A TRUE ARTIS
Jack Johnson has called his voice “amazing.” Joan Baez dueted on one of his original songs at Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley. He’s co-written a soon-to-be released track with John Oates, of the eponymous Hall & Oates. The Rolling Stones, personally, have given him a friends and family pass.
For most recording artists, such would make for lampposts of a career well-trodden. For Ron Artis II—performer at this weekend’s upcoming Bluesapalooza Festival—that’s just been the past few weeks.
The Sheet caught up with Artis (pronounced Ar-teese) in a phone interview while the singer-songwriter was home in Nashville, working on his latest album release in the Sputnik Sound studio with Grammy-winning music producer, Mitch Dane.
Of the title and release date, Artis was more or less … elliptical. But he said that, in Nashville there was a “rich air, musically.” That, for the record, they had “decided to go all vinyl,” releasing only 3 or 4 of the tracks, digitally—an unconventional move in today’s streaming-heavy music environment. And that the theme of the album was to be focused on what Artis referred to as the human experiences of love, and healing.
“That’s all I can say about it, without letting it out from under the wraps,” said Artis. “And really, that’s all it comes down to.”
Because for Ron Artis II, it’s all about the love.
“I don’t have a formula,” says Artis. “I don’t really have a genre. Not one. I call my music therapy music. It’s more of a style. Rocky. Laid back. Sensitive acoustic. Punk or bluesy. The overall picture of it is therapy—trying to process experiences, and then encourage others to process their own.”
Artis learned the value of that encouragement, growing up on the North Shore of Oahu in a town called Hale’iwa. He says that his parents, Victoria and Ron, instilled early the ideas of love and mutual respect and using the gift of music as their mouthpiece. It wasn’t until he went out “into the real world” to launch his career, though, that Artis confronted harsher realities in the absence of what his parents had taught him.
“In a way, I felt like the character from Elf, just walking around New York City like, ‘Aloha everyone!’ and just seeing, you know, not everyone grew up in such a loving environment. So I didn’t always have the best encounters out in the world. And then I felt like I was kind of faced with a choice to dig deeper into what it meant to pull from love and give love or to succumb to the pain and bad experiences that one encounters.”
In many of his performances, Artis will ask his audience to look down at their hands. To think of their hands, again, when they’ve gotten out of something really dark and really heavy. To see them, in those moments, as capable of “holding a torch to light the way for the next person.”
And certainly, Artis is a man who practices what he preaches. Listen to any of his work—Shine, played live at The Fillmore in San Francisco, Before You Go as played and recorded in the Maui “jungle,” or his set with Jam in the Van at last year’s Whale Rock Music Festival—and you’ll hear a musician that plays the technical parts of his instrument, masterfully.
But there, too, is the inflection in his phrasing. The dissonance in his aching cords, and then their resolution. Both vocalist and lyricist, Artis’ music is written and performed with his audience in mind. The point is not to impress, but to connect.
“You learn the rules so that you can throw them away,” he says, of his creative method to playing and songwriting. “The countless scales, different modes, all that stuff—You learned all those skills, first, so that you could actually speak the language to someone. But what if, every time I had a conversation with someone, I never used the same word twice just to show them I’d studied the dictionary?”
The approach of an artist who sings and strums as both musician and torch bearer.
For Artis, every performance is an opportunity to make a lasting connection; to make good on that therapeutic pact between listener and artist.
“Some folks spend like five, maybe six or seven hours preparing to go watch a 90-minute or two-hour concert,” he reflects. “A lot of people come to this festival in Mammoth—and they have child care they’ve hired out, or they’re spending accumulated days off from work. They’ve prepared. Made a big roadtrip out of it.”
It’s a commitment that he doesn’t take lightly.
“I’ve got just two hours to perform, and who knows? I may never get to see you again. What can I offer you? In what form, so that you’ll receive it? I never want to go on a stage and take that aspect for granted.”
His return to Bluesapalooza this Saturday, August 3rd, marks Artis’ second showing at the event—a celebration of music and community that Artis acknowledges is a “recharge” for both himself and festival-goers.
“I’m just beyond honored that they invited us to come back” says Artis, who will be joined by Ernie Ecraela Jr. on bass and Andrew Rosales on drums. “We’ve done a number of tours together, and it’s just an honor to be working with guys like these, in a place like that.”
Artis says he never makes a set list. That the music and its order comes from a more internal place—one that conveys the reminder that “just because love is right, doesn’t make it easy.”
“And,” he says, “we’ve got Trombone Shorty this year,” said Artis, who’s looking forward to playing alongside the New Orleans-based brass player. “If you’re not happy already, you’re gonna be very happy after Trombone Shorty, right?”
For tickets to Bluesapalooza—the best party in Mammoth, since ‘96—visit tickets.mammothbluesbrewsfest.com
