Music: They Might be Giants, Frank Zappa, Jello Biafra/Dead Kennedys, Stuart Davis, Mike Patton, Marlee Macleod, DIY, Paul Simon, Dan Bern, Diseased, Saul Williams, Weird Al Yankovic, Joni Mitchell, Bad Religion, Karaoke, Josh Garrett Davis, the Simpsons, Van Morrison, country songs, Ani Difranco, Ween, others...
Heart/Brain Food: Eckhart Tolle, Noam Chomsky, Socrates, Michael Moore, Salvador Dali, George Carlin, The Twilight Zone, higher education (expensive!), Ken Wilber, Kurt Vonnegut, Carl Rogers, Jesus, Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, Buddha, Thoreau, you, Mitch Hedberg, Woody Allen, friends, family, strangers...
Hi, people. I'm Ocho. I'm a human being. I make it a personal goal to love all living creatures.
That includes you...
I grew up in Pierre, SD, USA, a small government island on an ocean of dry grass that Lewis and Clark called the Great American Desert.
At age 16, I started writing and performing music with a political grindcore band called Diseased (myspace.com/diseasedband). For a while we were the only band in town. In 1995, we and some other groovy kids started a successful underground music scene in that town (myspace.com/pierrerockshows). The scene (totally) and the band (to some extent) still thrive. 12 years and three cities later, I love that place and those people more than ever.
It was back there that music really became meaningful to me. Some seem to act as if it's about knowing the right people or making money or getting wasted...Those things are good as far as they go, but I've found that putting my energy into that is distracting from more important things.
Here's a secret: Music changes people--one by one and in large groups. I grew up out in the sticks with no record stores and no internet (It wasn't even invented yet...). My exposure to music was really limited, and I was always looking for the most obscure and/or rebellious music I could find. My friends and I had to drive to a town three hours away to find anything that resembled underground music. I remember the first time I heard Rage Against the Machine and the Dead Kennedys. Someone would get a cassette and pass it around. The message in that music taught me that I don't have to accept the world as it is. I can make up my own mind. I can DO something about it. This message was so powerful to the kids out there that we looked for it even when it could scarcely be found.
In 1998, I moved to Minneapolis for college. I started trading mix tapes with my friend Josh Garrett-Davis (myspace.com/joshallages), who fronted the OTHER band in Pierre. One day he sent me a tape of some acoustic songs he'd written. It blew me away. He also introduced me to more folk musicians like Woody Guthrie, and Pete Seeger. Plus I found some on my own, like Cat Stevens, Tracy Chapman, Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon. It's a different medium than the punk and metal I was used to...Still, the messages are similar: I am an independent person capable of making social change. I can ALSO change mySELF, my own life, my relationships, and my inner being for the better. I have the power. And what else am I doing with my time, really?
So I started writing songs on the acoustic guitar and moved to Mankato, MN in 2001. I hosted open mics for a couple of years, met some more beautiful people and started my own variety show with other folks in the area. I released 2 CDs, "How to Make Everything Perfect" (2004) and "Chicken Soup for the Chicken" (2003), and toured the midwest a few times. I studied Psychology at Minnesota State, and got my bachelor's in psych in 2004.
Then I moved to Ashland, OR. I lived there for two years. I hosted an open mic and a poetry slam, toured the west coast, met a whole bunch more beautiful people, and got my master's degree in mental health counseling. I also recorded my third CD, "Gorillabuddha!" In August of 2006, I left to go on my first extended U.S. tour. For a year, I worked my tail off. I settled back in Mankato in 2007, continuing to make my living playing music, providing mental health coaching services, and counseling families.
I encourage anyone who wants to improve their life to Email me for a free coaching session. My basic philosophy on this is simple: if you have any problems at all, we have work to do. Generally, it's a lot less work than you think. Life is meant to be fun and refreshing and easy. If it's anything other than that, ever, we can talk.
Even if we never talk, know this: This is happening right now. Life is unfolding. For real. Right now.
Oh yes there is a pile of CD's being burned for you, and when I say pile I mean a PILE. I'll come see you at the Hag next time you play or you know you can come and see Paul and I. Have a good day my friend. Peace.
I think we should start a religion. Just brain storming here, but I think it should be called "Awesomeness" and followers of it will call themselves Awesomes. They should pray to our Lord, "The Greatest Master of Awesomeness" (We'll shorten that to GMA, pronounced gamma) for five minutes, eight times a day. Praying will involve crawling into a sleeping bag and closing your eyes. Really devout members will take 30 to 40 milligrams of MDMA before they pray. I'll write the word of GMA. When taken literally it will instruct its followers on how to live their lives base on numbers they happen to see. For instance if you see 1002 you must get married to the next person that will have you. After I write the book, you will preach it, and claim GMA took me to heaven by crushing me with grape jelly beans. I do expect a ballad about what happens to me that day, just a heads up. Or maybe not, feel free to make suggestions, ya know.
Online Now!
