Nahko and Medicine for the People don’t call themselves a band. Instead, they are a music collective. The group is playing tomorrow in Snowmass as part of the Bud Light Hi-Fi Concert series.
The band’s music sends messages of tolerance, love and mindfulness. The group’s mission is to become part of what they call a “global tribe”... to fix the environment, end world hunger and to live more peacefully and collective lives. That all comes from a time when Nahko Bear, the frontman of the group, was exploring the woods of Idaho. He saw how much excess there was in the world.
“I remember at that point, at 21 or so, I was wondering, ‘why do we need all this stuff?’””
So he decided to live a minimal lifestyle. He moved to Hawaii and lived off a farm. He dresses minimally too. He rarely wears shirts. Overalls are one of his favorite pieces of clothing. Just looking at him makes it clear that he lives a minimalist lifestyle. But minimalism and rock bands aren’t exactly the best of friends. Nahko says that you can’t avoid all of the parts of life you don’t want to be involved with.
“There’s parts of life that you have to participate in and some that you don’t have to,” he said. “It’s up to you to decide how much you want to be a part of that and how much you don’t. There’s a sacrifice to that. I could go back home to the big island right now and live off the farm and be totally fine with that.”
The band’s music mixes reggae, folk and hip-hop to spread the messages that Nahko and the rest of the band members believe in. But even for someone as devoutly involved in causes like sustainability and ending world hunger, he sometimes struggles with how hard it is to live by those standards.
If he has the time, he’ll research issues affecting the community like climate change.
Nahko and Medicine for the People are currently touring the world trying to spread their messages of love and acceptance.
