Music: They Might be Giants, Frank Zappa, Jello Biafra/Dead Kennedys, Stuart Davis, Mike Patton, Marlee Macleod, DIY, Napalm Death, Paul Simon, Dan Bern, Diseased, Tracy Chapman, Saul Williams, Weird Al Yankovic, Joni Mitchell, Bad Religion, KARAOKE!, Josh Garrett Davis, the Simpsons, Van Morrison, Pink Floyd, cool harmonies, Tool, country songs, Ani Difranco, MC Paul Barman, Ween, others...
Brain Food: George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Socrates, Burn Collector zine, Michael Moore, Salvador Dali, George Carlin, psychedelics, Tom Robbins, Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, higher education (expensive!) Ken Wilber, Kurt Vonnegut, humanistic/existential/transpersonal psychology...
Heart Food: Mother Theresa, Carl Rogers, Jesus, Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, Buddha, Henry David Thoreau, the Dalai Lama, political demonstrations, people on the street, flowers (that includes you), Mitch Hedberg, Woody Allen, friends, family, strangers...
People say: Micheal Stipe, The Gourds, Neil Young, They Might be Giants, Louden Wainright III, The Proclaimers, This Bike is a Pipe Bomb, early Tom Waits, Keller Williams, Soul Coughing, Liz Phair, Myself, Weird Al Yankovic, Against Me!, Cake, Old '97s, Barenaked Ladies, Talking Heads, Jello Biafra, Ghost Mice, Atom and his Package, the Refreshments, Archers of Loaf, Jonathan Richman
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 band and the scene 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, the Dead Kennedys & And Justice for All (Metallica). 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, of course, but 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. I make a 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. I work with people in identifying and overcoming obstacles to having the lives they want. Some common stuff that we talk about are relationships, work, money, dreams and aspirations.
Even if we never talk, know this: This is happening right now. Sometimes it's thrilling, sometimes it's dreadful. But it all is. This. Right now. Thanks for reading!
I might miss your show, here. If so, I'm going to hunt you down before you move and make you play me my own personal show, haha. When are you moving, by the way? If I miss it, Im going to be so sad. So, so very sad, sir. BUT! If I don't miss your show, I'm going to be so, so very happy. Yeah, my life is never planned so this is why I don't know whether or not I'm going to be here. Haha.
Hope all is well!!! If I'm here, I've got a place for you to stay, so you best, because I've got the scrabble and the tea.
I have crappy news! I have to be on call and pass meds this weekend so I can't come to sioux falls! :( I'm real sorry, I really wanted to come.... can you play again next weekend??? :)
hello!! so i was just looking at your dates, and i saw that you'll be in Sioux Falls july 19th...i'm going to try my hardest to make it...your music is wonderful, and i'd love to see you live!! :D take it easy!
"I got to write these jokes. So, I sit at the hotel at night and I think of something that's funny, then I go get a pen and write it down. Or if the pen is too far away I have to convince myself that what I
