Local StoriesMay 31, 2024

Meet Felton Pilate

Local Stories

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Felton Pilate. Felton was introduced to us by the brilliant and talented Desirae L. Benson.

Felton , thank you so much for joining us today. We’d love for you to bring our readers up to speed – can you introduce yourself and share your story?
As far back as I can remember, there was always a piano in my home. My first inspiration was my mother, who was a music major and a very accomplished singer and pianist. Later, inspiration came from music I heard around the house. If my mother got to the ” hi-fi” first, it was classical music, and if my father got to it first, it was the jazz masters of the day… Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, etc.

I played trumpet in my elementary school band and later took private trumpet and piano lessons in middle school, eventually teaching myself how to play guitar when I was 16. I started my own band with some of my friends. After my previous group disbanded, Michael Cooper invited me to join his band, Project Soul. However, they already had a trumpet player, a keyboardist, and a guitarist, so I decided to purchase a trombone and started teaching myself how to play it, one song at a time.

In the summer of 1972, we were selected by Stax recording artists, the Soul Children, to serve as their backup band. We moved from Vallejo, California, to Memphis, Tennessee, where we resided for six years. In 1974, we decided to part ways with the Soul Children and pursue our own musical career. We signed with a local production company, which ultimately landed us a record deal with a new record company called FreTone Records. However, they were uncomfortable with the word “soul” in our name and requested that we choose an alternative. We finally settled on the name Confunkshun, which was derived from a song written by the Nightliters

The head of Mercury Records, Charlie Fach, visited Memphis to watch our live performance. He was so impressed with us that he decided to buy us out of our existing contract and sign us to Mercury/Polygram. Under this new label, we went on to record 10 albums, some of which achieved gold and platinum status.

In 1986, Michael Cooper and I left to pursue solo careers. *His* went very well, recording several singles and albums for Warner Brothers.

Mine…. Not so much… Life had other things in store for me.

I opened my own 16-track recording studio and became a full-time producer. During this time, I had the opportunity to meet Stanley Burrell, a new and upcoming rapper who later changed his name to MC Hammer. Together with my co-producer, James Early, we worked on his first three projects. Our collaboration was a huge success, selling over 50 million copies.

Mike and I reformed Confunkshun in 1993, and we have been touring ever since. In that time, we’ve done at least a thousand concerts, recorded two albums, and released six singles. We are currently finishing our third.

Please talk to us about your creative work and career. What should we know?
“I have had the privilege of working with a number of renowned artists in the music industry, in addition to writing and co-writing 53 songs for ConFunkShun. Some of the artists I have collaborated with in the studio include Stanley Clarke, George Duke, Sheila E., En Vogue, E-40, The Stylistics, Lenny Williams, The Barkays, Jesse James, and many others.” I am always in the process of creating new songs. In the past few years, I have released three singles and recorded over 20 songs that I can choose from for my solo project. Additionally, I wrote five new tracks for ConFunkShun’s Christmas album, which was released in 2022. My production company, United Spirits Media Group, has started pre-production on our first major release, “King of Rhythm: The Ike Turner Story”. We plan to begin filming in March of next year, and I’ve already started writing and recording the musical score.

Desirae L. Benson and Desirae L. Benson PR have been great to us and I know you’ve got a great relationship with them as well. Maybe you can tell our audience a bit about Desirae L. Benson and Desirae L. Benson PR and your experience with them.
I have been collaborating with Desirae L. Benson for a year and a half, and I am extremely satisfied with her work and constantly impressed with her ideas! She has significantly enhanced my online visibility, and her outstanding content creation consistently generates interest in the projects I am involved in. I am excited to see her plans and ideas for the events that will be forthcoming over the next few months.