(upbeat reggae music) - Good evening and welcome.

It's KVCarts.

Arts and entertainment in our region as well as the people and places providing it.

I'm David Fleming, tonight joined by Sahar Khadjenoury.

- [Sahar] Hi, welcome.

- This evening it's not only a musical journey, but a blend of cultures as well.

Take some hip-hop, some ambient soundscapes, mixed with some world fusion and some turntable work as well.

That's Audiopharmacy.

♪ Audiopharmacy we're in ya, ay, ay, ayo ♪ ♪ When the lights they turn down low ♪ ♪ And the music start to go ♪ ♪ And they start to lose control ♪ ♪ And the people they will know ♪ ♪ With metal life and corpses ♪ ♪ I travel deep distortion ♪ ♪ Fleece, metal and tan bark.

Cadillacs and cockroaches ♪ ♪ Came from yin and yang ♪ ♪ Started with love and pain ♪ ♪ But love's furnished in flames ♪ ♪ So they're the same thing.

♪ ♪ Consider all these thangs ♪ ♪ When with the wedding screams ♪ ♪ that life has to offer, often until we change ♪ [David] Let's just really start going around the room as simply enough.

Everybody introduce themselves and what you do, what your part of the band is.

Keep it simple.

Just go around the room, please.

- My name is Teao Sense, founder of Audiopharmacy.

Producer, multi-instrumentalist, father of two.

Yeah, lover of life and music and community.

- Hey, what's up?

My name is Jo and I go by Love/Speak.

I am the womb manager of Audiopharmacy Prescriptions and I'm happy to be here.

Thank you for having us.

- What's up, everyone?

I'm Ras K'Dee.

Afro-Pomo, lyricist, vocalist, keyboardist and producer of Audiopharmacy.

- Hey, I'm Nick.

I go by Brass Medic.

I play sax.

- Hey, I'm Ahmed and I'm a drummer for Audiopharmacy.

I'm a multi-instrumentalist and yeah, just a lover of life.

- Hi, my name is Becky.

I go by RAMSAL.

Teao and Jo recently welcomed me into their home.

I help them out with Audiopharmacy in any way that I can, and as of last night, I'm also a vocalist for Audiopharmacy.

- [Group] Yay.

- And Becky picked up, is Ras in there as well?

- It's RAMSAL.

- RAMSAL, okay.

- So, I'm Jewish and I was gifted four Hebrew names.

- Oh.

- Rifka, Miriam, Sara, Leah.

So, RAMSAL is an acronym of those four names.

- Wonderful.

It's a lot quicker too.

Now, the name of the group.

Let's go with that.

Audiopharmacy as a name.

When and how did that come about?

And if we have to go back to Two Sense and Chaotic Souls to get to there, that's fine.

Anybody can hit this.

- Audiopharmacy, we've been doing music for quite a while.

The name Audiopharmacy was birthed in 2002.

There was kind of a little niche, underground, conscious poetry scene and we were all lovers of hip-hop.

So we listened to hip-hop, but at the same time, you love hip-hop, but you hate where it's goin' because there's so much ego and money, and it's just fueled by so many things that we didn't really identify with.

So, as a producer and instrumentalist and DJ, I was making kind of like more conscious beats.

More organic and more worldly.

And then my boy, Seth, who was the first lyricist that I really connected with.

He was a really, really dope MC who was tellin' stories through the art of rhyme.

And I just thought it was so inspired and we connected.

We dropped an album under the name Two Sense and we started selling cassette tapes in the street back then.

Eventually, I met my man Ras K'Dee, Keepyahjoy, Love/Speak.

The crew just started growing larger and larger and it became more than just this avant-garde hip-hop thing, where we're selling tapes in the street.

Eventually, we started selling CDs in the street!

(laughing) We started traveling around, spreading the music, and that was- in the beginning we just did it for the pure sake of self-expression.

At the end of the day, so many people started telling us that they were healed by the music and it got them through a very rainy day.

And we already had created Audiopharmacy Prescriptions as a record label name But then we decided to consciously change the group name from Chaotic Souls, I wanted something that started with an A.

And I actually called my mama, and she was the one that was like, "Well, you know, your music is so healing, "what do you think about Audiopharmacy?"

And I don't remember any other options.

It was like, yeah.

- Thanks, mom.

- [David] Yeah.

Thanks mom, indeed.

(laughing) ♪ Well, you can say what you want to.

♪ ♪ ♪ You obey when you have to.

♪ ♪ ♪ But we can change if we want to.

♪ ♪ ♪ 'Cause it's all one struggle.

♪ ♪ We on common ground.

♪ ♪ And when that change looks unlikely, ♪ ♪ we got to come together now.

♪ (building acoustic guitar) ♪ ♪ You got my back.

I got your back.

We got your back.

♪ ♪ We got solidarity.

♪ ♪ I said, you got my back.

I got your back.

We got your back ♪ ♪ We got solidarity.

♪ ♪ ♪ I said, you got my back.

I got your back.

We got your back ♪ ♪ We got solidarity.

♪ [David] So, you guys have been around in one form or another since, I read, 1994.

And you said we added a few more members.

I also read at some point there were 30 people involved.

That's a few more members!

(laughing) - Probably like a couple thousand.

I think we can trace our roots back to a core membership in the band.

Actually, is me, Teao, and Keepyahjoy, our bass player who's not here tonight.

But there's so many folks that we met along the way on the travels and touring and also back in the bay.

Everywhere we go, we meet musicians, a lot of times performing.

But a lot of times just out in the streets, we meet folks and connect with them.

And then, they come to the show and they end up bringing their instrument or jamming with us.

Or vocalists come and they just jump on stage, and so we kind of grew the team from there.

We end up gettin' them on the albums.

The Moment probably has 30 or 40 artists on it.

Black Native has, I think, 35 artists on it.

So we have musicians from all over contributing to these projects.

And when we travel, we see them out, and, "Yo, come through.

Play percussion.

"come play horn.

Come play violin," whatever it is.

- It doesn't just stop at the music, either.

Audiopharmacy started musically, but there's no boundaries.

It's all art and it's all connection and it's community.

- It's community.

- When you start breaking down some of those barriers, it turns into a movement where we're all connected through our mutual values.

- Beautiful.

- The artists, you know, that's crew.

This is Nikila Badua, AKA Mama Wisdom One, who did the cover of this album.

She's Audiopharmacy, you know.

She actually does sing, but some of the artists don't.

Some don't sing.

Some of them are photo journalists or teach permaculture workshops.

There's no boundaries to this, so when people ask, "What is Audiopharmacy?"

'Cause I get that a lot, I'm like, "Well, you got 20 minutes?"

(laughing) - So you mentioned Moment, a second ago.

This is the latest disc, latest album I really oughta say since there is a vinyl pressing.

And speaking of which, some people are going for vinyl just for the craze of nostalgia.

But other folks need to go to vinyl for this in particular because there's some bonuses that are only on the heavy vinyl than the CD.

Talk about that for just a bit.

What can a person get on the vinyl, we're talking about Moment.

What can a person get on the vinyl as opposed to the CD?

- Okay.

Well, man, that's deep.

This project right here, there's this record, and then there's also the limited edition joint that's a picture disc.

These are all numbered and signed and registered with who owns them.

So, basically, each song on this album represents a different stage of life.

So, it tells a story.

There's a whole platform beginning to end.

The record has a drop card inside.

You can download the...

I call this album- it's not an album.

I call it an Audio Cinema because it's different from your regular album.

And it has a visual component as well, and you can download that from the drop card.

You can watch the album.

So it's basically, it's mostly instrumental, featuring a lot of amazing people in my life.

And whether they're on music or art, I had various artists do art pieces for each song.

It's genre-less, every song is a different genre.

- [Sahar] I'm really excited about the cinema element.

The visual's absolutely stunning and I can't wait for our audience to get a sneak peek.

Because when I saw the stars pan across the sky and then I felt this.

It brings a whole new energy to the music and really, you're right.

It gives you space to think and to interpret and then to take, wherever your mind is at the time, to take that journey with you.

Wow, you guys really mastered something phenomenal.

- [Deep Voice] You're about to enter into a new life.

(bouncy bass guitar) (eerie playing) - [Older Man] Actually, the mind of the individual's tune is already present.

(relaxing acoustic guitar) Then the mind begins to open up itself and it's some scars and rips and cuts and from there, henceforth, the body gets created.

(turntable scratching) ♪ - [Woman] A beautiful place you've chosen.

(woman vocalizing) ♪ (mix of synth and organic instruments) ♪ - [David] Before we leave Moment, I do wanna mention that I appreciate that earlier you referred to it as Audio Cinema.

Like a sonic soundscape sort of thing.

You're really painting something complete with these various textures or layer that you're doing.

I appreciate, so much, the album.

Not just the fact that it is on vinyl, but the fact that it actually feels like an album.

There is a beginning and a flow.

Like a good story, it'll come up and then finish off.

Something I'm glad that I think we're getting away from is the age of the digital download where people don't really care about the album, per se, as a complete work, but they're looking for tracks three, five and seven, and that's it.

So, I'm really happy to see folks putting the thought into a complete story.

Whether or not it is a concept album, the fact that it does have some sort of a flow.

I wish we would all get back to that, music-wise.

- In summing up the Moment, the project, the collaborations on there are my friends, family, and some extended family, but definitely people who are on the same vibe.

My brother right here, Ahmed, he did some edits for one of the Audio Cinema videos.

Ras is on there.

We did a concert live in Solomon Islands and that is actually in there.

He spits a verse that's taken directly from a field reporter.

This guy's performing barefoot on stage.

It was great.

♪ Stand up, put on your boots.

♪ ♪ Ready to march with our ♪ ♪ fists up.

Look at your troops ♪ ♪ ready to start fightin'.

♪ ♪ What you fighting for?

♪ ♪ Freedom and rights, that's what I'm writin' for.

♪ ♪ Say it now.

Freedom and rights, I said now.

♪ ♪ What you fighting for?

♪ ♪ Freedom and rights, that's what I'm writin' for.

♪ ♪ Freedom, yeah, freedom and rights, I said.

♪ ♪ What you fighting for?

♪ ♪ Freedom and rights, that's what I'm writin' for.

♪ ♪ Freedom, yeah.

Freedom and rights, I said.

♪ ♪ What you fighting for?

♪ ♪ Freedom and rights, that's what I'm writin' for.

♪ ♪ Freedom, yeah.

Freedom and rights!

♪ - [Teao] I remember at some point in the show birds just flew out over the stage.

- Oh, nice.

Cue the birds.

(laughing) - [Ras] One rasta guy just hops up, 'cause everyone's seated.

It's in this outdoor amphitheater.

There's maybe 5,000 people in this place or a couple thousand, and there's a bunch of little kids of all different ages, but it's indigenous people.

Solomon Islands, you know.

They're just barefoot and chillin'.

Island people, you know?

And all of a sudden, you know, they're all seated in the front on the ground?

And all of a sudden this rasta guy, some local guy, he just jumps up.

He starts feelin' it and dancin', and everyone starts screaming like, "aahhh."

And then the birds just flew off!

All the birds that were there just started flying off and it was in the middle of our set!

- [David] Nice!

- Just epic moments where you're on the road, you're only in it for that experience and you take those things with you.

- That made that experience.

That is really cool.

That is very cool.

- And it's super cool because you're performing and it's such a diverse and eclectic group and you bring this indigenaeity to the stage and to the album and it's fantastic.

And I know you have a Pomo background.

I should have you introduce yourself.

- (speaks Pomo language) Ras K'Dee.

I belong to the Makahmo Mihilakawna people from Dry Creek in Geyserville.

It's in northern California, one hour north of San Francisco.

I also belong to the Habida people, Mouth of the River.

I also belong to the Kashia people where my maternal grandmother's from.

So, yeah.

That's where I come from.

- I think that's super cool because there are so many tribes and indigenous people represented that you don't really know everybody, and then you discover.

'Wait, what's the name of your tribe?

'What does your song sound like?

Can you say hello?'

Do you have any songs from home?

- Yeah, I grew up singing traditional songs.

My family are traditional singers.

My grandmother's our (phonetic) Yonta, our spiritual leader, and it's a matrilineal society.

So we pass down these traditions through the mother and the grandmothers.

We belong to our mother's home.

If you get married into somebody else's home, you get married into their mom's home traditionally.

So, that's the way that the songs get passed and ceremony keepers are the ones that carry the ceremonies.

Yeah.

I grew up singing and dancing with my family, my aunties, my mom, and my brothers and sisters.

It's really unique to be a part of that.

- [Teao] Hey, man!

- Oh, Teao's a mind reader.

(laughing) Would you please grace us with a song?

- Yeah, I can sing a song.

This is our traditional instrument.

This is called a (phonetic) hy-but-ta-but-ta in our language.

And this is a clapper stick.

And it's just a piece of split wood.

This one is bamboo.

There's different ones.

We use elderberry wood.

I made this one out of elderberry wood.

But there's different kinds.

But it's just a piece of split wood with a piece of- a hole cut out of it to project the sound.

And so, that's what you're listening to.

And we say (phonetic) hy-but-ta-but-ta.

It kinda sounds like that.

That (phonetic) hy-but-ta-but-ta.

It kinda makes that sound.

But, yeah.

That's our traditional instrument.

I'll offer up a song for the FNX team and for all those folks that are tuning in right now.

This is a Pomo song, traditional Pomo song, from northern California from Point Arena-Manchester reservation, in English.

And in our language we say Habida, which is Ha, the mouth, and bida is the river, so Mouth of the River.

Where I come from, we're right next to the coast.

And so we have different kinds of songs, but all of them kind of are revolving around our water system, the Garcia River, or Habida, in our language.

And the mountains, where the rivers run from.

Makahmo, Mihilakawna: the two male and female mountains.

So all of our songs kind of revolve around the space and the earth, there.

So, I'm gonna share a song from Point Arena-Manchester, Habida.

(singing in Pomo language) (rhythmic sticks clapping) (singing in Pomo language) (rhythmic sticks clapping) (singing in Pomo language) (rhythmic sticks clapping) (singing in Pomo language) Ohhh!

- Ohhh.

- So when the song's done in our culture, we say ohhh.

It's a way to say- you're saying yes, actually.

but you're also saying, "yeah, that was nice."

A little bit about that song.

That's one of our dress songs, and the women dance dress songs in ceremony.

and there's certain sets of dresses that come with the dreamers or the (phonetic) Yonta, the spiritual leaders for our people.

That song is one of the dress songs.

It's one of the fast dress songs, so it's when people maybe will be doing prayer or doctoring in our ceremonial house.

That's kind of the history of that song.

- That's super cool because that's how you say 'yes' in Navajo: oh.

Which, rumor has it, there's a member missing today.

Who is missing here?

- Oh, Desirae.

- Desirae.

- Aha, and she's also Navajo.

She's Diné?

- She's part Diné and she's also Mishewal Wappo and we are so sad that she's not here with us today.

She has prior obligations with other projects, but she sends her love and she wishes she was here.

- Love from Desirae Harp.

Love to Desirae Harp, too.

- [Sahar] And a gorgeous, gorgeous voice and you really see her in the song, Be There, in the video.

Wow!

The two of you, you have such a strong voice and she has such a strong voice and the instruments just create this gorgeous song with this texture and it's like, "be there," in the lyrics, you know.

I'm thinking about 'when the well runs dry,' and it really has so many meanings because you're touching on activism and you're touching on yourself and then bringing it all in with the gorgeous chorus.

And we have soundscapes, visuals from, you're singing in the desert, and she's in the mountains.

- [David] Sometimes it's snow and sometimes deserts?

- [Sahar] That's the one, and some city, too.

♪ ♪ Nowhere to turn when the well runs dry ♪ ♪ And no one to help you when the whole crop's dying.

♪ ♪ No one to hear you when you ask God why ♪ ♪ No one to heal you when your heart starts crying ♪ ♪ Too much struggling, too much trying.

♪ ♪ Too much pain for the soul to survive in.

♪ ♪ No one to love you when your whole world's falling ♪ ♪ Even when they see you, they just keep on walking.

♪ ♪ They say you're all on your own in this hard life ♪ ♪ They say you're all on your own on this here.

♪ ♪ They say you're all on your own in this hard life ♪ ♪ You need to know I'll be there.

♪ (relaxing acoustic guitar) ♪ ♪ Decisions controlled by fear ♪ ♪ make people forget to love.

♪ ♪ They come when your life's on track ♪ ♪ but they run far away when you're on your back.

♪ ♪ I sacrifice my time to try ♪ ♪ and save the world.

♪ ♪ My work is all in vain ♪ ♪ when nobody will harvest the seeds I've sown.

♪ ♪ They say you're all on your own in this hard life ♪ ♪ They say you're all on your own in this here.

♪ ♪ They say you're all on your own in this hard life ♪ ♪ You need to know I'll be there.

♪ - [Ras] We actually filmed that video in Joshua Tree which is down here.

And we drove through the Joshua trees, so it was pretty cool, on our way here.

It kinda brought me back there to that video, too.

We took off late at night and we ended up in Joshua Tree at five in the morning.

So we drove all night and filmed all day long and then slept the next day.

- [David] Oh, how cool!

- [Ras] And the other part of Desirae's part was filmed in Yosemite.

So you'll see the beauty of Yosemite, a piece of the beauty of Yosemite.

You can't even explain the beauty of Yosemite.

You could try, but it's just so beautiful there.

That song in particular is from this album.

From this album called State of the Heart.

[David] Mm hm?

- This album was produced after two years of traveling with our core band members: me, Teao, Keepyahjoy, Pasha Brown, as a vocalist, and our drummer Kwome.

That's our crew, right?

- At the time, yeah.

- We did two years as music ambassadors, cultural ambassadors for the American Music Abroad Program.

We traveled all throughout the South Pacific: Fiji, Samoa, New Zealand, Solomon Islands, Indonesia.

And then, the next year we went back and we went to Morocco, Cyprus and Oman.

So, this album was created as a set list for those tours and when we came back, it was like, "Okay, we've never actually recorded a live band album "in the studio," and we wanted to experiment with that so this was kind of like an experiment to see.

Because we usually incubate a lot of our projects like Teao did with Moment just in our home studios and we can really tune in and focus on the edits, and get everything sounding how we want.

And when you're in the studio, you're on the clock.

You're paying by the hour.

So you're like, "We gotta just do it quick."

But when you're at home, you're just like, "Oh, I'm chillin'."

I can go get a drink of water, go do my thing.

And really get focused in on the edits and you clean everything and just getting it real nice sounding and so you have a little bit more flexibility.

But, for this project, we went into Fantasy Studios in Berkeley and really had an opportunity to record in a different way.

Kind of like old-school style.

How they set up all the instruments and actually play all in the same room, (laughing) like real musicians!

- [Teao] The album is virtually our live set.

- [Ras] Yeah, it's basically our live set.

It's just recorded live, what we do live.

So, if you wanna hear a closest to what we sound like, this is the best album for you.

- [David] State of the Heart.

♪ No hurry ♪ ♪ Your heart can't worry.

♪ ♪ As I rise up early just to greet that sun overhead.

♪ ♪ No hurry, I got no worries.

♪ ♪ As I write this story ♪ ♪ I'ma teach someone, we can.

♪ ♪ No hurry, my mind ain't worried.

♪ ♪ My vision ain't blurry.

We gonn reach our queen, I'ma say ♪ ♪ No hurry.

No stress, no worry.

♪ ♪ Till we gone and burry, what the world got for me?

♪ ♪ Stress is never my dress.

♪ ♪ Less stress and I'm blessed.

♪ ♪ Blessed, blessed, and I'm best.

♪ ♪ When left blessed in' that west.

♪ ♪ Deepest sleep is my breath.

♪ ♪ Detach your neck to that chest.

♪ ♪ Texts remind me of sex.

♪ ♪ Best left for what's next.

♪ ♪ Clap your hands if you love mama.

♪ ♪ Stomp your feet if you love father.

♪ ♪ Prosper, that would be proper.

♪ ♪ Making green, but offer that liquor shots'a.

♪ ♪ Or maybe something less drama.

♪ ♪ Temptations eatin' like Dama.

♪ ♪ Traumatized by that timer.

♪ ♪ Modernized the vibe of them dollars.

♪ ♪ Dollar made him more shallow.

♪ ♪ Swallow made the leech collar.

♪ ♪ White collar killed mama.

♪ ♪ Talking bout, damn, it's gonna be a long summer.

♪ ♪ Things will make you just wonder, ♪ ♪ what drugs are they under?

♪