Interview with Tehetena Tana Yonas (Passionfruit) by: Juan Izguerra

JI: Hi Tana! We're super excited to have you contribute to our mix series, and even more excited to ask you a few questions! First things first- How have you been enjoying your summer?

Tana Yonas: I have a feeling I was equally excited to create this mix for Homage, and I'm such a big fan of all the others in the series so I really wanted to make something special. This Summer has been wild and I've been so inspired creatively. For the most part I've been plotting for future project, and I can't wait to share them all come Autumn and Winter! I did get to do a bit of traveling and went to Mexico City, and got to meet some incredible people there that I hope to do some vinyl listening events with soon.

JI: When we first met and I got to talk to you a bit- I learned you grew up in the Inland Empire. Can you tell me a bit about where you were born & raised, and how you got musically influenced?

TY: Yes, my family moved to the Inland empire from Denver when I was two, and spent most of my adolescence in Redlands, CA. It was, and still is, a very culturally monolithic place and I've always had an insatiable appetite for learning how other people all over the world thought and lived. There was just enough outlets while I was in grade school to explore that philosophically, and I'm first generation Ethiopian-American so I've always seen myself as a "third culture kid". My Grandpa on my dad's side Gudina Daba, was the photographer and videographer for the infamous Ethiopian King, Halie Selassie and traveled with the king all over the world. My grandpa absolutely loved music, so he would collect records on his work trips and my father had a particular love of those sounds. When I was growing up, my dad always had music playing from all over West Africa, India, Italy, Brazil , and so many more other countries and I've always loved it. I really attribute my own proclivity of being musically curious on a global level to him. I also went to university at UC Riverside, and worked at the radio station 88.3FM the entire time I was in school. We shared so much music amongst each other, and programmed live concerts so I really was able to start cultivating a professional relationship with music there.

JI: For a while you were living between San Francisco and Los Angeles. And just recently, you moved to LA permanently. How was the transition for you?

TY: The transition has been amazing. I will always love the SF Bay area and the people there so much and it'll always be a home for me, but I've been totally enamored with how the size of Los Angeles makes it so there’s an *endless* amount of worlds dive into. It's also been such a gift to be in a culture where the creative industry is major driver of the economy, and I've found it much easier to grow as a creative and find like minded people who dream as big as I do. Also living in two places sounds great on paper, but I’m so happy to have all my records in one place!

JI: You’ve been working with In Sheeps Clothing co-curating events, hosting deep listening sessions, profiling artists and sharing a bit of musical history on their blog. Did you have experience with these things before, or was ISC the first place to give you a platform to expose your interests?

TY: I had very little experience! I had a musical taste that I found people connected to and a curiosity that had finally found a deeply inspired musical home. I really see the team at ISC like my musical family, and it's so rare that you have a representative mix of people of color and women who get to lead the direction of such an impactful alternative creative brand. We push each other to expand our skillsets, and it was amazing to step into the ethos of making music exploration inclusive and guiding people into a dedicated space for analog listening and opening magical worlds for them. It's been the single most impactful experience for me musically and it feels like we're just getting started.

JI: Early on in the pandemic, I put a pause on dance music and got more into full length LP’s and ambient music. What did you discover these past two years that weren’t on your radar before the pandemic?

TY: I did the same thing and I, like everyone else, went crazy on discogs when we were all properly locked down. I really miss finding one record on the online marketplace, then proceeding to spend 5+ hours listening to all the disco and jazz that seller in Greece, or wherever, had. I really dove into music that I found nourishing, and was lucky to find spaces to play experimental and deeply moving tracks like Finis Africae's "El Secreto De Las 12", a track that I nearly overplayed, and now I've finding myself still drawn in that direction. Before the pandemic I was singularly obsessed with playing global disco and Hi-NRG, so it was a huge shift.

JI: Lastly, can you tell us a little bit about the mix you put together for us?

TY: This mix expresses who I am right now with music. I wanted to start with something dreamy and emotionally gripping as a way to create a sonic invitation to listeners to enter into this music world I've created, and you'll hear it’s very global. The artists in this mix are from Algeria, Gabon, Germany, Brazil, Portugal, France, England, Japan, and Latvia. It mostly music from the 80's and 90's with with a focus on a housey, dubby, and jazzy sound. Enjoy!