Ron Artis II Interview
Doug Burke:
Welcome to Back Story Song. I'm your host, Doug Burke and today we're here with Ron Artis II. Ron Artis II was raised in Hawaii, the eldest son of 11 children. His musical influences include R&B, Delta blues and gospel, soul and rock and roll. He has a mastery of the guitar and piano and many other instruments and has played with many artists, including Mick Fleetwood, Jack Johnson, Booker T. Jones, G. Love, Jake Shimabukuro and others often invite them onstage for spontaneous improvisation moments that are unforgettable. His 2018 debut album Soul Stream with his band, The Truth has received wide critical praise. He writes deeply personal songs about universal subjects of life, family, joy, and loss, and makes a deeply personal connection with his audience in every performance. And so you have a lot of personal songs, songs about your father, songs about your wife, songs about your kids on your album. You have two albums out or three.
Ron Artis:
Yeah, I've got a couple, three, four studio albums and then two live albums and an EP out and available for people to find. So let's start with the... my guess is, you would start with the most recent one?
Doug Burke:
Sure.
Ron Artis:
Love is Love, that album?
Doug Burke:
Yeah.
Ron Artis:
Cool. Let's start with the song, let's start with Broken. That's the opening title track for Love is Love. Now, when I started this song, I was sort of sitting on the porch. We were somewhere in the States and I'm just playing that first half of the chorus. We're all a bit broken, let your light shine through the cracks. Now, that line didn't just pop into my head. It was really about me trying to understand the emotional struggle of trying to get through life, trying to live as an example for folks and trying to respect the life and example that others are putting forward and realizing that it's near impossible for us to be that perfect image of what we think we should be. A lot of folks have spent their time chasing a career or chasing music, that's focus on music. It's like they'll take time thinking if I rehearse and practice every day, I can sound like this guy or this girl. And only to get 30 plus years down the road and realize, I may emulate that person or that sound, but that's never going to be who I am. You're really truly free, when you allow yourself to truly 100% be yourself, being that person, being at peace with that person of who you are. That's how you really truly could thrive in your life and living. And you look close enough at anyone you're going to find fault. You're going to find issues. That's part of life, how we deal with our issues. That phrase it's just meant to, in a really simple form, talk about a really complicated subject that while we all know none of us are that perfect image of anything. We all are human beings. We all are individuals. We are perfectly ourselves. And if you try to treat people with respect, with love, with kindness, with empathy, and you try to have some kind of integrity in your life, you're going to realize that little light that's in you, that's in everybody who's born on this planet is begging to come out and shine and affect someone in a positive way. So we're all a bit broken, but let your light shine through the cracks. And that's where that phrase came from. And the other half of that is striving for perfect but you're already there. My wife Julia wrote that line. She heard me struggling with the first half and I'm trying to figure it out. And she just walked up and was like striving for perfect, but you're already there. And it was great for us to talk about that because we had very different lifestyle backgrounds growing up, myself and my wife. And she had gone the whole gamut through a career to school, to studying, through so many different things. And she realized that at the end of all that, of all the things people would celebrate you for or suggest you should be to be at the height of that and realize that's not who you are. That's not how you define someone by what they can do, by what they've accomplished. That's not who you are. Unfortunately, a lot of folks go through a whole life striving for something that would make them "perfect" in this world or perfect in the eyes of others. Where, when you were conceived, when you were born into this world, you were perfectly you and as kids I think we instinctively know that. And then we start growing up and start to listen more to society or listen more to what makes us celebrated or even more so today, I mean, life is so fast online. We can see who in the world is celebrated for doing what crazy thing. And we think I'll be accepted and celebrated and lifted up if I can emulate that, maybe that's what I should go after. So we try to, with those two phrases, we're all a bit broken let your light shine through the cracks, you're striving for perfect but you're already there. Now the next two lines, which were in the verse. First one is about a guy, second one is about a girl and well, I started to shy away from that because, and today we're generally ambiguous, no one wants to mention gender labels anymore. I still think that's important. I'm not supporting any kind of oppression towards any social group.
Doug Burke:
You're not judging.
Ron Artis:
No, but I do think that, I believe that we have different makeups from the get go and how we choose to do whatever we do, that's personal and that's fine. And I think everyone should be supported in their walk of life. But guys tend to make decisions based on different things. And so, as we talk about this perspective, this song, this guy has a perspective of, I want to accomplish this or I want to get this done. Guys sometimes come from this conquering point of view.
Doug Burke:
Alpha male.
Ron Artis:
Yeah. Some do and some don't, but this particular one we're talking in this story, it's about, it's like, I'm talking to that guy saying we're all going to fall sometimes, that's how our life ends. Unfortunately, I and some close friend of me have lost very close friends to suicide because they have this picture, an idea of themselves. And when they're not able to upkeep that, they think the blow back from that is too huge. It's too big. They can't fathom stomaching it, can't fathom facing that. And they think the only way, not the easy way they think the only way out is to end the whole thing. And it just, it breaks the heart, man it rips everything out. And t's just like, I wish someone, anyone could tell that person at that moment, this isn't where your story or anything ends. If anything, it's where your next chapter begins. So please see it that way as like, you're going to go down sometimes, but the sun's going to rise again, open your heart and let love in.
I know a lot of friends who've been heartbroken and then they think the only way to go forward is never let that happen again, build a wall around your heart. They'll still go into romance or break other people's hearts, but think protecting their heart, they'll be fine the rest of their life. And missing out on some of the most wonderful experiences that life can offer ever afraid to get hurt, afraid to love. We're essentially afraid to live. When I realized I was falling in love with my life, I never for one second wanted to ever give thought to defending myself. It's like, I love her. I can feel her love towards me. I want 110% to be there for her, whatever that means. And I'm grateful that she felt the same way towards me and our life has been full of ups downs, everything in between, everything unforeseeable and you make plans and plans fall apart.
Doug Burke:
God laughs at people who make plans.
Ron Artis:
I think so. That song Broken and then it goes to the other verses, girl you'll always stick out. Now, this is something I really believe, when I say the word girl or woman or female, I'm very careful never to say it, especially in this day and age in any demeaning way, because I mean I've got three daughters, and that's something that women have had to deal with for far too long. I long for the day when a female artist can be celebrated for her art and craft alone and in no way be a sexual object or have to deal with sexual appeal in her art form. I really long for that day. I mean, it's just, I think it's honestly just been disrespectful over so many years that that's how we see our women in the world. But I wanted to really focus on this phrase and this song that's saying, girl you'll always stick out. Sometimes not the way you'd like. Now, some people go through life thinking they're invisible. Like they could easily die today and no one would notice because they're not a star, they're not a public figure, they're not head of their class, they're not celebrated in their family, let alone town. So they're thinking if I die right now, nobody's going to show up for my funeral. If I die tomorrow, it's not going to be in the paper. You know what I'm saying?
Doug Burke:
Feel alone.
Ron Artis:
You can really feel alone or feel worse than alone. You can feel insignificant. And just thinking there's how many trillions of people on this planet, they're not going to miss little old me. So with this phrase, I'm trying to say so much in such a little space saying, girl you'll always stick out sometimes not the way you'd like, then the next phrase is something like, the world will try to lead you on and shred your dreams at night. Now, when I say the world, it could be society. It could be your neighbors. It could be your family, it could be anyone who has all these suggestions for you, how you should be, how you should live, how you could be successful, how you could find love, how you could not find love, how you could have a career, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And they're going to try to lead you on and shred your dreams at night. Shredding your dreams at night is like, it's basically the idea that society has for a female or for a woman, dress this way, carry yourself this way. Be agreeable, be beautiful, let someone have their way with you and then toss you aside like you don't matter. And that could be emotionally, that could be intimately. That could be in any of those things. Or it could be, show up to work in full makeup and your hair all done just so you're pleasant to be around. When should that ever factor into your life, your work, your worth? These are really just made up goals and ideals for someone's life that have been taken too seriously for too long.
Doug Burke:
So who's broken in the song?
Ron Artis:
All of us.
Doug Burke:
All of us.
Ron Artis:
All of us are broken. All of us are perfectly broken and that's what makes us unique and our lives, man, if we all were the same and we all were the perfect image of what we thought we should be, it'd be one boring place. It's the unpredictability of life that makes it so artful.
Doug Burke:
A big part of life is to accept that we're all broken.
Ron Artis:
Yeah, we're all broken, perfectly broken. So it's like, that's an interesting way to say we're all broken, but we're all perfect. I know it's a broken phrase.
Doug Burke:
You're asking more, contradiction of sorts.
Ron Artis:
It is. It is because it's learning by living and just testing all the things I think I know and think I understand. And it's beautiful because the more folks you'll meet, the more folks you take time to just sit and chat with the less you understand, we all can be stuck in our own realities, we really can. We can all be stuck in our own realities and thinking that's the way the world works. That's the way minds are made up. That's the way decisions are made because that's the way I make my decisions, that's the way I live my life. And it's only truly when you can really get along with someone who has a totally different philosophy from you, that you can totally start to grasp the beautiful complexity of life. You can meet someone who just outright disagrees with your whole life entirely, but sit down and have a cup of tea or coffee or whatever it is you like to sip on and just find the common ground in both of your lives. And those are the common things that everyone has to deal with.
Doug Burke:
So tell me about the music in the song. How did that come together? Did you write the music at the same time first or after the words?
Ron Artis:
I was just strumming the chords and I really liked the way the melody was kind of living in there. And then the lyrics began to come. The last thing we added to the song was the slide that's the still guitar. And that was a good friend of mine, Dan Liebowitz from ALO. And I had met him a couple of times, but I finally got to really meet him and kind of hang out at High Sierra Music Festival last year, 2019. And we ended up playing this gospel set early on Sunday morning and I was doing a different song. I was doing Carry Me Along. And he was playing the slide and I was like, wow, that's what's missing from the song Broken. That's all I thought, I said, that's what's missing. I mean, I'd had it mixed and mastered already. And I'm like, the song needs this. So I went over and I asked him after the set, if he would consider lending his fingers and tone and life to the song. And he said, yeah, sure send it over to me. I'd love to hear it. I think I waited about a week and then he sent me the audio of his recording and he was like, you know I overplayed the whole song just so you could choose what parts to keep and what parts to take away. And I said, okay. And then I put it on a play and I listened to it. I said, man, I'm not taking one piece out of this.
Doug Burke:
You left the whole thing in, as is.
Ron Artis:
It was so perfect. And it's like, that...
Doug Burke:
It wasn't broken. It was perfectly broken.
Ron Artis:
No. It was perfect and that's the thing though, man, it's like unpredictability of life, this is the other thing we overthink songwriting too much. I think when we approach it and there's purity in the moment, it just happens. But then we start thinking, what are the rules of songwriting? What are they? And depending on who you ask, there are literally 1000s of rules for songwriting.
Doug Burke:
All of which should be broken.
Ron Artis:
Exactly. It's your form of storytelling. That's what songwriting is. You can write it with one chord. You can write it with 1000 chords. You can write it however you want to do it. Songwriting is just art in general, it's just a pure form of communication. You can use any language, you can use anything. It depends on what you want to say. And I'm grateful how this one came together. And it's one of the slowest songs I think I've ever recorded on an album.
Doug Burke:
But you certainly can play fast.
Ron Artis:
Thanks.
Doug Burke:
And why did you go slow on this one?
Ron Artis:
Well, it's kind of a reflection of the whole album. So I had just Soul Street with my band. It was a really funky, really groovy, more rock up temple. And literally everyone thought I was going to follow that album with another solo album. Honestly, it's just not what I was hearing the whole year, I was hearing really relaxed, acoustic guitar flugelhorns and strings. And I was like, I've had to stay honest to what I hear. I can't pretend to hear something else. So that's how that came along.
Doug Burke:
Did you use flugelhorns or strings on your album?
Ron Artis:
I did.
Doug Burke:
Okay. In which song?
Ron Artis:
Dance With Me, Anonymity and To dad, as well as To Dad replies.
Doug Burke:
To Dad is one of my favorite songs because my podcast started after I had a conversation with my dad and it was the last conversation I had with him and then he passed away. And so I've been using this process of interviewing songwriters to understand the emotion of that. And your song To Dad is directly about your relationship with your father who's no longer here.
Ron Artis:
Yeah.
Doug Burke:
It just struck a chord with me, which is what really is why I'm doing this actually.
Ron Artis:
Yeah. It's the crazy thing in life, man, you never know when you're having that last conversation with someone, you never really know. My last day with my dad was a day that kind of encompassed everything. We had an argument, we have laughs, we did recordings, watched a movie. We ate popcorn. We joked, we played games. We did everything that day. And then you wake up the next morning and my mom was really, really just in pain and confused because he just didn't wake up and that was December 8th, 2010. 2:00 AM in the morning, my dad passed away.
Doug Burke:
Tell me about your dad.
Ron Artis:
So my dad was really just honestly, a ball of energy, chaos, emotion, love, passion and honesty. I mean, I can't think of a more memorable person in my life. My dad was adopted when he was about two or three raised by Mr. Norman Artis. And he was adopted by Norman Artis who was an airman. My dad just gravitated towards art and music and people, his whole life. From what I gathered, this is just my perspective of my dad. But if you met my dad and you were in need of a friend or somebody to listen or somebody just to talk to, he was that guy. If you were out to take advantage of life or anyone in business or everything, my dad was totally not your guy, my dad was equally expressive about being full of love and loving people, equally expressive of putting people in their place or being disagreeable with things he didn't believe in.
There's 11 kids in my family. My parents were married for 30 years. My dad was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy and given, I think about six months to live when he had recently just met my mom. As much as my dad is part of my story, my mother was too, without this early decision that she did to my dad, none of us, 11 kids would be here. His doctor had given him six months to live and my mom said, I'll say the clean version, my mom really cursed, but she's like the heck you do, man. You're going to outlive this doctor. You're going to quit smoking, quit drinking, get rid of all the friends who were just living off of you, get out of this lifestyle where people want something from you or just want to be around you because of what they can get or what you possibly can do. Your circle of friends are going to consist of people who really care about Ronnie, my dad's name was Ron but my mom called him Ronnie. And was like, your friends are going to be people who know Ronnie or want to get to know Ronnie. It's not going to be all of this fuss life, people taking this or wanting that and this and that added 30 years to his life.
Doug Burke:
She saved his life.
Ron Artis:
Yeah, man, it was major. And then in the end it was a heart attack that took him home.
Doug Burke:
And you were the first boy, I guess, because you're Ron Artis II not a junior. I was wondering about that.
Ron Artis:
Yeah. I'm the second. I'm oldest so the second born of my father's second marriage. So I have an older sister Stephanie from the marriage with me and all 10 of my siblings. And before my dad married my mother Victoria, he was married before to his first wife, Linda and I have two half siblings from that marriage Temelotis and Ciciotis. And I'll give you the spelling of the names, wonderful people, wonderful families.
Doug Burke:
So tell me how all that boils into the song.
Ron Artis:
All this comes together with the whole lifestyle. It's a whole life that affected me and my relationship with my dad. Before I lost my dad, I had spoken to people who had lost a parent or significant other that was really close to them. And I said all the perfect wrong things. And I could have never known, I had never lost anyone physically close to me. And it was all like, call me if I can do anything. If you need anything, call me, all those things. I'm here for you. And when you lose someone, like I lost my dad, we spent every waking day doing something together. Everyday man, we were inseparable. The first thing I thought was just my whole world is cracked in half my whole life has cracked in half. There's this person that you're sure is going to always be there. And then one day they just, they're not, and it's beyond your control. You can't choose for them to come back, no one can. And so as we go through the lyrics of this song, it really highlights all the struggles within the 10 years my dad had been gone already. He passed in 2010 and I wrote the song in about almost nine years and I think it opens up with, you said you'd stay, why did you go? My dad was always like, I'm here. If you need anything, talk to me. Come, your dad's here. His biological father was always traveling, always doing things and never married his mom. And so my dad was like, I'm not going to be that kind of father. I'm going to be here for you. I'm going to always be here. My dad honestly did mention sometimes to us as children that there'll be a day when I'm not here. And I hope to prepare you for that day. But I opened a song anyway, saying, you said you'd stay, why did you go? The next phrase just sort of go into, you said you stay, why did you go? So much has changed that you need to know. I'm one of 11 kids. And we were so tight growing up. We never had personal space and we did everything together. We did everything together and it was so much fun.
Doug Burke:
This is in Hawaii, Maui?
Ron Artis:
Oahu.
Doug Burke:
Oahu?
Ron Artis:
Yeah, on the North shore of Oahu and we did everything together. After my dad passed away, I think I was about 23 and so much did change, so much. I mean, my dad was basically the flag bearer of our family. While my mother tried to fill both roles. I mean, you have 11, very strong-willed children, but my parents were very adamant about raising us to think for ourselves, to challenge any fact that was put towards us or anything anyone had to say, make up your own mind. Make up your own mind, form your own opinion. There's nothing wrong with being agreeable, but in the end, no one's going to be able to take your place in the fire basically, and as you go through life, you're not going to take responsibility for a decision that I've made even if you've given me the advice. So make up your own mind, live your life. And having 11 strong-willed children. And all of a sudden being the sole parent is a lot. I can't begin to understand all the things my mom had to think of wrestle with, but all of a sudden here you are six boys, five girls, stubborn as heck, they're stubborn as heck, We had a family band and we had all these different projects we'd do together as a family. And there was this one point where it was all chiefs and no Indians. And to put it simply, and...
Doug Burke:
That's a hard band.
Ron Artis:
Yeah, it's a hard band. I don't know, it could be a good band name, all chiefs. A lot of things began to break and we tried to hold onto those things. Looking back now I can see all those things were necessary to change. You plant seeds in the soil and they've got to shatter their shell to grow. And everyone needs their space. Now, I mean, years later, we all talk love and respect each other. We always talk but now it's like, we all have so much more understanding about, and for each other that we have space to go and do things and grow. It's like, we're all in this safe space to develop. And then also we all just explode and it's time to grow and go out and do things. And so it's like so much has changed that you need to know because I'm still struggling and wrestling with man, I'm married now, I have kids. I never thought I'd get married. I told my father and my grandmother that I didn't think I'd ever get married, let alone get in a relationship. I'm just going to focus on my music and that's it. I'll remain celibate my whole life. And my father and my grandmother had two different takes on that. My dad was like, Oh, that's fine. You can say whatever you want when love hits you, you really don't have a choice. That's what my dad had to say about it. He was like, I know how it was with me and your mom. And I just know that, the way you think and the way you are, you're not going to see it coming. I just hope she's strong enough to crack through that ice. But he was like, when love hits there's no denying it. There's no cerebral approach to it, if you will. And that's exactly what happened.
Doug Burke:
And that's in a song, that's in some other song.
Ron Artis:
Yeah, that's in a few of the other songs we're going to get to. The other thing, the next phrase on that was, and this was a hard one, so much I blamed you for, so much inside me is torn. I love my dad. And he was very strong, minded strong will like most me and all my siblings are. And so going through life, you're just like, Oh man, if you had done this that way, wouldn't it make life now a little bit easier or a little bit clearer? If you'd had done that, maybe you should've done it this way or why are you gone? If you haven't lost someone really close to you, it's hard to understand the emotion of being upset that that person's gone. You think about the pain. You think about the joy of all the memories you had, but you can't help but get really mad sometimes. Like, man, I really, really miss you. And there's no one to be mad at, but you. It's a weird thing to explain. But when you really, really miss someone, it's an emotion that you have to deal with. And for me it was all these things all at once. And the next phrase, it gets really personal. It's this there's so much, I wish we'd shared. I mean, my first daughter was born, the first time going shopping for my wife after we got married, saying my vows at my wedding, all those things. But things that I've gone through so much of my life with you. This is what I really wish I could share these things that I'll never experience again with you.
Doug Burke:
He wasn't there for those things but that's maybe a postcard to him somewhere.
Ron Artis:
He had passed on.
Doug Burke:
It's like you were singing to him.
Ron Artis:
Yeah. This song is like writing a letter to a loved one who's passed on. There's a lot of things you wish you could say or wish you could share. And for me, it took nearly 10 years.
Doug Burke:
To write the song?
Ron Artis:
No, to get to the space to write it. I wrote it all in a span of two days. But literally, it took all that time to get here. I actually wrote the song and my wife and kids, we took time off last Christmas, end of 2018. We went to New Zealand to unplug and I didn't know we were going to be unplugging that much. I didn't know cell phones wouldn't work. It's easy when you're in a space unplanned like that, where you have no connection to the distracting elements that you're forced to face what's inside. And I didn't realize, but I'd kind of been pushing that down, pushing all these emotions down, pushing all that pain down. And it was basically time to face them and accept them. And that's how the song came, sitting in my room or sitting in a camper van or something. And I was just strumming those opening notes and the song you can just hear, it's kind of... And it's this kind of singing through that, and it took me two days because I just had to stop in the middle of it and think, am I really ready to face this? Is this a space I'm really ready to go to? It was honestly, it was a lot, man. It's a heavy emotion. It's a lot. And so that next phrase, it's where the person is so much I wish we shared. This is me returning back to the phrases I have mentioned earlier and just saying it plainly, there's so much I wish we shared. But deep down, I know I'm scared that I'll forget your voice. Now that phrase, you can't know that until you've lost someone. Someone you're around all the time, you hear their voice. They're talking to you talking to them all the time, but something happens years after them being gone you still remember everything they said, everything they did a lot. But then you start to remember it in your own voice.
Doug Burke:
You internalize.
Ron Artis:
Your tone of speaking voice, your expression. And you don't hear their voice anymore or as much anymore. And it was a really shocking and scary emotion all at once too, because it's like, I don't want to forget my dad. I don't think that I ever could, but it's like, it's an emotion that you come across and you think, well, am I losing him? Am I really absolutely losing him now that I'm not remembering the tone of his voice? And that just came out when I was writing it, it just really came out on that section. And then it goes into the next part. Why does the world have to say goodbye? And why does a life fade away? It's just a question posed to the listener. It's like, if you have an answer, tell me.
Doug Burke:
Help me out.
Ron Artis:
Yeah, help me out.
Doug Burke:
As a performer, help me out.
Ron Artis:
As a person, because it's like, I have my ideas. I have my beliefs on this subject, but it doesn't always make it easier. Knowledge doesn't always make things easier, the knowing. Though, when we don't know, we really think it does. It's always thinking, if I just had this things would be easier, if I just knew more. Sometimes figuring it out and learning it makes it a little bit harder. Again, that's another part of life.
Doug Burke:
I have to say that I think your dad and mom did a great job bringing you up. I had sent you an email saying I wanted to interview you, you had never met me. I walked up to you in a club and you shook my hand and said, thank you for coming. And my dad told me that there were four words that'll get you the furthest in life and they're free. And they're thank you, please and you're welcome. And it's just about being a gracious, grateful, respectful person to people everywhere you go, you didn't even know who I was. And you demonstrated that graciousness and you demonstrate that on stage so effectively. One of the things I was thinking about as I watched you perform that night and you still hadn't really met me other than thanking me for coming, was your gratitude to the audience, your grace on stage and, your aloha, mahalo Hawaiian attitude. And yet I was listening to your music and I found it so universal. I didn't find it Hawaiian per se. What part of your music is Hawaiian? Is there a part of your music in Hawaiian or is it global? How do you think of that?
Ron Artis:
I think all of it is. If you go back and look at traditional Hawaiian music, there's so many forms of expression, what's really most popular in Hawaii is the slide still. And I mean, people think that reggae is, Jawaiian is Hawaii. It's really an -
Doug Burke:
Reggae is Caribbean is Jamaican, right?
Ron Artis:
Where I think Hawaii has mostly affected my music, isn't all the things you just said. If you go and you meet someone who's local to Hawaii, local meaning born there, raised there, lived there most of their life, who has spent enough time there to get to know Hawaii. It's that gracious, respect and appreciation for other people. The land, the life, everything around you is just being grateful and just being thankful. That's one of the things that brought my parents to the islands. It was about 1990, 1991 when we officially moved there. I think it was in '89 or '90 when my parents did their first trip there, it was a work trip. My dad was going to do something for art. And he said he got there with my mom, they had a meeting in the morning. They went up to the beach, put their feet in the water, stepped out and they said, Oh, there's no way.
Doug Burke:
We're not going back to where we came from.
Ron Artis:
Yeah. And my dad said, one thing that stuck out to him, he was walking down Waikiki and mind you, this was back early 90s, late 80s, it's a totally different Waikiki now. There was this really tall Polynesian guy there. And if you get to know the different cultures, Tongan, Samoan, a lot of times you'll see one of the guys walking and they have really strong facial expressions, you think is he upset with me or? Until you get to know him or whatever, my dad was watching him walk. He said, what really struck him was this guy's walking with a strong personality and on his shoulders, like his three year old daughter eating an ice cream. And he went from that really focused look to looking up at his daughter and just totally melted and smiling looking at her and goes back to like, this is why I live, to take care of my kids. My dad was like, this is where we belong. This is where we're going to raise our kids. Before that they were living in L.A. And they were like, there's nothing like this in L.A.
Doug Burke:
No, they're very different.
Ron Artis:
And I'm really grateful my parents left this whole pursuit of music business and everything behind and came to Hawaii to raise a family. How that affected my childhood and my life? It's beyond words. I mean, I honestly can tell you, I would have a totally different life if I hadn't grown up in Hawaii. And now when I get to an audience or somewhere and a lot of it was teaching of my parents as well. But when I thank the audience for coming out, I love to acknowledge, you could be anywhere you'd like with your life and your time and your energy, and you choose to be here to spend 45 minutes, 30 minutes an hour, two hours with us in this place and listen to what I have to offer and what I believe might be important or helpful. And I'm grateful that they just give me a moment. And that's why I say thank you.
Doug Burke:
You often end your concerts with a thank you song. And you did it the first show I saw you at and you got the audience to sing the chorus for the first time they're hearing the song essentially for most of them, I'm sure. I found that that was pretty stunning to me.
Ron Artis:
The song we love to end with is called, Before You Go. We wrote this song for a friend of ours, her name's Paula Fuga, an amazing artist, singer, songwriter.
Doug Burke:
So you wrote this for her.
Ron Artis:
We wrote it for her. How I wrote it for her was, we were doing a show in Hawaii, my brother Thunderstorm and I, we used to do a lot of dual work and we were playing our first concert in the Doris Duke Theater, which is part of the Honolulu Art Museum. And Paula Fuga did us the honor of agreeing to open the show for us to support us. Now, if you know Paula man, she's amazing. I was like, it should have been the other way around, honestly, but she decided to do us the honors and open for us that evening. And we were really floored by this. And so I was like, we have to do a song together. So I went through her catalog of music. I went through mine and I couldn't find the song that was a perfect fit for us to do because she was going to sing her songs, we were going to sing again at the end, I thought we should do something together. So I was scouring the internet, looking for songs from her and I came across her TedTalk. I highly recommend checking it out.
Doug Burke:
I will.
Ron Artis:
And it put a light on so many things about her life, her upbringing. So many things she had dealt with. While I'm watching the TedTalk, I picked up my guitar and I started strumming and that's how the song was born. She's gone through so many things and she's come out the other side, singing her heart out, giving so much love, selflessly. Every performance I've ever seen her at. I have so much respect for Paula. And I wrote this song and then I called her up and I told her, we got to come over to your house right now. I got to show you the song if you're home. I want to show you this song I just wrote, I think we should sing it together. And so we drove up she lived seven houses up from where we lived. And so I went over, I went inside and I started singing the song. And all she did was cry the whole time.
Doug Burke:
So you knew you had a good song. I think if you make the audience cry, it's a good song. That's one of my criteria when I cry at a show, it's like.
Ron Artis:
Yeah, I love crying listening to music but I didn't know it was going to mean that much to her. That's the thing, I did not know it was going to mean that much to her. And it was going to resonate that hard with her. And then she learned the song, we went to the concert and we played it at the end. And again, all she did was cry the whole time.
Doug Burke:
Is it easy to sing while you're crying? Or do you have to do something differently? Have you ever cried while you're singing a song?
Ron Artis:
A little bit, yeah. It's an overwhelming feeling I guess is when I did the song about my dad. The first time I performed it, I really was trying to remember the words, trying to remember to breathe, trying to remember to sing. But at the same time, I didn't want to bridal those emotions because it's like, crying is a very healing process. Somebody listening, if you still want those people to allow yourself to cry, it's a very healing process. That song since then has done so many things in our lives. The very next intense time that I sang that song since that time with Paula was I got a message and a call from someone who found me on Facebook. And they wanted me to fly out to sing it for a memorial for their nephew and a grandmother who had passed away in the same week.
Doug Burke:
Oh wow.
Ron Artis:
From totally different causes. And they wanted to fly me out to California, to the memorial, just to sing that song.
Doug Burke:
And how did they find it? And they found you on Facebook?
Ron Artis:
They found a video. We had a video on YouTube and a video on Facebook -
Doug Burke:
You really touched them.
Ron Artis:
They said, we need that song for our family at this moment, we need it. One of them, the nephew had been killed and the grandmother had died from aging and health concerns, but naturally, and it was a lot of heavy emotions that day for me.
Doug Burke:
So tell me about the song, the lyrics in the song.
Ron Artis:
It goes, I've learned through all of my life when my hands are empty, that's when we're free. Now we try to gain so much and it's like, okay, sometimes what I can do is I have to pose a question. What are we living for? Not what you do for a living. Not what you like doing, what are you living for? A lot of folks will work to get that promotion, work to get that spot, work to get the money in the bank, to inherently give them freedom to do whatever they want. What is that whatever you want? What is that? What do you really want to do? If no one would watch you for the rest of your life, what would you do? A lot of people don't know the answer to that. They think they do. They be like, I'll eat all the chocolate I can have, I'll go to every party. I'll drink all night. I'll do this. I'll listen to all the music I want in the world. I do all this stuff, but they don't really know.
Doug Burke:
They don't even think about it, really. They think they think about it, but they don't actually prioritize what they are thinking about.
Ron Artis:
When do we give ourselves time to think about that? It's so much having to get to the next thing so the first thing doesn't knock us out. It's a chase to life to finally you're at the end and you retire. And you're like, I can do whatever I want now. Or maybe I physically can't do those things now. It's like, live your life, it's the gift that it is. So it's like at the beginning of that song, I've learned through my life that when my hands are empty, that's when I'm free. When I've got no money in the bank, I've got nothing that people want, I'm socially worthless in the system. There's nothing anybody can get from me, nothing anybody wants, I'm free. What do I want to do with my life? And then the second half I've seen that when we're small, that's when we're at our best. Now, that's about humility, about being humble. It's about being grateful and gracious. Not just to people who might be able to give you an opportunity, to everyone. A blessing and curse to us is no one can see what's beneath our surface. I could look at you and think, Hey, you're doing great. You got your coffee this morning, everything's going on. I could never know what you had to deal with yesterday or what you know that you have to deal with tomorrow, or what's going on in your day since you driving here. I can never know unless you told me. And quite too often, we take our assumption as truth. I'll assume what I know about you, I'll assume what I know about some kind of political figure or some kind of popular artist or actor or actress. Quite often someone who has very little will think that person has, Oh, that rich star has everything they could ever want, they're the happiest person in the world, next week that actor commits suicide. And then like that doesn't fit into my program about that person, that doesn't fit to that they had everything. It's like, no, that's still a person that has emotions, that has a life, that has a soul, that has struggles. The second we don't see each other as that anymore, that's when we're failing. Not only ourselves, but humanity. That's the big problem. So when I say, when we're a small, that's when we're at our best. So I usually ask the audience when they sing the chorus that's coming up. When they sing that with me, some folks will be nervous about it and they sing pretty soft. And so I ask them, look at that person next year, do you think they deserve to feel loved and know they're loved? If so, sing it out with that feeling. And then they sing it out twice, if not three times as loud.
Doug Burke:
Yes. I noticed that.
Ron Artis:
Because we don't think about the power that we have inside of us. We don't think about the struggle, what that person's dealing with because we perceive what we see on the outside as them. Again, seeing our assumption as truth. So what that song is, basically what I'm trying to say is, we're all here together. We're all part of one family. And if we love, respect and treat each other that way, it's a beautiful life. It's a beautiful life, man. And then going into the next phrase, before you go, I want you to know that we love you as our own. And that's the part that really gets people a lot because it's not the kind of love of, I liked the way you look today, you look sweet or you look this or there's an opportunity there, or let's get drinks or hang out. It's not that. And that's not love by the way.
Doug Burke:
That's attraction.
Ron Artis:
That's attraction. There's tons of words in the dictionary, those words to describe those different variables of emotions but it's not love. Love is a lot deeper than that. And love, I mean, if we could easily define the depths of love, we'd have to be pretty wise. You know what I mean? But I describe love through an emotion. I describe it as to say that I love you is I want to share all these emotions of my life with you. I want to feel your pains, I want to feel your joy. I want to share my life with you. I want to feel your life. I want to see you thrive. But if you fall down, I want to cry with you. And I want to lift you up. I want to see you healthy. I want to see you enjoying life. I want the best for you. That kind of love. And that's why the phrase is phrased the way it is, before you go, I want you to know that we love you as our own, not as a separate entity, not as someone else, Hey, good to see you, goodbye. No, you're part of our family. Part of our tribe, part of our life, part of our heart, you're here. We love you. It's personal. And that's the message that I hope to get along with this song, as well as reminding people, you're not alone. You're not expendable. You're not any of these labels that someone can easily just throw at you. Don't let those stick.
Doug Burke:
Well, I walked out of your show after singing along with the chorus, with the crowd feeling like I was part of the Ron Artis crowd, a tribe, a family of loving fans really. It was really special.
Ron Artis:
Thanks, but I want everybody to know, man love is a lot bigger than me. And that's something that really got solidified in losing my dad. And someone can be that impactful on your life and offer something. And if we really truly offer it selfless, the credit doesn't come back to us. That should be our goal in life. I mean, with no disrespect intended, there's a lot of folks who go out and do a lot of social things, giving, supporting, but the whole time we know they're doing it because they've hired a whole film crew to film them going and giving. In the end, is that really giving or is it giving to get?
Doug Burke:
Yeah, is it true altruism or is just a selfish motivation?
Ron Artis:
Right. So when I try to do these things and give and sing these songs, I try to let folks know I'm just one little piece of this world. I'm just one piece of light. One piece of love. You are too. Anything you see me do and offer and give, you can give just as much if not more. But that's what I try to do with that song.
Doug Burke:
So I want to talk about your guitar work, which is just virtuoso. It's stunning. I had never seen you play live like that. Your technique is so expansive and broad and I'm stunned at the sounds you get out of that instrument. And the instrument looks almost like a ukulele sized thing in your massive hands. It's like a, I was thinking of a Romare Bearden painting. If you know who that artist is, he painted hands and musicians like Dizzy Gillespie and Coltrane and others. He was a Columbia art professor, but hands were really important in his artwork. He's considered a top painter from the 20th century. Tell me about your guitar work, where does it come from? It's like a lot of players, but it is your own Ron sound.
Ron Artis:
Man, I love listening to everybody. I started playing piano when I was really, really, really, really little and then kind of onto other instruments, but on my 13th, I think it was my 13th birthday. I got my first electric guitar before then I got to play my dad's a little bit. He had a 20th anniversary Fender Start, a really nice one. He let me play it a little bit, but then he'd have to put it up naturally.
Doug Burke:
So he could keep it away from you?
Ron Artis:
Yeah. And then at 13 for my birthday, they went to a garage sale and there was this really, I think it was a Yamaha RDX-10, something like that, had one humble good pickup. And it was white and extended 24 fret scale. Of course, that stuff doesn't mean anybody's not a guitar player, but for me, I was geeking out on it and I was so happy. And from that day on, man, I want to say I got stung with the bug of a guitar.
Doug Burke:
The one song where it caught me was Searching For Answers.
Ron Artis:
Yeah. That song, man, I included quite a few different techniques in that song. Quite notably is the intro. If you haven't seen the video or seen the live performance. A lot of folks will ask me what kind of synthesizer I was using, but that's actually the guitar at the beginning. I'm just swelling the volume with a long delay thing on there. So you don't hear any attack, it just swells up, play my chord, bring the volume up and let it swell. And I don't know how I learned that. Maybe it was from listening to Jeff Beck or someone, Jeff Beck has this amazing thing he'll do in solos where you don't hear the attack because he'll play with the volume low. So I kind of want to credit it to him and a few other artists that I heard just doing different volume fun. So at the beginning I was like, well, why not use that on a chord? And then I was just blown away with the results. I was like, Oh, that's going to be cool.
Doug Burke:
I honestly felt like I was listening to Beck and Clapton and John-Luc Ponty and Django Reinhardt. And I honestly was like, Oh my God, and then when you brought Kris Lager up and you guys had never played before and you did this jam together, it was spellbinding. I was like, who is this guy? Where did he come from? Why don't more people know about Ron Artis and his craftsmanship?
Ron Artis:
Thanks man. I had quite a few lessons and teachers growing up, primarily was my dad. I mean, he played some guitar, but he really was, my dad was an interface teacher. So he asked me at an early age and would ask me various times as I grew up, if I still wanted him to teach me because he's like, I'm going to be the most honest teacher that I can be. If I love it and I think you're doing great, I'm going to jump up, kiss you and tell you how great it is. If I think it's crap, I'm going to tell you it's crap. And he would be that dry about it. And he's like, one of the famous phrases my dad would always say to me is I can hear you thinking. The goal is not to be up there performing, thinking. Thinking about the next note, thinking about what you want to say or thinking about what you want to try out, no, the practice room is for that. When you're performing, you should be so involved in the song and your craft that you're not thinking about anything. If anything, you're thinking about the folks who are out there listening and what you can offer to them and what you can give them. How can you make their lives better just by a little bit? What can you do? The other teacher I had was J.P. Smoketrain, he was a blues teacher and guitar player, great guitar player in Hawaii, very traditionalist blues player. So he gave me the same guitar lesson for almost two years.
Doug Burke:
Well, you have a lot of that buddy guy, standard booze chops, foundationally in your music, but you take it to another place.
Ron Artis:
Well, it's great having teachers that are very, very rigid and very good, but very, very strict because me being a young, kind of competitive outspoken person as I was, I needed that. I needed to be excused off stage when I thought I was doing good and politely being asked to step off the stage so they could continue the concert. And that was a tough pill to swallow when you are 16 and thinking you're shredding or something. And it's like, what did I do wrong? What did I do? Did I miss a note? And it was like, no, you didn't miss a note, you just played all of them.
Doug Burke:
There are a lot of notes in some of your songs, Searching For Answers is one of them. Let's talk about that song.
Ron Artis:
Searching For Answers, as you get past the intro and everything. And quite actually later in there, there's a solo section which is really fun to play. And I try to incorporate a lot of... that one incorporates from the rocky or blues towards the end of it goes more towards rock of just trying to even add a little bit of finger tapping towards the end of the solo and then clicking on out of my distortion, paddling, going back. I think the funniest thing that I always have to deal with whenever I sing that song is, other than I'm coming out of that, I forget how many bars it is, but I'm holding one note vocally for a while. And then right at the end of that, I switch from playing chords to going to the solo. So what a lot of folks aren't aware of is that I have to take two deep breaths right after that, especially up here in high altitude, I don't know how high up we are.
Doug Burke:
7,000 feet above sea.
Ron Artis:
Yeah. So right after that I have to force two deep breaths to not get a little headache because it's like, so it's a fun little exercise that I'm like, okay, hit the long note, now breathe, breathe at the same time, step on the pedal and start trying to rock out and have a good time. There's a lot of different techniques.
Doug Burke:
It's a workout.
Ron Artis:
Yeah. It's a workout where there's a lot of cool techniques that we got the work into that. So it's a lot of fun.
Doug Burke:
Let's talk about the lyrics on Searching For Answers.
Ron Artis:
I'm glad you brought a printout because.
Doug Burke:
It's actually the only one I could find online.
Ron Artis:
Where did you find this?
Doug Burke:
I searched everywhere. It's the only one that's out there. We got to fix that.
Ron Artis:
That's cool. Somebody wrote it out.
Doug Burke:
So we got to fix that.
Ron Artis:
Genius Lyrics.
Doug Burke:
It's the only one on Genius Lyrics.
Ron Artis:
That is cool.
Doug Burke:
And I don't know if they got it right, but I want to fix that with your fans. There's a bunch of websites where we can put your music and I was going to call your manager up tomorrow and get - it's helpful for fans like myself and our listeners on the podcast.
Ron Artis:
It's funny, I've never had anybody write out the lyrics, so it is kind of cool.
Doug Burke:
You don't even have them written out, you just have them in your head.
Ron Artis:
I've got a couple of them written out in one of my song books, It's funny I write out lyrics. Mostly I write out my lyrics after I've recorded the songs.
Doug Burke:
Because you want to make sure what you said or? You do it differently?
Ron Artis:
I sometimes always do the verses differently when I'm playing. I always adapt it to where I am in life at that moment. The chorus was to stay the same because that's the identity of the song. But the verses, I just believe that it's where I'm saying something. If you want to hear the version exact from the record, that's why I recorded it. But there's a couple of times I've been at a live show and the audience has known the song better than I did.
Doug Burke:
And they were correcting you on your lyrics.
Ron Artis:
Yeah, they requested a song and they're all singing along and then everybody stops. And I was like, Oh yeah, I didn't remember that section. So, this one, let's see what this says, this must be the album version or the live at Hurley Studio version. So yeah. How can I be, it feels like this whole world is tearing at me trying to change who I am to who they wanted me to be. Now I choose to live my life, I'm Christian and I choose to live my life with a certain set of morals of respecting others, loving others and just trying to be an example for what I'm trying to find. And it's funny, I've been at a lot of shows at festivals where there's tons of explicit lyrics and all this stuff. And you know, what's the word I want to say of...
Doug Burke:
Immoral messages?
Ron Artis:
Well, messages towards treating females the wrong way or how they see them, objectifying females and different people. And I'm just like, wow. Then I'll go up and I'll sing songs like, Carry Me Along and different ones and I get an overall really positive response with being at my merge table or something. And someone will have something smart to say about my beliefs and I never lash out at anyone or anything. I thank them for their perspective. And some folks they leave at that and some folks they'll go further enough, they want to challenge me on some factual things. And most of the time they'll bring up the obvious, right? They'll bring up the issues that have happened in Catholic church or in traditional churches. And I'm like, I'm not going to argue that there's people who want to take advantage of a good thing. And I frown on that. If you find a fraudulent scientist, does that debunk all of science? No. So if you really want to dig into what Christianity is, just study the life of Christ. Don't study somebody who wants to fraudulently take advantage of people who are trying to find their way towards the truth. And when I talk about the intro of the song, I feel like the words are tearing at me. The other thing is if you profess to stand by a certain set of morals, there's some folks who want to break you just to prove it's not doable. Oh, here's this person who thinks they're perfect, which I don't think I am, but here's this person who thinks they're perfect. If you prove them to be fake or hypocritical or breaking their own morals or rules, then it doesn't exist, they can't be real then there's nothing that I should be worried about my life choices are. And I'm like, I'm not here to make anybody feel insecure. I'm not living my life to make you feel like you're living your life wrong. And that's a big misconception about being a Christian is some folks came up to me thinking, being a Christian means you think you're better than someone I said, no. Being a Christian means that I know I'm not better than anyone, that's what it means to me. And going through my life with this opening phrase is like, how can it be, I feel like this whole world is tearing at me trying to change who I am to who they basically want me to be. And most of the phrases like you should be more liberal, you should... and I'm like, I'm not Republican or Democrat. I don't believe in getting in, that I need to get in any either of those two deep wells of whatever you want to call it. You find dirt on both sides. I don't care who you are. So I'm like, I believe in being a good person, being of service to society, humanity and people. I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't do any substances, never have done any of them. And some folks who's just like, Oh man, that's a party pooper or whatever. And I was like, you can do whatever you'd like with your life. You don't have to try to make me break on what I believe is a healthy way of life for you to feel more comfortable. So a lot of those things are all in that little phrase in the beginning and I'm searching for answers because I realized through my life, everybody and every culture has something to offer. Again, like we were talking about our perceptions or our assumptions on someone can be what we take is as the truth or reality. And I've learned that the more that I stop to listen and hear someone out, the more you learn about a perspective, the more you learn about life. The more you learn about creating a harmony between different cultures and different lifestyles. And so I'm searching for answers of how to help the world be a healthier place, or more supportive place to everyone, just more beautiful and long standing place. I'm searching for all those things as I go through my life and I'm not afraid to say that I'm searching. So as we go through this song, I say, I can't lie this is what I'm living for. I'm searching for answers. I believe the best I could ever be with my life is a servant. I've met people who strongly disagree with me. They're like you can be a King. You can be this. You can be great, you can be a star. And I'm like, no, the greatest I can ever be is of service to other people in a good way, helping you through your life, doing something that makes your life a little easier. And as I'm going through that, I'm searching for answers every day. Let's go to this next phrase here. I'm glad you got it printed out. Every day I rise, I feel deep inside of my soul, Oh, they put a question mark, they didn't know what word I said there. This is what you really want, you've got to live your life around because everybody's got something thereafter. So it sounds like basically everyone is chasing after something. It's like the phrase we said earlier, do you know what we're living for? Or we just value what we do for a living versus what we are living for. And asking these questions to people is like in this song, I feel like so many songs try to offer solutions, try to offer the answers, try to offer their opinion. In this one I'm willing to want to let everybody know I'm searching. I'm living my life. I'm not going to profess to be a no wall solution. That's why I pray. That's why I sit down and have coffee with somebody. I sit down and I listen or I go to concerts or I go to speeches and listen. It's just, we're all trying to find a way to get through this life and enjoy it and love and respect and enjoy each other. So the next phrase here, but it seems crazy. You got to dig a little deeper because you've got a life to live, sing it up. Yeah. So -
Doug Burke:
And that's when you go and let me talk about your vocal range here because that was the second thing that stunned me is your vocal range, your vocal stylings. Again, I was thinking, Oh, he's like Otis Redding or Jackie Wilson or James Brown on this song maybe. And I was like, well, what guy is he like, he's always a little bit like Robert Palmer but he's his own voice.
Ron Artis:
Wow, cool.
Doug Burke:
He's his own Ron Artis. And that combined with the own guitar, I was like, this guy is a unique thing, this unique combination of talent that I have not seen before. And so talk to me about your vocal and what do you think about that when you're singing this song and other songs?
Ron Artis:
Well, I mean, I love all those things you mentioned. I love any singer that I can really feel their heart behind their voice. I recommend looking at Charles Aznavour.
Doug Burke:
Okay, that's a new one for me.
Ron Artis:
I have Sting, Pavarotti, Bob Marley. It's just everybody, Aretha Franklin, Oh, man, Vanessa Bell Armstrong, it goes on and on.
Doug Burke:
They are all influences on you.
Ron Artis:
Yeah. Everyone who you can feel that indescribable feeling behind their voice, they're not just good singers, they're singers that are singing with every bit of themselves, singers that sing out in a way like in a personal way and a thing like this matters to me what I'm saying, you know what I mean? And a funny bit of information about myself. I didn't sing till I was 22.
Doug Burke:
Not even in the shower growing up?
Ron Artis:
I hummed stuff.
Doug Burke:
That's a bit interesting.
Ron Artis:
I guess I probably, I don't know, sang some stuff when I was young, but I was 22 and just playing instruments. And my parents came in one day, very, very focused at me. And they were like, Ron, we believe that God told us you should sing.
Doug Burke:
A calling, a message.
Ron Artis:
I was about ready to run out of there. I was like, that's too much pressure. You can't just come telling me that, man. I can't sing worth anything. I realized there were three things in the way of becoming a singer. One, I flat out didn't believe that I could sing. Two, I believed I'd never be able to sing like my favorite singers. I mean like, come on. Three, I couldn't think of one lead singer ever able to hold onto their morals no matter what they were. There's no successful singer I've ever seen that was able to hold onto their morals through the span of their career. And those three things really solidified to me that I'd never be a singer. I'd never even think about being a singer. What I loved about music to me was, it's an own world. It's like when I go into a melody playing it on piano or guitar just inside of a song, when I'm just practicing or just gone, or with my eyes closed this world out here, ceases to exist. Literally I'm gone. My whole world is made up with whatever everyone's playing around me. Whatever's happening, the musical vibe, playing the notes, the rhythm, everything. That's what I see. That's what I feel. That's what I can touch. That's what's all around me. And this world is like, I love going there. And now I'm going to open up my mouth and sing and invite everybody into that world? It was shattering, it was intimidating. It was just petrifying. I was literally honestly scared. One, and I didn't realize till I started trying to learn to sing was, if you're playing piano or a guitar or something in a band and somebody doesn't like how you're playing or they don't like the note, it's okay, it's fine. They don't like the guitar, I go practice with it. If you're singing somebody doesn't like it, they don't like you.
Doug Burke:
You're out front, you're the front man.
Ron Artis:
It was a lot to understand. It's like, if they don't like your voice, you're not going to go change guitars, you're not going to go change voices. This is the one you've got, so it was like two years of a lot of lessons, a lot of singing that really kind of formed me as a singer and got me on track to go and study and to sing all the time. When we talk about vocal range, I think in technical sense, I'm a tenor. If I warm up well, I'm able to sing lower and I'm able to use a head voice.
Doug Burke:
Falsetto?
Ron Artis:
Yeah. Just different things to kind of go higher.
Doug Burke:
Almost, it's a fake falsetto.
Ron Artis:
Yeah. There's some falsetto singers that it's just, wow. Wow. Yeah. So I'm able to go a little higher than my range and go a little lower than my range.
Doug Burke:
It's quite a wide range. I was really kind of impressed.
Ron Artis:
Thanks.
Doug Burke:
Frankly, this thing is wow. I know he's got a guitar, but he's got these voices.
Ron Artis:
I just love music, man. And I just try to find a way to express myself that I think would be best for the song or best for the space. And I just keep trying to study and I just want to be a lifelong student of music, if you will.
