Meeting Makana

One of my favorite musicians Makana came to town last week and played a great show at the Kuumba Jazz center to a packed house. But the day before he played there, he gave a talk on activism at the university.  I thought I would stop by my old school and check out what he had to say and maybe get a chance to talk to him. I showed up a little early expecting to find a large meeting room, but it was a small class room with a few chairs and a couch. There were only three people there sitting on the couch and one of them was Makana. I introduced myself and told him I was a big fan. I was wearing my Makana shirt that I got via his kickstarter campaign. I though I might have him sign it but at that point it seemed kind of goofy so I just sat down and we talked for a while about his guitar pickup, recording, ProTools, Maui and all kinds of stuff. It was so nice to be able to just sit and talk. After a while more people showed up and the talk began. He talked about his activism, but mostly about how our concepts of “the World” and of the “Self” are bullshit. He sang a couple of songs, one was a take off of the Pink Floyd song “Wish You Were Here” but with his anti Monsanto GMO lyrics “Wish you Weren’t Here” funny but musically amazing. He also sang “We Are The Many” and told the story about singing the song for the Obamas and using the media for his message. It was great to meet him in person and get a chance to say hello and let him know how much I appreciated his music.