“Homemade Cafe” by Tuffgyal808
Q#1: Are you a Bay Area Native? and if not, how long have you lived in the Bay? CB: Yes I am a Bay Area Native. I was born in Oakland California.. my father was a black marine helicopter pilot in Vietnam, my mother, a Mexican telephone operator living in Oakland who decided to give me up for adoption when I was born. I was picked up and raised by a wonderfully loving family in beautiful Berkeley California.
Q#2: When did you start on the creative path you are currently on? CB: My first performance was literally in diapers (it’s funny cuz I remember them sagging) but being the youngest of 10 children (as if my adoptive family didn’t have enough already) and the only non-biological, I was always striving for attention. I started playing trumpet around age 9 or 10, and I started with the lyrics around age 13. My first song was a reggae song about love and peace. I just do it with a lot more style and meditation now; many of my lyrics are introspective as a way to change my environment from the inside out. Like Gandhi said, “we must be the change we want to see in the world.”
Q#3: Where do you find your inspiration? CB: My inspiration is from life. Meditating, trying to slow all the clutter that whirls around our lives. And the best way for me to make sense of it all is through word, power and sound. But usually the producers or live musicians I work with – their sound is motivation enough.
Q#4: What was the first piece of vinyl you ever purchased? CB: the first piece of vinyl I bought was “fantasy” by Earth Wind and Fire… man that was everything to me.
Q#5: Anything else you’d like to share? a joke/quote? CB: yeah, I was listening to spoken word artist, Kamau Daaood, and he was talking about the artist as a healer and an agent for change.. he talked about our responsibility to the sound (or idea as inspiration) and it reminded me of what the producer IronMonk once said concerning the human voice, in regards to speaking and the recorded word. He said the individual human voice is the one thing we all have that is original-it sounds like no other-so we should develop that, so striving to be a healer and an agent for change with regards to being original, as an artist, that is key. Bless up, and one love.
this is Malia 
You Rock! Chris, love your shit…….. :-P. I’ll try and make it on Saturday night, really want to hear the band of brothers, and your new swing on things.
I love you, Chris! I want to meet the telephone operator who gave birth to you and thank her from the bottom of my heart for bringing you into my (our) life! You inspire me to strive harder at everything I do, from chasing you up Strawberry Canyon trail when we were 14 to being the best human I can be now. Let’s go swimming!
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Malia Movement Company thanks you all for reading our blog and for the support.
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