Nahko And Medicine For The People

Concorde 2, Madeira Drive, Brighton, Wednesday, January 20

NAHKO Bear would be first to admit his road to success has been pretty unconventional.

His music – as collected on the albums Dark As Night and On The Verge - seems designed to confound the critics. He keeps free of genre, sweeping from Jack Johnson-esque acoustic balladeering to rap sometimes within the same song on tracks which frequently break the three-minute barrier in a nod to their jamming origins.

And his lyrics are defiantly uncool – speaking from the heart about personal journeys and spirituality rather than boy meets girl or gritty observations from the streets.

This is aligned with a mission statement to inspire and motivate members of his tribe to make changes, take action and learn to live in harmony with Mother Gaia.

But the idiosyncratic approach by Santa Monica-based Nahko – who is descended from Puerto Rican, Filipino and Native American bloodlines – has paid dividends.

His first UK tour in August sold out three or four months in advance, thanks in part to the uncommissioned YouTube video of a ten-minute piano version of his song Aloha Ke Akua. The video has attracted almost five million views worldwide since October 2012.

“When you work in the industry you’re supposed to have a new record and a crazy big support team that helps you raise awareness,” he says. “I’m overjoyed we can return to the UK in such a short period of time. We have grown really fast.”

Nahko’s story began when the Oregon native left home as a teenager on a quest for adventure.

“I was looking for a family and ended up creating a band,” he says. “I was searching for something familiar to me, and something I could always come back to. The collective is in essence the tribe.

“The journey of self-discovery is never-ending. You have to surround yourself with people who understand or are working on understanding similar concepts around society and spirituality. We are creating a soundtrack around that journey – which is so amazing, full of twists and turns.”

His musical journey began as a series of summer tours while he held down jobs in Hawaii as a landscaper and rancher farming horses, sheep, goats and chickens.

“It was a good living for a 22-year-old,” he says. “I was farming every winter, and in the summer I would go back to the mainland and drive around the country in my van with my dog, playing at reservations, farms and coffee shops to make enough gas money to get to the next place.”

In 2012 he decided he was made for a life in music, having travelled from California to Washington to play 15 shows in three months.

“It was really hard but so much fun,” he says. “I was broke, so if I was going to keep doing this I would need help as I couldn’t do it by myself. The Creator heard my call and brought me a team to help me carry the load.”

It was that same year that the Aloha Ke Ahua phenomenon happened.

Nahko had filmed a different video, for another song. Two days later he spotted a Facebook link to a video for a song he had demoed on the piano.

“I was brought to tears,” he says. “This fellow had listened to the song and put together a video from stock footage.

“It was a complete gift for us – I had nothing to do with it. It went from 50 views when I first saw it to a million really quickly. People were saying they discovered my music and it changed their lives – I didn’t know what to say. The language of music goes above and beyond words – it’s about vibration and tone and feeling.”

Nahko is set to release a new record in April, having just finished recording it in November.

The loose musical collective he gathered around him on his travels has gradually solidified into guitarist Chase Makai, drummer Justin Chittams and bassist Pato.

He is still writing when inspiration hits, and is planning a packed year of touring for 2016, including more tours of the US, Australia, Indonesia and Europe.

He has a pet project in mind later this year which is quite different from anything any other pop musician has tried in the last century.

“I would like to do a tour completely on horseback,” he says. “As far as I know nobody has ever done that. I would like to do ranches and people’s houses, with people bringing their own horses to join us. We would go to a different place every night with fans and family, playing acoustically in a sharing circle.

"I might lose money on it, but it’s about the journey - returning to an old way of transportation, respecting and appreciating the territory.”

Support from Kim Churchill.

Doors 7pm, tickets £15. Call 01273 673311.