(gentle guitar playing) - 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.

(gentle guitar playing) - Be There.

City, nature and then city and nature.

And then there's that cool bridge between kind of like the elements you see, like the visuals from Mama.

And actually, Dave and I were having this great conversation about the women bringing the water, and then you see bloom or life.

- Mama.

- Who came up with concept?

Talk to me about Mama.

- That was a last minute concept.

- You also mentioned Pooja.

- The song or the video?

You're saying last minute concept.

- I want to shout out, all the visual artists across the board, because we have so many talented people, before we answer that.

We got our good friend, Jack Eastgate, did this piece during one of our live performances.

Then we have Noah, he did this piece.

He painted this live during the album recording.

- [David] You're referring to artwork on an album in the studio.

- This is artwork on the 'State of the Heart' album.

Pretty incredible stuff.

Nikila Badua.

- [Zahar] Martin Travers.

- Martin Travers, another visual artist.

Just incredible artists that they do these pieces for free for us.

They come to the shows, and they're like 'oh yeah, we'll paint this for you.'

They just paint it at the show, and we're like 'oh, wow.'

It's pretty incredible.

We commission art as well.

We try to also pay the artist as well whenever we can.

I just wanted to shout them out because a lot of the times- like for U Forgot About Us?

That was our good friend, Richard Castaneda, who is, you know.

That piece on the front is actually two Pima girls in boarding school, who were- their hair is cut.

They're wearing contemporary outfits, but they're forced to wear that.

And then there's bombs dropping on them, like in the image, there's bombs dropping on them.

The album was during a rough patch in our history, in America, where we're entering second Iraq war, and Afghanistan and all that stuff was happening.

We really wanted to come out with this album that really infused kind of that history and that time period.

If you listen to that album, it really has a lot of that in there.

A lot of that, content wise.

- All the albums kind of have that kind of social-political like lens.

- That's like one of my favorite parts about listening to Audiopharmacy.

Because sure, if you were just listening to it and you weren't really thinking about it, 'oh, cool.

Great beat.

I like the instruments.'

But then when you actually pay attention to the lyrics, there's like this double voice discourse.

There's a whole 'nother conversation under the layer.

- ♪ Yeah, Mama.

Ain't no stopping her, ♪ ♪ bring up the temperature.

♪ ♪ You can call the officer.

♪ ♪ Bring on the bombs and the guns and the onslaught.

♪ ♪ She cannot be owned, she cannot be bought.

♪ - [David] Let's talk about the song, and then let's address the video.

Well, what came first?

Was it words, or was it a cool hook?

What happened first with Mama?

- I think the instrumental was just created.

It was just me making music.

- You didn't have in mind a song later on?

- No, not necessarily.

It was...

I played sarod in that song, which is a traditional Indian instrument.

Very, very gorgeous instrument.

It looks similar to a sitar but it has a chrome fret board.

- [David] It's East Indian, I feel compelled to say at this point.

- Yes, it is.

Thank you.

- Yeah, so we had the sarod in there.

There's some turntablism in there.

That's a constant formula I like to keep alive in all my music.

To the eleph- the elephant?

The element, (chuckles) of turntablism, because it's almost extinct.

♪ - ♪ No stopping, no controlling, ♪ ♪ no holding back the flash flooding.

♪ - ♪ Sudden disaster, after poking ♪ ♪ around the found provoking field.

Poaching, ♪ - ♪ Left.

Broken-hearted, but she returned ♪ ♪ with a burning touch.

♪ ♪ There's so much to learn, but not enough.

♪ - A lot of people DJ now, because it's push a button, and it's easy to do to just play all these songs.

But, the actual turntablists?

That was like a whole culture of DJ'ing where, like, I would come home from school and wear a backpack for three hours while I'm just scratching.

It sounded like cats and dogs fighting, but eventually I perfected my craft.

In Mama, you can hear some scratches in there.

It's an organic song and all of our music kind of has a similar theme.

I hit up Ras.

I'm like, 'yo, I think this is- this song I just made is pretty bumping.

You should check it out.'

- So you brought that in then, and then Ras?

- Yeah, he passed me the instrumental.

I think maybe on email or something.

Actually, at the time I was taking my youth to- we take our youth all over the country for events and stuff.

At the time we were taking them to Atlanta for the US Social Forum.

I remember I had the instrumental.

I don't think even Teao knows about this!

- [David] Uh oh.

- This is like the first time he's gonna hear about this.

- [David] Excellent.

- I remember I had the instrumental.

I was like, oh man, I got this instrumental.

This is nice.

One of our youth was going to perform, and so I gave him the instrumental to perform it!

(laughter) And he performed this, it's his first time performing.

He performed this song called Conquistando.

It was about colonization, you know?

It was his first time performing, and he rapped it and all the girls from pol-dare and the youth program, SNAG, they're like in the front row.

Like yaaay, and like cheering him on.

It was like his first show.

That was the origin of the song.

It started right there.

After that, I was like, man, that song's pretty tight!

He rocked it on that!

So then, when I came home, I started writing to it.

It's just about Mother Earth.

Holding Mother Earth in the same reverence that we hold our moms, you know?

I think is really what it's about, is reconnecting back to Mother Earth, the same way that we're connected through our belly button to our mothers.

- So the video, if you want to bring it to the video.

- Yes, please.

- The videographer is a very close friend of ours.

Pooja, AKA Kalishakti, she is Nepali.

So the video was produced by a female, and the song is called Mama, so it seemed suitable.

She actually came out.

She was living in Amsterdam.

- And Shadi, Shadi was there as well.

- Shadi did some shots, yes.

- Shadi Rahimi.

- So, Pooja came out and we actually casted this little girl.

We just found this little girl on the street.

No, I'm just kidding.

It's actually my daughter!

(laughter) - [David] Yeah.

She couldn't sign the waiver, so we got her!

Interesting pick.

(laughter) - Bad dad joke!

So, shout-out to my daughter.

Her name is Shishin Asha-Kaiah.

She's, uh- - [Ras] Not so little anymore.

- Yeah, she's not so little anymore.

She sprouted up.

But at the time, she was like- how old was she?

- She was four.

- Four, okay.

So, yeah.

She's Black, White, Native American and Chinese.

Her name Shishin, it represents the Guardians of the Four Corners.

She basically is in nature, and she has a gourd, and she picks up some water, and she brings it.

She travels.

This little girl, we had her walking down the street in the middle of nowhere!

Like, 'yeah, just keep walking.

We got to get the shot!'

- [David] Where really, where was that?

- That was shot in northern California.

- [Ras] We were at Sutro Baths in San Francisco for the first portion of it.

Then we shot some in the city as well.

- Well, the nature shots where Shishin was walking.

- Oh.

In the Muir Woods, I think.

- Yeah, was it Muir Woods?

- Muir Woods.

That's right.

- In northern California.

There's one shot specifically where she's walking down this desolate road, and it's a road.

So it's like she's going towards the city, but it's all trees.

She's surrounded by trees and there's this road, and she's carrying the water.

That's her job.

'Okay, Shishin.

Just go.'

(laughs) And she's walking so far from us.

I'm just thinking 'oh, god.

'I hope her mama doesn't freak out when she sees this video', and a shadow of an eagle actually, goes through the shot.

- Really?

-I tell Pooja, 'slow-mo that right there.'

You know how many times it took that eagle to get in frame?

Just right.

Bad dad joke!

(laughter) No.

So, yeah.

We got that in there.

She walked into the city.

We did a stop-motion of her pouring the water.

By then, her hair is tattered.

Her white dress is all dirty.

We just threw all kinds of mud at her.

- Yeah.

That was the last minute, actually.

The whole flower part of it.

I remember we were trying to figure out, 'oh, where's this water going to go?'

And there was like this plant that was coming out of the ground.

- Yeah, we needed to find something.

- And I think it was me and Pooja were talking like, 'oh, that'd be cool if we just brought in all these flowers'.

And then, it's just like blooming at the end.

They came up with the idea to do the stop-motion thing, so it looks like it's just expanding.

- We're in Bayshore, a real industrial area in San Francisco.

Where it's just, you know, not a tree in sight.

So she pours the water on there, and then we had friends of ours come through.

And also add to that, to make it more of a universal thing.

- Like the other water bearers, we did have Shishin, as like the official kind of focal point of the water bearers.

But if you notice, in the video, we have people from different backgrounds and ethnicities, coming to also put water into the plant.

That was like a representation of all of the nations coming together to water, to heal the Earth.

- That is brilliant, and really that's why you picked up at this live performance that you were at last night.

We were at a community garden at UC Riverside, and community garden.

And there's a stage, and there were these fire pits that pop up.

And then, everyone's rocking out.

- It was gorgeous.

- It was gorgeous, you know.

You're killing it on the saxophone.

- Healing it, healing it.

- Oh!

You were healing it on the... Got it.

Brass Medik!

- [Ras] How y'all feeling out there?

(crowd cheers/hollers) We need some more dancers down here.

Let's move it a little bit.

All the ones that are already down here, let's move it a little bit forward.

♪ All the ones there by the fire, we know it's warm over there, but we need it warm over here on the dance floor.

(guitar, saxophone, drums, and tambourine playing) ♪ (crowd applauds/cheers) ♪ (sings): From beginning, I come from the rhythm.

♪ ♪ I been here since beginning.

I'll be here til the ending ♪ ♪ of life.

I seek living beyond this here prison and strife.

♪ ♪ We lack vision sometimes.

We fall victim at times.

♪ ♪ This soul music, remind me of my purpose in life.

♪ ♪ With my service, provide the soul verses.

Survive ♪ ♪ the cold surface of earth.

Give birth to it.

Now watch ♪ me grow though it so y'all can move to it.

♪ ♪ Your body will intuit.

Our soul is hot movement.

♪ ♪ We streams of free movement, designed.

♪ ♪ Break thru the levees designed ♪ ♪ to keep us separate.

The light ♪ ♪ is our connection.

The light ♪ ♪ is our connection, divine.

♪ ♪ This soul music confined, ♪ ♪ behind a worthless design ♪ ♪ not of our own.

It's time ♪ ♪ we lead'em strong.

We read ♪ ♪ and write our own.

Hold tight.

♪ ♪ We holding on.

Speak truth.

♪ ♪ We're not alone.

Hold tight.

♪ ♪ We holding on.

Speak truth.

♪ ♪ Waya, waya ho!

♪ ♪ Waya ho!

♪ ♪ Waya, ♪ ♪ waya ho!

♪ ♪ Waya, ♪ ♪ waya ho!

♪ (crowd shouts/cheers) [Sahar] It was fantastic because it's so refreshing to see live musicians, you know.

I see the drumsticks flying, (David chuckles) and saxophone I was kind of fixated.

I was like, so... wow!

Okay!

I like the saxophone, you know?

(laughter) - Sexy sax, man!

(laughter) - And Ramsal, you were... oh, my gosh!

Was that really your first performance?

- It was my first time.

I've done open mics before, but this was my first time officially singing with a band.

- Nobody would have known that, ever.

We thought he was teasing, honestly when Ras said, 'oh, it's her first time.'

We all thought, 'okay, sure.'

Then after, there was that one song.

We were kind of waiting for like, more, more, more?

(laughter) - Next time, next time.

- Maybe tonight!

- Maybe.

Thank you so much.

- Yeah.

- I've been living in the farm, with Teao and Jo, for the last six months or so.

There's a recording studio in the house.

And at midnight, I'll hop in and Teao and I will just hang out and I'll sing something random, and it's just fun.

But this was the first time that I really got to perform live with them.

I feel really blessed and really grateful to be part of the family, so thank you so much to you guys.

♪ ♪ Oooh!

Where are you going?

♪ ♪ ♪ Trying to outrun your own feet?

♪ ♪ ♪ As if you can race the sun ♪ ♪ ♪ At the speed of love ♪ ♪ ♪ Before it's begun ... ♪ ♪ ♪ Quit thinking about your next bite ♪ ♪ While you're still chewing, you gotta be moving ♪ ♪ At the speed of love, ♪ ♪ at the speed of love.

♪ ♪ Na, na, na, na, na, na ♪ - [Teao] You did so good!

- She sure did!

- [David] Since we just were speaking with Becky, let's also... Ahmed?

You were, this is going in addition to, it's not just a drum kit that we're... You're a multi-percussionist.

Multi, a lot of things here!

- Yes.

- He is!

- How did you start with this?

And not just how did you start with Audiopharmacy, but where did you start in your career, whacking on things in Egypt?

- That's a long story!

- Or did I just say... (laughter) - [David] Let's go to the pyramids!

- Alright.

Well, so I'm originally from Egypt.

The culture there- I was born in... My family?

they're all scientists.

They're all doctors.

- Oh, okay.

- So for me, music was the one thing that my family wasn't able to understand.

I was just really hungry for exposure and to just really find myself with people that are really devoted to expression, and aren't really just about talking with musicians, or staying in a circle.

But they're about this inclusive, worldly awareness.

That's kind of how my search and path to music started.

I found myself drawn to the drum kit, wanting to be loud, noticed, joining in on everything.

My whole life I've been about being in other cultures.

So born and raised in Egypt.

Lived half my life there.

And then, my father does his research in Japan.

So we all moved to Japan.

And so, coming to Audiopharmacy was just like, I'm looking for that worldly, communal, artistic home to fill in the variety of it.

Coming into the house, that's how our bond started.

Was the communal.

It was about really building that trust.

Just sharing, and then the more we shared, Teao was just like, 'oh yeah.

This is our band, Audiopharmacy.'

I'm their roommate at that time.

That's how we joined.

- Oh!

Okay.

- And he's like, 'oh, Audiopharmacy.'

And I was like, 'what?

My family is pharmacists!'

- Oh, perfect!

(laughter) -I've been all about wanting to prescribe them to my music!

(laughter) Here I am in the house, of Audiopharmacy, taking me in.

- This is hardly a question of acceptance then.

You're doing what they do, just without the white coat!

- Right, right!

And I found out, what?

This is a thing?

They're doing this?

This is a profession?

(laughter) That's how it started.

But then when I first moved in, I was just a drummer, and I was really devoted to expanding and breaking out of that.

I was doing grad school there for music composition, for media, for visuals and storytelling.

That's kind of how me and Teao really started to like, want to collaborate together.

He's like, 'what?

I'm thinking of making videos for my Audio Cinema.'

And I'm like, 'oh, that's what I did for my undergrad.

And now, I just want to do the music for the visuals.'

- Oh, wow.

- I got so inspired talking about music with him.

One day, he's like 'hey, I have a couple tracks.

'I need some videos.

Come on, let's do it.

Need to get it done in a week.'

I was like 'okay.

Alright, I'll do three videos.'

(ambient music) ♪ 'Listening to all of Moment, I was like, oh, some of these instruments, I've kind of like played with.'

And then, every time I hang out with Teao, he just has all these different instruments.

I'm like, 'oh, let me just grab this for a second.

Hey, do you need this?'

So every week, I would just kind of be fiddling around with instruments.

And that just got me more curious, and more hungry, and just like more inspired to just give it a shot, just take a leap.

I was like 'okay, I'm picking up the oud.

I'm learning this.

- Nobody... it's so common.

Like in Kentucky, I know so many people who play six string.

Okay?

But the oud, you don't run into oud players often.

- No!

- Even in Egypt, you don't.

Well, okay.

Now another person- - Not only that, he's a left-handed oud player!

- [David] No way!

(laughter) - Yeah, I'm left handed.

- McCartney!

- But I know most of my instruments as a righty.

But with oud, I was just like, it's my culture, and the reason why I play oud is actually because of my father.

I always wanted to play some kind of music that he finds to be really joyful, and something that he connects with.

And so, I was telling him I play music.

And he was like, 'oh!

If I was you, I would want to pick up the oud and start playing.'

So he was really happy that I played music, but he didn't do it himself, and he's lefty.

- [Ras] Making me shed a tear, man!

- Oh, wow.

- Heavy story.

- Yeah, he didn't start oud because he's lefty.

He's like, 'oh, I'm a little different.

I'm not gonna just get into it.'

I was like, 'no, I'm gonna do it lefty.

I'm gonna learn it lefty.

I'm gonna play in front of you.'

That's kind of how it started.

- That's really cool.

That's very, very cool!

I'd like to talk to... speak with Nick, or hear from Nick, for just a moment too.

Were you guys looking for a saxophonist?

Or was it the saxophonist that heard you guys, and wanted to be a part of it?

- [Teao] We don't look for anything.

This is all organic!

(laughter) Everything, when we walk out the door, we just go, left or right?

(chuckles) - This is kind of interesting because, before I actually really met Teao in person, I saw a clip of him on Facebook beatboxing.

- Oh, cool.

- And, he looked just like this dude Elsu that used to play at Audiopharmacy!

- Still plays!

- At first, I was like, 'oh, it's Elsu.'

No, it's not!

(David laughs) It's somebody who looks really remarkably like him.

- Elsu was the flutist on Mama.

- Flautist.

- He's plays the solo flute.

- Okay.

- [Teao] Elsu is like my San Francisco doppelganger!

It's a little obnoxious!

(laughter) It's like, when we're together, it's like, 'hey, your brother looks a lot like you!'

Did someone say that we're brothers?

That was just assumed!

Did we skip over something?

- I'm just kind of blown away.

I'm like, 'oh, yeah.

'I saw a clip of you beatboxing.

That's who you are!

Okay.

Not Elsu, great!'

And so, it all comes together.

It comes full circle, and we start talking to each other.

And Teao says to me, 'you know, I've never heard you play, 'but I'm about to DJ at this Kava bar.

Do you want to come by and play?'

I couldn't do it, but we ended up getting together every Monday for months in a row.

And just playing music with nothing really specific in mind, other than just the joy of making music with somebody.

- Nice, that is fantastic.

- Can I just interject?

- [David] You may.

Please, please.

- Actually, he was talking about doing music for the sake of it.

- Yes, yes!

- I actually have a new project that's for free, online.

It's called Black Native, and it was a project that I recorded with an elder musician, who's a good friend of mine.

He's also my piano teacher, Ismael Versoza.

He's pretty well-known.

He's the original piano player for Malo, the band Malo which was the first Latin rock band.

Jorge Santana, which is Carlos Santana's older brother, they had a band together, and he was only 17.

They were signed, and they went international, and it was like huge now.

They have songs that are played on the radio, still.

That was a precursor to Santana.

So they kind of opened the door for Latin rock, and if you look at the history of Latin Rock, his band is in there as the first band, in the Latin Rock history books.

It's pretty crazy.

He really was like my elder.

He taught me a lot.

And we did this project to just really have this intergenerational teaching, not just for me, but for me learning from Ismael.

but I also... the third part of the project was teaching a young person how to create.

We had one of the youth in my youth program, we had him come engineer during the sessions.

And so, we had this three-way intergenerational learning happening.

I just wanted to shout it out, because it's really great album.

It's for free on my SoundCloud, Ras K'dee, Black Native.

♪ Love is the only thing I work for ♪ ♪ It's a free gift to the community, and it's just, you know, again, made with love.

There's no- a lot of times in the studio, sometimes I'll write three songs in one day.

Or sometimes I'll write, usually on average like three to four songs a week, but out of that course of a year, maybe people only hear like, 10.

You know?

And so, I have this whole backlog of hundreds of songs, that are just for me, and just for my listening pleasure, just for my friends when they come over.

And it's just- you do this for the love.

There's nothing more.

You do it for yourself, and your own healing, and for your own expression.

That's first and foremost for me, what this is about.

- As well it should be.

I can't thank you enough for coming in and making time for this.

I appreciate this.

I don't know if we can get a high-five through this window, but can you all do that in there?

(laughter) - We want to give love to FNX.

They've actually been working with us, and a supporter.

And I feel kind of like family with them, too.

We've been doing things with them for the last few years, and we are very, very grateful to be invited.

- And Frank has been to the house.

He came by and filmed.

- I fed Frank!

- Ohh!

(laughter) - Yeah.

They filmed something on the roof, like four or five years ago.

And, we know!

We're family!

FNX.

We have so many connections.

- And it's wonderful to meet you, too.

- [David] It was fantastic too, to get you all in here.

- NPR is cool, too!

(laughter) - Thank you, guys.

Thank you, guys.

♪ (singing): Darker than the darkest night.

♪ ♪ Blacker than obsidian shining.

♪ ♪ Brighter than the morning light.

♪ ♪ That's just how we roll.

♪ ♪ Brilliant as your- ♪