit. I felt like when you take these places away it loses identity. The neighborhood loses identity.”

And so as he and the Free Nationals play some of the biggest stages in America, he’s also trying to save the local scene. His new partnership with Jameson asks fans to “Love Thy Bar,” with Jameson putting up $1 million to get folks to support their neighborhoods spots. As he says in the campaign, as many as six local bars are closing each day in America. .Paak spoke to Esquire about his earliest gigs at bars like these, working on Ventura with Dr. Dre, and his upcoming tour.

How is playing in front of a live audience different than honing your skills in a studio or a basement?
Nerves. You do a lot of things in the little studio by yourself, in your closet. Nobody’s around, it doesn’t work, you can start over. But when you’re on that stage, it could be 20 people or it could be 20,000, you have to look at people. You only get one time to do it, and you gotta make it right. You start to see what people are made of, if they’re superstars or if they’re not.

What memories do you have from your early days playing in neighborhood bars?
We literally used to have no place to stay. We go to the downtown and we play at our gig at a bar called Sharlene’s. They would pay us 300 bucks to play pretty much all night, but they would feed us too. We had to be out at a certain time or else we would miss the last train. And then never would we be out at certain times ’cause we would be there having a good time, partying after we played. Sometimes [the owner would] be cool that when we’d stay, we’d lock the spot up, and we had a second after-party there. Everybody is gone, usually in the morning, and then we catch the first train out. We clean up the place and go about the day.

Read more with the interview via Esquire