(gentle piano music) (calm music) - [Guest] Reagan said, hey guys, guess what?

- [Guest] He was my paternity brother.

- [Guest] Sacrifice of the American people.

- Prosperous communities have healthy environments.

- [Officer] She lived in trafficking for four years.

- [Guest] I really felt, for a lot of reasons.

I felt, but I didn't have the guts to say.

- Mimi Naja is a singer, songwriter, musician, and founding member of the band, Fruition.

Her eclectic style and sound is passionate and genuine, and her songwriting strikes the chords of everyday life.

I struggle to find the musical genre that Mimi and Fruition would fit into, but somehow, I think they are just fine with that.

Their talent and creativity says all you need to know.

From busking on the streets of Portland, Oregon to opening for Jack Johnson, Mimi and Fruition are building an audience of music lovers who know great music doesn't have to live in the mainstream.

We welcome Mimi Naja to "Conversations."

Thanks for being here.

- Thank you so much for having me, Jeff.

- When I talk to accomplished musicians and people who are playing and making a living doing this, I'm always curious, how did it start?

Were you a kid who was interested in music or did it something that came about later in life?

- I was definitely interested in music from the jump.

It was just a part of what I wanted to do.

I didn't have like a long-term vision to make it a career path.

- Right.

- I didn't even really consider that as an option or something viable.

It's just what I always did and always wanted to do.

And we had like an old beat up, upright piano in my house growing up, and I can remember being like three or four years old, and just reaching up and plunking the keys.

And it's all I wanted to do.

I started lessons when I was four and- - [Jeff Weeks] Oh, okay.

- got a guitar when I was eight, and it just became an integral part of my life, and I just kind of took perspective one day.

And I was like, oh, I'm, this is my job now.

(laughs) - Right, right.

Were your parents musically inclined?

- Yeah.

My mom sang in the church and I grew up singing hymnals and stuff with my mom.

And kind of learned how to harmonize with her and my aunt and yeah, it's not a hugely musical household as far as playing, but enjoying music, yes.

- Right, right, right.

- Yeah.

- So at what point in your life, was it high school or somewhere in that timeframe that you decided, hey, I'm gonna make a go of this and make a living doing it, or?

- I still don't feel like I ever like outright like, made a decision to like, make it a professional career.

Just, it always started out of passion.

When I moved out to Portland, I met a lot of folks who jam out there and just played at house parties.

And then eventually, Fruition formed out of that, and playing on the sidewalks there to make a little chump change.

And then we just always wanted to play and realized we were suddenly making it a career just by being what we spend our time doing.

- I mentioned in the intro about busking in Portland, Oregon.

One time, I mentioned something about busking, and somebody said, "What is busking?"

So I'm gonna let you explain what that is.

(laughs) - Busking, yeah.

It's just performing on the street with a tip jar, with a case open or a hat, you know?

- [Jeff Weeks] Right.

- It doesn't have to be music.

Like, there can be like magicians and like, any kind of street performance- - [Jeff Weeks] Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

- but we really found a really cool community based off of doing that in Portland.

And we learned how to sing really loudly.

That was the way to get an extra buck or two was to really project.

And we learned how to harmonize out there on the sidewalk.

- That's neat.

How did the band come together?

How did Fruition come together?

- That's how, I mean, just friends meeting and performing and making some drinking money, and that's just, that's how we began.

- Talk a little bit about some of your other band members and what are their backgrounds?

- So I met Kellen first.

Kellen now plays keys and guitar in Fruition.

He's a fellow lead singer and songwriter.

We have three songwriters, me and Kellen and Jay Cobb.

So yeah, Jay Cobb moved to Portland not too long after Kellen and I had, and we met him and that's how we got going.

And T Tom grew up, he's the drummer.

He grew up in Idaho along with Jay Cobb, and then T Tom met Jeff, the bass player in college.

They were roommates in college playing jazz, yeah.

So definitely an eclectic crew, so to speak.

- [Mimi] Yeah, definitely.

- Yeah.

Who were your musical influences growing up?

- Growing up, I can remember in our five-disc changer, I can remember Stevie Wonder being in there.

Joni Mitchell was in there.

The first CD I ever bought for myself was actually Mariah Carey.

I, once upon a time, I had some of her range.

(Jeff laughs) Not all of it, of course.

Not the eight octaves.

But I really, I have a very eclectic taste.

I like all kinds of stuff.

I mean, I also listened to like, some metal and some rap, like with my older brothers.

Like, if it's good, I like it.

- Yeah.

(Mimi laughs) Do you think with technology the way it is now, in other words, you know, people having access to numerous musical acts now as opposed to everything being filtered by the radio and radio groups and whatnot, do you think that that is starting to kind of break down the walls of the whole genre scenario?

- Sure, yeah.

I think so.

And I think, you know, I think it's all in how you use it.

You know, you can use the tool to really go far and go deep, and study, and learn all kinds of things.

Or you can use it to say, hand me this palette that I like and am familiar with.

It's all in how you use it.

But, you know, I do sort of lament, there's like a nostalgia I have about like having to work hard to pursue what you're looking for, and having to like, wait with your cassette deck while the radio's gonna play that song you've been chasing after and you're gonna record your mix-tape.

Like having to put in the time and effort to hear what you want.

- Right.

(laughs) - I miss that.

But I also love that I can hear a song in a TV show, and I can search for it in my phone, and then I can end up on some trajectory where I can really study things that I. where would I have ever found this, you know?

- Right.

- Nigerian funk music, like, you know?

- Right, right.

But what about from an artist's point of view?

Is it better or worse from an artist's point of view?

- Oh, I mean, I wish I could compare it.

I wish I had the experience like pre-streaming as a professional to know what that was like.

(Jeff laughs) I have a feeling it's worse, you know?

I think our bank accounts say that it's worse- - Now.

- now.

- Worse now.

Right, right, right.

- But then again, I mean, it's hard to say.

The pool is sort of more even, but is it though, I don't know.

- [Jeff Weeks] Yeah.

- I can't say.

- Yeah.

I know it's something that musicians probably struggle with because again, it's probably in some ways, easier to get your distribution out there, but at the same time, because of the way the streaming services and all work is probably not quite as lucrative, huh?

- Right.

It just makes it so, unless you're like top 40, major pop success, in order to really make a decent income, you have to tour pretty hard.

- [Jeff Weeks] Right.

- You really get the fans and the payday, I guess, from really grinding on the road, and selling your merchandise more than the actual, you know?

We don't sell CDs, you know?

- Right.

- Luckily, vinyl's kind of coming back.

- Yeah.

- So, that's cool.

But yeah, it's all in the live industry now, really, it seems like.

- Yeah.

Speaking of that, let's switch gears just a little bit and talk about songwriting because you're a songwriter.

At what age did you start writing songs?

- I think I probably wrote a few songs in high school.

I wish I still had those notebooks somewhere.

I think they were probably very like, diary-kind of emo energy, but not that much has changed now, I guess, but- (Jeff laughs) - [Jeff Weeks] Right.

- I think I dabbled in high school and after some sort of creative writing classes and stuff, started getting into it in, well, I was in college for about a year, so I think about 18, 19- - Okay.

- really started.

- Now do you write every day?

- I try now to write every day.

I didn't always have that discipline.

I was sort of the mindset, like inspiration comes when it comes, you know?

But really inspiration and discipline need to work hand in hand.

I'm starting to learn that, so I do try to write every day now.

- I was going to ask you, speaking of that as a songwriter, how do you come up with your ideas?

Are you one of these people that maybe you see something on the sidewalk or in a sign, in a store window, or something, or a person?

And it sparks something or do you have some other way of approaching it?

- Sure, yeah.

There's so many approaches to take.

There are no rules, you know?

But I've learned some things that work for me.

I tend to have like one line or one concept that I want to like, focus on and expand on.

I'd love to be more of like a storyteller-writer.

Like, you know, you meet some character that really strikes you.

I'd love to work more on that.

But yeah, I tend to have like a one-liner or one concept, and just build from there.

- So somebody, maybe somebody says something, and you go, bam, that's a song.

- Sure.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

How long does it usually take you if someone says something and you go, wow, that's a great line for a song, that's a great hook?

How long does it usually take you to get that to a full song?

Is that something you'll sit down and do in a day or so?

Or is it something you may stretch over a couple of years?

- For the most part, if it strikes me and the discipline is strong, I can have a finished song in a few hours.

- [Jeff Weeks] Wow, okay.

- But then again, there are other times when like, I'll sit down and I'll know this concept is good.

And I'll get something going, and then I just hit a wall.

And I might open up that notebook seven, eight years later.

And then that moment came like, oh, now that I've stepped away from this, I can see it with a new perspective and finish it.

That's happened, too.

Two hours or ten years.

- [Jeff Weeks] Yeah.

(laughs) - You know?

(laughs) - [Jeff Weeks] Somewhere in between, right?

- Somewhere in between there.

- That's right.

Do you write with your band members?

Do your fellow band members, or do you tend to be solo?

- We start, for the first several years, we were pretty independent about it 'cause we're three very different writers, and people, we kind of cherished our creations as our, we're very tender about it.

Like, this is my song, like this is the way it is, let's see if we can play it as a band.

But we've really opened up in the last couple years to writing together and it feels really good that we've just push our egos aside, and we hear each other.

And we come up with approaches that we wouldn't have been able to find on our own, and it's really great.

So we're looking forward to a lot more of that.

- This may sound like a silly question, but do you love to write?

And the reason I ask that, I've had writers say, both people who write literature and songs, they will say, "I hate writing, but I love the fact that I've written."

- Yeah, I can definitely resonate with that.

- [Jeff Weeks] Yeah.

- I do love that I am a writer and I know that anyone can be a writer, but it's the avenue that I choose.

And it's a huge part of my healing.

And sometimes I wish that the content that I've created wasn't so like, it's pretty like heart-heavy and kind of sad.

- Right.

- But then, I realize the reason that is because it helps me heal.

- Right.

- It's a release for me.

And it might be a little sad-sack vibe sometimes, but also I can only hope that listeners that dig it, it's helping them heal too, so.

- [Jeff Weeks] Yeah.

Well the great thing about it's life, right?

- [Mimi Naja] Yeah.

And people share experiences and so for you to be able to put it in an art form is, takes a really special talent.

- Thank you.

- Yeah, absolutely.

I know you wanna play something for us.

- I would love to.

- Pull that guitar out and- - That sounds great.

- tell me about the song that you're gonna do for us, and how it came about.

- Sure.

- And kind of what your inspiration was for it.

- Thank you.

Yeah, speaking of sad songs, I was thinking since we were down south here, I would play this song called, "Northern Town."

- Okay.

- You know?

Being cold and lonely on the road.

Yeah, I'll just let it speak.

Here you go.

- Wow, that sounds good.

- This is called, "Northern Town."

♪ All my friends are gone ♪ ♪ And the sun is down ♪ ♪ Cold and lonely in a northern town ♪ ♪ Could keep going ♪ ♪ But I'm too tired to see ♪ ♪ So these bar room walls ♪ ♪ They'll build a home for me ♪ ♪ 'Cause here to my home ♪ ♪ Is like here to the stars ♪ ♪ In a northern town ♪ ♪ In a lonely bar ♪ ♪ Why do I keep leaving ♪ ♪ Why do I stray ♪ ♪ The times running shorter ♪ ♪ I can feel it day by day ♪ ♪ And when I try and call you ♪ ♪ I know just what you say ♪ ♪ You'll say, my love ♪ ♪ Your love is with me ♪ ♪ Under this same moon ♪ ♪ Along the same stream ♪ ♪ Soon the work is done ♪ ♪ You'll be back around ♪ ♪ Get out of that lonely bar ♪ ♪ In that northern town ♪ ♪ But when I started up ♪ ♪ It was an easy choice ♪ ♪ I wanna see the world ♪ ♪ Wanna raise my voice.

♪ ♪ But then I fell in love ♪ ♪ I felt the pull of time ♪ ♪ And now I see a face ♪ ♪ In every highway sign ♪ ♪ But I put in too much ♪ ♪ To pull out now ♪ ♪ And one day she'll come with me ♪ ♪ to all these northern towns ♪ ♪ Well, why do I keep leaving ♪ ♪ Why do I stray ♪ ♪ And time's running shorter ♪ ♪ I can feel it day by day ♪ ♪ And when I try and call you ♪ ♪ I know just what you'll say ♪ ♪ You say my love ♪ ♪ Your love is with me ♪ ♪ Under this same moon ♪ ♪ Along the same stream ♪ ♪ My love, your love is with me ♪ ♪ On a mountain high ♪ ♪ In the darkest sea ♪ ♪ Soon I'll see the sun ♪ ♪ 'Cause you'll be back around ♪ ♪ And you come with me ♪ ♪ To all these northern towns ♪ ♪ And you come with me ♪ ♪ To all these northern towns ♪ (calm guitar music) (calm guitar music ends) - All right.

Very, very nice.

(laughs) - Thanks for listening, Jeff.

- Well, It's not hard to do.

That's great.

Great lyrics, great music, and of course, you have a wonderful, wonderful singing voice.

- Thank you.

- You know, last night when I was preparing for the show and looking at some of the videos and whatnot on YouTube, you don't typically pay attention a whole lot to the comments.

- Sure.

- But you guys were getting such favorable comments about your music and I know there were a couple on there that you guys oughta be, you know, one of the most played bands in America, so to speak.

But I mean, just that's- - Oh, that's kind.

- gotta be powerful when you look at those comments.

I mean, it was just talking about, I don't know, I think you're onto something different is what I'm trying to say.

I mean, it's when I mentioned in the intro that you're not necessarily what I'd consider mainstream, but it's just- - Oh, for sure.

- I think you're connecting.

- And I think, you have to be, you have to have a certain level of success, or fame, or whatever to have the haters, you know?

So, but it means a lot.

- [Jeff Weeks] Sure.

- The fans that we do have that know our stuff and have seen us live are typically very touched by what we do.

And the songs really strike a chord.

And I think people feel a genuine connection to us when we're on stage, you know?

I think they can feel how much we really truly enjoy playing with each other.

- Right.

- And yeah, so our fans are very supportive and loving, and we're very, very grateful.

- Yeah.

I wanna ask you about one other song we talked about a little bit off camera.

It's called, "Coin in My Pocket."

Tell me about that.

- Oh, yeah, that's a song I wrote that's on one of my solo releases.

It's one of the only productive things I did in 2020.

(Jeff laughs) I made a record.

And so, that song in particular is related to my sobriety journey, which also started in 2020.

You know, we were all forced to look at the silver linings of what the Great Pause did for us in the midst of such terrible things and death, and just stopping the clock.

But there was a lot of silver lining for me in there.

And my sobriety journey is very important to me.

And I wouldn't have, I don't think I would've begun it then without COVID.

I was able to stop and sit and take a look at my life, and clean up, and go into the dark corners, and shed some light in there.

And so yeah, that song is a little bit of a nod to the AA coin and yeah, it's one of my happiest songs.

Oddly enough, we were talking about, typically they're pretty sad, but I get a lot of joy out of this journey that I'm on now, so.

- Yeah, yeah.

What advice would you give someone who might be struggling with similar scenario?

- I would say you do have loved ones and my experience is that your loved ones can't wait for the opportunity to help you.

So I would say being vulnerable is the greatest thing you could do.

We all wanna be strong and tough, and not be a burden to other people, and not show any weakness.

And I think that should all go out the window.

I find that being vulnerable is the best thing you can do for yourself and people in your life, your community, and your loved ones really can't wait to help you.

That's what I've found.

- And that's an interesting, very interesting take on it, being vulnerable.

- Yeah, I think it's key.

You know, you can't make changes and have any breakthroughs if you're putting up walls, and putting on facades, you know?

You gotta get real.

- [Jeff Weeks] Allowing that ego to kind of block things out, huh?

- Yeah, for sure.

- Yeah, absolutely.

You guys also have some great video that accompanies your songs and the thing that I like about it is it's, again, I keep going back to it's simple and real, but in a good way.

- [Mimi] Awesome.

- I don't mean simple in a negative way.

- Oh, simple is good.

- But, and sometimes simple is more difficult than complex, if that makes sense.

(laughs) - For sure.

- I think creative people will understand what I'm saying by that.

But tell me about the video you guys made on top of a mountain.

- Oh, yeah.

- And the song related to it- or corresponding with it.

- Yes.

So that was in Tahoe.

Our dear friends that put on a festival called Winter Wonder Grass.

They arranged for us to meet with the Warren Miller film folks, which I'm not like an outdoor, extreme-sport kind of person, but I know their films- - Yeah.

- and.

- If you're a skier, you know Warren Miller?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Yeah, exactly.

And they arranged for us to get in this helicopter, and go to the highest peak in the region.

And it was really powerful stuff.

And some of the shots that you see that people now think is a drone, because drones are so easy to come by now.

That was a guy hanging out of a helicopter filming us around that peak.

That was really powerful.

Slightly terrifying stuff.

- (laughs) Absolutely.

It's amazing.

Where can people find your songs?

I know you have a website, so, right?

So fruitionband.com, is that?

- [Mimi] That is correct.

- Okay.

- [Mimi] Yes.

And so, you have a lot of, the videos are on there.

- They should be be on there.

- Yeah.

- And all your, all your average streaming services, we're on all of those.

- Okay, okay.

- You can find us on Instagram.

It's @fruitionpdx.

PDX is the code for Portland.

- Okay.

- But yeah, fruitionband.com can lead you to all of the.

- Right.

And YouTube and everything, some great performances with you guys- - Thank you.

- on YouTube and also fruitionband.com.

So what does future look like?

The COVID, hopefully is well behind us and artists are back out touring, and you guys are back out touring, so what does the future look like?

- We have been writing a lot and we are very excited to finally get back in the studio this year.

And we have a goal to release if two, I mean, definitely one album, but hopefully two albums this year.

We're setting our sights big, you know?

We took our time with the COVID pause and I'm grateful that we rested and reset, but we're just really, we're really gung ho to get back at it.

We've been writing a ton and yeah, with new records is when we'll really hit the road harder.

- Yeah.

When you write a lot like that, how do you decide what do you wanna put on that record?

Because I mean, songwriters always say they're like a kid, you love all your songs.

- Yeah, I mean, it's an interesting process, especially with, we are a very, very democratic band.

We are a five-piece band and everybody needs to be on the same page.

We don't have like an alpha member that like calls the shots, like we're all in it together, and three different songwriters, you know?

But we typically like a well-balanced record as far as like lead singers getting a decently even spread there.

But it really just, it shows itself.

It starts to take form and then, you know, I, maybe I'll make a solo record, too, with the ones that don't make the cut.

I'm like, I still want these, hopefully the world wants 'em, too, 'cause I wanna put 'em out.

- Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

Do you typically bring an outside producer in, or do you guys kind of produce yourself from that perspective?

- We've been self-produced.

We have some big dreams of, I won't, I don't wanna jinx it.

- [Jeff Weeks] Sure.

- We have some big dreams about working with a producer for this next record, so wish us luck there.

But in the past, we've done it.

We've worked with some other engineers and kind of co-produced.

But yeah, we're open to see what sort of malleable things can happen with some other artistic voices.

But we like our own too.

- Yeah.

Is there one particular theme that'll run through this new album?

- I can't say yet.

I don't think so.

I don't think so, but we kind of hope so in the end, you know?

You want it to be cohesive and have a flow.

The next one we do, we don't, we haven't discussed a, like a pure, conceptual vibe, but I will tell you that the demos that are on the table are great tunes, so.

- Awesome.

Awesome.

- I believe in them.

- Awesome.

Well, once again, so it's fruitionband.com and then of course, as you mentioned before, all the streaming services and the various other social platforms- - Yes.

- that are available out there.

- Yes.

- So, thank you so very much for coming by.

- Thank you for having me.

- It was a real pleasure to meet you and thank you so much for performing for us.

And I just would encourage the audience out there to spend a little time surfing around and finding Mimi and the Fruition band.

And I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

- Thank you so much.

- [Jeff Weeks] I wish you all the best.

- Thank you.

It's wonderful what y'all are doing here, so thanks for having me.

- It's absolutely our pleasure.

By the way, you can see this and many more of our conversations on the PBS video app and also at wsre.org/conversations.

I'm Jeff Weeks.

Thank you so very much.

I hope you enjoyed the program.

Take wonderful care of yourself and we'll see you soon.

(calm bright music) (calm bright music continues) (calm bright music continues) (calm bright music continues) (calm bright music ends) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music ends)