Caravan Conversations: S1 E1 Show Notes

Hi everyone! This is Katie Bush, one of the producers of Caravan Conversations. This episode was actually the third one that we recorded, but the first we released. We felt that he had a topical message about community and that it would be a strong start to the podcast series.

Mighty Mystic is the stage name of Kevin Holness, who was born in Jamaica and moved to the US when he was nine years old. He is a reggae artist who spreads a powerful message about unity and love. This was his second time playing the SHAMc stage, but certainly not his last!

You can listen to Mighty Mystic's music on Spotify here or using the player, below:

Here are some photos from the day of recording:

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:

Autumn Pearson: Welcome to the launch of Caravan Conversations. It is so exciting to be here with all of you today, and especially with our good friend, Mr. Mighty Mystic. How are you today?

Mighty Mystic: I'm doing great.

Autumn Pearson: Good. Such a pleasure to be with you. It's really awesome to have you as part of this project and this program. And this is your second time playing at SHAMc, yeah?

Mighty Mystic: Yes.

Autumn Pearson: So when you roll into this place, what do you think about? What's your vibe?

Mighty Mystic: This is home. This is home. Everybody here is like family to me and my whole crew, so we feel super comfortable, relaxed, and we just can't wait to hit the stage and rock out. It's family.

Autumn Pearson: Yeah, it is family around here. And so we're launching this podcast and you're launching your Florida tour. Tell us about it. Where are you going, and what's your message for this tour? What are you really wanting to get out there and say?

Mighty Mystic: We're doing seven shows in ten days, kind of sprinkled all over. I just want people to get back to having fun, dancing to reggae music, enjoying themselves and enjoying good company. Nothing strict, nothing preachy, just real good vibes, old-school style, community- that one-love thing. So that's kind of what we're pushing on this tour.

Autumn Pearson: And is this the first stop on your tour here at SHAMc?

Mighty Mystic: This is the first stop, yes.

Autumn Pearson: That's what we do here! Well, that's awesome. I hadn't quite put all of that together. So when you're up there vibing and you're talking about the world around you, your impact, you kind of identify as "hard roots," right? That's what you claim your style is, your creative statement, if you will. So what is that? Tell me more. What are hard roots? I want to know.

Mighty Mystic: So hard roots- the original roots that we all know is like Marley, which is the one-love, deep message. But we kind of add a little twist to it, with the hip-hop, the rock element, where it's actually kicking and rocking, and the audience, the fans, can just dance and groove and just let their troubles go and elevate the mind, the body, the soul, the spirit collectively.

It's like a dance party, you know? Kind of put the preachy message to the side. Still give them the fruitful vibes, but less preachy and more uplifting, more fun.

Autumn Pearson: And so with hard roots sometimes can come some hard messages. What do you think is a hard message that reggae and music need to be putting out there? We want to keep the vibe going, but what do we want people to be thinking about? And what do you specifically want people to be thinking about that's going to maybe keep them uplifted and thinking on the positive vibe?

Mighty Mystic: Great, great question. I think lately- the last year, I would say- on tour, I've noticed that there is this level of mental strain, mental health, that I think the population is going through. It's like a collective situation. Everybody's feeling this mental strain, and I think it needs to be talked about more in music, in my genre, and all across different genres.

Talk about this thing because everybody is going through this struggle, and if we talk about it, we share our stories, I think it's a way for us to grow and heal together, and then elevate the mind, elevate ourselves out of this.

It's okay to talk about the struggles going on. People shouldn't feel scared or shy away from it. Just come to the table. Let's talk about it, because I'm seeing it, I'm hearing it, my fans are talking about their stress levels and things like that. So it's something I think we should be addressing more.

Autumn Pearson: Speak up for mental health. I could not be more aligned with you, Mystic, for sure. And I feel that the arts are absolutely the catalyst for making that happen. It's a way for people to express themselves as artists and creatives and let it go, but it's also a way for people to hear something from a different voice, and it validates maybe what they're seeing. And when we speak up and we can hear from someone else that they're having these struggles too, it makes it more human.

Mighty Mystic: It does. It does. It's not looked upon in a negative way. It has a way of lightening the stress that you're going through when you can actually talk to somebody else and they say, "Hey man, I'm actually going through a similar thing as well." And you're like, "Oh, really? I'm not alone."

Autumn Pearson: I'm not alone. You're not alone. The reality is, I don't know anybody out there who's just zip-a-dee-doo-dah stress-free. Being a human and having stresses is natural, and being able to talk about them allows us to release them. And you do a great job with that through your music.

So let's talk about that for a minute. I watch a lot of live music. Thankfully, my job is really, really supportive of my love for live music. And I see many performers, and I often wonder: What does it feel like to be on stage? That's not my genre.

And so when you're up there and you're vibing and jamming and bringing in community, and you look out into the audience and they're singing back to you lyrics—your own lyrics—what does that do for you as an artist?

Mighty Mystic: Great question. That takes me to a higher place. So before I even get on stage- you guys might not know this- before we get on stage, I'm super nervous. I'm very nervous.

Autumn Pearson: Oh, really? You seem cool and chill.

Mighty Mystic: At the core of me, I'm shy. I'm more reserved, so I'm nervous. But once I get on stage and I see the fans out there and the smiles and the eyes, it just really lifts me up and takes me to another dimension.

It's like an out-of-body experience. And then the music starts and people are dancing, people are grooving. It's like we're all on a cloud somewhere, floating around, leaving our stress behind, just dancing to good music. And the community that's there. So it uplifts me as well.

Autumn Pearson: And you're like, "I got this. What was I nervous about?"

Mighty Mystic: Yes, exactly. Exactly.

Autumn Pearson: I definitely understand that a little bit. I get some nerves too sometimes. But when we all do come together, that's when it happens. You find that power. Power in community.

Mighty Mystic: Yes, power in the community.

Autumn Pearson: And so you've balanced a lot in your life: growing up in Jamaica and having those roots, and then coming to the United States, launching your career, and then there's the idea of family and legacy.

And I think oftentimes people want to talk about your brother being the prime minister, and that's cool and all, but what was the root of your family? What did they instill in you to create a leader on the stage, a leader of a country? What do you think formed the prolificness of your people from the bush?

Mighty Mystic: Love it. Love that question. I think it's the piece we were talking about earlier, the community thing.

My dad and my granddad, they did a really good job of organizing our community in Jamaica, getting the citizens together to do different things, even just to chat. Just people coming together, talking and passing down stories. Oral stories.

Autumn Pearson: We touched on that today in school.

Mighty Mystic: Yeah, yeah. Oral stories where I come from is a real thing. This is something we do daily. It's a part of our life.

And we come together as a community, whether it's twenty people, whether a couple hundred people. We come, we cook, we hang out in the front yard sometimes, and we just talk stories and tell things.

We talk about recipes. We talk about remedies. You're sick, we share some old-school remedies with one another, and we just help the community like that.

So I think that is a real big thing to me. That's me.

Autumn Pearson: Learning from your stories, and the authenticity can be passed down that way, I think, culturally.

I grew up in the country, so stories too, the same thing. And I think when you grow in the bush or in the country, your sense of community is smaller because there's less population.

And being able to be on a stage now and bringing lots of populations together to understand that way of living and interacting is really important, and I appreciate you doing that and keeping it going.

Mighty Mystic: Yes, that's it. That's it. For sure.

Autumn Pearson: So you came to Enterprise High School today, which was really wonderful. I really want to thank you for taking time out of your tour to give back to the youth. Have you played in front of teenagers before?

Mighty Mystic: My pleasure. I have.

Autumn Pearson: So it wasn't your first time.

Mighty Mystic: No, not my first time.

Autumn Pearson: Love it. Well, tell me more about what it's like to play in front of an audience of fifteen- to seventeen-year-olds versus a crowd who's listened to you, knows you, is dancing, is excited. What's it like to play in front of those young minds?

Mighty Mystic: At first, it might seem a little scary, because they don't know your stuff.

Autumn Pearson: For them or for you?

Mighty Mystic: For me. For both of us. Collectively, for both of us it might be a little scary.

But once you kind of get into it, you see that they might be a little shy at first because they might not know your stuff, but when you just let go of yourself, when you put down the curtain that's covering, people have a natural way of just entering.

Even if they're not jumping around, skipping, dancing, you can tell by the eyes, the energy that they let out. And that was the same thing today. They're very attentive. They're listening. They're bobbing their heads. They're just vibing to the material and dissecting piece by piece.

They'll get a good amount of it today from this concert, but down the line they'll keep peeling away the layers and say, "Wow, I remember this guy Mighty Mystic came to our school several years ago."

And it sits. That's how seeds work. They grow at their own time.

I take it as that kind of a thing: plant the seeds for the young generation, and in due time it will grow in them.

That's why I strive so hard to leave positive, positive messages, because I really want to see this next generation grow, grow, grow and grow together.

Autumn Pearson: I think it's the answer, and I focus a lot on teens in my approach, and I really believe that teens are the future.

Being open with them about things like mental health and about the power of music and art is so important, and I know they listened to you today. I watched them.

Mighty Mystic: Did they? Nice.

Autumn Pearson: And I really love when musicians like yourself come and share more deeply into the community, not just here at SHAMc, but going into the schools. It has a big impact.

Mighty Mystic: It's our duty. It's our duty.

Autumn Pearson: What do you think your impact through music and through community and connection in the future is going to have?

If you think about reggae as a person, what would you thank it for? What would you say, like, "Hey, reggae, thank you"? And then what would you challenge it to do or to be?

Mighty Mystic: So I think for me, from day one, I've always had this fire. I was always a fiery kid. And I would like to thank music, I would like to thank reggae, for being able to direct the fire that's inside of me.

Giving me a purpose and saying, "This is what you need to do. Let's hone in on this, direct the fire here, and uplift the people with this fire that's inside of you."

It's been burning in me since I was a kid. I just always wanted to go out and help somebody else that was in need, that type of thing.

So music has really helped me fine-tune it and figure out exactly how I should go about it.

Autumn Pearson: Well, how would you challenge it? That's what it did for you. What do you want reggae to do for the future and now?

Mighty Mystic: For the future, I want reggae to not back off of educating the world. Not back off of teaching this next generation stuff that is happening around us.

It's like news that these kids nowadays need to hear. Because, you know, I'm not sure if young kids are watching news like that, like once upon a time. It might slide through to their phone to catch the quick little updates.

But through music we can teach so much. Through the arts, we can teach so much, and we can teach it in a way that's kind of gentle, where we're not overbearing.

Because this next generation, they don't like the overbearing thing. They want it subtle and smooth, you know? You plant the seed and let it grow.

I want reggae to not back off of that.

Bring the message that we're seeing all over. There's a war going on. Let's talk about it. There's a struggle of this; there's a mental health issue; the suicide rate is up; obesity.

Let's talk about these things and how do we fix these issues? Let's talk about it in music and not shy away from it, but do it gentle, I would say.

Autumn Pearson: Gentle and relatable. Giving them something to think about.

With music there's repetition. You have choruses- I think you call them choruses- where you repeat. And those lyrics are what are the seeds, and I think that's really important.

So, what do you do this for, Mighty Mystic? Do you do this for art, or do you do this for impact?

Mighty Mystic: Ooh, that's great. Art or impact? Both. I would say both.

Autumn Pearson: Okay.

Mighty Mystic: Because at the end of the day, I'm an artist. I'm an artist. I like to create art.

I like to go out into the woods and just sit and breathe, talk to the trees, see the animals, just smell the fresh air, feel the vibrations of the earth around me, and then create.

So I like my artistic part of it. I get to be an artist, but impact as well.

Both those things are true. You have to stand for something. We all have to stand for something, even if it's something small.

Even if the change is just for one person, we have to stand for something, and I think ultimately that's where the impact lies.

Through my art, I will impact a change, even if it's just one person. So both things are rocked together.

Autumn Pearson: All right, I'll give it to you.

Mighty Mystic: Give it to me! Yes. Let's go!

Autumn Pearson: I really want to make you jump off the cliff and pick one, but I'm going to give it to you.

Mighty Mystic: All right. Thank you, thank you.

Autumn Pearson: Thank you for being here today, Mighty Mystic. It's always so wonderful to have you around and your vibe.

I know the launch of your tour is going to be a great success, and what you are putting out into the world is going to come right back at you and keep you going.

Thank you for your work, and thank you for being here at Caravan Conversations.

Mighty Mystic: My pleasure. Thank you. Big love, big love.

Closing Credits

David Carroll: Safety Harbor Art and Music Center is the executive producer of the Caravan Conversations podcast. Show producers are Autumn Pearson and Katie Bush. Graphic design and animation by Katie Bush.

The podcast director is yours truly, David Carroll. Cinematographer is also David Carroll. I hear he's great. Editor, David Carroll. What can't this guy do?

Our theme song is "Traveling in Nature," made possible by Sonicb [artist name spelling unverified]. Licensed courtesy of Pixabay.

Caravan Conversations is made possible by a grant from the Live Music Society.

Find show notes, more episodes, and more at caravanconversations.org.

For more about the Safety Harbor Art and Music Center, visit us online at shamc.org.

FINAL MESSAGE FROM MIGHTY MYSTIC

Mighty Mystic: Hi, my friends. This is Mighty Mystic.

I'd like to say to you guys, all of you, we are the strongest when we are together.

There seems to be a division being thrown out by the people at the top. Whoever or wherever they are, they would like to divide us.

Please, let's stay together. No matter where you're from, how you look, your height, your size, your color, we are just people.

Let's stay united under the heavens. Let's share each other's message. Let's spread love. Let's be kind.

We are strongest when we are together.

Please don't let them divide us, all right?

Love, always love. Bless.