{"id":31030,"date":"2017-10-20T09:13:58","date_gmt":"2017-10-20T08:13:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/?p=31030"},"modified":"2017-10-20T09:57:53","modified_gmt":"2017-10-20T08:57:53","slug":"nahko-dragonfly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/2017\/10\/nahko-dragonfly\/","title":{"rendered":"Nahko – \u2018Dragonfly\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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We\u2019ve got a whole lot of love for Nahko here at EP, and with his debut album, \u2018My Name Is Bear\u2019 out today we thought we\u2019d take the time to also look at the first released single, \u2018Dragonfly\u2019.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Oregon-born Nahko has asked all the sorts of questions we\u2019ve all asked ourselves – \u201cWhy am I here?\u201d \u201cWho am I?\u201d. For Nahko though these questions literally shaped his life. Born in 1986 to a mother who was only 15, circumstances meant that he was given up for adoption. Although he had a comfortable upbringing, he nonetheless felt the need to find the answer to those nagging questions, and left home at the age of 18. \u2018Dragonfly\u2019 is the story of that journey.<\/p>\n

He travelled to Alaska, where he fell madly in love for the first time, and with his love travelled down the west coast and across to Louisiana, where they lived together for four months. Surviving for that first year away from home is the main inspiration behind \u2018Dragonfly\u2019.<\/p>\n

Nahko made his way to an organic farm in Hawai\u2019i, where he worked as a part of the WWOOF scheme during the winters, and returning home to Oregon in the summer. Still he needed answers to his questions, and while in Oregon he searched online foe information on his birth mother. He was shocked to find she lived a mere 15 minutes away from him:<\/p>\n

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\u201cI drove there and, there she was, my mom,\u201d he says. \u201cMy two sisters, their kids, my two brothers\u2026 everyone. Mom was crying. I was crying. The first thing she asked was \u2018What do you do?\u2019 I shrugged and said, \u2018I play music.\u2019 It literally happened like that \u2014 all by divine intervention. I picked up, left Hawaii, and came home to not so randomly discover my mom lived basically down the street from where I grew up.\u201d He was still only 21.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2018My Name Is Bear\u2019 is an aptly titled album, as Nahko, a name given to him by a friend during his time in Hawai\u2019i, means \u201cBear\u201d. The music video for \u2018Dragonfly\u2019, first release from the album, features Paris Jackson, herself no stranger to non-traditional childhoods. Paris radiates the essence of the song, with motions mimicking a flower in bloom, translating perfectly Nahko\u2019s declaration of standing strong in the path of truth, while facing the cruelties of growing into an adult. In a world where dark clouds threaten to rain corruption into the minds of the innocent, a song such as \u2018Dragonfly\u2019 is needed more than ever, in order to help us find the answers to our own burdensome questions.<\/p>\n

\u2018My Name Is Bear\u2019 is out now.<\/p>\n

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\"Nahko