Terrace Martin & Punch Discuss Perspective
BY PUNCH & TERRACE MARTIN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SAMANTHA WHITEHEAD
MARCH 15TH 2026
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Terrace Martin Perspective. You know, I think the word perspective is very misunderstood. Because people just don't look up words, they don't look up the regular definition for words. I have a lot of different views of the word perspective, I think perspective is more powerful than what people think. I think for me personally, I think your perspective literally shapes your course of life, like how you view things shapes your course of life. What do you think about perspective? How do you view perspective? How important is perspective to you, the concept of perspective.
Punch I think perspective is extremely important, it goes back to my pops used to tell me that everybody's reality is not the same and what shapes your reality is your perspective. You know what I mean? Like we can grow up in the same household and have a totally different experience because it's based on our individual perspective. How we see things.
Terrace Martin Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Punch You get a lot of stories from families like, one will be telling the story how hard it was, another child be like… what house you live in?
Terrace Martin Perspective.
Punch Because it's perspective, you know what I mean? Perspective is everything to me, bro. It was another quote that said, I don't remember who it was… when I was younger, I read it, it said “if you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change how you look at it,” and that's perspective, you know what I mean? It can be the same thing, but you can shape your reality around that just based on how you see it or change how you see it.
Terrace Martin Yeah, man. I grew up in a single parent household, my mom, and it's funny how you saying somebody could see things a whole different way but grow up in the same thing like one of me and my my mom's… everybody got a thing with their parents, but one of me and my mother's biggest things that I feel, transparently, we could probably probably be a lot closer, is we don't gotta agree on the perspective of what what was going on and… I'm gonna give you an example, she’ll read an interview and be like, I read an interview and you say that you grew up in the ghetto, that's crazy, you didn't grow up in the ghetto, like I did this for you, I did that for you, like are you trying to be tougher?
Punch Yeah.
Terrace Martin And I've learned to ignore the “are you trying to be tougher,” but, perspective, I'm like, okay, well… and for a while I used to be puzzled, like, what is she talking about? Cause, Slauson and West Boulevard, and the IVC’s, Slauson and Imperial, then to the Hard Times and then to the… like what?
Punch Yeah.
Terrace Martin What is she seeing? Because then I’m like, “am I am I being extra’d out?” Then I'm like, Crenshaw Motel, daddy on crack, really? And then I started digging into perspective and I was like, oh, well, she grew up coming from Bakersfield to the East Side of LA so when she had me, going to the Crenshaw District, that was like Black Beverly Hills. So in her head she was, you know… I'm never knocking what my mother, where we lived or nothing, but I think my parents and my relatives and a lot of older people feel like how I describe where we grew up is this gruesome thing, but that shit was weird man. But it was cool for them because the perspective was different. But that was a big thing, we're getting better now, but for, I'm talking about 20, 30 years I used to be like “What are you talking about? You trying to embarrass me?
Punch Right.
Terrace Martin Cause no, you don't remember this? You know what I'm saying? But it was her perspective of “it wasn't that bad, bro. You're being extra’d out.” And I was like, what do you mean?
Punch Because you think, her experience too is just different from your experience. You coming up having to pay attention to things she didn't necessarily have to pay attention to.
Terrace Martin Yeah.
Punch You know what I mean? Like being a lady at that time or whatever, like she didn't have to worry about niggas on the block to the degree that you did.
Terrace Martin Yeah
Punch You know what I'm saying? It's a whole nother thing, being in the same place. But what helped me like I said, that, when my pops told me everybody reality ain't the same, it helped me understand that I don't have to agree. And you don't have to see it how I see it for us to still, you know what I mean, move along in whatever we do. And then as I got older, I started looking at it as an arrogance thing on my part, if I don't understand why somebody don't see it how I see it.
Terrace Martin Yeah, yeah, I feel that.
Punch Because I had to take the time be like oh okay your experience is just completely different from mine so, but, you right still and I'm also right, but now that I know that, it's my responsibility to move whatever we don't forward. You know what I mean? Because again, it's literally all perspective
Terrace Martin I think that that sweet spot in relationships with people, humans, is when you share the same perspective about certain things. Like me and you, we come from two different sides of Los Angeles. But we have a lot of the same perspective. We have a lot of different ones, but I think the ones that keep us alive are in line.
Punch No, absolutely, 100%, I don't even think it's the same perspective. I think we understand each other's perspective really. You know what I mean? We still see it different and the same as things are, like, it's crazy actually when you think about it.
Terrace Martin The best example is that is the random high-speed chase.
Punch Right.
Terrace Martin Literally, that story is not even believable how we were acting in the car and getting chased.
Punch Right
Terrace Martin ‘cause that's what the gangster rappers say they act like, but I know they don't.
Punch Nah, what's crazy about that is when you're in situations, your senses heightened. You know what I mean? And whatever you were taught, whatever you learn, that's when it all kicks in. You know what I mean? It's like we gotta be calm, we cool, we good.
Terrace Martin Why was we so calm? Why did we go through every light and not get pulled over? We was hopin…
Punch That's crazy. That's the same feelin, though, when, I know you really play sports. When I played football and I'm on the field, that's literally the same feelin.
Terrace Martin What do you mean?
Punch Like all your senses heightened, like the game slows down, while you on the field. I get the ball on the kickoff and I can see everything that's happening in slow motion.
Terrace Martin Yeah yeah yeah
Punch That's really that's literally the same type of deal
Terrace Martin Bro we wasn't scared, that was a scary situation though
Punch For sure
Terrace Martin Perspective
Punch There you go.
Terrace Martin Man, you know what was scarier than that though? And this wouldn’t be perspective to a street guy or whatever, but, not being sure if the deal's gonna go through.
Punch Yeah, right.
Terrace Martin You know what I mean? Being in our early parts of the music business I used to tell my father, man, this deal they go through, aw man, it's killin me.” Motherfucker, it is not killing you. It's just a deal” and I'll be like, “ah you know, but I've been paying your rent because of this deal.
Punch Right, even with that though, again, it changed my perspective on that is how I viewed it. Like literally if it worked, I'm good. If it don't work, I'm just in the same position that I was in and didnt move. You know what I'm saying? So, it’s, again, I don't want to keep dwelling on it, but it's literally how you view things.
Terrace Martin That's it.
Punch That's literally it, bro. You can choose to look at it how you want to look at it and that affects the outcome.
Samantha OK, I thought about four different things. But the first thing is with Mirrors, that whole thing is just a bunch of perspectives. I mean it's a large group, you know, do you come across the concept of perspective within mirrors?
Punch That's actually the fun part of the whole thing, is that it is so many points of views or perspectives. And I mean you don't just get the same type of verse from each person. You know what I'm saying? You got people from Houston, you got people from Indiana, people from St. Paul, in different sections and watts.
Samantha And that's the fun thing to explore with everybody
Punch I feel that it[‘s one cohesive thing, I’m sayin we hear stories about elbows poking out, hearing about how cold it is in St. Paul, hearing about I mean just different things.
Terrace Martin A gumbo of shit.
Punch Mix that up and all those different perspectives and pretty much make it one that's the fun part.
Samantha So does it bring more of a unique amount of art out when everyone has a different viewpoint when you guys are doing something together?
Punch Absolutely. See but the challenge is with all of those different viewpoints make one idea, which is the song. I mean that's the fun part for me personally. Alright, cool, we're doing this, but let's hone it in to where it becomes one perspective, from different angles.
Samantha One of the things that I think is really interesting is when everybody is on one record and everyone's going back and forth talking about a similar topic but their own perspective It's like the hardest records ever to me personally. I'm like that shit is tight, I mean every song is someone's perspective or poem or movie or whatever but…
Punch No, no, for sure. What's also interesting is the actual name, A Room Full of Mirrors, right? And like I said, everybody's from all these different places, but we all actually reflect each other. Even being from different spots having different perspectives, we still all reflect each other. That's why the title is that.
Terrace Martin That's hard.
Samantha Who came up with the name?
Terrace Martin I did (laughing)
Punch It was actually, Carrie said the name, we was driving in the car on the freeway, and she made that statement, and like it stuck with me. I'm like, oh that's exactly what we are, a room full of mirrors.
Terrace Maritn That's hard, bro.
Samantha The other thing that popped up was earlier when you guys were talking… you had said, you know, who are you to tell somebody whether their perspective is right or wrong, like you know, are you the person who's thinking, “I'm right, because it's my perspective, I'm right.” Is there room for the concept of right and wrong when you talk about perspective just in general? Because it's like… is there moments where someone's perspective is correct or right or not?
Punch Like no, that's the thing about perspectives. I mean wrong or right is relative, based on how you view things, based on your environment where you come from, what we're taught how you move in life. Like one thing might be acceptable in my household that might not be acceptable in your household. You know what I mean? When I was growing up as kids, we couldn't say “yeah.” We got to say “yes.” You know what I mean? But at my cousin's house they saying whatever they want to say. That don't mean they wrong. That just means we were raised different. We have different perspectives. Therefore our realities aren't the same.
Samantha Okay, so earlier when you were talking about you guys were in some trouble and had a little high speed chase or whatever. In that instance is there a right and wrong because if you're getting to an issue with some stuff and it is technically about perspective, but at the end of the day something could be life changing because of people's perspective, one person had a different perspective than you, and now you’re in this situation where it's like… shit.
Terrace Martin The one thing whether we, we had a few things in line with that, but you know, I think we both we both got to our calm space however… I think I got calm because you was like… when this car started going fast, you were like (leans back), and you went “I think they’re chasing us” and I was like, Ok.
Punch You know what's crazy though with that, and situations like that is, it's certain universal laws that are in place. Whatever your perspective is, it doesn't supersede that. So like if somebody danger and if the danger is imminent that's just what that is, regardless to what your perspective is, so you gotta figure out a way to navigate that however you do it. You know what I mean? That's not gonna change. Like, if we wasn’t acting how we acted, we could have gotten some serious trouble. You know what I mean? But whatever it was, our different perspectives came together and we locked in on this one thing. And it worked out.
Terrace Martin We were so scared we got tough. (laughing) But you know what though what was deep even though like I didn't need that experience to know we was gonna be like that for that though, like some people need that to say “I knew….” but I didn't I didn't need that to know that would be like that. You know what I'm saying?
Punch No, absolutely.
Terrace Martin You know some people you don't know but some of you like yeah yeah yeah
Punch It's always for every action there’s a reaction, that's cause and effect.
Terrace Martin Remember how scared I was the next morning? I called you, just because my fear, like hangovers, always hit me subconsciously, the day later. I was shaking like nigga we almost got killed. And I was like, the whole night where the police at? We drove all the way back to your area like. Nah, you dropped me off, you came and got me and dropped me off like I don’t even want to drive.
Punch And see with me, like, it didn't bother me at all after that.
Terrace Martin Yeah. You was cool.
Punch We had a little issue. I’m good, man.
Samantha You processed immediately.
Punch Yeah For sure.
Terrace Martin And my shit was a whole day later, I woke up like we didn’t make it. But in the act we good, it’s on, we’re gonna be alright.
Punch But then again, it's like I said, with being athlete and playing sports you know what that feeling it's literally the same feeling, so you understand and you can process it well.
Samantha The final thing, as I got older I realized, I exist in my own brain. I cannot imagine what anybody else's reality is or how you guys process, I would like to force my perspective on everyone else because it is easier for me to identify, but it's impossible. But I have multiple perspectives of my own brain. Do you guys have your own little committee of perspectives in your brain or is your personal perspective like a solid holistic thing? Or is it like compartments where you have your own multiple perspectives in your own brain. Can you argue with yourself?
Punch Well with me I have an overall theme of what I feel things should be and my thoughts and decisions are based off of that. Sometimes emotion gets in the way, where I make a rash decision based on a knee-jerk reaction. But outside of that is usually a general theme if I do things it’s out of respect and having good intentions.
Samantha If you guys have a major decision coming up, do you weigh a bunch of perspectives in your head? Or do you immediately have an answer already.
Punch Absoulutely, yeah.
Terrace Martin Yeah, I mean you know, I had kids young. I got five kids, so dealing with the mothers, you know, I never had strong animosity, because I think I understand and respect everybody's perspective. It's how I think I had that earlier, because being a jazz musician, you gotta respect, you may not agree with everybody how everybody play but the only way to get that money to pay that rent we gotta all come together and figure thing thing out. So when I started having children young and just these people from different sides of the earth and I'm different, I learned quickly that your perspective is your perspective.
Punch You know what's crazy about that, what made me think about, what you just said is I think that's what make us, our chemistry gel so well is because what you just described is a quarterback.
Terrace Martin Damn
Punch Football field. So you're a facilitator, which is a Producer. I'm a facilitator and quarterback, which is still a producer.
Terrace Martin Yeah, yeah.
Punch That's what the thing is like I gotta know while I'm on offense, what my running back is doing, what my receivers are doing,
Terrace Martin Everybody's weakness
Punch What my line are doing, and I gotta know what the defense is doing. So I have to facilitate that whole thing. Just like you, when you're on stage and you run the band, you gotta know what the drummer doing, you gotta know what the keys doing, You know what I'm saying? You probably got your horn, so you gotta focus on that too. Whoever the guest artist is coming up, you know what I mean? So that's facilitating the whole thing same as a quarterback
Terrace Martin You know when I when I was a quarterback (laughs) I played against Bellflower, killed them.
Punch Nah, you didn't
Terrace Martin Knocked them down.
Punch That's okay, though.
Terrace imitates a pass
Punch Oh, look at his form, his form is terrible. (laughs)
Samantha You're being sacked immediately… In jazz, perspective is a big deal though. Like on the bandstand, perspective is a big deal, right? I feel like we haven't talked about the musical part of perspective, especially when it comes to like, you know, I feel like normal world is all these things and then jazz world or like band world is its own whole thing.
Terrace Martin It's the same. It's identical. It may sound different because it's notes and not uh human you know, things you can't see, the clashing, but it's the same thing where it's like the reason why I feel like I love playing with I love playing music with new people, but it's a very clear reason why I keep playing with Kamasi, Robert, Thundercat. It's just a clear reason because we, it's not that we have the same perspective at all because none of us have the same perspective, but all of us respect versions of our perspectives because all of us perspectives helps our personal perspective. Even things like, you know, I don't think about this life journey the same way Stephen does or Kamasi, you know, Kamasi's on a whole nother mission. We're all on a mission of being a better human, but I think all of us have different roads of these things, you know Stephen says all the time, his role is man, he wants to give cats the option to feel free. He’s an animator, whether they're animating or playing bass and just thinking free. Kamasi's kind of similar to that page, you know. Then you got me, my thing is like, I'm trying to give kids an option total, like you don't even gotta think of music, just have other things to do, you know. I'm just saying have other options with the other cool options you already have, you know. Have some other cool options, you know what I’m saying but I think we all respect all of our perspectives, but we all do have different perspectives because on the off time I just know I don't ever want to eat with them motherfuckers, a bunch of meat and cheese on the table talking low…
Punch What you’re saying to me is it’s about purpose. All you guys have different perspectives, but one purpose and at the end of the day that purpose is to do something great, create something great, how each of y'all get there is different routes, different perspectives but that at the end of the day today is what your purpose is.
Terrace Martin Yeah. We all want to do something great.
Punch No, for sure. You know what I mean? Like if you didn't, I wouldn't call you on FaceTime every day and see what's going on.
Terrace Martin Yeah.
Punch Last thing I will say is all of those things play a part of each other. I mean first you have a perspective then you have a passion. And that passion leads to your purpose. And when you accomplish those three then you have peace.
Terrace Martin I told him to say that this morning on FaceTime, that's crazy.
To be continued…
