Thursday, April 24, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Music: American classic

Local Franky Perez is set to score with throwback rock

By Brock Radke

Sitting in the corner of a nearly empty northwest Vegas Starbucks, Franky Perez interrupts his sipping of a chilled coffee to point out another customer walking in.

"Check that out," he says. "That guy's got a Misfits tattoo." As the former frontman for a few local hardcore bands, Perez seems to respect the fan's commitment. "That's serious. I doubt anyone will ever get a Franky Perez tattoo. But I'll tell you what...the day I see that is the day I hang it up."

Perez is comfortable, as he is anywhere in Las Vegas. He seems to treat everyone he encounters with the same respect and politeness he showed to the bashful girl who sold him the coffee. She blushed and smiled slightly and stole glances at Perez, a 27-year-old Cuban-American and native Las Vegan, as if she had someone famous in her Starbucks. Relatively speaking, she had.

Perez's debut album, Poor Man's Son, will be released May 13 on Atlantic Records' Lava imprint. The lead single, "Something Crazy," is getting strong radio play in the Pacific Northwest, where Perez kicked off his first big tour earlier this month, and the accompanying video was set to pop up on VH1 as well. So yeah, the coffee girl probably had reason to get worked up.

But no matter what level of success he reaches in the music industry, Perez is dead set on remaining the same respectful, blue-collar family man that his father is and that he has become. Perez is Vegas' closest thing to Bruce Springsteen, a working-class songwriting storyteller. The folks at his label are mighty proud of this and happy to present this image to the world, but that doesn't change the fact that it's true.

"When I was younger I was writing songs about things that were bigger than me," Perez says. "But I didn't always understand them. Now I'm a little older and I'm writing about things that have affected me deeply, and it turns out that I'm just another guy and these things have affected a lot of people."

Perez's father worked as a waiter for 26 years at a casino restaurant only to lose his job to someone younger. Hard work, pride and loyalty are big on the songwriting agenda, but there are no songs on Poor Man's Son that will overwhelm with gritty tales of struggle or poverty.

Perez is a musical throwback, and one who easily samples soulfully from all the cornerstones of American rock 'n' roll. He channels John Mellencamp on "Class Act," "a song every guy in Vegas can relate to" about romancing a girl from the nicer side of the tracks; then the Temptations spill into "Forever 17," a sweet ballad that also appeared on the Girlfight soundtrack. Shades of his Latin roots pop up everywhere, especially in "Southwest Side," but Perez's sincere vocals unify the varying styles.

There are 17 tracks on the album, which he calls his "recession special." It may seem like a lot to digest, but Perez--who also produced and played about every instrument--had to chop it down from more than 40 songs he had written and recorded over the past three years.

"It's very eclectic, but so are my tastes," he says. "I really wanted to get down to the basics and not overdo it or get rid of the inconsistencies."

Unlike other local musicians and bands that have attracted major label attention, Perez hasn't been celebrated much as The Next Vegas Artist Who Might/Might Not Make It Big. He doesn't really care about the hoopla.

"The odds are much greater that you won't succeed in music. If you've got no songs, or no drive, or people working around you who don't believe in you, then you're screwed anyway. I've worked every odd job everywhere, so I'm not afraid of not succeeding. But I'll always make music. I've got the same small group of people coming to see me that came when I was 16. I like being the underdog."

With a solid soul-rock album, a hyped-up label behind him and that perfect image, Perez doesn't really qualify as an underdog. Even the coffee girl behind the counter can see that.