The latest episode of 5 Plain Questions delves into the life and artistry of Keith Secola, a revered figure in contemporary Native American music. Born in Cook, Minnesota, Secola's journey is marked by a profound connection to his roots and a relentless passion for music that has spanned over five decades. His seminal hit, ‘NDN Kars,' which gained prominence through the film Come Dance Me Outside, is emblematic of his ability to resonate with both indigenous and mainstream audiences alike. Throughout this episode, we explore Secola's influences, ranging from traditional powwow music to the sounds of iconic bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, which have shaped his unique musical style. His reflections on songwriting reveal a deep understanding of the cultural narratives that inform his work, positioning him as not merely a musician, but a storyteller of his people's experiences. Secola's commitment to advocacy within the indigenous community is also a focal point, as he discusses the importance of addressing social issues through his art. This episode is not just a celebration of Secola's achievements but an invitation to reflect on the broader implications of art as a vehicle for cultural expression and social change.

Takeaways:

The podcast features a conversation with Keith Secola, a prominent Native American musician, focusing on his artistic journey and contributions to Indigenous music.

Keith Secola's song ‘NDN Kars' gained immense popularity after being featured in the 1994 film 'Come Dance Me Outside', highlighting his impact on contemporary Native American music.

Throughout his career, Keith emphasizes the importance of originality in music, advocating for songs that resonate with the experiences of Indigenous peoples.

The episode discusses the significance of music festivals and collaborations in Keith's career, showcasing how these experiences have shaped his artistry and connections within the music industry.

Keith reflects on the influence of various musical genres and artists on his work, illustrating the diverse inspirations that have contributed to his unique sound.

The podcast underscores the role of advocacy in Keith's life, as he addresses Indigenous struggles and community issues through his music and performances.

Links referenced in this episode:

Secola.com

elevenwarriorarts.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

Keith Secola

NDN Kars

Come Dance Me Outside

Bob Dylan

Gibson

REM

The Beatles

David Bowie

Lucinda Williams

Tom Petty

The Rolling Stones

Floyd Westerman

Charlie Hill

Red Bone

The Grateful Dead

Indigo Girls

Hello and welcome again to another episode of Five Plane Questions, a podcast that proposes five questions to indigenous artists, creators, musicians, writers, movers and shakers and culture bears.

People in the community doing great things for our community.

I'm Joe Williams, your host for this conversation.

My goal is to showcase these amazing people in our Indigenous communities from around the region and country.

I want to introduce you to Keith Sekola.

Keith is considered to have one of the greatest contemporary Native American songs in the 20th and 21st century.

But this was the result of nearly 20 years of performing and touring.

He is an award winning performer and continues to tour with his band.

He produces for countless genres of music.

He is an award winning performer and continues to tour with his band, performing over 150 shows a year.

This man is busy.

So let's jump into this conversation with the one and only Keith Sekola.

Keith Sekola, thank you so much for joining me on Five Plane Questions.

It's really great to have you here and it's really an honor to have you on this podcast.

It's good to be here and good to be with all the listeners as well.

Would you be able to introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about yourself, your background and where you're from and what it is that you do?

Well, my name is Keith.

Melvin Sikola is my middle name.

Melvin, kind of an old writer's name, but that's kind of what I am, you know, like I've been singing and songwriting, and I'm from northern Minnesota.

I grew up on a place called the Iron Range of northern Minnesota.

It's a mining area, iron ore Mining, about 90 miles south of the Canadian border.

There's a big ridge called the Laurentian Mountains and the Laurentian Divide to where a drop of water, if you drop a drop of water on this particular place, one third will go down to Mississippi, one third will go up to the St.

Lawrence Seaway, and the other third will go up to the Hudson Bay.

And so it's kind of like what's happened to me as well, you know, where I've spread and proliferated all over this Turtle Island.

And so I'm coming from you in Tempe, Arizona, where I migrated down to a number of Years I met my wife at University of Colorado, and she lived down here with her family, which is from the Ute Native tribe from Fort Du Shane, Utah.

And so they relocated in Arizona.

And so that's eventually how I got down here to the desert Southwest.

I make my home in a college town called Tempe, Arizona, and I play regionally, but also play nationally and throughout.

And I've done some tours in Europe and things like that.

And it seems like I'm writing constantly in my career, writing songs, getting ideas.

And it seems like the songwriting is like two parts of song catching, much like a dream catcher, where you catch dreams, good dreams, and song catching is like that.

You catch the songs and maybe if it sticks, you kind of work on writing them and playing.

And so I've done that, and I've recorded both at home in my home studio and in studios across Turtle Island.

And I play guitar.

Primarily, I write on that, but I've written songs on piano, and I play the native flute, a little bit of banjo and mandolin and the string instruments.

But guitar has been my little brother of the drum, as I call it.

You know, like, you can.

I call it the little brother of the drum.

I think it is a very percussive instrument and very tied in with how the drum has been brought to our people.

It's just another form of it.

Early.

Early on, we have a lot of influences in our life, and as we grow older and move through our life, those influences change and different things influence us.

Would you be able to talk about your biggest influences both early on and today?

Well, I think being around different types of music, you know, like our family would attend some powwows and I would hear that kind of drum music and some songs that were just made up by my elders and people that I.

I knew would always sing songs and you heard versions of them.

Sometimes just fun things and nonsensical things.

That was very influenced by me.

Mick be very spontaneous as far as an approach to music.

And then you started listening to radio music, you know, music on the radio, on the Iron Range.

That's about all you could get was music on the radio.

You know, not too many music stores or things like that, although there were an R.

So you started listening to the pop music, you know, like the Beatles and the Stones and, you know, heavily influenced by the guitar playing.

I'm in the Rolling Stones and things like that.

I remember listening to David Bowie's album Ziggy Stardust and Spiders From Mars.

And I like that format of a rock opera kind of thing and the songwriting on there and the sounds.

And that was a very influential album on what I do today.

And then I played a marching instrument when I was in grade school.

I started playing trombone, like in fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade.

And I played all the way up to high school.

And so marching band and band programs in schools are so important.

Not so much that you become a professional trombonist or a professional percussionist or a flautist or anything like that, but how music influences you and keeps it vital, keeps it part of your life.

And so I would say having that in my life was important.

But also having a very inspirational band director.

You know, I still remember him to this day, who inspired me to play.

And, you know, even to this day, I remember one time playing a low.

It's a B flat on the trombone, and it's one of the lowest instruments.

It's very stretched out there in the seventh position.

But playing it with a lot of bravado.

Aloud, reading it off the sheet music, not knowing if I was correct or not.

But it didn't matter to me because I played it all.

It said, play it bold.

And I did.

And I was the only performer in the band playing that note.

And the conductor really liked that.

Like, I wasn't shy about it.

I just played.

It is kind of how you got to approach music.

You know, a lot of our people are shy.

But when you come to music, you have to be provocative and be bravado and be out there.

And so I think that had a real positive influence on my music today.

And I saved up all my money painting houses in northern Minnesota.

A little town called Virginia, Minnesota.

My father was a house painter.

So I learned how to do trim work really good.

And, you know, painting around windows and next to glass and things like that.

But I saved up our money.

I got about $500.

I saved up and I hitchhiked to the nearest town.

It was called Hibbing, Minnesota, where Bob Dylan is from.

And I marched into the music store and I slapped on 300 for my guitar Marauder.

It's called Gibson Marauder.

They don't make them no more.

It's kind of like a cheaper Les Paul version.

And I bought that guitar, and I bought a little Vibro Champ amp.

And I didn't really know notes or anything or playing.

But I bought it, you know, one backtracking a little bit.

My mother used to buy occasionally a REM Seal guitar.

And so you Know, we had a couple of them around our house growing up and after about a year a six string guitar would become a five string and after two years a four string, you know, three string after three years.

And no one really knew how to replace the strings or even that you could.

So I kind of adapted, you know, and playing little riffs on the guitar, but knowing that I like the feeling of the guitar in my hand.

And even today I have a song called King by now where I wrote it on the guitar with only using two strings.

And I play it live like that too.

And honor of my.

The matriarch of our families, our native mothers and grandmothers and that who think and want to enrich their children's life by doing whatever they can and so.

And getting by on what you got.

And so to me those are some very, very big influences.

Thinking, thinking back to that time, what do you recall the first record that you purchased?

I don't know if we appreciate this so much.

You know, we were little thieves and things like that and don't really remember, you know, it was probably something, you know, like you get the Record Club and things like that.

Probably something by the Beatles.

I remember getting help when it came out as a.

Came out in a movie and also you could see the 45 there.

So that could have been it.

Hmm.

There's a.

Another podcast that I listen to called Record Store Day with my friend Paul Meyer and he.

It's.

It's a brilliant.

Because they interview musicians and that's one of.

His question is about the sort of the.

The adventure of going to the record store and finding music.

That was always an adventure and what a great, great marvel that is, you know, like.

And also the music stores were partly.

They would have some kinds of music, you know, maybe some guitars and maybe some LPs and things like that.

So it was a hybrid music store and record store could read charts and catalogs by artists and things like that.

And so that was so encouraging.

And a record store, you know, I remember going into one in Fort Francis, Ontario and seeing all the records.

Like I, I remember my aunt got me the album Let It Bleed for Christmas and now it's such a gift and you know, all the songs are on there.

I can still remember them.

Oh, that's.

Yeah, that's.

That's a great album.

Sadic Magister's Request by the Rolling Stones where it was a holograph picture on the album cover.

That was magical.

And just the album cover for both of those.

So provocative.

Yeah.

And I remember you know, on that album cover were little pictures of the Beatles as flowers, you know, in a very.

Not in the front ground, kind of in the background, but that kind of magic.

That was around then.

What a time, what a time for music.

And I mean I could talk about album cover art.

That's a whole genre in itself.

Yeah, that is, it's really wonderful.

And I do have a vibrant vinyl release now.

It's a circle.

It was a 25 year edition special edition put out.

And so people, in fact I just seen on Instagram today, a friend was getting his albums out of his catalog and he kind of pulled that out and put it on there.

And it's on Instagram, you know, it's getting likes and things like that.

So that was very influential as well.

Oh, nice.

Later on we'll talk about that album and we'll put a link in the show notes where the listener can check that out.

So let's talk about your career.

How have you developed your career both in college and then post college?

Well, I think in college you kind of, you're running along parallel with a career and you can't really dive into it yet.

But what helped me a lot was I played in a band that we're called the Schwartz Brothers back then.

And you know, we're kind of a rock and roll band and they were called the Dog Soldiers.

But it was always, you know, we were always playing.

We had a.

A great female singer, Sharon Robot and Boyer who still sings, but she could really play it, sing the blues.

And we had a great guitarist, Dan Boyer, who could really play.

And then the rest of us were like sacred clowns.

Tim Wright on bass and Steve Marnetti on guitar.

Art Iverson on keyboards.

It was kind of a big band.

John Metza on guitar, me on guitar.

And I played harmonica in the early days too.

I played blues harp in the band.

And that was always, that was when I was in college.

And so, you know, I'd go home on weekends and play playing a gig, you know, and in the summertime I'd go canoeing in the Boundary waters in northern Minnesota a lot and I'd come home on the weekends and we'd play a gig.

But we'd always have fun playing it, you know, always.

So I think people liked us because we were kind of a band of misfits and kind of like a circus going on up there.

And so we generated a following and things like that.

And so it just kind of evolved from there.

And I think playing in a rock band early on is a really great experience for musicians.

And that's a lot of how musicians get their start.

I know a lot of artists are solo artists, pretty much what I do today.

You could look at them, and they all pretty much have band origins.

The school band, the college band.

Did.

Did you all disband after you left school?

Or how did.

How did that.

You know, like, you evolve, and, you know, I moved out west, and the band kind of did this and that, and, you know, we still play as adults.

It's fun, you know, like, to have musician friends that are still around, and you can still make music with them.

And, you know, bands can get hard feelings or anything like that, but after a while, life teaches you to let go of them things and keep moving forward, you know, and music is the way to move forward.

And so for me, that was very much part of who I am and what I do today.

After you left school, you went to the University of Minnesota, Is that correct?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Is that Minneapolis or Duluth or Minneapolis campus?

Okay.

Okay.

So you.

You left there.

Was it the early 80s and even then, you know, like, taking Anishinaabe language classes or Jib Waymo.

Learning it.

They offered it at the University of Minnesota, which was very new and ahead of its time.

They had actually an Indian program, a Native American studies program in a department where you had several professors in that department, and language became very much part of the core of the native language departments.

They had Lakota language and they had Anishinaabe language, both offered.

And you can't even see that today.

Yeah, their language program is pretty strong out there, which is really great to see the strong community there.

What did those years look like for you?

What was.

What brought you to the place where you released your first album?

Well, you're always trying, you know, you always think, I remember, like, I.

I wrote Indian Cars when I was still in Virginia, Minnesota, probably the early 80s.

And it just kind of.

You write it, you know, and then it takes about 10 years to start unfolding it, you know, get experiences, you know, run into some musicians who know how to play on, like, 49 music on guitars.

You know, like little different 49 riffs of powwow singing.

Not powwow, but like an offshoot of powwow singing, like the 49 and social songs.

And so I was kind of experiencing that, you know, experiencing.

Well, I would like to continue with this music thing, and I think it was in 88 around in the early 90s, I.

I asked a few friends of mine, you know, I put together like a fundraising idea, you know, like help me get him to the studio.

I got a couple songs I would like to record and Indian Cars was one of them.

I recorded with a Sand Creek band from Wyoming, ect, Wyoming, a rap band.

And they taught me a lot to the guitar players, Eugene and brothers, bass players and drums.

And we were a native band kind of thing.

And we had a little bit of fun playing our music.

And I brought them down to a studio down in Tempe and we recorded Indian Cars and we recorded a couple of their songs.

You know, part of what I did for it in exchange for them playing on my song.

We recorded a few of their songs original.

And that was very important, the word original.

Start writing songs right off the top.

In my early bands we were always playing original music as well as cover tunes.

You got to do that in the sense of we want to survive a little bit.

That was really important to always get that originality into your songs so that you realize that songs aren't just the songs you hear on the radio or with big promotion, but music is everywhere.

It's very organic.

You know, how they teach people to eat better these days, you know, eat less processed foods and eat cleaner.

The same thing with music too.

You've got to apply that in your life.

You know, listen to organic music, listen to tribal music, listen to the birds sing, listen to the wind, blow the river, roll the restream stream.

You know, all that is music too.

And listen to acoustic guitar, you know, like someone just playing and singing music.

If you're, you know, around that, it's a magical thing.

It's like alchemy or something like that.

You take your breath and you exhale it into something else.

It's mysticism, Mysticism.

And I think that was very much my approach to playing music is that mystic kind of approach to playing and making it your own.

Some of what comes to mind when you're describing this is the skills of Ringo Starr where he plays to the music.

Right.

Technically he's not the most outrageous a percussionist drummer, but he, he understands what the song is and he plays to the song.

And it just feels like what you're describing is being in tune to, to your surroundings and, and putting something together in that way and having that appreciation for it.

He's.

Yeah, it's pretty short too.

And he's a left handed drummer too.

And people don't realize that maybe that was what gave him, his uniqueness, you know, like he'd approach it left handed kind of thing.

And you know, I always drum too.

I kind of have a drum set and until I switched it around.

And to be a left handed drummer, I can drum a lot better left handed because I am left handed.

Even though people say you play guitar right handed, I actually disagree.

I kind of think the left hand according hand is more important.

Maybe after a while the picking finger gets really important too.

But the left hand is pretty dominant in a right handed guitar player's world.

Yep.

Yeah.

And so Regal Starr was that, you know, and he would apply his music, his drumming to, you know, just listen to it.

It's fantastic.

It is.

I mean everyone, everyone drummers go back to him, you know, as, as their source.

And while of course, you know, there are incredibly bombastic, amazing drummers out there, you know the.

Yeah, like well early on, Keith Mood and Dreamer from Led Zeppelin and people like that, you know, John Bonham.

Yeah, yeah.

So in 94, the film Dance Me Outside had come out and your song exploded, exploded everywhere.

And how did you get associated with that production?

What legates that place?

I think I can't remember the director's name.

Brian.

I would look it up now.

Dad heard my music and respect.

I'll put it out there.

Ed put it out there.

And I think Keely radio station was one of the instrumental radio stations that got that music out there.

And it's still standing today.

I was just out there a month ago in October, went up there for an interview and my friend Russell Fear, he was a lawyer for the Lakota tribe, he brought it to Keely and he said, you know, as soon as he's going down that dirt road from the radio station, he heard it on the air and kind of became an underground hit for a while, you know, like, oh, this belongs to us.

This is our native music, you know, this is the forming of our genre.

Getting key songs that are part of that genre that can be played at weddings or at get togethers at an Indian bar party or something like that.

And that was fit that genre.

And so it exploded, became an underground hit, you know, it came from our people.

It wasn't like someone who said here it is, you know, it kind of came from the dirt and it rose, you know.

And songs will do that if people like them, you know.

And I learned that if you want to be an important songwriter, write songs important to the people.

And that song was important to the people.

So it made me more vital as a songwriter and songwriter for our culture as well.

It's a contemporary song that.

That sings to a lot of us what we go through, what we understand.

Yeah.

And I think one of the key lines.

I got a sticker says Indian power.

I stuck it on my bumper.

That's.

It holds my car together.

I think there is some kind of a spiritual thing there in that lyric.

Realizes the economic deprivation that we may face.

Doesn't make us any less or any more, but it keeps us surviving.

And I think that sticker, it keeps us at the Indian power.

We do have power.

Oh, absolutely, absolutely.

And there's humor in it, too, which is something that we all have, you know, to keep us moving forward.

Yeah, I think, too, you know, like, when you talk about singing and songwriting, humor is one of the highest forms of mental taxonomy, of thinking, you know, like.

Of extrapolating a thought to a humor.

You have to think deeper.

You have to think more.

And humor is using all of the wit of experience and intuition and things like that.

And so sometimes you can kind of just kick them in the shins with truth, but sometimes you can be a Pied Piper and let them follow you.

Let people create their own meaningful dialogue and monologue.

So you've.

You know, over the years, you've.

You've released.

I think it's eight releases, seven albums.

And before.

Before the.

The recording here, we.

You had mentioned that you're currently working on a new.

On a new album.

And I.

I don't want to get.

I don't want to fixate on.

On just one song, even though, you know, it's.

It's one that immediately everyone recognizes and.

And.

And goes to.

But what.

In.

In the years that you've been recording, and things certainly changed after that experience.

What's.

What's an album that.

That you've done or an experience that you've had that really stands out and sticks with you.

There's a few of them, you know, that I recorded here in Tempe.

I think this Finger Monkey album was fun because we did it up at a studio in Minneapolis and, you know, we had a little distribution with it, and we had some great engineers work on.

On the album.

And just the experience of getting into that studio where some hits were made, you know, like using the drum set that was old, or I remember playing all that Mad Dog Studios in la, like Lucinda Williams and Tom Petty worked in there and things like that, and then recording out in Venice beach with John Densmore.

Now the same studio that we recorded in Willie Nelson Records in, and another One of Daniel and Law and people like that that do it.

And so some of them albums have that magic.

But I remember Finger Monkey sticking out like that being a lot of fun to record with a rock band.

Seems like all the music too gets easier and when you record it, it should be like that, you know, say, well, this is pretty easy.

You know, try to get the magic in two or three or even less.

And so some of that recording, like this summer I set up in a barn in upstate New York and recorded three or he recorded a small lp, like seven songs in a couple days.

And just with the recording equipment that's available now with, you can port, you know, you can bring a studio anywhere.

Oh, as a, as a podcaster I can, I can, I fully understand that the quality of the equipment is so.

Much more magical because I think too I've done field recordings too.

One thing I've been doing in all my travels, I've done recordings with artists and recorded them on my garage band, on my Apple computer laptop and just get a good interface with a good low impedance mic and things like that and you're off, you know, you're off in the races.

That's a great program that comes.

Yeah, that's a Mac.

And the first season of this podcast was used that and I've talked to a couple of my podcast friends who are nationally well known podcasters.

That's the software they use.

So.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's fun.

Hey, and then, you know, I noticed too, like, I know we're doing this by phone and things, but if you were around there, we could set up, you know, with your garage band and a good interface or we could use mine, you know, in my home studio and it gives the participants, you know, a feeling of oh yeah, I have a microphone in front of me.

It make it feel good.

Oh yeah, yeah.

Oh, a couple years ago I recorded a younger group out of Flandreau, South Dakota and they, yeah, we set up in their house and then they did a, a three song, four song set and we set up.

It was great.

It was absolutely great.

Yeah, I love that.

And I actually encourage our songwriters to use that.

I call it making audio sketches, like make an audio sketch like an artist would do on a notepad or something like that.

Same thing using GarageBand, you can get a good couple of good tracks.

If you wanted something more, maybe you'd have to go, going to A big studio, but you can even record drums, you know, pre recorded drums, or with a couple mics, you could record live.

Just having voice and maybe doing some overdubs on that and the guitar and some overdubs, you don't need much.

And so it really also liberates you too, you know, like as it makes you more prolific to be able to.

Do that when early on in the career and those evolve over time.

Can you talk about how opportunities have presented.

Presented themselves to you or how you've pursued them?

You know, like just playing at some big music festivals early on in the career, like I played at the Ross Guildy Festival out in Denmark and was able to bring up, you know, a handful of other native performers and just hanging around with like Kurt Corbain and people like that from Nirvana and meeting Patti Smith and Neil Young out there and, and things, those kind of opportunities are golden, you know, and.

And then you, you pursue your own music too.

And realizing that you, you really got to do your, your thing and so you become part of it, you know, like instead of asking the Creator to be in your heart, you ask the Creator to be in the heart of creation.

And, and that enables a person's view, you know, like, I'm part of this big circle.

I'm part of this beautiful circle.

And so I think that's how you pursue it as being part, you know, and enjoying it.

And, you know, and then on the native scene, you know, like musicians like Floyd Westerman was very influential to me, partly because when we first started playing is the way I played music, I'd follow him.

I wouldn't try to, you know, say, no, this gotta be this way.

I'd say, okay, Floyd, if you want to come in on three, I'll follow you instead of one, you know.

And I've met musicians that are old and also a comedian like Charlie Hill, like the great native comedian Charlie Hill was very influential.

Lollie Vegas from Breadbone showed me how to play Come and Get yout Love on guitar.

And so those kind of things are golden and always stick with you.

I became friends with you too in the 90s, like in 93, 94 or something like that.

And I still remain friends with them now.

And so that circle comes around.

I remember meeting Jerry Garcia and Jerry told me, he says in his language, he goes, hey, hey, Keith, man, you got good music, you know, and music, good music in America falls through the cracks.

And, you know, that's what happened here.

Music falls through the cracks, but keep doing it.

It was very Inspiring to hear that, you know, and he heard my songs and had the Grateful Dead played over their loudspeakers before some of their shows.

And, you know, in the mid-90s, 94 90, you know, before Ernie passed.

And so that was very important as well.

And I think that kind of stuff, it inspires you, but it also gets you wanting to make better, you know?

Like, I remember hearing my songs when I went to a graceful Dead show down here, and I was thinking to myself, oh, I wish I could have mastered that album, you know?

And so, like, that's inspirational.

But at the same time, realizing that more work needs to be done.

Your work isn't just within music.

You do have some advocacy that you've been part of, too, over the years.

Would you be able to talk a little bit about that?

Well, yeah, you know, like, I'm not so much like this is my cause or anything.

You know, I kind of float with what's important, what's going on with the Native people and, you know, like, our indigenous struggles that we've had, from land struggles to water struggles to missing and murdered, it's all been part of the landscape of who you are as a singer songwriter in the Native world.

And I think you have to open your heart up and you have to open your emotions and be part of this struggle.

And I've done shows in the Black Hills, like to say the Black Hills, and bring awareness and things like that to the tribes that I've done.

So I've done shows for the homeless, and very much even today, you know, I try to be very in tune with it locally, even what happens, and doing more than just doing shows, but being a kind person and being aware of our struggles, I think those have been very close to my heart.

You know, like, I think in Native world, we have a lot, you know, especially, like, with the boarding schools.

I remember I put the song out Say youy name over 10 years ago before, you know, the found out graves and things like that.

The struggle of parochial schools and the Indian Relocation act and things like that.

There are real things, you know, the real things that happened, and you listen to them things and you become part of it, you know, Like, I think those are, you know, so many of things and the causes.

And now I think our Native children are so important.

Our grandchildren and the young children that are coming up are so dear and important.

And even in my own children, you know, learning how to be a better father, a better grandfather, a better uncle, and, you know, with a young, younger generation of young Native Women that are coming up are so strong.

They're like our nephews were strong like that, but our relationship to them are like that.

Even though they're our nieces, they're strong.

I'm just talking about gender roles and things like that, but there really isn't, you know, that.

That strongness that is out there and learning how to work with them and, and be respectful and also inspiring too.

Those causes are very dear to my heart.

Well, I think what's great is the work that you do and a number of other native and indigenous bands that are out there is that they're able to articulate the things that we all feel and experience from our reservations in our communities.

And it really means something that when we hear something that we can connect with, we don't feel so alone.

Well, I remember a few years back having water struggles along the Mississippi and Northern Mississippi and we did a concert with the Indigo Girls, who have always been part of the indigenous struggle.

And we had to go out and play on a pontoon out in the middle of the Mississippi river so that the officers couldn't arrest us.

And so those kind of things are important and very much still ongoing too.

It's not over by any means.

Certainly, Certainly it's not.

The water protectors, yeah, they got up and stand up for our people.

I think that's also why I like reggae music, you know, a lot too.

The struggle and that are real and the causes that are said in the.

Music from the community.

Yeah, absolutely.

So what would you say to the 18 to 22 year old that's listening to this conversation?

I would say get an instrument.

Things that.

What I learned too is like near hockey, guitar, keep it and keep on songwriting.

In that sense, become truthful to yourself.

Honesty is pretty hard, harsh and you know, when you become honest with yourself that it's easy to be honest with other people.

And those things are important, you know, like even things like taking care of your health is really important.

You know, like in.

In my day, alcohol was a very much part of who we were.

But it doesn't have to be, you know, and it's, you know, like it shouldn't define us in that sense.

We're learning how to be better songwriters, be better business people, be better a musician, be a better brother or sister.

Those things are really important, you know, the camaraderie that comes with it, you know, share, be kind, you know, be helpful and not so competitive and things.

And I think those are important, you know, that, that kindness and, and self care and Self love are important and keep going, you know, keep on doing it.

Get yourself an instrument and play.

So what's on the horizon for you?

What are you working on now?

Well, like I say, a collection of songs.

Like I have like a 24 unreleased songs, you know, a couple albums worth of music.

And I'm just deciding how to and when, you know, when I should got a manager who's kind of helping me in looking for the best deal out there, maybe a distribution deal or maybe with a small label again.

And I got my connections that I made with Don Giovanti.

They're still very vital in things and so I can have major distribution.

For me that was important is to get your music distributed so people can get, get to it.

Before that was a difficulty of being an indie artist was, you know, like you're weren't so accessible.

And so now nowadays with the Internet and things, musicians can be more accessible and more be heard and things.

So I'm, I'm working on those things and you know, writing songs as they come and, and you know, maybe you write two or three songs a year and then after a decade you got a whole songs.

And so I would say play the long game too.

It's important to play the long game in this whole musical career.

There's no guarantees in the long game, but it'll make you survive, you know, like if, if you lose this concept of colonialism and what is success and just put your own values and your own things on it so you don't feel like, oh, I got pressure.

I gotta have a million streams or 5 million or a billion streams, but just to keep on going, you know.

And so that's what I've been doing.

My, my new songs are, they're really audio.

They're out there, you know, with harmonies and songs and guitar leads and little, little, little riffs that are really important.

I always try to write hooks in my music.

Not so much trying, but I do write it, you know, little riffs that people can relate to and sing along, you know, sing alongs are important people that, you know, they'll sing your songs.

I'll send you some of those songs what I'm talking about after Joseph, where you can download it for your people on the podcast, get a little bit of idea of some of the songs that have little riffs and ideas on them.

Where, where can the listener find your work and connect with you?

Well, Chicola@sekola.com is my website.

I just reload loaded up and this was a learning curve you know how to edit your own website and work on that.

It took me all morning to kind of figure it out, but I uploaded a song called Changing the Vibe.

It's there today.

Sekola.com is one place, and then there's other on that.

I have my website.

There's where they can be distributed, you know, where it can be listened to.

Like the other musical places that people listen to music these days, and it's all there.

And then, of course, the social media presence, I'm not so good at that, but it's there too.

You know, it's at Kingsukola, and then I'm on Instagram and things like that.

All right, we'll put links in the show notes for them to find you.

And, yeah, for the listener, check out the website.

There's links to.

To get those albums.

Circle is on there and a number of others.

So, yeah, please take Crime Engine.

Check that out.

Keith, this is wonderful.

Thank you so much for coming on this podcast and sharing your story.

I appreciate you.

And like the listeners who dig a little deeper looking for music, because that's a really aficionado.

And that's where the music starts and the organic music is.

It's out there.

You know, it's not just that's what's in your face and what's on the TV or the radio.

It's a little deeper than that.

And so that's also why I appreciate what you're doing, Joseph, and keep on doing it.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

And that does it for this episode of Five Plane Questions.

I want to thank Keith again for his time and sharing his story with us.

Keith Sekola has accomplished something that many dream of, and that's being an icon within our pop culture.

And to this day, we can all recite the lyrics to that song.

And it's just a jam that we all love.

And I gotta give a shout out to my cousin Eric, former guest of this podcast, Eric Williams.

Also.

Yeah.

Guest podcast saying, hey, you need to get Keith on the podcast.

I was like, absolutely, absolutely.

So I reached out to Keith, and to my surprise, he was down right away for it.

And so I'm honored and excited to have shared this with you.

And collaboration is the name of the game for him.

He works with everyone.

He's a producer for new bands.

Right now, he's out there touring still, and he's creating children's music.

And so it's just it's amazing how he just keeps moving forward and I could be happier for him.

That's it.

Check out his website if you want to book him and and see what he's doing.

Go to sekola.com and yeah, check him out.

So yeah, but Keith, thank you for your music and thank you for your time today.

More importantly, I want to thank you for joining us and spending your time listening to what I feel is a very important story story and perspective from our community.

So please join us next time as we speak with another incredible person.

I'm Joe Williams.

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