Stepping into another name

I've created music for several years as "kaioni".
The name came to me in a dream, in 2009, when I couldn't decide a name for the music. It was - in the dream - the name of an ancient sunken city.
I learned later that this is a Hawaiian name, & I will not be some idiot "acculturator" that just takes a name from other cultures (not to mention, the history of Hawaii & it's "acquisition"..).
I could write a big post about privilege & appropriation, but I'm just leaving it at that. For now.

I will be making music under my birthname : Jerome . This is who I am. While the music is more important than the name, it is really a part of what I'm here to do - my mission & my heart & who I really am, rather than what or who I think I am.
Please bear with me as I go through & change all "social media", websites, & finally music online (amazon, itunes, spotify, etc)
I'm not as much of an online person as you might think. I'd rather run around in the forest all day. I make music because I have to - it is who I am. & I'm not someone to TRY rather than DO, even if two people hear it. It is for those two people, to be uplifted by. I'm not here to get followers or what-have-you. But I am online to connect with people, to have those ways to reach me & share etc. To explore this bio eco zoic sound coming through me.
& there is so very much going on in the world

I am here to be what I'm supposed to be here for. Mission. Vision. Love.
New music pouring out of me but I'd rather not talk about it. You get it.

I'm leaving for Maine for a bit, to jaunt through the trees. Next week things will be completely transformed.

All my best to you!! Heal. Love.

What has been changed so far:

The Hadopelagia LIVE concert

I will be performing Hadopelagia & other songs at Teatro Zuccone in Duluth, MN.
The date is August 28th, the doors open at 6:30 but the show begins at 7. We finish around 9.
Tickets are 8 dollars.
One dollar of every ticket goes towards Warka Water (more info at link below)
One dollar of every ticket goes towards S.O.U.L. Sisters Leadership (more info at link below)

Please click the event link or any of this text to be directed to it, if you want more information.

I'm excited! This is my first "gig" that isn't just a "gig". It's a full on performance, half-theatrical, half-concert, in a lovely theater! Teatro Zuccone is a gem! & I'm honored to be supporting two causes I am very passionate about - accessible sustainable water, & empowering women of all walks to be in their power, even as it is denied them by a non-supportive white supremacist society.


Thank you! I hope to see you there

https://www.facebook.com/events/1020561321287472/

SPECTRUM music video

Creating

So much is going on in the world, always!
What have you been up to? What new things have you learned? What things have you gained a new perspective from? What are you letting go & what are you letting grow?

Here is my creative world at the moment:

-Healing  - I was the guest mediator for Wind Down Wednesdays' January video! You can watch it here. (or at the bottom of this post).  This is a project by the SOUL Sisters Leadership, a facet of their inspiring mission & passion. Thank you so much. I am honored to have been a part.

-Essential Oil  - I have placed one of my favorite oils to make on Etsy. "Blue Amber" is a rich mysterious amber - made with amber resin that I grind up. Mostly organic (but the one ingredient that isn't labelled organic - the amber resin - is Pure, per Soma Luna). 100% pure. Therapeutic-grade.  Click here to check it out!

-Writing  - My first book, "Mythopoeia", is online here. It is a collection of poetry & song lyrics, told through themes such as "Joy" or "Crossroads". It is exclusive to Kindle through July

-Sewing  - I've been making a few caftans. I always prefer the simple flow when it comes to sewing. I made a few gift dresses/shirts, & now just really loving being in touch with making something someone can wear.

-Music  - I feel that I am still in the world of my latest album, "Hadopelagia". The next project is definitely already in my hands, but Hadopelagia is still in my heart. I wrote up a performance for this album & am excited to share it. In regards to recording music, I am still committed to sharing Zazie with the rest of the world that doesn't know her music.

-TRAVEL  - I am planning a trip to Hawaii & Asia this year. Maybe even Europe from Asia - we will see. It feels so good to be a global citizen. I'm remaining free & open & happy to explore with my partner at my side.

-Listening  - I have been listening to my biggest inspirations lately: From vocal (Brandy, Kylie, Aaliyah), to musical (The Beatles, Karunesh, Jai Uttal, Omar Tekbilek, etc.), to both (India Arie, Zazie, Loreena McKennitt, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Imogen Heap, Bjork). There are some legends in here!!



&&& I want to move out of ME land. It is time to help others. to create something real, or help it come about, that truly helps others. Getting my hands dirty. Be it on a farm in Hawaii, or a community in Panama or Africa or wherever I am needed. To listen learn & share LOVE & joy, constructive!!

Love & so much gratitude!!!

Standing in our gift

Hello again!
Let's uplift each other.
Having looked at the music I created - for animals, for plants, for history, for the planet, for spirit - I realized I seem to have forgotten the human aspect.
I want to be able to help.
I want to write a digital poetry book that supports the Pachamama Alliance.
I want to release a calendar of my art that supports the Ocean Conservancy, with an interactive "submit your own art for next year's November".
I want to perform with my partner a transformative & empowering theatrical concert.
I want to keep making my art, but about you, & not about me. I want to build others up.
That had been my blind spot for a long time, if I look back through the music. I wanted to help the environment, but I didn't think that through helping people, I can help the environment!

I am changing the "I want to" to "I will"!

With "Get Brave!", I had tried to "shock people awake" (into my perspective).
With "eco-Lectronica", I had tried to blend genres & craft catchy melodies to plant the environmental message as an earworm.
But still they both served ME.
Instead I want to help OTHERS.

It is so empowering to create from a space of "How can I interact with people that leads to the environmental shift I want to see in the world?". It is so empowering to EMPOWER OTHERS.

I have a list of possibilities I am looking at right now.
There are niches of access for me: I can connect with gay men in this country (America) who are CLOSE to winning marriage equality. (Not 100% won yet, but close!) I want to remind these men that once the "battle is won", let's turn our power, our attention, our giving, onto other important issues, rather than go back to our lives of ME. Let's turn our attention next to The Environment! To supporting those women that held our hands by fighting with grace for their rights to equal pay & to protecting their right to choice. To ensuring that this has not just been a white man's issue, but that gay people of all heritage are recognized as part of our varied community!
I want to empower people who have been through sexual molestation/abuse. I have been through it, & I want to be able to help how I can to lift them up. From victims to champions.
I want to encourage people to explore art in a way that teaches our symbiosis, our connections to each other across cultures - all within an environmental framework. We are the rainforest.

Everyone is important, & I don't mean to include only a few niches. These are simply two examples of how I can begin to affect change in communities with a close relation to me. The next step would be to communicate with those who do not have a close relation to me. The walls are coming down as I realize how important this is. I have been preaching to a choir (& I love you for listening), but it's time to share, listen, & exchange with those beyond the clergy (so to speak)!

That's my check-in, I suppose!

I will report on more of these next time!

All my best to you
-Kaioni

Here's a little update.
I suppose I'm not online so often.
I am taking the Pachamama Alliance's Game Changer Intensive. It is incredible & I recommend it!
http://www.pachamama.org

I'm in the process of recording the Zazie covers, at the same time that I've been working on the triple language album that I am now calling Solar.  (French, Spanish, English. 2016)  But really, with this Intensive, I'm looking at so many things & assessing what I can do beyond music. My brothers live on a Sustainable Agriculture Institute & are really working with their communities, building the new dream. I was near them for a time. I want to be there again & get my hands "dirty"!

Though I've written the next musical project, the reason it is important to me to translate alot of Zazie's music into English is that she writes such powerful songs. L'Amour Dollar, Rodeo, Sauver Le Monde, La Dolce Vita, Je Suis Un Homme, Flower Power, Des Rails, etc etc etc I could go on & on. These have beautiful messages in the lyrics that can touch many, & she is a huge inspiration of mine.

I have put together a performance for when I get to California. This is a more theatrical show, pulling from the albums I've already released. The inspiration is the Ocean & through the show I hope to tell a story of going inward & understanding our capabilities, diving to the bottom of the Ocean, & coming up with knowledge of how connected we are, & that we're all in this together. It's a story of connecting with every living thing as if it was our sacred duty. It's real, not some wishy-washy blissed-out message, but a tangible, constructive thing that I have seen, especially through my brothers.

Three years ago, I released the "Get Brave!" album. This was very electronic, & the theme was tragedy. Now here I am, aiming for positive-wave music, with my voice, a guitar, an upright bass, a drum made out of anything & whatever comes. & it may not even be music! We have so much inside us, don't we, that brings us together. Talents, ideas, inventions, conversations, sharing, etc etc.

In other news, I believe in you. You have every moment of your life in your hands. We're connected - isn't it exciting!!

Thank you!
-kaioni

Happening

I have alot in the works.

I suppose, as someone who creates (& most of you would understand this from your own lives) that I have no off switch with "my work". I'm constantly making something - if it's not writing songs & making music, it's addressing some aspect of that (e-mailing musicians, performing, etc.). If it's not pertaining to that, it's in another sphere: sewing/clothing, drawing, writing stories, dancing, etc.

As someone who tends to do rather than promote (or at least, when I promote/talk about what I want to do, it comes in big bursts!), I felt the need to share something, spill my guts on all I'm doing.

I am very proud of "Hadopelagia". With this project, I largely abandoned my earlier desire to make something catchy & decided to simply explore (& bare) my soul. It was minimalistic & it was the most fun to make.

The current project I am working on is still in its infancy. I am finally going to be doing what I wanted to & knew I would be eventually: creating a "folky" emotive global fusion acoustic "analog" project. No vocal tricks. Real. More live. More flowing. Less calculation required. Less buttons pushed & more strings plucked. More musicians involved (a band!!). Instrument lessons.

I call this a "project" rather than an album, because I never know how many tracks it will be. I might decide to do something small - 8 tracks. I've been looking at my catalog of songs, & deciding which to remake into these acoustic folk renditions. ("Thought Control" is a start) This would then be 

I've been listening to Mercedes Sosa, Inkuyo, Loreena McKennitt, & Pachakuti more than ever before. Zazie's acoustic stuff as well. I have other inspirations that have touched me here & there (don't we all?) in various ways (Queen, Stevie Wonder, India Arie, Brandy, Aaliyah) but aren't as complete guides as the aforementioned.

I'm in love with music, with singing, with making music. 

When you listen to "Get Brave!" (2011), you hear my fears.

When you listen to "eco-Lectronica" (2012), you hear my ideals.

When you listen to "Hadopelagia" (2013), you hear my spirit.

This current project (2015, likely) contains my passion, my love, my voice. A culmination of all of them. When you listen to it (I hope that) you feel my SOUL & are touched more than any of the other music.

I have been putting videos online of my performances & will add a variety of other things.

Among them, discussing each album, discussing the music & influences I grew up with, & where I am at this moment, vocally, musically, creatively.

This is the project I will make both a Spanish & French version of. 

I'm very excited!!

The inspiration for music videos (for "Spectrum" & "Wake The Dead") definitely is there for 2014. 

I've performed some electronic sets at a few clubs here in NY lately. Even though it is the sound I am not utilizing with my current project, it is still a fun change of pace. I look forward to the day that I am with a band on stage!! Even if that band is just an upright bassist, a flute player & a tabla player. (tablist?) (or whatever other combination. I want to have fun with it & I get bored with "keys, two guitars, bass, drums"). 

I suppose that's all for now. It just feels good to get it out, to write it down, to share it, even if it's just with myself.

all the best