Flying Down Thunder Dreams Big with Culture

Kevin Chief, aka Flying Down Thunder of the Juno-nominated duo Flying Down Thunder and Rise Ashen, speaks on the origins of their cross-cultural collaboration and inspirations.

I got a chance to pick the brain of Ottawa-based artist Kevin Chief aka Flying Down Thunder of the Algonquin Nation, Loon clan, about his inspirations for his musical process, how the group Flying Down Thunder and Rise Ashen formed, and his words of advice for youth.

STREAM: Flying Down Thunder Dreams Big with Culture

Julia Keefe Inspired by Mildred Bailey

Sweet, smooth vocals always get my attention and I'm a sucker for a well played vocal scat - thus my ears perked up when I first heard Julia Keefe of the Nez Perce Tribe. Her voice is of another era and stands out in this one as one of the only jazz songbirds in Indian Country. But she's not the first.

Born in 1989 in Seattle, Keefe is currently a senior studying jazz performance at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music, though it's been since grade seven that Keefe has been singing jazz. She has performed on the East and West coasts and if you've seen her live, you've noticed that she typically dedicates a song to the legendary Mildred Bailey at every performance.

Bailey was a groundbreaking and influential blues and jazz performer in the 30s and 40s, and a Coeur d’Alene tribal member. Early in her studies Keefe was drawn to Mildred's life and work and in 2009 performed her musical tribute Thoroughly Modern: Mildred Bailey Songs at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in 2009. But her passion for Bailey didn't stop there.

In Indian Country Today's Jazz Vocalist Julia Keefe 'Just Likes to Sing' Keefe describes to Jack McNeel her experience visiting the Jazz Hall of Fame for the first time at New York's Lincoln Center:

“It was beautiful and I loved it,” she said, “But I noticed there were only four women in the Jazz Hall of Fame and Mildred Bailey wasn’t one of them.” Those four are Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday, Bessie Smith and Mary Lou Williams.

She doesn’t question that those four belonged — but says she “sort of realized there was a great injustice being done. I feel without Mildred Bailey and what she did, we wouldn’t have Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holliday. She was the one who kicked open the door and made way for those amazing vocalists to get the stature they got.”

This past winter, Julia was home in Spokane on break and was asked to do a gig at the Coeur d’Alene Casino. “It was a private event for the Idaho State Legislature and some of the tribal council,” she explained. “I brought some of my Mildred Bailey stuff and said a few words about her, the things she had done for women in jazz and Native Americans in jazz.”

“The Idaho Legislature was just completely engrossed,” Keefe says. “They were talking like they loved it. They came up afterwards and said they’d like to help any way they could. I told them I was hoping to get Mildred Bailey into the Jazz Hall of Fame.” This March, both the Idaho House and Idaho Senate passed resolutions to honor Mildred and to support and encourage induction into the Hall of Fame.

Julia Keefe put her idea into action. Her open letter to the Jazz Hall of Fame selection committee can be read at whereismildred.com and while you're there, be sure to sign the petition!

Check out Mildred Bailey's swinging rendition of Georgia on My Mind:

And here, listen to (and download!) Julia Keefe's sweet take on the classic song:

Mildred Bailey died at the young age of 44 - her story and her songs are truly worth digging into, if you haven't already. As for Julia Keefe, she reports on ICTMN:

“My plan for the future is just to perform as much as possible. I love it. I love singing. I love entertaining people so that’s where my life blood is, where my joy comes from. My plan is just to go out there and do it whatever way I can.”

We look forward to it.

SPOTLIGHT: The Arctic Circus of Artcirq

The Igloolik, Nunavut, collective Artcirq is a collaborative, community-based circus and multimedia company that has been creating work, engaging youth and performing around the globe since 1998. And that's not all! The arctic circus also makes music and has released two albums recently on iTunes.

Co-founded by Isuma Productions and Guillaume Saladin,  Artcirq blends techniques of modern circus like juggling and acrobatics with aspects of Inuit culture including drum dancing and throat singing.

At first, the group formed in reponse to local tragedy. From articirq.org:

Summer 1998, Igloolik, Nunavut. Two teenagers commit suicide, once again shattering this small island community of 1500 residents. Every time a suicide occurs, feelings of despair and powerlessness resurface in this world where two cultures collide. In the Arctic, loss of sense and sorrow are real facts of life. Based on government statistics at the time, 4 to 6 young adults commit suicide every year in Igloolik, which represents a rate seven times higher than in Montreal.

Following the recurrence of such tragedies in Igloolik, some concrete actions are taken to give children and teenagers a medium to express themselves. The initiative of Isuma Productions (movie Atanarjuat, the Fast Runner) forms a group of eight young people, intended to prevent suicide in this small community. The organism Inuusiq, which means “Life” in Inuktitut, is created, and its first mission is to realize and produce, with the help of ISUMA production, a television series about the youth’s life in the Canadian Arctic of today. Guillaume Saladin was a member of this organism, “Inuusiq youth drama group”, and a co-writer and actor of the series. Furthermore, studying at the National Circus School of Montreal at that time, he implements the circus project Artcirq with six others students of the circus school, including Karine Delzors.

The group and work evolved from there. Members of Artcirq have performed in Timbuktu, Mali, Mexico, Greece and France. Six members were part of the Canadian Arctic performers representing Nunvut at the 2010 Olumpic Winter Games and this month, the group will travel to Windsor, England, to represent "The Americas" in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Pageant.

Both of Artcirq's musical albums - Artcirq Jam and Made in Igloolik - are credited to be by "various artists" and accordingly it's difficult to describe the diversity on both albums which showcases various permutations of the groups contributing members. In style, language and instrumentation, they are both delightfully varied and interesting collections of songs. It's also difficult to pick a favourite, but for a taste, check out this track Anuri from Made in Igloolik:

STREAM: Artcirq - "Anuri"

Both Artcirq albums are available on CDBaby and iTunes.

Music is just a part of what the group creates. This short doc is a great introduction to the breadth of the work of Artcirq. I love co-founder Guillaume Saladin's definition of circus in it. He says "circus is a pretext - a pretext to create a circle of trust, a space where people can communicate with each other, an area where you can work on yourself, trust the other, and dream."

Indeed it seems that in its 14 years so far, the group has maintained this practice of creative, communicative, and collaborative process. From the heartbreak of a community's loss, to the empowerment of movement, music and exploration, their work continues to inspire, represent, delight and move anyone it engages. Keep an eye out for more from Artcirq, and for additional video and music check out their Isuma channel at isuma.tv/hi/en/artcirq.

Lorenzo Answers Some "Questions"

Lorenzo has a new intimate and unplugged video out for his song Questions and we got a chance to get him to answer some of our own questions about it.

We found this new video here at RPM by Leonard Sumner aka Lorenzo for his song called Questions which was released recently on Vimeo. Shot by Jordan Molaro in a hotel room unplugged and in one take, I had to ask Lorenzo one question myself before posting this video - "what do you want the people to know about it?"

Here's what Lorenzo had to say:

"I just hope people enjoy it. It came to me after the spring equinox and we had a feast at work. I was listening to a traditional person speaking, and I heard them say 'will there be any questions for you from the creator?' in their speech. It may not have been in that exact phrasing. But something along those lines.

It set off a chain reaction in my mind..

'Will there be questions for me, like I've had questions for you.'

To me it meant when our time is done here, will the Creator ask me questions as to why I made different choices in life. Or why I hadn't embraced or used my gifts and talents completely. I'm sure we've asked why we've faced different obstacles in our lives or felt like we weren't chasing our dreams hard enough.

So after about a week of digesting that phrase, on the night before the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Youth Secretariat's 'Regional Youth Gathering' (I work for AMC's Youth Secretariat) held in Fisher River Cree Nation, I couldn't sleep. My guitar was calling me, but not my usual guitar. It was a new Fender Acoustic I Picked up from that Future Shop on the Rez in Vancouver. I had stored it in my closet, but something was drawing me to it. Almost like it wanted to write the song. I picked it up and started strumming, and almost immediately there was a chord progression I had never used.

I got familiar with it quickly and grabbed a note-book. The first line was already there, 'Will there be questions for me, like I've had questions for you?' The rest of the lyrics flowed out seamlessly, I just had to write them down. It felt as if I wasn't the one writing them.

It feels like I may not have been the one writing it all, but I was. I think these questions I have asked in the song are things I have been wondering for a long time. Having just been introduced to some different Anishinaabe ceremonies just recently, I haven't been comfortable enough in my own spirituality to ask them. But after having been through some sweats and other ceremonies, I feel comfortable enough to do so now.

I grew up in a very Christian reserve, and for a long time had conflicting thoughts about religion which lead me to have conflicting thoughts on spirituality as a whole.

Some of the lyrics of the song reflect that mentality.

'Will I see a sign of clarity, for all those moments in the fog?'

But even since I wrote the song, I feel a little bit like I've grown from it. I understand that people all have their own idea of The Creator, or God. If that's making them a better person in their time here, nobody should have any say in what they want to believe.

Just want to add, Miigwetch for everyone who listened to the song.

Also a special thanks to Jordan Molaro at Interactive Design for shooting and uploading the video."

Watch "Questions" by Lorenzo:

Questions by Lorenzo from Interactive Design on Vimeo.

Windspeaker Talks with Brendt Thomas Diabo

Brendt Thomas Diabo is a country/rock/folk artist from the Mohawk Nation in Kahnawake, Quebec. Diabo talked with Windspeaker recently about battling stage fright, recording his new EP, and what next to expect from the talented young artist.

From Windspeaker's article Mohawk musician making it on his own by Lauren McComber:

Right from the start, Brendt Thomas Diabo doubted his pursuit of a solo music career. It was April 2011, and he had just started recording songs for his solo music project called Thomas Doubting.

It wasn’t that he lacked the musical talent – he has plenty – or that he suffers from stage fright. It’s just that, as Diabo puts it, it is simply in his nature to doubt. Hence the name, Thomas Doubting.

“It was sort of an experiment for me. I was mainly just testing the waters to see if I could do this,” confessed Diabo, a 21- year-old musician from the Mohawk Nation of Kahnawake.

With his tentative first steps into the Indie music scene of Montreal, Diabo promised himself that if he didn’t reach a certain goal by the age of 22 (to tour outside of Montreal), he would just “stop the whole pursuit and grow up.”

Personally, I would say that 22 is far too young to give up on a professional and creative pursuit, not to mention to "grow up", but setting goals is surely a great way to move forward and happily it's working well for Diabo:

With his 22nd birthday just two months away, Diabo doesn’t see himself giving up anytime soon. He is recording his second EP - which has already yielded a bluesy number called Ride – and has some potential gigs in the works opening up for a well known Aboriginal musician.

“Where I wanted to be last year is now where I’m at this year,” said Diabo. “It’s taken a lot of time, money, and dedication to get the ball rolling, but with my new EP being recorded I have a lot more confidence in myself and my music. I’d like to see how far I could take this one.”

So would we! Keep it up Thomas Doubting, we look forward to more!

--

Read the whole interview for more with Diabo, about watching Elvis movies, listening to Led Zepplin and following his own advice, here: ammsa.com/publications/windspeaker/mohawk-musician-making-it-his-own.

Watch his cover of Midnight at the Movies below to get you started, then be sure to download his free  EP Haunted for free at mediafire.com/?jhp7sjl83vi2763.

The Lived Dreams of World Hood

Estrella Hood and Anand Parmar, partners in life and music, are the love behind World Hood. 

I caught up with Estrella Wood, once her voice had recovered from the mayhem of SXSW where Estrella and her partner performed under World Hood at a community venue. They are also the founding members of the Sol Collective, an arts, culture and activist centre in Sacramento. The centre offers everything from music production classes to graphic design to silk screening. They also provide a space where different groups can come in and host cultural activities. They are right near the state capital and run an activist school making sure people are aware of different issues.

- Marika Swan: The discussion about identity is always interesting and I find that this is sometimes different with the Indigenous folks down south. How do you talk about your roots?

Estrella Hood: Yeah it's definitely interesting and it's always different in different places and it really hit home when I was in Canada just in the different ways that people do identify. You know growing up, we're Mexican, so we're Mestizo or Mestiz. I always knew about our Indigenous roots. My grandpa on my mother's side is Matlazinca, Indigenous people from Mexico and he made it a point to let us know where we came from. My dad's side of the family was always proud that their bloodline was Spanish, mainly because of the racism created due to the hacienda system in Mexico. Growing up, I would hear family members on that side say things like she’s the “daughter of the Indian”. I don’t think they meant it in a good way, but I was always proud of that, and I’m glad that they did not allow me to forget. On my mom’s side of the family, her eldest brother still spoke the Indigenous language. They still had their traditions. As I got older and many of them came to California it became less and less throughout the years, with assimilation. Definitely as I got older I wanted to look into that and really get a good grasp of who we were. I had a lot of conversations later with my grandfather.

In California there’s a lot of politics around being Native. A lot have to do with the politics around casinos, specifically where I live. There is a bit of a divide in the community around folks that are Mestiz and folks that are full-blooded Indian, who can say they are Native and who can’t. I think some of these tensions have risen because some people have right to money from casinos and some people don’t. So even though we’re not Native from California, I still felt that tension around cultural identity.

When I went to Canada to see Indigenous people from all over the place and Mestiz people from all over the place it was very interesting to learn about the politics of cultural identity outside of my own community.

MS: When did music become a big part of the work that you do?

EH: I think I've always had that as an outlet. When I dropped out of high school and I hadn't told my parents yet - I would take off and go to my friends place  and we would record music. Its always been a way of expressing myself and getting my thoughts and my ideas and my energy out. Recently with the World Hood project it's the first time I've really put it out there and allowed other people to hear it.

MS: And this is a music project with your partner? It sounds so romantic.

EH: (laughs) Yeah, he's a producer and an amazing beat-maker so it's convenient because we have a studio set up in the house. We have two children so when they go to sleep we can work on a project together. He's East Indian, his family is from India and he was born in Africa so he brings a whole different cultural element. We go back and forth with the sound, adding different elements of who we are. It's been fun working with him.

MS: How did your show go at SXSW?

EH: It was cool, it was a little difficult 'cause we were organizing the event. As a band, it was difficult because we were doing way too much as usual. We were on the sound and hosting the guests. So that part was hard to put myself in the role of now I am going to perform because I was running around but as far as the show itself it was a wonderful experience. We got to invite all of the different artists who's music we really respect. It was nice to meet face to face with people who have similar music or similar ideas around activism. And represent some kind of cultural element in their music. That we're not trying to assimilate, we're trying to keep our culture intact out here. So everyone had some kind of cultural element to their music which I think is really important.

Especially for us, physically we’re outside of Mexico and going into the next generation. My kids are the second generation. They say that by the third generation children will completely assimilate and there is basically no trace of where we’re from. So the cultural centre is a way for me to combat that. To try and keep our culture intact as much as possible for our generations to come.

MS: Was there any other music that just blew your mind out there?

EH: One show that I just loved was 3BallMTY from Mexico. It's three DJs that are super young, like 17-19 years old and they mixed a lot of different styles of music. From traditional to Indigenous sounds and electronic so its just such a great mix of music. It totally blew me away. It was amazing to to see them. I really feel like they are a good representation of Mexico today, of who we are from our roots until now. Who we are as a people and how we are continuing to move forward and evolve as a people.

MS: What's coming up for you?

EH: We have a new EP with 5 tracks coming out in the next month and dropping a full length album in the summer.

MS: Wow you are a such a busy woman!

EH: Yeah we are always doing too much. Life is short so you have to live out all your dreams and everything that you feel inspired to do. Everything that you visualize, move forward on it.

MS: I think it's so key to mix the activism with the arts and music. It's so important to have that balance.

EH: Music and art are such powerful tools to communicate with people across culture or boundary or gender. Images and sound are able to move people in a way that words aren't. They are such an integral part of our culture anyways.

You can check out World Hood on Bandcamp here.

Here is Indigenous 808 by World Hood:

and hey why not? Here's Inténtalo ft. El Bebeto, América Sierra from 3BallMTY

SPOTLIGHT: Beatrice Love

Cree R&B singer Beatrice Love out of Sturgeon Lake, Alberta, is stepping into the music scene with a soulful voice and just as powerful determination.

Here at RPM we get a lot of hip-hop, rock, folk and even country artists in our midst, but not a lot of R&B artists. So when we find one, we are naturally very excited to share their music with you, and this is definitely the case with our newest find Beatrice Love.

Beatrice Love out of Sturgeon Lake in Alberta is a proud mother of three and also an emerging artist taking the scene by storm with her strong soulful voice and character. Now hitting the Top 40 charts around the country, Beatrice is aiming to break into the mainstream whilst breaking boundaries as an Indigenous woman in the music industry.

Getting her big break in 2010, Beatrice entered The Bounce Showdown, a contest held by 91.7FM The Bounce in Edmonton, and won the grand prize! That took her to Vancouver to record with Hipjoint Productions' Mike James and Troy Samson and from there they recorded Beatrice's first single I'm Not Your Typical Girl which hit the charts on The Bounce.

Growing up listening and singing to the likes of Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and Celine Dion, Beatrice's voice reflects these influences with its soulful edge and powerful foundation that will definitely be a fixture in Turtle Island's music scene in the future.

Now balancing her life as a mother and a musician, Beatrice is working on an EP and releasing new singles as she goes along. Keep on the lookout for more music from this Cree-girl, because in her own words:

I want to break some boundaries as a native woman with hitting mainstream radio. I want to represent for Aboriginals cause I am!!!

Keep up with Beatrice Love on Facebook and YouTube and listen to her singles at hipjointproductions.net.

Here's her the single I'm Not Your Typical Girl:

Samantha Crain Living Life on the Road

RPM's Marika Swan caught up with Choctaw singer-songwriter Samantha Crain mid-tour to talk about the art of packing, what it takes to keep healthy on the road and what's changed for her in the six years since she started this job.

I interviewed Samantha Crain a few weeks ago as she was just setting off on her spring tour - by now she's all finished up and back home. Her Choctaw father introduced her to the guitar and at the age of 25, she has been touring for the last 6 years. So since she was 19 years old she has toured for at least 6 months of the year and sprinkled the other half with one-offs, festivals and mini-tours. I managed to catch this busy veteran after she finished doing a spot on a local radio show:

Marika Swan: How did your interview on the radio go?

Samantha Crain: It’s one of those things about interviews because everyone wants me to tell them how exciting my life is. But it’s just as normal as anybody else who has a 9-5 job. Well not just like it because it is very different but it's not overly exciting. I am doing what I like to do which is traveling but also I’ve gotten used to it. It’s the routine that I get into.  Driving to the city that I am going to play at, do whatever radio stuff or interviews that we do. And then we play the show and then we talk to people after the show. Then you go to sleep then you wake up and you do it again. It's not like a road trip. It can be if you want it to be. Which sometimes we want it to be. But sometimes it's exhausting to do that. This time around, we are all mellowed out a little and just want it to be a business trip. As you get older in life you need some routine in your life or you kinda go nuts. And that’s where I am at right now. We are going to cities we are really familiar with. We know where we like to go and people that we’re going to see. Its really enjoyable and satisfying because you are working for a paycheck and you want to be working for it.

MS: Probably the way you feel about it all now is very different than when you were 19.

SC: Oh yeah definitely. I mean also when we go to new places I get a lot of the excitement that I felt when I was first starting. When I go to Europe now and do shows I am very excited to see the cities. Anywhere in the States though is pretty much familiar. There are lots of cities that I have played over and over and over. I really love that too though, it's really nice to feel like they are your home away from home since I am not home a lot. I also have different resources available to me now. I wont happily sleep on the floor every night like I used to. Being six years older, you need a mattress under you once and a while. Just to be healthy you need some sort of routine. Get a good sleep, have something good to eat and maybe go jogging every once and a while. It’s just the things that become important to you as you get older. It’s probably that way for anybody who has a job. For me I just need to fit it into a day that’s otherwise pretty strict.

I just try to think of it like instead of me trying to get out of being a part of society this is how I fit into society. I think that everyone is there own cog in this machine that we live in and this is what I do. It's my job and it's because I love traveling and that’s very much a part of me. I love to play music. This is me contributing to society. We all work in our own ways so everything can move together so I don’t like to think of it as me trying to get out of being a normal person.

MS: You must be an expert packer.

SC: I’m actually not good at it. Its one of those things where I wish I had that skill and I feel like I’m getting better at it. When I first started touring the situations that I was traveling in were like we were in a really small vehicle and we could all bring one backpack full of stuff for two months. But I was also 19 years old so two weeks without showering, I didn’t care. Then we started traveling with a trailer so we had more room so I would literally bring everything that I wanted. Two giant suitcases full of stuff and like a bicycle. Just all sorts of books and tapes. And now I am doing more Europe stuff and I have to cut back on what kind of stuff that I can take. I pretty much take a small suitcase for however long I am going to be over there. Now I am trying to relearn the art of packing. You’d think I’d be good at it but I never bring what I need. And I bring everything that I don’t need.

MS: When you get full of doing what you do now, do you have other things that you dream for yourself?

SC: I don’t want to think about it. It would just be worrisome to think about all the things that you’d rather be doing other than what you are doing. It doesn’t seem very healthy. I think that you should focus on what you are doing and then when your path isn’t working out and you need to change the path of your life then you can think about that. Anytime that I feel unhappy it's probably because I am thinking too much on the "grass is always greener" mindset. So it makes it more sense to me to think about what I am doing now and try to focus on that as much as possible.

MS: So you try to live as much as possible in the present?

SC: I try to because I don’t think its something that comes to me very naturally. I think naturally I am a very futuristic thinker and so it’s better for me to kind of live where I am at for my own mental health.

-

Here's a lil' video of Samantha Crain's Churchill with Penny Hill, Brian and Laney of O Fidelis and Daniel Foulks, by VDub Sessions who documents Oklahoma musicians on the move.

The Rezified Tour with Gary Farmer and the Troublemakers

Gary Farmer & the Troublemakers are on their Rezified Spring Tour promoting their new album Under the Water Tower.

I caught up with Gary Farmer while he was preparing to go on the Rezified Spring Tour with the rest of the Troublemakers.

Gary Farmer: I was born on the Six Nations rez along the Grand River. There are probably 22,000 people there now. It’s a big rez. I was born there but rushed off to Texas because my father was in the American army for a couple of years. That’s probably why I am in New Mexico now. I grew up in the United States, in Niagara Falls and Buffalo, New York. I broke free from the urban life of Buffalo where it was pretty gang style. It was a different economic time in the 50s and the 60s. There was the absolute insane values that arose during the industrial revolution. There was more seeming prosperity with jobs. It was kind of a hay day. As well it was probably the farthest our people have gone from who they are. Where as my generation has spent our time coming back.

I went to university for a few years to become a cop but then the Attica prison riots happened in '71. I was there so that changed my career path. I moved back to my rez after my third year in university. My parents came home the year before and we moved into a small general store right in the heart of Six Nations. I came home and pumped gas for my parents. That’s how I got to know my community. Of course I’ve got lots of family there. And when I’m away from home I try to get back for ceremony time.

Marika Swan: What did you want to achieve when you were studying to be a cop?

GF: I hate to say this but I was the oldest child in a relatively dysfunctional family and I wanted to help but I didn’t know how. When I was in the gang, I was the strongest and the biggest and probably had the most compassion, I suspect. I was not the only Native American amongst mostly the Italian, Irish, and Polish. Most of the people go from the illegitimate gang to the legitimate gang. I don’t know if that’s true in Canada but it is in the United States, especially in Buffalo, New York; the legitimate gang is the cops. When I saw that there was so much corruption within the system and that I would have to conform, I couldn’t change the system for the better. This was a big realization for me in 2^nd and 3^rd Year University. I had to find other means to survive or to express myself. By the time I turned 20, I knew I wanted to be an artist and I had already discovered photography during my last year of high school. In 1974 I moved to Toronto and went to Ryerson University while driving a cab and bouncing on the weekends at the Silver Dollar Hotel.  Toronto is where I met James Buller, through ANDPVA, who is the man who changed my life.

MS: When did music become a larger part of your life?

GF: We had bands within our gangs and I was the organizer. I was the one who put on the gig for the band to play. They used to get us this big church hall and we’d have these big parties where you could get in for 2 or 3 bucks and there were live dances and it was a hit. Everybody was there. That’s the environment I grew up in. It was very nurturing in a way but it was dark too. Even though we used to say that we were lovers not fighters, you had to fight for your life as a child and a teenager so music came from that in a way. I was always the actor but I was always the producer too. I made things happen.

I always played harmonica from when I left Buffalo, I took a harmonica with me to university. We all worked at the bar so we controlled the Beer Blasts at the bar.  I used to get up and harp to other people’s music. I used to force myself on stage to play Blues harp because I was self taught and I got better. It wasn’t until I formed my own band that I started singing.

MS: Tell us about the upcoming tour.

GF: First off, I have some great players. My all time bass player Johnny Ringo is with me. He’s probably been with me six years and my cousin Bruce Fraser is coming from Six Nations to drum for me for the first time. I am sure you know the music of Brock Stonefish and his abilities, if not you should check him out. Every time I go on the road like this, I like to take players that can carry their own, right? They are singer-songwriters; they can perform their own material. We got a brand new guitar player with us, Lonnie Arellano. He’s a very talented songwriter as well.

I just got a booking today in Lame Deer, Montana, which is one of my favorite places to bill because it’s the home of Pow Wow Highway in a way, that’s where those two guys were from and I lived there for a period while making the film. I got really into the Northern Cheyenne culture there because it was a big part of the movie. So going back there is so special for me. We are doing guitar workshops at the Chief Dull Knife College and that’s just perfect. That’s the kind of gig we want. That’s why we call it ‘Rezified’ because its mostly Indian communities we are going to, sometimes sponsored by the Indian social club or sometimes sponsored by independent artists in the city. It's just beautiful, we are playing a lot of Indian casinos. Some are being sponsored by rez radio stations or regular radio stations. We are playing a number of Blues clubs and a lot universities and tribal colleges so I do theatre workshops in the afternoon and we play at night. We are doing double-hitting in order to sustain the tour. It’s an Indian band going to Indian communities. It's working and people are having us back a 3^rd and a 4^th time. There are students that have grown up with us and that’s really interesting to have that relationship with Native students pursuing a post-secondary education.  It’s really special to keep writing music for them.

-

Get Gary Farmer & The Troublemakers tour dates here: myspace.com/garyfarmerandthetroublema

Download their song Make a Change from the new album here: rpm.fm/music/download-gary-farmer-the-troublemakers-make-a-change/

And check them out jamming out in Portland at the 2010 Blues Fest:

RPM Artist Minute: Kinnie Starr - "Women + Sex + Music"

In our second RPM Artist Minute, hip-hop chanteuse Kinnie Starr talks candidly about women and sexuality in the music business.

Kinnie is widely known for blazing trails for women in hip-hop through the strength, authenticity and openness in both the music she creates, and the messages she conveys in conversation.

She has challenged the industry's commodification of beauty, but has also used the tools to her advantage. How does she strike a balance? Director Louvens Remy sat down with Kinnie to find out.

Watch: RPM Artist Minute: Kinnie Starr - "Women + Sex + Music"

Director/Cinematography/Editing: Louvens Remy / Blacksunrise Pictures.

Into the Sacred Hoop with Darwin Frost

My name is Darwin Frost. I am a musician. I am an artist.  I am a human being foremost and I am a child of the universe.

Darwin Frost aka the Impossible Nothing has released six albums in the last couple years and his hunger for music isn't even close to being satisfied. He recently joined Skookum Sound System, a collaboartive multi-media crew and is ready to show the world exactly what he is all about. 

Marika Swan @RPM: What have you been up to recently, musically?

Darwin Frost: I believe that all of us are able to sit in a circle and share with different viewpoints. And musically we all have different ways of hearing and understanding music. Part of my work on the planet and part of the reason I am here is to shed light on that so that we can come together in a circle or a hoop or in a wheel.  Because that is really the way that we work together instead of against each other. A lot of things get made while there are certain people left from the circle. My perspective is that you can’t have a healthy humanity without having a syncretic viewpoint and music is a big part of that.

MS: How do you express those values in your process of making music?

DF: I just try to use lots of different sources.  The interesting thing about humanity is that we all tell our stories, wherever we are from and who ever we end up being. It comes out and you tell your story. The whole thing is to not have fear to tell that story.

MS: How did you come to be where you’re at?

DF: I grew up in Soho, New York City. It used to be called South Village. It became remediated. The place I grew up in no longer exists. It has been carved up and sold off to the highest bidder. I lived in Brooklyn for a few years after that. I came to the point where I could no longer sit by and abide by what I was watching happening. I couldn’t really understand why my perspective was so different than other people’s. I wasn’t militant but I was seeing things in a new way. I could see a giant system that was just consuming people. I felt a great sense of family with my kin, other humans. I saw that this system was dividing people by class, by race. It’s colonialism. There is no post-colonialism, it never stopped its continuing.

When I was in university I realized that a lot of the things that were affecting me were not affecting other students. There were parts of US history that really didn’t matter to people. The part that really spoke to me was the Indigenous history, knowing lots of things were built on top of other people’s suffering. It made me go deep inside and question who I was myself. So I went back to Australia and spent some time with my family and really started talking.  While I was there, I really got in touch with who I was as a person. What my story was and what had happened in Australia which is very much the same thing. It was a wonderful trip and I’m still on it. But it’s been very painful and the work never ceases. It’s the type of work that every Indigenous artist takes on in the world. It’s difficult - you really want love and prosperity to carry people through but it isn’t always the case. You can get lost in anger but what happened to me is that I got lost in love. I got lost in music. I got lost in the things that I knew could actually affect change in people.

I’ve been working on it the entire time and I finally feel like I am ready to show people what my perspective looks like and how I have come to see the world. And how I hear music as just a spiritual version of what we are actually living right now… wanting to come together. All the sounds want to come together. All the music wants to be made. It just needs a switch to turn it on. It needs a guitar strumming or a hand hitting a drum.

MS: Do you find music healing?

DF: Very. It’s probably the most spiritual thing I have ever been involved with. Actually I was part of a ceremony that took all night. It was extremely special to me and there were rattles and people dancing and people moving in a circle. There was so much noise from all the rattles and the shakers and I realized this sound and this space for this ceremony to happen was an absolute gift. It centered me right into where I had to be, right inside. And it was the music that did that. I traveled along the sounds into my inner core and when I got there I realized, huh it's not so bad. Everyone is in a similar position. There are options out there to heal.  Art is one of those things that a lot people don’t explore to get that message. If I can help and have people explore that more, then that would be really wonderful.

MS: What’s up with Skookum Sound System?

DF: Skookum is Amphibian 14 aka Bracken Hanuse Corlett (live visual mixing), Dean Hunt aka DJ Deano, Csetkwe Fortier (vocalist) and me. Together we make up a multi-media hoop. We take spaces and we transform them into places where people can heal, where people can feel good. Where there is sound and there is visuals and activity and loudness and bigness. Where they can go inside and take part in this and they can take it inside themselves and they can leave with something. The hoop of all four of us doing slightly different things and working together is us taking our ceremony to different places.

MS: How fun is that?

DF: It’s pretty fun. I don’t think there is any way to get more joy than to do what you want to do in life and do something that makes people smile and makes people happy. And for us to even have this opportunity, to have the gifts and be able to give them is the blessing. Here’s the thing with Skookum: it just came together with no bumps in the road at all, just sheer magic. We just all converged at the same time and it just happened.

Skookum Sound System - Familiar Pickoff (ft Impossible Nothing & Amphibian14)

Skookum Sound System - Hollerin' (ft. Impossible Nothing & Amphibian14), Snoop - Pharrell Mashup

Skookum Sound System - Ay I Oh Stomp into Operator - Produced by Deano, Video Mashup AMphibian14

DJ DoezIt and Ali Baby: Native Rap in High School Hallways

Landon Walls, Onondaga and Hopi hip-hop artist  (DJ DoezIT) and mentor, is helping Indigenous youth find their musical path. He’s currently inspired by the work he’s doing with one young man in particular, Junior Harvey, who is set to make a name for himself as Ali Baby. They sat down to answer some questions about their their collaboration, Ali Baby’s upcoming debut album and the importance of listening.

I first heard from Landon Walls, also known as DJ DoezIT, via an email to RPM, in which he raved about a student of his at Ha:San Preparatory and Leadership School in Tucson, Arizona, Junior Harvey. Junior (Tohono O’odham) – who goes by Ali Baby – is an 18 year old senior at the school who has discovered a talent and passion within himself for music. Together, they’ve been working afterschool and weekends to record tracks, the result of which will be a full-length album, set to be released in February, 2012.

The more Landon and I communicated back and forth, the more inspired and intrigued I was by both his and Ali Baby’s work. I had so many questions! They were gracious to answer them all.

CC: Tell me about Ha:san prep?

LW: Ha:san Preparatory and Leadership School is a small charter school in Tucson, AZ. We serve Native students grade 9-12. We focus on Culture and Language of the Tohono O’odham Nation. Most of the students live on the reservations of the Tohono O’odham and Pascua Yaqui Nations. The main town, Sells, on the reservation is 65 miles away. They travel a total of 130 miles a day for a total of 3 hrs on the bus. We have a 100% acceptance rate to college for our graduating seniors. What a great school! I am so honored to be a part of the students and community’s education.

CC: How long have you been teaching there?

LW: I have been at the school for four years now. I directed the after school programs and currently I serve as the Intervention Specialist. But I also serve as an advisor and counselor for the students.

CC: Tell me more about the after school program?

LW: The after school program was funded by a federal grant 21^st Century Community Learning Center. In the last year of the grant which was 2011, I decided to buy studio equipment for an after school music program. Since then I have recorded Tradtional O’odham songs and a digital comic book with the University of Arizona in 3 languages, English, Spanish and O’odham. But the most exciting thing was recording Ali Baby and other students rapping and singing.

CC: How did you two start making music together?

AB: Landon and I were talking one day about music and I mentioned to him that I enjoyed creating beats, he told me he was thinking about starting a music program at the school and that I should bring in some of my beats and do some recording sometime. We started out on Garageband and some non-condensor mics usually used for radio.

LW: We did a couple of songs and he blew me away! So I had to buy some better equipment. I bought Pro Tools 8, studio monitors, 2 microphones, an audio interface, etc. and once we did that, things took off.

AB: When I made my first song I was just trying to see what it would sound like or how it would turn out, I thought it turned out pretty good for a first song. I was never expecting all this to come so naturally. We put out a pre-release of the album at our school and it has received so much positive feedback. It makes me so happy to know that people are liking the pre-release, when the official drops it is going to sound much better.

LW: We both learned by doing and just did what our ears told us, haha. The things I like most about Ali Baby is his flow, charisma, and message. He raps with no errors, meaning he is clean and has a positive message.

CC: Ali Baby, when did you first starting writing?

AB: I started making beats in the summer of 2010 and wrote my first song in December of 2010. We got around to recording my first song on Garageband a year ago around this time.

CC: And tell me more about this album!

AB: The album is going to be called Mixed Breed: The Beginning. Mixed Breed is our group and it means the many Indigenous cultures within our group, the many genres we create music in, and the styles each one of us possesses. We are hoping to have the album released by Presidents Day 2012.

CC: That’s so exciting. What artists are you inspired by?

AB: My favorite artists of all time are Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. I love their style, I love their flow. I know we have what it takes to make the same success. I listen to a lot of old school and I listen to a lot of new era artists like Drake and Lil Wayne and I try to incorporate all those styles into mine.

CC: What’s the collaborative process with Landon like?

AB: He gives me advice and motivation when recording our songs and I couldn’t be more grateful for meeting him and letting us use the studio day in and day out.

CC: Landon, do you plan to continue to mentor students in recording and making music?

LW: This is the beginning. I have always wanted to do something like this for the youth. They have so much to say, so many things in their minds and hearts. After graduating college, I knew I was going to be in Indian education. While working here I see the need for a two way road of communication in the communities, meaning traditionally we are taught to listen to the elders and the adults, but I think for a healthy and strong community the elders and adults need to listen to the youth. Open communication is the key! Music is the best vehicle and I am glad I get to provide it, might be a beat up lincoln right now with low fuel, but the hope is we can get it to a G6 with an unlimited fuel level!

CC: How did you first get involved in music?

LW: I got my first turntables my senior year of high school, with just a handful of records. I was on those things all night, my brother wasn’t too happy, the fader was clipping all night! Haha. Both of us actually came up with my DJ name, HopiDoezIT, later though it became DJ DoezIT. I was the first one to go to college in my family; I moved from home to Mesa, AZ. Soon I got some 1200’s and was at the record store every weekend. I was doing house parties and DJ competitions. I DJ school dances and proms and students just started to come up to me and wanted to learn more. I knew I had to get something started. I wanted to make our own music so we could spin that and started making my own beats, nothing is more fun than creating music from scratch.

CC: You also started a label, right?

LW: The label I have created is called Just Listen Music. Like I said, a healthy community needs open communication, so I want people, in particular adults and elders, to just listen. That’s why I create positive music because Grandma deserves to bob her head too! This is the start and it looks promising, I got things lined up and hope to continue to be the vehicle for native youth!

CC: Last, Ali Baby, what do you plan to do after high school?

AB: I plan to go to college to study Music Production. I want to do college performances and also do opening performances for bigger names. I just hope one day I can be the one the local artists open up for. Nothing’s impossible. I want to show everyone that just because rap nowadays is vulgar and offensive, it isn’t dead. I’m on a mission to make it right. I know I have what it takes and I don’t plan on slowing down any time soon.

Check out this sneak peak of Ali Baby's track For the Native Youth, and keep an eye on RPM for more on the forthecoming album, Mixed Breed: The Beginning.

STREAM: Ali Baby ft. DJ DoezIT & Dead Jester - "For the Native Youth"