{"id":69180,"date":"2017-02-10T15:06:09","date_gmt":"2017-02-10T20:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wanderlust.com\/?p=69180\/"},"modified":"2017-02-10T15:18:28","modified_gmt":"2017-02-10T20:18:28","slug":"roothub-oahu-life-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wanderlust.com\/es\/journal\/roothub-oahu-life-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Born Deaf, RootHub Made Music His Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Catch RootHub at Wanderlust O\u2019ahu this February! More Info<\/a> | Get Tickets<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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O\u2019ahu-based singer-songwriter RootHub believes that music has the ability to explore the interconnectedness of all beings. <\/strong><\/p>\n

His music has been coined \u201cLife Music,\u201d and it emphasizes the intimate relationship we have with our surroundings, with each other, and with ourselves. \u201cAll of my music is rooted in truth,\u201d he says. \u201cIt’s all built upon this human experience. I feel things deeply. I feel compelled to express them in song.\u201d<\/p>\n

RootHub\u2019s love of music is all the more enthralling because he was born without auditory sense. In one of his songs, he sings, \u201cwhen I was a little fragile child \/ The spirits yes they spun me round and round \/ I couldn’t hear a whisper of anything around except the sound of angel\u2019s hammers coming down.\u201d When he was two years old he underwent a surgical procedure that enabled him to hear for the first time. \u201cI remember the sound of the metal of the bathtub faucet, the rushing of the water, and the sound of my own voice screaming out in fear. That must have been the beginning.\u201d He describes his memory of this time as an impressionist painting. The details are murky, but he does recall vividly an overwhelming flood of sound.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as I could hear, I was hooked on music,\u201d he says. \u201cGrowing up in LA there was such a broad spectrum of influence. Hip hop, punk, electronic, country, tejano, classical, pop, metal, R&B…you really couldn’t go anywhere without being exposed to something new at that time. I had no boundaries. I was like a sponge. I listened to whatever turned me on.\u201d When he was 14 his father gave him his first guitar. This was a turning point. \u201cI finally had a tool for expression<\/a> with sound.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a>The way he describes it, making music is as vital and nourishing<\/a> as eating and breathing. He commonly makes up songs on the fly, even singing over the phone during our interview. He accesses memories through song, singing as he retells a story. He believes there is an innate music within everyone that connects us, and seeks to capture this in his soul-baring music. \u201cWe’re all born with the rhythm of our mother\u2019s heartbeat and that tells us our first story. Then our own heartbeat comes next. So we’ve been making music and singing with each other for eons.\u201d<\/p>\n

RootHub moved from his birthplace of LA to Hawaii<\/a> in 1995. The move had a profound effect on his view of music. The energy in LA was a lot more success-driven. In Hawaii, he was able to find his own voice without the inhibiting stress of trying to \u201cmake it.\u201d There wasn\u2019t the same sense of competition, which allowed him to truly hone in on his own practice without fear. An integral component of Hawaiian culture is Kanikapila, or jamming. People commonly gather and create music for the experience rather than for the end result. This, he notes, is a lot like yoga, which is why the shift toward mindful music was such a natural one for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to allow a song to belong to everyone, you have to walk the line between telling your story and telling everyone\u2019s story.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We speak of David Bowie, Lou Reed, Leonard Cohen, A Tribe Called Quest, Sharon Jones, and Prince. \u201cWhen I was young I really loved the Muppets and all of the music they made on that show. That\u2019s how I first heard of Blondie, Alice Cooper, and Johnny Cash.\u201d As a teenager he got into punk, metal, and hip hop. His influences are vast and eclectic, but there is a common theme that binds them together. \u201cI think the honesty and grit of…those artists really stuck with me. I find the unflinching nature of their work inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n