You gotta admit; the weather here in the 206 has been mighty fine lately. What a better way to bring in the summer vibes than dope Seattle weather and dope island jams / reggae joints brought to you by our locals here in Seattle as well as an amazing headliner like Katchafire. Da808music / NVRMT promotions brought down the house @ their own SUMMERFEST’12 with some amazing performances by High Life band, local favorites; Kore Ionz and of course New Zealand’s own Katchafire. The Showbox Market opened their doors at 8pm and by 10pm the house was packed full of island loves, reggae followers and more importantly; local Seattle music in the mix. We were on deck to check out all the action and also release out collaborative project with Kore Ionz.

The night began with High Life Band performing a super solid set of jams. It was my first time seeing High Life perform and they were very refreshing to watch. The sound is blend of Reggae, Jazz, Latin, and Caribbean elements. They’ve been together for about 1.5yr and we see a bright future for the band.

Next up to the stage was Kore Ionz. They need no introduction. Pak along with the band members performed an energetic set of songs that got the night read for the headliners including they’re single “1st ave” with local hip hop artist, Prometheus Brown (Geo from the Blue Scholars). They got the night where they wanted and that was ready for Katchafire. I’ve never seen Kore Ionz perform at a large venue and seeing them perform they have some star qualities when it comes to their craft. Dope collaborative project and my fitted tips alittle bit lower for Kore Ionz; mahalos

Kore Ionz on stage w/ Prometheus Brown.

Katchafire; well you should know who they are. Aside from the chart topping jams like “seriously,” & “Love Letter,” they hold the record of having the highest selling single of any band / artist in New Zealand in 2003. Hearing them perform for the 2nd time has been a pleasure and it’s always a great way to just ease into summer. They performed their hits and they definitely had the crowd echoing back. As an artist, I’d imagine that you’d want your fans / the people in the crowd to know your music and the ones that were in attendance definitely were Katchafire fans more than anything. “Seriously” was performed and for a good portion, Logan had the crowd seeing the entire first verse. Truely a moment of superstar status and great moments.

The success of a concert is always the vibe of the people who help support the love of the artistic. And of course, Namsayin has always supported our brothers / sisters in having a good time. Some of our friends / family “our peeps.”

NamsayinTerry and his wife, Thuy

Dre (NVRMT) Terrance Jeff Santos (M.A.D. NW / mrSantoscreations) Namsayin AL-Michael

Namsayin Zack, Katchafire’s lead man Logan and Namsayin Terry. “Say Cheeehoo,” but they didn’t.

Again DREDAY (NVRMT) doing it real big with his female friends

Can’t forget Seaspot Jay, always taking pictures of the ladies (Kay & Cassie)

NamsayinTerry, Terry Eng, our Chinese ambassador always comes through when connecting our brand with some of the artist / players who are doing it big out there. Mahalos for life. Here’s logan swarmed by the flock of females after the concert rockin’ our Signature 3M logo t-shirt. Thanks LOGAN for reppin’.

I manage to grab a pic of the Yamada’s and Cy Cortez, 4 individuals who put on the best concerts here in Seattle for Reggae / Island jams, but they were blurry and out of focus. That’s my fault, but they truely are the key players for the night of SUMMERFEST’12. RESPECT. Stay tuned till the next jam and action, namsayin!

Before the July 4th festivities we had to run it back a few days. I met with Pak (Kore Ionz) and Jason (ThisThat) to go over silkscreen printing processes, design challenges and making things happen before the big July 7th show this weekend @ Showbox Market. It was there where we made things solid and Jason took the artwork to be mainfested into the collaboration that we’vee been working on the past weeks.

For those that have been following our brand we definitely can say that we make more than just T-shirts. T-shirts are the platform we use to share our messages to others. Although there are a ton of messages we put out there (some deeper than others) the thought process behind this collaborative project has reinspired a new wave of thinking. Since I’ve been back in Seattle, I’ve been paying close attention to somethings. Some good, some bad, some inspiring / uninspiring and some intentional / unintentional. Despite the intentional observations, working with Kore Ionz was unintentional. I never really seeked to go find Pak in a sense and nor did I make it a mission to “LINK UP” or “Get one in” or say “lets do something big.” Mysteriously, the project just appeared on its own.

Our good friend, Eric Yamada, mentioned it to the both of us that we should work on a collaboration; thus the process began. We wanted to create a shirt design that had a meaning to both Kore Ionz music and something that spoke to our Namsayin family members. With Reggae, the music is rooted in meaning; a message was always delivered in every track. In listening to Kore Ionz music, it was important to have a meaningful message, yet a vivid design that captured that meaning. After brainstorming on ideas, ones that I felt was a hit and miss, a solution to our message arrived. Everytime I met with Eric and Pak, Pak mentioned to the both of us at times that, “Love or Fear is the root of it all. It’s either you love life and what it brings or you fear those things that life bring to you.” And that simple message was it. Love or Fear. It’s the root of anything we do in life and that is our message to the world via song / via graphic design / via those who are reading this message.

I understand where this message means so much to Pak and how it transcends into a clear vision for a shirt project for Namsayin. Pak’s rooted and love his family / music / band. We love our family / friends, designing and so much more. The message of Loving or Fearing our goals, our passions, our jobs, or lives, it goes above and beyond just designs and music. It’s embedded into our beings. To a certain degree, we as people all go through the loving and fearing moments of our life. So this is so fitting to our project because rather than Fearing of the outcome, we’re Loving the process of creating.

This marks our 2nd collaborative project and I’m am pleased that the outcome of this design came so pure, simple and natural. The visuals in the font encases two images. For love, we decided that nothing is more pure than the love that mother earth and what better way to represent that is a recreated image of what the city of Honolulu, HI would look like if no civilization were to take place on the island. The view of Diamond Head is pure and clear of any man made building and obstructions.

The second image representing FEAR is a picture from the great depression. The image is a sense of comforming, fearing that your ideas, directions and focuses in life are the wrong ones. Doubt enters the mind and when there is doubt, we fear the worst that a negative outcome will occur. Lifeless, colorless.

This Saturday, Kore Ionz x Namsayin will be launching the collaborative project at Da808music / nvrMT promotion’s concert @ Showbox Market. The show features both Kore Ionz & New Zealand based band, Katchafire. The project is available, but in limited quantities. We have 50 shirts available only in white for mens and we will have something cute for the ladies. Please come out to the concert, support your local reggage band Kore Ionz. Hope to see everyone there and enjoy the jams, namsayin.

I have to admit that I am not a full fledged reggae fan. You probably wont see me all done up in dreadlocks or hear me being preachy of love, unity and peace, one love, etc, but you can most definitely find some of the Namsayin familia hangin’ out at OHANA. Every wednesday night, Da808music / nvrMT promotions host a weekly event called “Island Nights” housing some of the most refreshing live reggage / island jams that Seattle locals can jam to.

Earlier I posted a story about a project that Namsayin x Kore Ionz will be doing and before I tell the world about it, it’s very dear to me that I also tell you about Kore Ionz the band. I believe that when inspiration doesn’t come naturally, sometimes finding a tangable message someone can relate to can often times be enough to spark a fire of thought; and from this, beautiful creations can manifest. Kore Ionz’s music is the inspiration; to me, to the people here in Washington and to the island people of the Pacific and beyond. The music that Kore Ionz play is as rooted as reggage’s birth. They have spread many messages in their music and they’ve been veterans at it since I first heard them play at Ohana 10 yrs ago.

What I enjoy about Kore Ionz as a band is that each 5 Kore Ionz members have the utmost respect and are super talented. There is Pak, percussionist Ahkeenu Musa, bassist Brendan DeMelle, drummer Teo Shantz, and keyboardist Kiley Sullivan, the band enlisted the talent of tenor saxophone player Izaak Mills (Clinton Fearon), trumpet player Owuor Arunga (Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Wheedle’s Groove), and lead guitarists Mark Oi (Clinton Fearon) and Thaddeus Turner (Thaddillac, Maktub, Digable Planets, Shabazz Palaces). Talk about OHANA forealz.

Kore Ionz have shared the stage with such legends as The Wailers, Steel Pulse, and Third World, as well as current charting artists like Katchafire and J Boog. In fact this Sat, July 7th, Da808music / nvrMT will be throwing a Summerfest ’12 and Kore Ionz will be playing along side with Katchafire @ Showbox Market. They will be playing some of their newest tracks from their World War Free Album. Tomorrow, we will be giving a glimpse of our message / collaborative project. So stay tuned, namsayin.

I met up with Kore Ionz singer, writter, rhythm guitarist, ‘ukulele jammer extrodinare, Pak to catch up on what’s in the works for him and his band Kore Ionz. Kore Ionz has been putting it down for over 8 years now when it comes to the Reggae scene here in Seattle. He recently flew out to Jakarta, Honolulu and now back in Seattle for projects with their sophomore album titled, “World War Free.” There song, “Love you Better” is getting major airplay, so go to there site and request heavy.

Eric Yamada (da808Seattle) and Terrance-Jeff Santos (Right) are set to work with Kore Ionz on a upcoming video project, “First Avenue” with features Geo / Prometheus Brown.

After some coffee and alil bit of laughs, stories and ideas about love / fear, we decide to listen to some jams. Check ‘em, follow ‘em HERE.

Later on that evening, I met with local bad boy, Wizdom. He just got back in from his trip So. Cal. We talked about future projects; one that includes a video project with Terrance-Jeff Santos and former Seahawk’s, now Detroit Lion’s Wide Receiver, Nate Burleson.

Amongst other things, we talked about how social media / name dropping / track dropping has gotten him airplay over-seas, what he plans on doing this summer and how he encourages everyone to keep sexy this summer and beyond. Namsayin x Wizdom will be working on a project in the near future. Stay tuned for the action and the offical video release. Ughhh! All day baby.

We’ll be in the building selling / reppin’ or just causin’ some havoc. Theres alot of jam packed action this week, so come support our local skate community / Reggae Jams / Fixed Scene.