Musician, Event Producer and Activist, He has over ten years working firm in his music, the one that has sailed from hip hop to reggae. Today he has returned to rap since he assures that “the beat gives me more to be able to write information and relate in length, not like reggae that is more touch and is different”. The accent on content, the protest and the articulation of networks to strengthen the brothers in the face of adversity. This is how musical proposals such as Project To Recover, of event production such as Fire Sound and an independent label like it is Tomato, among others.
Sincere share the path traveled, Without hiding or pretending, he delves into the questions that lead him to advance, discard old postures, rethink and fight firmly for proposed objectives. Each job and each step taken is conscientious and seeks to generate enough space to take the next. In this walk Lion Native pauses for a moment to share a conversation with Reggae Chalice.
He receives us at his home in Limache with his little son Lawen in his arms.. From the speakers the “Jungle Revolution in Dub” by Congo Natty. These sinuous melodies loaded to the bass incite to raise a smoke and then turn on the recorder and begin the interview. Little Lawen's musical games also set the warmth of home and the conversation with the musician:
How was the first inspiration born to start making music?
The sense to find my voice was thanking JAH in moments that I had a lot of connection with that. To be with the Bobo Ashanti brothers sharing a way and, from there, find a song, find my voice. Singing always has to do with manifesting things that are given and having a place from which to declaim and to be able to denounce things. I feel that the process I have had with music has been diverse and changing, transforming like everything. Sometimes I've felt more comfortable in a way, now I feel more comfortable than another, I also occupy the demonstration for other things.
What music did you listen to?
Fugees, and from here, Shot of grace, Makiza.. At the end of the nineties I got to know French hip hop from some friends who passed me music. That current marked me more in the sound than in the content, that dirty average aesthetic and well street. They were mixing Rastafari Reggae with hip hop, Ragga was quite common with exponents like Big Red, interesting formats. Reggae has always been a root with me in life, since I was a boy listening to UB 40, the past with Bob Marley and Gondwana, what fed one to become interested in Rastafari, on a road and in a message too.
You could name us the discography of Lion Nativo…
The 2007 I put out an EP called “Everything is jahmor”. The 2009 I took out a double disc, a dvd with a cd called “Spiritual uprising”, it was from a presentation in the Egg (discotheque) when he came Cali-P. The 2012 i took out “Semijahzz”, which was a compilation of what he had been doing for a long time. He has a lot of hip hop and collaborations with artists like Cresposalem, Tianobless, Caliajah, Y Jahmaos. It has twenty tracks, I recorded it at my house, It was a self-management to be able to pass a stage and start doing other things.
Listen to the album Semijahzz here
A Recover
I got together to do a job with Matycez, because we were getting fed up, I was in Ventanas doing some hip hop workshops, promoting what happens there with thermoelectric plants, all the industrial complex that there is and that has everything contaminated. He was also doing hip hop workshops on his hill, so we had a lot of conversations about the idea we have of transformation, of the organization and we were finding ourselves in reflections and we began to write a lot of topics together. There we put out a record called ¨A Recuperar¨. From those reflections things were born, we arm with other colleagues the Insurgent Pineapple that brought together the hip hop workshops that had a certain line and sought to reflect and share experiences, the learnings. Later it was taking shape and the first attack we made was on Windows, we did a day and a video to problematize what happens there. We talk between fed up rappers, rappers and people on how we could look for a way out of that from us, from hip hop, being like a trench to be able to fight with a message, information. The first thing we did was an explanatory summary of what happens there according to us,15 industries… there we got to work fed up and that was nurturing the work.
Insurgent Pineapple – No one is alone against the oppressor
Did that lead the way?…find you with that environmental problem.
That marked me fed up, having entered that place to work and seeing the harsh reality of some territories that are displaced by the State, determined through the state, that this population does not matter and there remains a place to generate energy for the mining companies that are foreign or from the State, which is the same, invaders from these lands that are now polluted.
Make a lot of what I feel manifest in music, one can have a band and that band can generate a space, An environment, ideas and things are running, then it is oriented there: be able to generate those spaces where the break is generated.
Various artists have passed and several cycles have been made at the Casa del Folkore in Quilpué. Can you tell us a little about this?
I've been doing events for many years, 6 – 7 years, in different ways and with different interesting bands from the region and from Chile, and international that we have run into. I work in Tómate, I am part of this independent label, I organize with some brothers, we have a way of producing our things and we have a name. I thought about putting together an event production wing, and that's what i've been doing, So we come up with a name that is Incendiary Sound. The first time we came up with this concept was when Lengualerta came for the 2014.
Lion Native, Language, Matycez, Incognito ¨Fyah¨
There came the topic ¨Fyah¨
We had been weaving it from the first time it came, We invite Matycez and Incógnito to collaborate and it is a work that has borne beautiful fruits because it has nurtured the bond with the Mexican brothers who come and go., for example Mexikan Soundsystem came and participated in an event, Choko from Rap de Luz also came from Mexico, from Monterrey, and we have continued to weave the brotherhood that works there and here. This Incendiary Sound is a concept of self-management that is worked in a specific way with the musicians and that is strengthening the networks, generate networks, let them pass, that we meet, strengthening that.
And that is reflected in the last work with Proyecto A Recuperar.
Project To Recover ¨Ya la Van a Ver¨
By the way, how is the day of Lion Nativo?
My day is with lawen. And what I have been working on for a long time is an album that is being produced by Maniobras and it is hip hop with a specific concept of taking out what I have inside and that talks about me, of my gaze to be able to recognize it, it is a very personal process. I'm networking with Asférica, Rebel Films to be able to take videos, there are people who are always fixing and connecting this work. And I have 4 years putting together a band, which is called the Aukapan Nation. Most likely we will launch in January with the first presentation. Has elements of drum n bass, hip hop y sonidos magic jazz, it is a journey that we want to share. I feel that with a band it gives another meaning. I see it with my goat boy compas, the Bauhauz.
And how many are in the band?
At this moment we are six: Flute, guitar, low, drums, keyboard. It is a whole process because suddenly it is thought that one can arrive and leave work, but in reality it is a way to be able to specify, to know how to download the topics, coordinate with other musicians, take decisions, It is a learning of relating and that people commit. Has been good, interesting and that's what I dedicate the whole week to. And to Project To Recover at Casa Yafun, a squatting house near Aníbal Pinto, there we rehearse with Matycez (MC) and Maneuvers (Beatmaker). We have played a lot in Quilpué at the Incendiary Sound events and we have been able to finance some videos that are on the net. Self-management, not out of pocket but rather that the Project generates what has to be. If I want to get it I have to. I can't wait for another man to invite me and pay me some money. I do it and it has turned out, there is a trust and there have been good events…
For example, I brought Spokesperson with the Southern Front who hadn't come to Region V like that, mind knew, Wild Decibel, Jotadroh, a wave has already opened there…
How you live with the mundane from Limache with your family
I've lived the faces of life. I have seen that everything that happens is raw, I should bust all this that sustains inequality. Those who are preying and stealing, I wish all that would burst, because that makes me live 3 and to 4 and think all the time about how I make money. My old man has 70 years and still works. That generates me a quaint rage because someone has made it happen this way. That rage is the rage that mobilizes. You feel threatened. If I do not move to generate money, life sucks you sucks you sucks you, because everything asks for money. One has to be generating it. I live it from here, others live it more for the tail. I try to find a way with my people to make hits that are sustainable between a network and that music generates the movement, because it generates it. You just have to know how to generate them… Because I am a psychologist I could go to mess with any person or institution but it does not make sense to me. So from this sidewalk I look for ways to transform, to look for economies that are of another logic, the key is to seek and seek. Plants also help to find their meaning to live life.
What are your motivations to carry out your jobs? Where do you get inspiration, energy?
There's plenty of energy right here with the Lawen, you have to generate the paste too, the coin. Life is hard, you have to put it so that things work out. The motivation is to generate these networks, This is important to us because we have been building a job for a while, it's all starting, so at this moment we see that it just doesn't work out like that. You have to twin, you have to connect, cope, like between a pineapple, you have to go together, if not it is difficult. Generate a work team like what we have done with Incendiary Sound, illumination, sound, Photography, audiovisual record…
How many people work on this team?
What 15 people, between those at the door, those who care, the entertainer, the djs, there are people connected. But yes, the paste does not give me back, But I am committed to making it work and creating spaces where music returns and creating the necessary environment for everyone., for example, I shake hands with the musician so that they make a video of his live presentation and that is broadcast by all our networks, then they shake hands to build quality jobs because that benefits us all. If I pay the brother for example 50 lucas for a presentation and the meeting with others 50 from another presentation, then with 100 Lucas makes a video. When I do a tokata, people go to tokata because they see that the brother is working professionally, because you are giving that profile. Then, the idea is to pay for the man to do something with it with his project, record a quality track. This is how we do it, quite an investment, you have to look for the way and the quality so that it turns out.
The future
Lyricists are coming for November and the launch of Bubaseta for December.
I come rethought of what I want to do, stand up with the band, I'm going to get something out of Cresposalem. Always with the concept of doing something yourself to make it work. One must have the conviction. I feel like I have missed opportunities by not having caught some things before, but you just had to take the time. I know it turns out. I once went to Mexico for a week, they paid me the tickets and I know it works. It is a thing of what one does to make it. Committed to this because I know what I want to do, scroll to show my work. I'm doing the network, nurturing it, learning from management.
A message
One is infinite and it is infinite to know oneself, stand up and love yourself. If you are well you have the energy to go forward but if you are not well you cannot go forward. Plants help to find that courage, the resistance, meet, look at each other without fear, because one looks. You have to have the strength and that strength you have to find in your brother, in the plants, on earth, in the music, in your trench.
By F.E
