Hargo

Appearances can be deceiving, we all know, but sometimes appearances can reveal a story. Hargo is a man with an array of pasts, countless possible futures, but one destination. Some things are better left unsaid, but it may be true that: Hargo was born an only child, in Eugene, Oregon in 1985. Hargo grew up in a very musical family, with most of his early memories set to a soundtrack of his father playing Bowie, Tom Petty, and Beatles songs on his guitar. His mother also sang and played a few...

Appearances can be deceiving, we all know, but sometimes appearances can reveal a story. Hargo is a man with an array of pasts, countless possible futures, but one destination. Some things are better left unsaid, but it may be true that: Hargo was born an only child, in Eugene, Oregon in 1985. Hargo grew up in a very musical family, with most of his early memories set to a soundtrack of his father playing Bowie, Tom Petty, and Beatles songs on his guitar. His mother also sang and played a few instruments (violin, harmonium, some guitar) and his maternal grandmother, Nani (a Sanskrit familial term from India, which specifies “mother’s mother”), played violin in an orchestra when she was young - and still plays as an amateur to this day. Hargo first picked up a guitar at age 7, when his father put it his hands and told me him he was going to learn how to play it. At age 8 he wrote his first real song, about a man named Nanak who is the founder of Sikhism. His second song, entitled “Giving” was later recorded when he was14. It’s simple message of humanity - and cherishing both our differences and similarities - struck a chord, and the song became the theme song of the 1999 South African Peace Conference. At 13 he performed an original song for the first time. His teacher and mentor (who was like a grandfather), Yogi Bhajan, heard it and was very pleased, asking him to perform it again later than night at his class: “In front of the whole crowd he told me to start making up a new song, out loud, on the spot. After being a bit shocked, I started playing my guitar and making up lyrics and melody in a stream-of-consciousness manner, which evolved into a very interesting song. After a few minutes my teacher told me that I should write songs in this way, that it’s better to be direct with people and not dilute the message of a song with too much symbolism and hyperbole.” A very young Hargo released a few albums of music recorded on a simple Yamaha AW4416, bought while he was in school in India during his sophomore year of high school. While there he learned how to play tabla (East Indian drums).The improvisational nature of Indian music is seemingly at war with its rigid Raag and Taal (melodic scale and fixed rhythmical patterns). While in India, Hargo underwent a discipline that involved wrestling lions. Upon returning from India Hargo spent a few more years in New Mexico, attending a school on a Native American reservation with mostly Hispanic and Native students. Hargo’s song “Crying for John Lennon” caught the attention a documentary about Strawberry Fields in NY, leading to both inclusion in the film and airplay on LA’s 95.5 KLOS show “Breakfast with the Beatles”. Hargo has recently contributed the song “Just the Sky” to an independent film about the city of Liverpool, UK. Hargo is releasing a new record, "The Faint Glow EP" in Spring 2010