Warriors Code
A song to uplift the planet
Hezron Yaiva Tony
New Song Background
Music is very important to many people. Although most people have their own preference on the type of music that they enjoy listening to, each culture can agree that music is an important part of life to express ourselves as human beings. By appreciating this type of art form, it is easier to unite and relate to others who are different than ourselves. Music is a language of emotion in that it can represent different feelings and encompass the soul with no boundaries or limitations. The power of music should never be underestimated.
The Tribe Awaken team had the honor of interviewing musicians, Hezron Clarke, Gabriel Yaiva, and Tony Skrelunas, about a song they collaborated on that will take the world by storm. To quote Yaiva, “The spirit has been guiding us into the right time to move forward with releasing our song. Now that things are starting to clear up from Covid, people are recovering mentally, spiritually, physically, and economically.”
Hezron is a highly respected Reggae artist from Jamaica. He has been in the industry for about 13 years. As a result, he put out two albums and is currently finishing up a third album. Also, he used to work with Def Jam when he lived in the United States. Eventually, Hezron returned to Jamaica to go back to his roots and continues to create exceptional Reggae music.
Yaiva is Lok’aa dine’e (Reed People Clan), Atsa dine’e (Eagle People Clan), Ma’ii deeshgiizhinii (Coyote Pass Clan), and Shash dine’e (Bear People Clan). He is originally from Pinon, Arizona but grew up in Shiprock, New Mexico most of his life. He now lives in Flagstaff with his wife and kids. Gabriel is also a graduate of NAU with a bachelor's degree in Applied Indigenous Studies and minor in Economic Development with an emphasis in Tribal Economic Development and Tribal Policy. He has been making music since he was 13 years old. As executive producer, he has released 15 albums, six of those solo albums and the rest compilation albums for nonprofit organizations. Gabriel is also a hand drummer, traditional singer, music artist, and is in the hip-hop scene.
Tony is Todich’iinii (Bitterwater clan), Tachiinii, Tlizi Lani (Many goats clan), and Lithuanian. He grew up in Big Mountain, Arizona near the coal mines and was raised by his great-grandparents. He has an understanding of wise-life. It is not a materialistic life, it is simple and tied to the Earth by knowing the traditional songs and learning that old knowledge. Tony went on to get business educated and now leads some important initiatives for our Navajo Nation. What he brings to the song is the Navajo language.
Below are exerps from the conversation with the 3 musicians:
What do the Navajo Words Mean?
Tony: Here is the interpretation:
At the start of song: "Hello, my fellow people. We have made a song for our great leaders, for our veterans. We gather here and we make this song of our four sacred mountains, which protect us from evil on Mother Earth. We appreciate the land that we live on, it is where we walk on Mother Earth. We appreciate the Holy People. Our culture is beautiful because of our people, our children, and our water. That is why we stand strong and move forward strongly. That is why we made this song. We appreciate it, and we thank you."
To close the Song: "We say thank you to the ones that are listening, all the people that are of Mother Earth. This song will make us strong. We made this song so you can stand strong with one another as we move forward. We will move forward in the Beauty Way. Remember our kids, our parents, our grandmas, and our grandpas. Take care of yourself, your spirit, your body, and your language. Remember your four sacred mountains, pray to them, and stand by them. Wake up before sunrise and say your prayers. You have songs and prayers to remember. When you say your prayers, your spirit stands strong. How you represent yourself, you can make a difference in yourself and you will stand strong. Water is important. Water is life. Put these in your mind, so we can stand strong and move forward. It is very important that you remember this. That way we can walk in beauty and move forward. Thank you."
Whats the Reggae Scene in Jamaica?
Hezron: Jamaica is a place where we create the product, the land of creativity. It's where reggae is from, it is a place of creation. We are a reggae market. We have a lot of festivals locally and there's a lot of talent. Reggae music is an international product that is produced here. One good thing is that when it's branded here, when it's endorsed here, when Jamaica says it's a great product, then the world tends to gravitate towards it because it's authentic and it's from the land of reggae. One unique thing about this song is that Jamaica loves the song because we share the same story. I wrote the song from the part of me being a Maroon. In Maroon, my hometown is a place in the hills. We had to fight off Europeans. We had to be on the battlefield. We were more successful. We were the only ones that fought and gained our freedom in the Mountains. When I wrote the song, it was easy because I saw the connection. We, as Jamaicans, are reggae followers. What the song stands for is the struggle and that is the essence of reggae. It is the movement and the uplift of the people. It is the fight. So, in Jamaica this song can be endorsed as a great song and pushed back into the world. Jamaica is a small place. We have the best festivals and they are the largest in the world for artists such as reggae Sumsplash, Jasmine Blues. Once you are creating certain things locally and internationally, the world watches because it is an authentic brand name.
Yaiva: Being a young kid, I was always exposed to reggae music. Hopi is a tribe along with Havasupai that listens to reggae music a lot . I remember international multi-platinum reggae artists coming to Hopi and performing at Hopi Veterans Memorial Center. Bob Marley even came out to Hopi and he said he had a strong connection to the land culture and people. Reggae was always big in that area. But, I gravitated towards hip-hop and traditional music. In this song, we were able to fuse all different genres from traditional, hip-hop, and reggae. To see all these cultures and vibes come together, it is a beautiful thing.
Why do you feel compelled to share a new song that integrates Jamaican music with Native American music? What’s the story behind the song and why is it so special?
Hezron: I had a show in Arizona two years ago for a reggae promotion. Gabriel's sister named April came to the show. I didn't know Native Americans liked reggae. She said to me, “I think you should do a song with my brother.” The promoter also agreed because a song with Natives has never been done before. My experience there, looking at the canyons and mountains in person, in real life, I got nice vibes from the location. I stopped by my mom's house in Atlanta and started reflecting on the whole vibes. Singing with the Natives, the mountains, and all that stuff. I started writing the song. I wrote the song and sent it to April two days later. She started crying and sent it to Gabe. He said it touched him. So, they said let's come up and do the collaboration. Gabe came up with his part and added some nice flavor. Then Tony started speaking. It touched me to hear a Native American speaking and chanting. I only saw natives in movies, but never in real life. It was an experience I'll never forget. I felt uplifted. I have been in music for many years. I have done many songs, but with this one, it is evident when people hear the song, they love this song. No matter what, there is something connected in there. I believe this experience should be shared with the world.
Yaiva: As Navajos, we have dozens of mountain songs. There are similarities between the history of The Maroons and Native peoples by the reverence and respect that is given to the mountains. In that everything that was fought for and held sacred within the land. When we went to make the song, we put everything together. It was like magic. I share the sentiment with my brother Hezron, that it is an experience I'll never forget. Not only was the energy there, When we were in the studio recording the song I was sick and my tonsils were inflamed but I still put forth the effort and gave everything for the creation of this song. Afterward, I felt that it was such a spiritual journey. I feel like the song does need to be shared with the world and that people want to hear it. Even right now, when we share it with people within our circles, about 80% cry when they hear the song because it's that powerful.
Tony: During these uncertain times, we wanted to make a song to uplift the world. With many of our sacred places under threat, many of our tribal peoples working to save their language and culture, we wanted to offer inspiration. The song involves the sacred mountains and the thoughts that came to be was that we always had native Warriors. We always had these warriors that fought for our language so we can live here and our people could still have our traditional life. I added thoughts and language. We still have our elders, our language, our sacred mountains, and our waters. We can protect those things. All people should be inspired all over the world. We still have that opportunity to retain our identity and our culture, and to preserve these things. For now, this is a healing song too. It's really timely for what the world's going through.
What’s your intent with this song?
Hezron: My intention is to make sure that it works. I wrote this song in a way that it accommodated the Natives, even though it is a fused idea. It's like a western thing. A song like that needs the right kind of pathway. It will create major gains because of the color variation, the story, the melody, and the sincerity.
Yaiva: Outside the United States, Native Americans are revered, respected, and loved. Inside the U.S., every minority population is still fighting for our rights and freedoms, land, and water. My intention was to help create a great work of art and to show the commonality between Maroons and Native people. Specifically, the people of the Southwest, the Navajo, the Hopi, and other tribes in this area. When this song was originally written, it had Blueberry Hills in there. In Hopi, we have the Pumpkin Hills. Hezron said in Jamaica they have a Pumpkin Hill also. In Hopi, around Old Oraibi, the Pumpkin Hills is where part of the Pueblo Revolt happened and Spanish had occupied the area. There was a lot of bloodshed and a lot of bad things happened in that area. To find that there was a commonality between the two different places and two different peoples was astounding. There's so many intersections and overlayings of the common struggle in humanity. I think we accomplished the goal of being able to get all of that into this one song.
Why do you think this song needs to be professionally shared via music video?
Hezron: Because people have to see. It's one thing to hear, but they don't even know if it's real. I can say I did a “collab” with Native Americans and they can say they did a “collab” with a reggae artist. In this time and age, it is all about visuals. To actually see a reggae artist and real Native Americans, and to see the mountains. I have never done a song where everyone loves the song. The color variation, the spirit in the song, Tony’s advice, and Gabe’s chant. This melody of the music has a lot of soul.
Yaiva: When we are able to produce this music video, I think it will help catapult this song further into international mainstream. But we need a serious budget to do it right.
Tony: People need inspiration. A lot of families don’t have elders anymore. There's a lot of wise teachings that don't happen anymore, especially now with COVID. It's taking our precious elders. I think this is a timely song that can really give a visual inspiration to the world. We can show the mountains, the culture, and our peoples. The people in Jamaica, our people on the Navajo and Hopi, and the world. We all want to save our sacred sites, our water, and our languages. We want to do a good job to uplift the world.
What are the opportunities for someone who wants to support this initiative and finance the video?
Yaiva: The song is split between Hezron, Tony, April, and myself. Between 100% split, we set aside some points so we can exchange that with someone who would fund this song, the marketing, the video recording, and put a substantial amount of money up then create a benchmark. Once we have a benchmark, then that would trigger an additional amount of funding from this investor. Say, for instance, we get nominated for the Native American Music Award, then it would trigger additional funding. We made a very healthy contributor package. When anybody is seriously interested, we can sit down and talk with them on how to make that investment. It's going to be a world changing project. Right now, we’re open to receive conversation with people that are seriously interested in funding this project.
What’s the vision for the video? What are the big cost items for that?
Hezron: The cost for a professionally done video is around $25,000 to $30,000. The importance of social media for marketing the world is now a click away. One of the primary things is to get a proper PR team.
Yaiva: A part of it would be taking the whole team to places like Pumpkin Hills, the sacred mountains on the Navajo Nation, Hopi, and Jamaica. We would require food, air travel, ground travel, and hotels. Probably travel to four different states in the U.S. and however big the territory is in Jamaica. We need to travel comfortably and safely with all the COVID precautions in place. That would be some big costs. The song is fully produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by Folded Arms Productions in Gilbert, Arizona. So, that is covered 100%. The next step is to get a healthy budget for creating the video and all the elements. The next part is the marketing. The potential for this song on a national U.S. level is a nomination for a Grammy award by Hezron sources and my own sources that have listened to the song in the world category.
Hezron: Do you know what I love about this song? It is practical, it is a soundtrack for what's happening now. As you can see, you can feel it's a story. In world music, a reggae artist and a Native American is unique. Once the video is done properly, at the high-quality level, I believe with all my heart it's going to take off because it's never been done before.