Get Tribal Bio
About Get Tribal
"In the old days our people had no education. All their wisdom and knowledge came to them from dreams. They tested their dreams and in that way learned their own strength." Ojibwa Elder
It's all about the drum.
Below Article by Bill Binkelman, Zone Music Reporter:
What do all these professions have in common: myth/language preserver, master diver, best-selling author, tablet app designer, dream analyst, business consultant, Tai-Chi teacher, and world traveler? All of them can be applied to Kari Hohne. Surely one of the most versatile people in the field of electronic music, Hohne exemplifies the phrase “she wears a lot of hats.” In fact, her interests and responsibilities are so diverse that one might wonder how she makes time for recording music. Yet, it was music that started the chain of events which has led this gifted and passionate woman to where she is today. Music was, in fact, her first real passion.
Kari, a Lake Tahoe resident, was born in Ohio and named after the song, “Kari Waits for Me” (from the film, Windjammer) by her mother. While pregnant with Kari, her mother sang to her and continued doing so after Kari entered the world. As a result, it’s understandable that Kari’s affinity for music would manifest itself at an early age, which it did when she started composing music at age 6. She developed an ability to “hear music” in the world around her – in the chugging of a boat motor, the rippling of running water, the mournful cry of fog horns. Eventually, she turned to musical instruments, learning to play both the flute (via school lessons) and the guitar (as a self-taught musician). The true turning point, though, was to come later with the convergence of two inter-related popular culture movements.
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Kari became fascinated by the dramatic element of British Glam music, personified by artists such as David Bowie, Queen, and Elton John. Her interest in Glam led her to pursue in-depth studies of Archetypes and the world of myth. These studies would lay the bedrock for her eventual work with dream studies, a field in which she is currently a best-selling author as well as developing extremely popular dream-analysis and dream-log/journal apps for assorted tablet and computer platforms.
Play KVED from Radio God
It was also around the time of Glam’s popularity that synthesizers began to emerge as a true force to be reckoned with in the musical world. When she turned 24, Kari bought her first synthesizer, an M1, and the music she had “heard” all her life finally had a vehicle for true expression. She taught herself how to utilize the many facets of the synthesizer, while also delving deeper into the essence of myths and archetypes, which, in turn, dove-tailed into her studies of the history and roles of drumming and shamanism and how that connects to the world of dreams. Kari states “We live through the messages of Archetypes who embody the unspoken longing of a generation…I write books about dreams and myths and my…compositions are based on Archetypes. I believe music can convey ancient truths to the listener…the drumming/bass lines in my [music] actually move through the body (chakra centers).”
While admittedly a fan of many genres of music, from classical to rap, when it came time to record her music, she turned to a fusion of techno and world beat, using samples of chants, choirs (as well as her own vocals), and a large collection of ethnic percussion, blended with state-of-art beats and synthesizer tones and textures. However, drumming was always the key, as she explains. “I…believe drumming has its own melodic tonality. It engages the heart and can lead the listener on a journey of awakening to empowerment. I purposely create space in my compositions that startle the listener to open to the unexpected. Like dreaming, it is our journey into the unknown that teaches us the most.”
Whether she is helping to preserve the Mayan language and culture, doing conservation work while diving in the meso-American reef, consulting with corporations on maximizing efficiency, designing successful apps to allow people to analyze their dreams, writing best-selling books on how nature can help guide us to a happier life, or globe-hopping to study with tribal shamans, Kari Hohne always ultimately turns to music as the pathway to a better understanding of ourselves. Through the primal sensuality of ancient drum rhythms and the power of the human voice, we are inexorably linked to a deeper sense of self and our place in the universe. By meshing these two elements with electronic music technology, she has bridged the chasm between our ancestors and ourselves.
SNIPPETS FROM INTERVIEWS
The main inspiration of Get Tribal is to transcend boundaries. Long ago, I observed how cultural and religious beliefs created intolerance and intolerance creates wars. When i see disparity –
I want to find a common ground.
This is the common theme in my music, apps and books. I practice the Taoist perspective of observing no boundaries between myself and what unfolds around me, nor do I observe any separation in the dream/wake/dream cycle. I believe this is a secret formula for heightened creativity.
Chuang Tzu describes waking from a dream of being a butterfly and not sure if he was a man dreaming of being a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming of being a man. I take in the constant noise of everyday media and create something spiritually healing out of it all. To me, spiritually healing means trading dogma for actual experience. Opening to wonder….a belief in the regenerative power of life, much of what I write is based on the inspiration of nature.
Taoism is a philosophy or removing boundaries.
In my books, I highlight the common thread among all philosophies – I give expression to what Jung calls Archetypes from the collective unconscious.
God of Drum celebrated the Thunder Deities. In all cultures, Thunder awakens the sleeping seeds and jars the clan from stagnation. Each track was inspired by drumming patterns from various regions around the world with the purpose of energizing chakras. The Native American tom energizes the root chakra, and the percussion changes as it moves up the chakra centers.
Just like my books, the music of Get Tribal brings disparate influences together into world fusion. Radio God explores the caricature of what we have created with our media.
What is sacred and what is fiction?
What if all sound waves never went away?
What if God was a DJ and bounced it all back to us?
What would we hear?
Relax…don’t take it all so seriously. Stop fighting – you have it all wrong.
Life has no boundaries..
Enjoy your journey ~ you don't need to defend anything...
In Radio God ANKH introduces Dervish/Islamic/Sufi elements into retro 80s Michael Jackson style disco music. Like Teshub in God of Drum, which blends Gregorian chants with Middle Eastern music, both tracks were inspired by my visit to the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul where Christian and Muslim symbolism co-existed. GUIP blends Eastern European music with Southern Baptist Revival.
The title track Radio God makes music out of industrial sounds. KSHEN places traditional Chinese music into the spaghetti western guitar landscape of Kung Fu movies. RUAH takes a classic Hebrew religious melody and incorporates it into an MGM bible movie soundtrack.
The result is something surreal….hauntingly familiar, but very different because the old and the new were woven together.
The fabricated becomes sacred. The sacred becomes ambiguous. Ambiguity finds a common ground.
Truth is a game of adversaries.
Radio God eliminates the walls between the real and unreal, like dreams, which allow us to assimilate and release our stagnant paradigm. And just like dreams, their is an element of life that pokes fun at our sense of certainty.
But the music isn’t always seeking to heal cultural conflict. Some things belong together. KVED blends Reggae blues with a Vedic chant because they both celebrate love and Oneness. In God of Drum, Xango places the Buddhist chant 'nam-myoho-renge-kyo' into an Afro Caribbean mix. One taps into our spiritual perspective while the other ignites our most primal nature.
I don't think we are organic beings seeking a spiritual awareness, or spiritual beings having a physical existence. Without separating the two, we can achieve a more organically and creative existence.
I have spent much time with Shamans around the world. I attend Kirtans, drumming circles – I study the tonality and affect of drumming on consciousness. In God of Drum the percussion moves through the chakra centers from root to crown. Radio God is like yoga where the body is placed in submission through percussion, so Spirit can dance.
In Radio God the percussion blends ethnic and ancient rhythms, mantra style compositions with a modern hip hop beat. The music of Get Tribal is designed to achieve what chants and mantras achieve.
This is the music of the Heyoka - drumming the dream out of the dreamer.
Shamanism is a way of achieving altered states of consciousness, interacting with the spirit world so that transcendental energies can be given expression in this world. When we dream, we enter the world of the Shaman.
Drones, mantras and drumming are composed to place mind into submission, similar to how aspects of consciousness abate while dreaming.
Drumming is used by Shamans because the body is pacified, perhaps by the familiarity of the heartbeat in the womb. Like yoga, drumming is a way to align the body to serve the intention of being in 'flow'.
As a child I understood the metaphorical and poetic landscape of dreams at the same time that I was composing music. I believe music is a vehicle for transcendental awareness.
I am a Heyoka, maybe because our house was hit by lightning as a child. The charge traveled through the electrical wires and plumbing...the t.v. exploded and it almost blew up the house. Talk about a visit from the Thunder Beings!
My life's work has been to give shape to our transcendental awareness, giving it form through music, translating ancient texts and sharing the common symbols of our collective unconscious.
I am so grateful for the feedback I receive from those who find comfort from the tools and articles on my website. I actually imagine my website as the light left on in the universe for those who have lost their way.
I believe we are more than this world we have created for ourselves. Connecting others to their higher wisdom, I keep our ancient vibe alive.
Music Interviews:
1/3/2016 Interview with Robert Steven Silverstein mwe3.com
12/29/2015 Interview with Robert von Bernewitz musicguy247
11/13/2015 Interview with Nicolae Tanase The Excellence Reporter