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at the few available venues in Macon. Not too long after that, a call came through from Motown: AC Black had landed a record deal. Looking back, the brothers are a bit incredulous at what they managed to pull off. "We did all this before the age of social media," Alvin says. "Do you know what it took to actually go to a bookstore, write down everybody's name – there wasn't a way to search it back then – then go to the library, write down addresses and phone numbers, call, get rejected, call, get rejected, over and over until somebody gives you the time of day? "Back then, most labels weren't accepting unsolicited material. You had to keep calling until you found somebody who would give you permission, and most places wouldn't do that without a lawyer. We were broke, we didn't have a lawyer. But you better bet if we found someone willing to listen, we were calling back in 10 minutes saying, 'Yes, I'm Such-and-Such with Such-and-Such Law Firm and we represent AC Black.' And even if we got rejected, as long as we had that portal open, we'd get back to it. We were still in school at the time, so we'd go to school, work weekends at Brown & Williamson stacking cigarettes on pallets, get paid, take that money, buy studio time, make new tapes and get back out there." When Motown called back wanting the band to record a demo, they were thrilled. But they never could have guessed the fascinating trajectory their career would take. e band performed in the United States – including some gigs at the Cherry Blossom Festival and others opening for Prince – but when their record proved to be a hotter seller in Japan than the USA, their label flew them overseas to perform. "We got to thinking, what makes them better than us?" Alvin says. "So, we got ourselves a bass and a guitar, and we sat in our room and taught ourselves how to play." is tenacity and talent runs in the family. eir grandmother, who passed away in 2016 at age 103, taught herself how to play the piano as well. e brothers took matters into their own hands, forming their own seven-piece rock 'n' soul collective, AC Black. Influenced by artists like Prince, Toto, and Earth, Wind & Fire, and featuring a musical style that was a hybrid of synth-pop, funk and booty-shaking danceable grooves, the group defied easy characterization and thrilled audiences with their high-energy choreographed performances, which had their roots in the twins' high school dance group. Videos of the band during that time period – check out the one for AC Black's biggest hit, "Funky Situation" – encapsulate a perfect '80s aesthetic: glorious big hair on absolutely everybody, blazers with outsized shoulder pads and rock 'n' roll chicks with ripped fishnets lurking in alleyways. e band radiated rock-star swagger and soulful heart, and the whole spectacle was often set against a backdrop of downtown Macon. ese iconic videos were shot by none other than Alvin and Calvin themselves. "I volunteered at Cox Cable at the time," Alvin says. "I didn't know anything about television. I just went over there and offered to help however I could, clean up the studio, whatever. A guy there taught me how to use the cameras, so I ended up working on the local broadcast shows. I locked up the studios every night alone, so as soon as everybody left, I'd call the guys, they'd come in and we'd record." is invention was born of necessity: "I asked the guys I worked with how much it would cost to come in and shoot a video," Alvin says, "and when they told me how much, I looked at them like really? I'm working here for free and y'all wanna charge me like that! So, I took a few liberties here and there." FROM GEORGIA TO JAPAN e brothers sent one of AC Black's videos to BET's Video Soul and the station picked their clip as Video of the Week. Amazed at their good fortune, they kept plugging along, releasing music and performing "MY DADDY TAUGHT ME IF YOU GIVE YOUR WORD, YOU GOTTA STAND BY IT. AND IF YOU WANT SOMETHING, YOU GO AFTER IT AND YOU DON'T TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER." -ALVIN WATERS 64 maconmagazine.com | FEBRUARY/MARCH 2021