Home Free, a college comedy packing a powerful message on extending empathy toward the unhoused, bases its plot on a real-life experience director Aaron Brown and writer Lenny Barszap had with a homeless man they took in while attending the University of Texas at Austin.
The film’s soundtrack, released Jan. 31, arrives from a special tailor: Adrian Quesada.
How did the Grammy winner end up in command of the Austin-based independent film’s 28-track double album? The Black Pumas wizard also attended UT in the late Nineties. Quesada frequented Brown and Barszap’s wild parties at their first post-dorm residence, while the filmmakers – who in 2024 co-founded the nonprofit Been There to launch creative pursuits intended for societal change – often attended shows Quesada played with his avant-garde jazz group at the time, the Blue Noise Band.
“We were all connected by a similar taste in music,” Quesada says. “So when they reached out to me about making music for this film, I knew exactly what we were all listening to. We were all exploring new music and listening to this intersection of everything – from starting to discover jazz at the time, to hip-hop, to indie rock stuff.
“The Beastie Boys had released [instrumental compilation The In Sound From Way Out!] … We were branching off of that, which led us into soul jazz and jazz-funk,” he recalls. “There was a lot of new, avant-garde jazz coming out of New York City – what they called the Manhattan scene. [We also listened to] rock like Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth, and Built to Spill.”
Those interests, as well as some alt-pop stylings, inform the Nineties-style mixtape vibe of the Nine Mile Records release, which came together during the COVID-19 lockdown. There’s some truly impressive names on the tracklist: rappers Akil the MC and Slimkid3 pen lyrics about homelessness on “Tent City,” Mix Master Mike of Beastie Boys fame provides scratches alongside J Mascis’ guitar on “Mix Master Mascis,” and Karl Denson’s blissful flute runs wild on “Rampage.” A few of those collaborations, such as work with Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis, represent a full circle moment for Quesada and the film’s creators.
“It was surreal – just the idea of me even making music with some of these people that were crucial to my formative years when I was 18, 19,” Quesada says. “But also surreal in the sense that it was the pandemic. Very few people actually were in the studio.”
Good movie soundtracks typically mesh with their accompanying motion pictures like milk and cereal: delightful when consumed separately, yet even better when combined. But in the case of Home Free, Brown and Barszap hypothetically poured milk into a bowl before adding their cereal. Whether it’s Fatlip of hip-hop group the Pharcyde spitting stoner bars (“Stay High”) as a backdrop for college sophomores reveling in their first taste of relative residential freedom, or the suitable use of Benji Hughes’ title track during a pivotal scene, nearly each infusion of music in the film fits snugly.
“They really wanted it to feel like music was such a huge part of the story,” Quesada says of the filmmakers, who requested more music than the songwriter expected. “A lot of the time they [edited] to my songs versus the other way around, which is how it usually works.”
Though Quesada chuckled when asked if he’s eyeing Kenny Loggins’ throne for “King of the Movie Soundtrack,” he’s currently batting two-for-two with his recent motion picture soundtrack efforts. “Like a Bird,” a collaboration with Abraham Alexander for the film Sing Sing, garnered a 2025 Oscar nomination for Best Original Song.
“It’s something we’re still processing to this day,” the musician says of the nomination. Though he’s been up for nine Grammys, he admits, “The film world and the Academy Awards just seem like such a foreign concept.”
In a similarly socially conscious vein as Home Free, Sing Sing is based on the real-life Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at Sing Sing Maximum Security Prison. Quesada signed on to contribute to the film before it even garnered distribution. Both contributions represent the musician’s overall belief in entertainment’s ability to incite positive social change.
“I sometimes feel like on the greater whole, [music] absolutely has the power to change the world,” he says. “But I also think just on an individual level, sometimes I feel if it makes one person’s day better, makes [them] forget their troubles for the day, or makes [them] laugh or cry, that’s a start.”
This article appears in January 31 • 2025.
