Nahko and Medicine for the People - Nahko Bear
Questions: Jo Taylor
Good souls Nahko and Medicine for the People are an amazing bunch of people. Having just released their second record Dark As Night and completing their inaugural tour of Australia opening for Xavier Rudd, they have left quite an impression across the country with their energetic live shows of passionate music that has something to say.
Caught In The Mosh sat down recently for a chat with the charismatic and engaging Nahko Bear. The Oregon native, born with a mix of Apache, Puerto Rican and Filipino spoke of his struggles of self discovery, the writing and recording of the latest album and how he's doing his part to keep up the good fight.
Your lyrics are profoundly personal and have resonated strongly with people all over the world. What drives you in your songwriting?
The story. I’ve tried to write songs that aren’t about me (laughs). Though I actually just wrote a song that wasn’t about anything in particular or anything to do with me, it just kinda came out and I thought, “oh, this is nice.” I feel like the story of your own personal life is the most interesting because everyone has such a unique personal story. I was just blessed with a way to write about my story and that other people can relate to it. And it’s cool because I never really set out to do that, I was just doing my own thing and found other people were like “yeah man, I can feel ya on that”
That’s a good thing. You’re coming from somewhere organic, not just trying to write something for the sake of writing something. If it comes from somewhere honest, people are more likely to connect with it I think.
Yeah! And it was a big way for me to process how I felt about things. And as an artist I was very picky about whatever I said. I actually started teaching some writing classes recently, in the last couple of years, and I realized as I was doing it that you can become so fearful of what you say as an artist. You find yourself going “Is that what I want to say? Or that sounds terrible, or that sounds really lame”. And it’s just really simple. I mean, I write really simple songs, you know!
But simple can often say the most.
That’s true. And I appreciate that about simple songwriters. I listen to these complicated things sometimes and I go “Wow, should I do that?” But nah, I’m chilling (laughs). I’ll stick to my four chords and real simple lyrics. But then, I stuff a lot of stuff in one song! Sometimes I go “Should I stop writing?”
At what point do you stop writing?
I have to kinda stop when it feels right. You know “is the story done?”
And does it take a while to learn when that is?
Yeah! Sometimes it does. It’s different every time I write a song. Certain songs will be done in an instant and I’ll go “OK, there’s three verses”. But that’s the cool thing. The structure of a song and the length of a song is just going to have to come out the way it does.
What has influenced and inspired you along your path, both musically and personally?
Once again, it’s the story. Watching in awe, on my own path, of my own life. The idiosyncrasy of how it’s unfolded. A big part of my journey is my family. My family story was a big one for me because I was adopted and went on a big search for my family and found my mother then found my fathers family and all this stuff. For me, it was a big awakening in becoming who I am. I was in this really purgatory sort of place. You know “who am I? I’ve got this family, but then I have this whole other family”. So in a big way right now, what I feel is happening with the music is I’m bringing in all these people to become like family because perhaps they didn’t have one or don’t know their place. So a big part of it has been a journey of self-discovery and empowering myself and being cool with all the weirdness that happens and the darkness that comes out of it. It’s like “Whoa, that was crazy. But it’s cool”. I just have to keep writing music to pat myself on the back (laughs) like “It’s going to be fine, man. 10 years from now and you’ll be fine, don’t worry about it!”
Music is the best form of therapy.
Yeah, it’s very therapeutic!
You’ve been signed with Ten to Two Records here in Australia to release your second album Dark As Night, which is out now! What can you tell us about the recording of the album?
Caught In The Mosh sat down recently for a chat with the charismatic and engaging Nahko Bear. The Oregon native, born with a mix of Apache, Puerto Rican and Filipino spoke of his struggles of self discovery, the writing and recording of the latest album and how he's doing his part to keep up the good fight.
Your lyrics are profoundly personal and have resonated strongly with people all over the world. What drives you in your songwriting?
The story. I’ve tried to write songs that aren’t about me (laughs). Though I actually just wrote a song that wasn’t about anything in particular or anything to do with me, it just kinda came out and I thought, “oh, this is nice.” I feel like the story of your own personal life is the most interesting because everyone has such a unique personal story. I was just blessed with a way to write about my story and that other people can relate to it. And it’s cool because I never really set out to do that, I was just doing my own thing and found other people were like “yeah man, I can feel ya on that”
That’s a good thing. You’re coming from somewhere organic, not just trying to write something for the sake of writing something. If it comes from somewhere honest, people are more likely to connect with it I think.
Yeah! And it was a big way for me to process how I felt about things. And as an artist I was very picky about whatever I said. I actually started teaching some writing classes recently, in the last couple of years, and I realized as I was doing it that you can become so fearful of what you say as an artist. You find yourself going “Is that what I want to say? Or that sounds terrible, or that sounds really lame”. And it’s just really simple. I mean, I write really simple songs, you know!
But simple can often say the most.
That’s true. And I appreciate that about simple songwriters. I listen to these complicated things sometimes and I go “Wow, should I do that?” But nah, I’m chilling (laughs). I’ll stick to my four chords and real simple lyrics. But then, I stuff a lot of stuff in one song! Sometimes I go “Should I stop writing?”
At what point do you stop writing?
I have to kinda stop when it feels right. You know “is the story done?”
And does it take a while to learn when that is?
Yeah! Sometimes it does. It’s different every time I write a song. Certain songs will be done in an instant and I’ll go “OK, there’s three verses”. But that’s the cool thing. The structure of a song and the length of a song is just going to have to come out the way it does.
What has influenced and inspired you along your path, both musically and personally?
Once again, it’s the story. Watching in awe, on my own path, of my own life. The idiosyncrasy of how it’s unfolded. A big part of my journey is my family. My family story was a big one for me because I was adopted and went on a big search for my family and found my mother then found my fathers family and all this stuff. For me, it was a big awakening in becoming who I am. I was in this really purgatory sort of place. You know “who am I? I’ve got this family, but then I have this whole other family”. So in a big way right now, what I feel is happening with the music is I’m bringing in all these people to become like family because perhaps they didn’t have one or don’t know their place. So a big part of it has been a journey of self-discovery and empowering myself and being cool with all the weirdness that happens and the darkness that comes out of it. It’s like “Whoa, that was crazy. But it’s cool”. I just have to keep writing music to pat myself on the back (laughs) like “It’s going to be fine, man. 10 years from now and you’ll be fine, don’t worry about it!”
Music is the best form of therapy.
Yeah, it’s very therapeutic!
You’ve been signed with Ten to Two Records here in Australia to release your second album Dark As Night, which is out now! What can you tell us about the recording of the album?
Yeah. It was a journey. We hadn’t recorded in a while. We’d done one and it was done four years ago and that one I did it all myself and didn’t know what I was really doing. Once we had the opportunity to record this one, I wanted to make a record of these stories that are really about the old paradigm for me and the old struggles and get it out. So it was like “OK, these are the old thoughts and the old struggles, let’s get through this stuff and process it”. Then I can move onto the new record and be like “what are we going to do in the new paradigm?”
Now you’ve come out the other-side...
Yeah, come out the other end. That’s why it’s called Dark As Night. In some
ways, I’ve found myself to be a messenger from the underworld, you know? Having these two worlds, the dark and the light world. I’m standing in the middle of the doorway and I’m holding messages from both those worlds and bringing them to the surface to have a different look at it. I feel like some of our old community was like “oh wow, that was really produced” but I kinda like getting people out of their comfort zone. I actually really like it. I like to cross over a little bit into the mainstream, however still keeping within the folk scene and the acoustic side of things. I was really happy with how it turned out and it gave me a good idea for the direction for the next stuff and all the stories that will come. You can listen to the first record and then the second one and see the progress of the stories and the intention of where we are trying to go as a collective and as a movement.
How did the whole process differ from the first album On The Verge?
Enormously! The first record was like 30 people, in a room singing songs and drinking beers (laughs) and the second one was much more structured, had more of a vision and it didn’t take as long! I had a really great producer I was working with and I was much more in the zone. I went in “This is what we’re going to do, we gotta do this.”
So you were more confident in what you were doing?
Yeah, way more confident! And kind of exploring in a big way as a producer too. Just trying out lots of things, wanting to add electronic sounds!
So where were you getting your inspiration from? Especially from a producing aspect? Were you listening to albums and hearing things you wanted to try?
Yeah. The music I make sounds nothing like the music I listen to. Well, in some ways. So I was listening to a lot of different music, like Bright Eyes. Bright Eyes is something I grew up with and a huge Conor Oberst fan. His lyrics and the way that he writes and tells his story has been a huge influence on my writing. And back to like Bob Dylan and that stripped back acoustic style. It’s funny how Mumford and Sons just kinda grabs you and even the Edward Sharpe stuff, that big community huge band jamming, crazy, anthemic hippy songs. Then straight up Immortal Technique, with really intense lyrics that are direct about political things. Though this album didn’t really go that far into the political end of things, I pretty much stayed in the story-telling vibe. But I think for the next phase and the next bunch of stuff that we put out, it’ll be hugely acoustic. We have a lot of music to record. A lot of it’s done; we just need to record it.
Now you’ve come out the other-side...
Yeah, come out the other end. That’s why it’s called Dark As Night. In some
ways, I’ve found myself to be a messenger from the underworld, you know? Having these two worlds, the dark and the light world. I’m standing in the middle of the doorway and I’m holding messages from both those worlds and bringing them to the surface to have a different look at it. I feel like some of our old community was like “oh wow, that was really produced” but I kinda like getting people out of their comfort zone. I actually really like it. I like to cross over a little bit into the mainstream, however still keeping within the folk scene and the acoustic side of things. I was really happy with how it turned out and it gave me a good idea for the direction for the next stuff and all the stories that will come. You can listen to the first record and then the second one and see the progress of the stories and the intention of where we are trying to go as a collective and as a movement.
How did the whole process differ from the first album On The Verge?
Enormously! The first record was like 30 people, in a room singing songs and drinking beers (laughs) and the second one was much more structured, had more of a vision and it didn’t take as long! I had a really great producer I was working with and I was much more in the zone. I went in “This is what we’re going to do, we gotta do this.”
So you were more confident in what you were doing?
Yeah, way more confident! And kind of exploring in a big way as a producer too. Just trying out lots of things, wanting to add electronic sounds!
So where were you getting your inspiration from? Especially from a producing aspect? Were you listening to albums and hearing things you wanted to try?
Yeah. The music I make sounds nothing like the music I listen to. Well, in some ways. So I was listening to a lot of different music, like Bright Eyes. Bright Eyes is something I grew up with and a huge Conor Oberst fan. His lyrics and the way that he writes and tells his story has been a huge influence on my writing. And back to like Bob Dylan and that stripped back acoustic style. It’s funny how Mumford and Sons just kinda grabs you and even the Edward Sharpe stuff, that big community huge band jamming, crazy, anthemic hippy songs. Then straight up Immortal Technique, with really intense lyrics that are direct about political things. Though this album didn’t really go that far into the political end of things, I pretty much stayed in the story-telling vibe. But I think for the next phase and the next bunch of stuff that we put out, it’ll be hugely acoustic. We have a lot of music to record. A lot of it’s done; we just need to record it.
Will you be playing much of that newly written stuff that’s yet to be released on this tour?
Yeah, mostly! (laughs) It’s classic. That’s why I’m glad we don’t have anyone to tell us what to do. Some bands have people overseeing what they do and kinda telling them that they need to play certain songs. But being the first support, we have a half hour set which comes to three songs. This is our “foot in the door - introduction to Australia” tour, so we really want to make sure we do a good job. So we’re playing two songs that haven’t been released and one from Dark As Night. But the last song we’re playing is actually totally about Xavier Rudd. It’s about our journey with him here. It’s a personal song about my connection to the land and how it ties into the work that I do with indigenous people in my country.
You are here at an interesting time, with a new government just brought in that has a strong disregard for the environment and cultural diversity which has a large portion of people disillusioned and fighting to keep this a country to be proud of. We could certainly do with some of your musical healing. You up for it?
Yeah, I’m up for it! I feel like, especially at this point in my life, specifically! In our tribe we look at things like this; there are four phases of life for men. I’m in my ‘Warrior’ mode. I’m not an ‘Elder’, but I’m not a ‘Scout’ anymore. I’m in this phase where I’m trying to take on a lot of responsibility in representing, not only the native voice, but also the voice of this generation and the changes that we want to see happen. We’re in a lot of post, pretty large movements that have happened in the last five years. There have been some pretty gnarly uprisings that are youth based. I’m certainly up for the job. Now I am. I would say a year ago, I wasn’t ready for it. Even in meeting Xavier, he has helped distill in me an even greater sense of what’s at stake. I’m more grounded in what my role is in this thing. It’s exciting. I’m starting to see the bigger picture for myself, seeing how I can be of service using my music.
Activism can be a really powerful tool for change. I’m working with three different organisations in my country. One is a Worldvision charity that I play a festival for every year. I’m on the board so we choose what organisations to donate the money to. There have been some awesome organisations that we’ve helped fund their projects. One of them is a birthing clinic in Indonesia that Michael Franti works with. Another one is with Congo and our cell phone batteries (minerals extracted from Congo are used in the manufacturing of mobiles). And another is called Under the Earth. A not for profit organisation that helps the native people in the Mid-West. So when we get home there are some benefits that we’ll be getting involved in.
There are so many things you can do to reach out and help, but you kind of have to filter it down to what’s important for you. Mine are environmental and social. Coming from being raised in a white family, then meeting my brown family and finding the cultural diversity and working out who I was in those two worlds and how to bridge those two worlds. So I feel with Under The Earth, we’re creating a new space for activism and family to merge. And I think that music is a platform to stay hopeful. I think music is still a legitimate place to look to. When shit gets really bad, that’s when we tend to band together the most.
And history has shown that some of the greatest creativity, artistry and music is born during some of the hardest struggles.
Yeah, totally. During the most epic times of struggle, we’ve seen the most amazing poets come out. And then shit changes!
At this point, Nahko spots a dove, laughter ensues and he cries out “It’s a dove! It’s going to be OK!” It somehow seems like a fitting place to end the interview. A crazy interlude with a symbol of hope... like Nahko himself.
Yeah, mostly! (laughs) It’s classic. That’s why I’m glad we don’t have anyone to tell us what to do. Some bands have people overseeing what they do and kinda telling them that they need to play certain songs. But being the first support, we have a half hour set which comes to three songs. This is our “foot in the door - introduction to Australia” tour, so we really want to make sure we do a good job. So we’re playing two songs that haven’t been released and one from Dark As Night. But the last song we’re playing is actually totally about Xavier Rudd. It’s about our journey with him here. It’s a personal song about my connection to the land and how it ties into the work that I do with indigenous people in my country.
You are here at an interesting time, with a new government just brought in that has a strong disregard for the environment and cultural diversity which has a large portion of people disillusioned and fighting to keep this a country to be proud of. We could certainly do with some of your musical healing. You up for it?
Yeah, I’m up for it! I feel like, especially at this point in my life, specifically! In our tribe we look at things like this; there are four phases of life for men. I’m in my ‘Warrior’ mode. I’m not an ‘Elder’, but I’m not a ‘Scout’ anymore. I’m in this phase where I’m trying to take on a lot of responsibility in representing, not only the native voice, but also the voice of this generation and the changes that we want to see happen. We’re in a lot of post, pretty large movements that have happened in the last five years. There have been some pretty gnarly uprisings that are youth based. I’m certainly up for the job. Now I am. I would say a year ago, I wasn’t ready for it. Even in meeting Xavier, he has helped distill in me an even greater sense of what’s at stake. I’m more grounded in what my role is in this thing. It’s exciting. I’m starting to see the bigger picture for myself, seeing how I can be of service using my music.
Activism can be a really powerful tool for change. I’m working with three different organisations in my country. One is a Worldvision charity that I play a festival for every year. I’m on the board so we choose what organisations to donate the money to. There have been some awesome organisations that we’ve helped fund their projects. One of them is a birthing clinic in Indonesia that Michael Franti works with. Another one is with Congo and our cell phone batteries (minerals extracted from Congo are used in the manufacturing of mobiles). And another is called Under the Earth. A not for profit organisation that helps the native people in the Mid-West. So when we get home there are some benefits that we’ll be getting involved in.
There are so many things you can do to reach out and help, but you kind of have to filter it down to what’s important for you. Mine are environmental and social. Coming from being raised in a white family, then meeting my brown family and finding the cultural diversity and working out who I was in those two worlds and how to bridge those two worlds. So I feel with Under The Earth, we’re creating a new space for activism and family to merge. And I think that music is a platform to stay hopeful. I think music is still a legitimate place to look to. When shit gets really bad, that’s when we tend to band together the most.
And history has shown that some of the greatest creativity, artistry and music is born during some of the hardest struggles.
Yeah, totally. During the most epic times of struggle, we’ve seen the most amazing poets come out. And then shit changes!
At this point, Nahko spots a dove, laughter ensues and he cries out “It’s a dove! It’s going to be OK!” It somehow seems like a fitting place to end the interview. A crazy interlude with a symbol of hope... like Nahko himself.