Nahoa Life has had an incredible year. Among other things, the rapper, producer, and singer released an outstanding debut album, Songs in Anticipation. He also made an appearance on The Tunnel Rats’ comeback album, Legacy. We got a chance to talk with the up-and-coming artist about his music and background.

Where are you from? How old are you? Where did you get your stage name?

I’m from L.A. (Really, I’m from Pomona)…I’m 17 years old, and my stage name is my first and middle name.

Like, if you check my birth certificate, it’ll say “Nahoa Life Ortega,” and I just kept the Nahoa Life. My brother’s middle name is “Peace.” It’s like our parents wanted to put, I guess, virtues or beautiful things into our names, and so I just made it my stage name.

I guess I should also say that my first name–Nahoa–is Hawaiian. It means “bold and brave.” My mom was born in Hong Kong but raised in Hawaii, so she gave me that name. It’s interesting, because some of my friends talk about…how significant their names are to them, especially their last name, right? Like, they’ll say something in their family where, you know, “we last-names don’t do that sort of thing!” or “we last-names have to…” you know?

And throughout history, your name would be seen as ideally some kind of self-fulfilling prophecy, right? You know, it would mean “strength” or something…I don’t know how much I agree with these sorts of worldviews, but it is special to have that be my name, because it makes me want to think, “Okay, I want to live in more courageousness.” I want to kind of fulfill that–what you would expect me to be based on my name.

I love that. So, what are some of your earliest memories of listening to music?

We would always listen to 70s R&B-soul and 90s hip-hop (for the most part), as well as gospel music from the 80s and 90s, Christian hip-hop from the 2000s and 2010s.

So, that means Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and Aretha Franklin were always playing throughout the house. Also Bob Marley! My mom…would play a “greatest hits,” but it wasn’t the big collection that’s called Legend…It was some obscure one that she really liked, and it was 30 songs long. She’s like, “I like this one; this is his best work.”

We would listen to Jay-Z and Tribe Called Quest, and The Roots all the time. We listened to Fred Hammond and Jonathan McReynolds, Andy Mineo, and Dream Junkies. Yeah, those are some of the main ones.

I also remember some of the first times I listened to secular hip-hop, we were in a drive-through at Starbucks with my dad…he’s like, “you know, you’re probably old enough to listen to some J. Cole,” and so he played “Love Yourz,” which is, like, the most wholesome J. Cole song ever, and it’s beautiful…I just loved it.

I also remember, he would pick me up from school, and one time he was listening to Logic–his 2019 album–and, you know, he wasn’t really feeling it, he didn’t like it, but he’s like, “but Logic has some dope stuff. I’m not loving this, but let me show you a little bit.” He would put me onto kind of the more conscious, wholesome, thoughtful side of secular hip-hop. And that kind of eased me into going from, you know, “we listen to 70s soul and gospel music” to, “okay, you have more leeway and freedom now.”

What’s your earliest memory of playing music?

I started when I was four years old. I sang, played piano, and rapped. Pretty much at the same time, but playing piano and singing were the ones that were cultivated in training or lessons.

So, one of the earliest memories is doing a Christmas show at a restaurant, and there’s this song (by Train, I think), “Shake Up the Happiness,” but we changed the lyrics so that it’s about, like, the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. And that was fun. Plus, it’s at a restaurant, so we’re eating food, and then I go on stage, and it’s real people. I was very young: five, six maybe.

Another example is playing at an old folks’ home. I would play the piano and sing for them, and it’s just a lovely experience. Also, with that same vocal teacher who brought me to the restaurant, I did a Stevie Wonder tribute. I think I was playing keys and singing, and I was the youngest there, and probably the least confident. But I always remember that fondly.

Talent shows when I was in kindergarten and first grade…I would do songs from musicals, I would do a Bruno Mars song (“When I Was Your Man”), I would do Michael Jackson songs–and that’s back when my voice was high enough to not need to change the key!

So, this goes way back for you! Do you still play piano? Saw that you produced a lot of the album.

I do still play piano…at some point, maybe in the first year or two of high school, I kind of stopped. I don’t know, I just wasn’t interested, maybe, or maybe there was some kind of mental block I had with creating music. But then, a couple of years ago, I got back into it–I had some base-level music theory fundamentals from one of my piano teachers. And I just kind of learned whatever songs I wanted to learn: neo soul songs and gospel songs and hip-hop songs, you know, just playing it and learning to embellish. That’s what made it really fun–not just playing a five-chord song, but even if it is a five-chord song, adding some sauce to it. So, that’s helped to cultivate my love and continued love of music.

Right before bed, I’ll go to the piano and either compose something or play something that’s comforting but reharmonize it. It’s therapeutic to go on the keys. First thing I did this morning when I woke up, I was learning “Overjoyed.” And when it comes to production, pretty much everything that I produced, I produced on that keyboard. Even if it wasn’t a song that I fully produced, like “Self Love,” I would add to it–I would add, you know, certain rhythmic sounds. One producer, Peace [586], would add these hard drums, and I would play keys.

The intro, “Venus,” was entirely composed by me on that keyboard, and all the sounds–the strings, and the upright bass sounds–those are just settings on the Nord Grand that I have.

How’d you get started writing and releasing original music?

I think the first song I recorded was “Friday,” and it’s, I think, still on streaming services. At the start, my dad would write, and we got beats from all sorts of different–I wasn’t producing at all–and we’d go to a studio in L.A., and we’d record. It was cool, it was fun, it was a good start, you know? I don’t regret any of it. I’m even proud of some of that stuff, and I’m glad to have been able to connect with my dad at that point. It was a great experience.

But also, I wasn’t as much of an artist, you know, when I’m not really writing it or working on the instrumentals at all. I’ve definitely grown since then. My dad, he’ll still serve as, like, an executive producer, right? Before anyone hears a song, my dad hears a song and is like, “Oh, that’s dope” or like, “this part–you could clean up the chops.” (You know, if I’m chopping up a sample or something.) He’s still very involved, but he doesn’t write any of what’s on the album. So, that’s one way that has changed since the beginning.

One of the things that you wouldn’t think about is that recording at a really early age helped me to be okay with my voice. A lot of times, when people sing (or even just talk) and hear their voices played back to them, it sounds gross. It’s like, “There’s no way I sound like that!” So, I overcame that challenge really early on, because I’m always recording my voice and listening to it–and you hear it a dozen times before the fully mixed and mastered version is out. So, now I have no qualms with my voice, and that’s beautiful.

Question about the album–in the liner notes, you say something pretty striking. You say, “Songs in Anticipation has literally changed my mind and my life.” Could you expound on that?

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