[caption id="attachment_18442" align="aligncenter" width="3554"] Photo Credit: Robin Ervolina[/caption]
Written by Robin Ervolina
Left for me to summarize, I am struggling because of my instant and obvious bias. I interviewed Meka prior to EDBD and we just clicked. She probably clicks with everyone, but me not so much. Regardless, I wasn't sure what to expect when Meka Nism opened the main stage, but her fans sure did. The audience turned out early in the morning, even knowing they'd be stuck in the heat waiting for the headliners, because they knew Meka would bring gifts of spirit and encouragement. Colorful and alive, she commands the stage, supported by a tribe of amazing souls and talented artists. Meka Nism's set ended too soon. Relive it with our photos below.
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[caption id="attachment_18307" align="aligncenter" width="3948"] Photo Credit: Robin Ervolina[/caption]
Written by Robin Ervolina
"You see? You see? What did I tell you? I told you!" was heard loud and clear after Goodbye June took the stage at WJRR's Earthday Birthday 24. It was said by me, and I offer no apologies. I've been a fan since 2015 when cousins Landon, Brandon, Tyler and I sat down and talked music, church, and childhood, bonding over growing up in a small town where the two collide and blend and fuse into your soul. Goodbye June treated the fans to songs on their soon-to-be released Magic Valley, and at some point with tambourine in hand, Landon issued the holy rock n' roll altar call and church did happen.
Check out our photos below, and make sure you grab a copy of Magic Valley on May 5th.
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Written and Photographed by Robin Ervolina
The Killthrax Tour starring Anthrax and Killswitch Engage rolled through Orlando, Florida on April 13th and slammed into the House of Blues. Supporting the co-headliners were Code Orange and The Devil Wears Prada. Due to some technical issues at the nearly sold out venue, we missed Code Orange. However, while various media outlets waited on credentials, we stopped to listen to the music filtering outside the doors and into the courtyard. The eclectic nature of this lineup was the perfect setting for this power punk outfit bringing the heavy to mouse land. Damn shame we missed you, Code Orange, but rest assured, we're going to check you out as soon as we can.
[caption id="attachment_17634" align="aligncenter" width="4032"] Photo by Scott Langevin[/caption]
Midway through The Devil Wears Prada's second song, the press passes were sorted. I hauled ass into the photo pit just in time to catch the last song. The best part of this set was stepping back to experience TDWP live for the first time. The urgency in their performance made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I felt every pulsating rhythm in my gut. Each riff was disorienting. Each scream grounded me. This total visceral experience quickly engulfed the classic rock fans waiting on Anthrax.
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Anthrax took the third time slot (co-headliners alternating each night throughout the tour). As a photographer, legends in my lens make me shake all over, but you have to settle your nerves so you can really appreciate what an honor it is to just be in the presence of one of the greatest thrash metal bands in history. I love watching Anthrax because they celebrate their music along with their fans. They have the pedigree of rock royalty and the appreciation and enthusiasm of a new band trying to pay their dues. Crowd surfers went up almost immediately, and the more the audience came unglued, the more fire emerged from Anthrax's eyes, sticks, and picks. Gentlemen, it was truly a gift to be in your presence.
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Closers Killswitch Engage exploded onto the stage, but shortly thereafter, singer Jesse Leach choosing the barrier over the spotlight. Leaning over into the crowd, he sang and hugged and communed with KsE fans. Funny, engaging, far-from politically or socially correct, Killswitch left me exhausted. I sat in the back after my shoot and had to pick my jaw up off the ground multiple times. Just when I thought I was settling into the madness, Anthrax's Joey Belladonna charged the stage and performed with KsE. There are no words. Even the non-stop circle pit froze. How do you react when you can't believe your eyes and ears? In Orlando we we fall silent, then erupt in a deafening roar. The pit pushed toward the rail, bodies flew into the air, sailing valiantly toward the stage. Security greeted each metal pilot with open arms, resting them safely on the ground to return back home to the pit.
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The humility of these gods of rock left me shaken, not stirred. You want to get your ass to a Killthrax show, so the rest of the tour goes like this:
4/25 – Seattle, Wash. @ Showbox SoDo* 4/26 – Portland, Ore. @ Roseland Theatre** 4/28 – Denver, Colo. @ The Fillmore** 4/29 – Omaha, Neb. @ Sokol Auditorium and Underground** 4/30 – Kansas City, Mo. @ The Midland* 5/01 – St. Louis, Mo. @ The Pageant** 5/03 – Toronto, Ontario @ The Danforth Music Hall** 5/05 – Huntington, N.Y. @ The Paramount** 5/06 – Clifton Park, N.Y. @ Upstate Concert Hall* 5/07 – Boston, Mass. @ House of Blues*
*Killswitch Engage closes **Anthrax closes
Written and Photographed by Robin Ervolina
Plain and simple: Brendon Urie IS Panic! At The Disco. We could say it's because he's the sole remaining member from the original band formed in 2004, but at least one of this royal "we" would be lying. Urie has always been the force and the beauty behind the band, penning intellectual lyrics with a sharp bite and delivering them with a flawless voice.
Panic! At The Disco closed out their Death of a Bachelor Tour in Sunrise, Florida on April 15. The massive auditorium was filled with people of all ages; some surely too young to have been around when A Fever You Can't Sweat Out was released in 2005. But when Urie sang "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" the venue came alive with thousands of people joining in on at least the chorus. A fan since the onset, to see new generations celebrating the entire PATD catalog is too cool.
Urie is not just a charismatic frontman with a great set of pipes; he is a killer drummer and pianist, so fans were treated to a mashup of "24k Magic" and "Bitch Better Have My Money," and Billy Joel's "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)." Other highlights included Urie singing a few bars of Frank Sinatra's "My Way" for the first time on a tour, and PATD's incredible cover of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." When we arrived at our seats we all had construction paper hearts with "Love is not a choice" written on them. Curious little souvenirs were tucked away by some, but their purpose because clear when PATD broke out "Girls/Girls/Boys." Placing the hearts over the cell phone flashlight lit up the arena in a rainbow of colors and proved to be one of the most moving moments of the night.
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Tour support was provided by Saint Motel and Misterwives.
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Written by Robin Ervolina Kudos to WJRR 101.1 for tapping another stellar band to play Earthday Birthday this weekend. I'll be up front for Tampa Bay's Clenchfist, an act that has been together for 20 years, and has a sound so fresh and clean that it's a crying shame I didn't have time for the music scene when I lived closer. I called vocalist Steven Bruno the other day to get to know them better. Hi Steve, thanks for taking the time to talk with Shockwave Magazine. We're doing someEarthday BirthdayPregaming, and we wanted to get to know a little bit aboutClenchfist. Steve: You hit me at the perfect time. How are you? Good, how are you? Doing good, you know, having an average day in Florida: beautiful weather and a little hot. Yes, you know what, and it's going to be hot next weekend too, and it's still going to be a great festival. Have you played there before? Not Earthday Birthday. This is our first year playing this festival. We do play Orlando a lot. We're from Tampa so we play a lot of the Florida market, you know Orlando, Jacksonville, Miami. We're always playing around the state as much as we can. I was from Central Florida for ten years before I moved down near Miami, but I didn't get out and do the music scene very much, so I didn't get familiar with you until I started listening to your music yesterday. What can you tell us to introduce us to Clenchfist? We've been around for 20 years, which is a very long time [laughs]. We're very successful in the Tampa Bay area. We have quite the fan club out here. That's pretty much what drives us all these years. We released a record in '06 which did real well. The name of the record isTwenty Twelve, which you can find online. We played our -- kind of like with Earthday Birthday is, but 98 Rock is our station over here, so that kind of gave us the fan base we needed. They would always support us and let us play all their festivals, and that helped our careers back then pick up. After that they started inviting us to many of their shows, and that's how our careers kind of really kicked in, because we were opening up for some big acts. Then in the scene we would always be in touch with all the local promoters, and they would have us open up for bands like Sevendust, Nonpoint, all the time. Plus our management is always working with different promoters. But, we've always succeeded, even online with our music, and touring, and stuff like that. Just like every other band, you go and you go. We took a little break for three years because we had to rearrange some band members. We used to be a four-piece band, then we turned into a five-piece band, so there's a lot of changes where we wanted to increase the music. It's a whole different feeling and a whole different element when you add just an extra guitar player. In the process of that we were also writing new music, which we just released, our new record calledSpiritual Warfare. That was released in November of 2016. We've been very successful with that. Our online sales have done very well. The actual record is just spreading out now so it's still a baby as far as promoting wise. That's why we're doing Earthday Birthday: we want to promote our new record. We have fans from Melbourne to Orlando to Tampa and they're all excited about coming out and seeing us. You know, just keeping the Florida scene hot and we're glad to be a part of it. I notice you call your fans the Fist Mob. (Laughs) Yeah, we do. How far back does that go? It's got some deep roots. You're probably talking 2003 - 2004 is when people started that. We were like, "We need a fan club. What can we call them?" With all these bands back then, everybody had their own names and stuff. Most of the band are Italian and everybody would always say, "You guys look like a mob when you come into a rock show." Our entourage is always big. We just kind of put the two together. "Why don't we call our fan club the First Mob?" People feel special when we call them out, or you see how many fans come and see you. I almost said something when I heard you say "call," because the way you said it, I immediately thought "Oh yay, he's one of me! Okay!" because I'm Italian too. It doesn't matter who raised you or where. We have these things that we say and we say them the same. It's our "calling card" no pun intended. (laughs) Yeah, yeah! How did you come up with the band name? The way our roots started out, we were a bunch of kids in high school and we played a local battle of the bands. I've always been passionate myself with music, and growing up hearing the old-school rock, hair band days, and then going into the early 90s with Korn, Deftones, you had kind of the new metal scene come out. That's what attracted me. I've always loved hip hop, and I'm a jazz guy too. I love Frank Sinatra, the Rat Pack. My dad always had music around: Phil Collins, Alabama ... he had all these different genres of music, and when I was a kid I just listened to all of it. So, in high school people would come over to my house and we'd just play musical instruments. They would leave their instruments behind and just not care about them. They would just leave them over at my house and I would always have friends come over and jam out. One day just me and a couple guys got together and we clicked. Everybody had the talent with their individual instruments and we got invited to that battle of the bands, and we had to come up with a name. One of our favorite bands is Sepultura and one of their songs is called "Clenched Fist." We thought it was real cool so my bass player was like "Well, why don't we call it Clenchfist?" because every time we do a show people put their fist up in the air. We got lucky, you know? There weren't any bands named Clenchfist, and we grabbed it. Ever since then if you go on the internet -- it's very rare since we've been doing this for so long, but every time you type it up, we come up and its cool to see that we have that history. I did listen toSpiritual Warfare. You guys are really sweet to stream it online for us, but I'm downloading it too, not just because I like to support local bands, but because I dig your sound. It's not anything I'm hearing right now. I'm not saying it's so out there, but it's just good solid rock You have these complex arrangements and your vocal are super sharp, really articulate, very clean. I'm looking forward to seeing your live performance on stage at Earthday Birthday. Thank you! That's awesome. You also mentioned on Facebook that you pride yourself on "live performances leaving powerful impressions." What can we who have never seen you expect from an Earthday Birthday performance from Clenchfist? I'm sure you hear it all the time ... we play different venues, different amount of people, sometimes you play in front of thousands and then sometimes you play in front of ten depending on where you're at, who is promoting ... that's just the lifestyle of being in a rock band. Orlando, every time we've played there, the music scene is always fantastic, and it's really going to feed off the crowd. Once you see that crowd and they see us ... and outside is one of our favorite places to play. I just like the way sounds travel. It's kind of a spiritual thing for me. The energy with Clenchfist live has always been, and still is to this day, the energy and people feeling what we are. We're real people. There's no political message. It's pretty much what the everyday person goes though, especially living in this country and seeing what we've been going through. This record we wrote through the process of these changes with politics and everything you've been seeing the last couple years, the changes in culture. It's going to be pretty interesting to share this music with everybody. I'm pretty stoked about it. I'm excited to see the rock community coming together and using their voice to make a difference. Absolutely. The climate right now is not one that a lot of people are comfortable with. Right. And there's so much unity in music that if we can just take that message and maybe use it to bring people back together in the sense that they're not looking at how we're different, or how these differences are perceived. Yes! It's funny you brought that up because we were talking the other day. Rock, even in the hairband days, it was just happy. You'd see people happy. They were rocking out. They weren't killing each other, you know what I'm saying? And over the years -- like mosh pits, they grow and we love that. We love the energy there. But it changes. And that's what everyone was saying. You hear a song now, you know, and what song are you going to write where everybody can relate to it? That's what I like about Clenchfist and being in this band. We play in front of all ages. You've got from kids to 60 years old that see us and can hear what I'm singing, and they see that I'm passionate about it. We'll play with a lot of metal bands -- and we love metal, don't get us wrong. It's just that you can only get to a certain crowd. We want to try to get to everybody. Even with mosh pits there's a sense of community. You knock somebody down, you pick them back up. Absolutely. Everyone is there for the same reason and there's a unity to that. Yeah, it's a culture. It is a culture and it's the community. There's a social order and social agreements and the way things should be done, and that's what's great about the rock community. We're not really looking to hurt each other. Absolutely. Having been together for 20 years, you've seen a lot of changes in the industry. How has that been for you? Have you found that adapting your sound is the key to longevity? Everybody is scared of that, when you have to reinvent yourself. Even some of our friends that were in bands, you know, they just couldn't find that groove. A lot of times they break up. You see a lot of bands that have been together for years, and then all of a sudden, personal problems started happening. We've always been family oriented and just by the experiences we've been in, it's made us stronger. The music, you know, making changes with band members due to personal things, but for the better of the band, for the longevity of the band. Then actually trying out people. It took us awhile to kind of come back because when you have different guitar players, sound changes. Then, you have to find out if it's going to work, if there is a chemistry there. A lot of people have always said we have a lot of catchy stuff. I've been a real catchy writer, which I'm blessed, I'm very thankful for that. That's what we try to do with every record. We don't want two or three songs that are hooks. We want every song to be a hook. And that's what we drive for. We want the whole record from start to finish, for people to enjoy it. That's our recipe for success, and always being positive and not letting anything take us down. We all are entrepreneurs / band members. We do so much in the industry, doing things with our personal lives, and that's what makes it great. As long as we can stay positive. It's always been a plus for us. We've always known people to help us out. That's where the music community comes in. That drives us to create and write more music. Also, life experiences too, that's a big part of it. We don't want to just write anything because we want to be famous. We just tell people how we feel, and when you see people are touched by that, that's what's big for us. Ultimately at the end of the day it's the music, which is how it started out and how you've continued. Correct. Oh yes. That's awesome. I love it and let's leave it on that very positive note! See you at WJRR's Earthday Birthday. Thank you so much. We appreciate this!
By Robin Ervolina
Coming down from the Great White North, Canadian rockers Bleeker will be performing at WJRR's Earthday Birthday on April 22 in Orlando, FL. If you're a Canadian rock fan, you may recognize them as the chart topping Bleeker Ridge (the name change occurred after 1/2 of the original band left to pursue other opportunities).
I had an opportunity to listen to their latest CD Erase You, and it simply and elegantly rocks. There's no crazy mixing, no odd tweaking, no vocal fry or outrageous scaling; it's just clean fantastic music. Their catchy tunes live on in your head long after you've unplugged the ear buds. Infusing blues and soul into the post-grunge sound of old, they've created something vibrant and solid. I'm pretty excited about seeing these guys perform live, and I'd love to see you give these young snow birds a good old fashion Florida welcome.
As always, cue the videos:
By Robin Ervolina
I’m in middle school and pink and green are my favorite colors. My best friend and I collect trolls, and the top charting songs are Rick Springfield's "Jesse's Girl," Olivia Newton-John's "Physical," and the Stray Cats' "Rock This Town."
One day my best friend arrives for school dressed head to toe in black. Her clothes are torn and mended with safety pins. There are even safety pins in her ears. Black eye liner frames an intense, don’t you fuck with me stare, and her hair has gone from Valley to Warhol overnight. “What happened?” I asked. “The Sex Pistols” she replies as she disappears down the hall.
I’ll never forget that moment because it was my first brush with Music as an all-powerful force of change. Music does not exist merely for our entertainment (though it’s perfectly acceptable to rely on it as such); music transforms. Music is ageless and timeless, mystical and ancient, spiritual and necessary. Those who take up the charge to harness and release this power bear great responsibility, and I'm constantly grateful they yield that harmonic sword. Today I was fortunate enough to meet one of those people, Meka of the Orlando, Florida metal band Meka Nism.
Meka Nism will be opening the main stage this Saturday the 22nd at the WJRR Earthday Birthday celebration at the Central Florida Fairgrounds. What started as a quick ten-minute getting-to-know-you piece turned into one of the most beautiful conversations about happiness, the unifying nature of music, and Meka Nism's role as a catalyst for healing and change.
*** I'm so excited to talk to you as part of the Earthday Birthday lineup. You were voted Orlando's number one metal band in 2016. So clearly you guys are a big deal in Orlando. On a personal note, I'm extremely intrigued. Every Orlando person I know said "You have to talk to Meka Nism. Don't miss Meka Nism."
Meka: Yeah! Let's dig into your history. Can we talk a little bit on the background of Meka Nism?
I've been performing in Orlando, and actually nationally and internationally, for a while. I lived in Japan for a few years and I played 250 shows there. When I got back, that's when I got this particular project together. Even though it was Meka Nism before Japan, it wasn't quite this incarnation until after Japan. I met Bobby the guitar player, maybe at the end of 2010 and we really got the ball rolling probably in 2011. Obviously evolutions always happen, and we've had a lot of really interesting and cool musicians come in and out of the band, but we're in the most exciting place yet, constantly evolving and enjoying the journey that music is. What's really exciting is the community that's formed around us. We call it the Tribe; that's for real because we really are made up of more than the musicians in the band. It's the whole community around us, and it's really alive and exciting, [with] passionate people that inspire us to constantly do what we do. They don't mind that we are a little eccentric and extremely creative, and our approach to music and performance and making it mean something, and have passion and life and spirit to it. I was reading through the descriptions on your Facebook page and I think you hooked me before ever listening to your music with your description of "pure, unadulterated, in-your-face, take-no-prisoners metal."
(Laughs) That I get, and I love. Then I saw "Epic Shaman Rock." Can you elaborate on that as you also listed yourself as the vocal artist and shaman. Is it pronounced Shah-man or Shay-man? Or is that like potato/ patata?
I call it shah-man because that's the way I grew up pronouncing it, but shay-man is also the way people pronounce it. It's just an anthropological word. That word itself is just a generic term to describe any timeless, culture-less spiritual healer throughout this dimension and the next. It's people who are charged with a spiritual sense of the world and making that come to life, and not just the materialistic physical world -- which is beautiful in its own right, but it's not complete without the spiritual passion that is the flame inside of us all. I think that we need to connect to that a little bit more in modern world and really have a sense of something more enormous and powerful that's inside of ourselves, not just outside ourselves. I think that there's limitless potential and beauty and passion to tap into inside of each person, that I think that sometimes we are unaware of in our extremely advanced technological world. I think that needs to be balanced a little bit with being aware that we ourselves are the power and beauty of this planet as well. Nature is where to find a lot of the advanced knowledge that we're seeking, not just the beautiful fantastic computers and technology. They enhance it, but it's nothing without our spirit inside, like our presence, or who we really are, charging it all. Otherwise it's just an empty computer screen. Then we're not connected. Connection is so important for people, and I love Facebook for connecting people, but when people can feel each other across not just the room, but across the world, and it's not just the words that we're saying but the energy behind them, I think that's really significant. Music is the ultimate vehicle for connecting people and really waking up the beautiful potential inside of ourselves and each other. Do you feel charged with bringing that message to people who have been so mind-numbingly disconnected thanks to social media and the proliferation of opinions and anger? Do you feel sort of charged with reminding people there is somebody behind that screen, behind that story, behind that opinion?
Absolutely. We definitely as musicians have that role anyway, as any artist does. But I think when you set the intention to keep that alive in yourself so you are available to remind and wake up others to their own healing powers, their own beauty, their own life, their own potential, so that they're not just in a dark fog all the time, I think absolutely. I think that's what the zombie apocalypse is, is that people aren't even aware of their own existence past the sadness of the emptiness and the drama of online, when online is actually something that connects people all the time and becomes more and more of the universal language. It can really add a lot of peace and beauty and love between people all over the world and beyond. I think we're not quite using it to its full advantage yet there, but I think it's just because people do need art and music.
I studied spirituality, and in my last study it was different shamans around the world. I always wanted to do my master's degree in studying female shamans around the world and how they use expression to heal themselves and others and to heal the world. They actually go to places that have had suffering, and it releases the sadness or the trapped energy in the place, like war-torn places in the world that had horrible battles, and it actually releases that spirit to be healed and cleansed in the world. I've always admired the fact that art heals the world. We kind of need it; I think we need that more than antidepressant prescription drugs. I think what a lot of people need is to find a way to express themselves, and if they can't express themselves, the people that do have that ability need to express something for the world, because we are all connected, we are all interwoven in a spiritual web. I'm a Cancer, and I emote. I feel like I'm one of the emoters for the world. Early on I realized it was really important for me to do what I do even though it's challenging, it's a challenging industry. But it's because you do see those emotional reactions. You do see that you are speaking not only for yourself but for humanity in different aspects. I have an eccentric voice which means I'm saying things for people who might not have been able to speak up before, and then they find a connection to something that's unique. It's not just the mainstream media rock, which kind of white washes out a little bit of the uniqueness of what needs to be said sometimes. I'm not saying things that are extremely so out there that they're not comprehensible; I'm just saying things that are a little bit -- I'm trying to find the authenticity as much as possible. I think we sometimes become jaded to what music is, because we have these universal themes. In country music is there's always got to be a dog, a truck, and a heartbreak.
Right. I think rock and metal also can fall prey to the same few universal themes, of these very safe places. However, in talking to local bands as of late, I have seen a theme of unity and a message of bringing peace. It gives me hope because I feel like we are in a dark age right now and we know after a Dark Age comes the Renaissance.
Absolutely, that makes a lot of sense because the bands that I like are all saying something different, and they have something that's a little bit more universal but grander, like they are more timeless. They are more aware of something bigger than just the anger, and insulting women or men in their lyrics. I know of the female voices in metal, there's something new that I'm trying to offer. I love female-fronted metal. I love male-fronted metal. I mean, I love music. I love people who genuinely express themselves. I do think that there's an under representation of powerful women in heavier genres, and I think that it's nice to help the fellow female power represent a loud, powerful, feminine voice. I'm acting out of something that's very much true to who I am. It's not necessarily my sexuality, though I have sexuality; it's not necessarily my victimhood, though we've all struggled. It's something like empowerment, and when you empower women, you empower men. When you empower men, you empower women. It's something that we work together, and I feel like I help contribute to the underrepresented voice in heavier genres, of a very powerful female spirit that is multi-dimensional. I'm excited to contribute to that as well.
People are a little shocked by that sometimes I think, because I do very heavy metal stuff, but I also do very gentle moments, and extremely crazy operatic moments. I'm not afraid of being theatrical or empowering. I've experienced in shamanic research that sometimes when people sing, it's like directly from Great Spirit. The female shamans in Japan are called kamikuchi, which means "mouth of God." Female shamans in Japan speak directly from Spirit. They heal by opening their mouth and talking, and it's not from a blocked censored place of ego, which protects us but sometimes blocks us from expressing authenticity and truth. Especially in Japan, where they're always very aware of choosing their words, and it's almost like a scripted conversation because there's so much politeness, there's so much social structure to keep people safe in understanding each other in a very comprehensible package. Somebody like a kamikuchi, a mouth of god, a female shaman of Japan being able to just open her mouth and speak truth to someone, I think that the healing art is exactly what I respect and love about the world. A lot of people think that speaking truth means being mean to each other or saying something that is offensive or rude or tearing each other down. I see speaking truth as building each other up and actually becoming aware that we are more ethically powerful in creating our life and creating this world the way we would truly desire it. That desire, I believe, in people is not limited to materialistic gain; I believe people are beautiful. People are naturally peaceful. People are naturally wanting to connect and accept others, and to feel accepted and to give love and to receive love. I think if we spoke that truth more and more it would enhance the beautiful advancements that we're working on right now in this highly technological age in which the technology is connecting people more. I think with the vastly different cultural constructs that we deal with -- the different ways people deal with their pain and anger -- I think it's interesting that we do have a reaction to music in common. How a person reacts to pain and suffering is different among the cultural spectrum, but in the end we all respond to music. That is our unifying thing, and if so then great care and responsibility goes to creating it and delivering it.
I think that it's a sacred space for a emotion. I don't think we have a lot of community naturally set up into our current society structure. I think we have to create it, and I think songs create it. I think that I can listen to a song and share an emotional experience with someone, whether feeling happy or sad, or I just understand whatever moment is there and that they are allowing someone else to get into. That's a sacred space, and you're actually creating a safe place for people to express that with you. I see people cry at my shows. I'll never forget this acoustic show outside of Atlanta, Georgia. I was opening -- I don't know why I open for metal bands on an acoustic guitar because I wouldn't consider death metal acoustic. That's why I had to start Meka Nism as a whole metal band, because of the intensity that I put forth, even as a solo performer. I remember seeing his older country gentleman, I would never think that I would relate to, crying after my show and thanking me for writing the song that I wrote because it's the first time he's felt like he expressed inside of himself what he needed to express, after years and years, because of my songs. I've had different experiences like that where people actually told me that the song and the music and the connection to it saved their life. Obviously there's nothing else I need to be doing in my life. Nothing is more valuable than and that, even if it's just one person. That's immense.
Yes, I'm ready to cry right now. You feel like if you've done that at all for anyone, you've helped in any aspect in your life, if you're doing something that's helping people at all, then you need to keep doing that, and you need to do it to the absolute best and most authentic way possible, and keep doing it. I will never stop doing this because I've seen that, and I know that this is my shamanhood in a way. And everyone has theirs. I know doctors and health practitioners are a very obvious way, but people can do that in any job. They can be there, connected to their shamanhood, and connect to people and bring that authenticity through in anything that they're doing. Truely in following their heart and creating the life that they feel is the most authentic life for themselves, that offers, almost, permission to others to do the same. It's almost encouragement when you know that you're connected to something that you're doing that's absolutely what you should be doing, and it's having the most positive effect that you can think of. You may not be able to be Greenpeace and save all the whales, but if you know you can connect to one other person through a song, then do that and do it with all your heart and it will remind everybody else around here: whatever they do with all their heart, they can do the same thing and connect and help one other person feel something for the first time, or clear something that's been blocked inside of them preventing them from being happy for years, or even save their life by feeling connected to that. Then you have to do that, and it's available every day in every job and every aspect of life, but it really comes from just every individual person connecting to something that they love and feeling that in whatever they do. I'm excited to be a musician for that reason because I've seen it work. If anybody's wondering how all of these Earthday Birthday bands and genres and artistic forms fit together, it's really all about this unity. I really think that there's a change coming, and I really think that bands like yours are on the front lines of that; no matter how long or how little you've been together, you all seem to be charged with the same mission. I definitely cannot wait to see you.
We're playing super early. We're opening the main stage at 11:15, so be up bright and early and ready to rock. We can do this. Coachella goes on for a month. We can be there bright and early with our coffee in hand ready to rock out Saturday!
Luckily I have a Meka Shamanism Coffee coming out, so I'm going to drink lots of coffee that morning. Yum! We have to talk more about that when it comes out next month! I also want to talk more about your music and your stage performances and your incredible vocals. So much to learn, so little time today. Anything else we can plug before I have to say goodbye?
We're going to Germany to record a new album in the fall and we launched a Go Fund Me page for that about a week ago. Also, you have to come by our merch tent. We have really weird creative merch that you probably haven't seen before. I make blessing dolls. They're like voodoo dolls but they're blessing intention shaman dolls. We have prayer candles that we're making right now, obviously beautiful t-shirts, and bracelets, and we're working on some more jewelry and stuff. Bobby wants to come up with his Voodoo Juice because we don't have the coffee and yet, so he's got Shamanaide that he's making. That's a plan, Meka! I'm looking forward to the show, and the merch, and future chats! Thanks for hanging out with Shockwave this morning. I hate hanging up but I'll see you in a few days.
Thanks, Robin! I'm excited. Have an amazing day!
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My BFF is now a librarian. She wears browns and tans and whatever colors we wear when we have found that colors are a lesser expression of self. Growing into this world is hard, and thank the universe for giving us music to guide and comfort us. Don't miss Meka Nism this weekend; if Meka's phone presence is any indication, being in her actual presence promises to be a healing and beautiful thing.
Photo Credit: Robin Ervolina[/caption]
Photo Credit: Robin Ervolina[/caption]
Photo by Scott Langevin[/caption]
