Photographed by Matt Correia
The Los Angeles based duo, [Mapache](https://instgram.com/mapacheband), returns with their latest album release _From Liberty Street._ The West Coast Pop Americana brain child of Clay Finch and Sam Blasucci, have merged their influences of folk, psychedelic, cowboy, and Latin rhythm to invent their unique blend of heartfelt soundscapes. Mapache’s self-titled debut album cemented their sound in melodic folk rock that encompassed decades and genres, relying on nothing other than their acoustic guitars, charming melodies, and organic arrangements.
Three years later, their long awaited second coming, _From Liberty Street,_ transforms tendrils of sunlight into melodies that will encase listeners into a prairie like atmosphere. Named after the birthplace of their partnership, their fourteen track album transforms their home into something that spans further than architecture. “This record is about as close to the sound of home as you can get,” Blasucci shares. “We recorded it with a bunch of our friends in the house where we were living in a neighborhood that we loved. It’s a family vibe through and though.”
**How did Mapache come to be?**
**Sam Blasucci**: We’ve gone through a few different names and faces as a band since we met in high school and started playing music together. We shared many similar musical interests when we met, as well as a similar lack of interest for our classes which made it easy for us to play together. We just sort of kept going over the years and it snowballed into something more and more important to us as time went on. We gave a good effort to put on some cool shows around the East side of Los Angeles and we were lucky enough to meet Brent Rademaker, who we loved already from Beachwood Sparks. Brent took us in and gave us some shows and introduced us to so many people that we know and love now in our musical community. He was definitely the one that gave us that initial shove into the music world. We love Brent. We played around LA as much as we possibly could and now we wish we could still do that. Playing in our hometown is one of the sweetest experiences. We made our first record with Dan Horne and at that point it really felt like we had made a real record.
**What is the dynamic between the two of you like?**
**Clay Finch:** We are like brothers one hundred percent. We can read each others thoughts. We get sad when we don’t see each other, we get on each others nerves when we’re stuck together, we laugh at the stupidest stuff. We’ve been on all of our most ridiculous adventures together. It’s a huge blessing, we are one hundred percent as close to bliss as you can get.
**How has the multicultural LA neighborhood influenced your sound in?**
**Sam Blasucci**: Living on Liberty Street was influential in a lot of ways, mainly because of the people. It was made special by the other guys that lived there or the people that would seem like they pretty much lived there. New music was pretty much always being made or listened to in that house. We had no real neighbors, which gave us a really nice freedom to make noise at pretty much any hour of the night if we got the urge to play. You just hoped you weren’t the one trying to get some sleep before an early alarm clock or something. The backyard had a perfect view of a billboard on Glendale Blvd that would change pretty often. When we first moved in it was Shaq and the General Insurance Guy. That was the best billboard we ever had. I really think the main thing was just how encouraged we felt to play music. Everyone around was playing and it was so fun and encouraging.
**Who do you picture your listeners to be? What are their hopes and dreams?**
**Clay Finch:** I think our listeners are people looking for something organic, something that isn’t too slick. We try to keep our recorded and live music authentic to our story and unaffected.
**What was your vision for _From Liberty Street?_**
**Sam Blasucci**: Our vision for any of our recording projects has typically been to stay true to our roots and make something that shows what we love in a respectful way. In some ways we actually had no vision and that turned out to be a really nice thing, to let songs just sort of snowball into what they are. We had a few ideas of instrumentation we would like or musicians we would like to play on the record, but we were also keen on leaving some open space for things to work themselves out.
**What’s the story behind “Read Between the Lines”**
**Clay Finch:** "Read Between The Lines" is about taking time to bring your awareness to what’s really going on, the present moment, and finding a level of clarity. It’s also sort of about the mystery of being alive, and our attempt at navigating this strange incarnation.
**What is your creative process like?**
**Sam Blasucci**: Our creative process is not really different than anyone else’s. It’s all about timing and what is going on in our lives. We don’t think of it as work to do or something to get done, we think of it as another sort of mental and emotional release that happens naturally when we feel inspired by something. Often times something will happen to us or our families or we will hear something on the radio and we will feel in this mood to write something down but only if it feels right. We try not to pressure ourselves to be better than we are or be constantly topping what we’ve written before with something better or more dazzling. Keeping the pressure in it’s perfect place is key. Feeling motivated but not like a salesperson. That helps keep some element of soul alive in yourself.
**How are you both keeping sane during quarantine? How can we continue to support artists during this time?**
**Clay Finch:** We have been working on a super challenging crossword puzzle of this wizard conducting a bunch of stuff in the stars. Also a little bit of surfing, reading, meditating, napping, watching movies, trying to keep up on the news without overloading and freaking out. This is definitely a crazy time for everyone, especially regarding people’s jobs, and musicians are no exception. A lot of people are just trying to figure out the basics right now but any sort of support be it buying a record or a t shirt, or sharing a song on social media, or just streaming in some capacity is a kind gesture.
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