Back in 2010, Jason Graham A.K.A., “Mo Wo,” set out to create a music experience that connects us all as human beings and celebrates our unique and beautiful differences.
Jason Graham (lead vocals), Jason Schmidt (percussion), Colten Williams (guitar) and
Aaron-Andre Miller (keys and bass) are the elements that make up MOsley WOtta; and MOsley WOtta is the product of Grahams dream. In the three years the group has been performing in the pacific northwest, Mosley Wotta has been a local favorite. Genre? Hip-Hop/Rap. But lead vocalist Mo Wo belongs in a fraternity of poets. By delivering an unmatched barrage of lyrics that reach your heart much like those of Michael Franti, Graham can energize a crowd in a way that is seldom equaled. This group in 2010 won Bend, Oregon’s, “Last Band Standing.” The win netted them $30,000 in cash and prizes. It's been said that consistency wins games, and in the years since their win, they haven’t lost the top spot among locals.
In 2012, MOsley WOtta responded to its growing out of market fans and started making appearances in nearly every major market in the north-west. In late 2013 the group began plans for a breakout west coast tour, to kick off in spring of 2014.
MOsley WOtta is...
“Mo Wo”
Born on a record hot day in the back of the Heartland Café in Chicago, Illinois, Graham is the oldest of three boys. At 9, the family moved to Bend and Graham always felt like he stuck out just a bit more than those around him; well, it’s easy to play with the concept of destiny because he is still, certainly sticking-out today. Graham gives credit for his life’s direction to his parents, whom he says always, encouraged their children to pursue the arts. Perhaps, this is why Graham is such an outspoken and powerful advocate for literacy and so freely lends his time to supporting various programs at underfunded outlets. Graham currently lives in Bend, with his wife, his three children and, of course…a puppy.
Colten Tyler Williams
Born in Corvallis, Oregon on October 31st 1980, Colten spent the early years of his life on his families ranch, on the Oregon Coast. He grew up in Central Oregon after his family moved to Terrabonne at the age of 10. He is one of three brothers from a close family and he has a passion for composing and arranging film scores. Some of his work can be found at http://www.SoundCloud.com/Collothen. When not pursuing his dreams as a composer he can be found with his dog, Daphne and cat, Crosby. Chances are they can can be found huddled together, watching a good horror movie. If you ever find yourself leading a civil war, Colten might be a good place to look for wisdom on the subject. Remember a fellow by the name of, Ulysses S. Grant? Well, Colten's guitars are constructed of wood from his great, great, great, great-grandfathers family tree. Oh, and, they offer scholarships for rodeo? Apparently. True story…
Jason Schmidt
Born in Albany, Oregon on April 3, 1974 where he lived until moving to bend for snowboarding in 1999. It was his passion for snowboarding that almost killed him leaving the man with one leg. He is sort of the Rick Allen of drummers. “Schmidty” has called Bend, Oregon home for 14 years and is a traveling nurse. So when you see him on the stage, chances are he just swapped out the scrubs for some band swag. If he had a role in a horror movie, the odds of him being the first to die would be pretty high; considering his first kiss came after being chased and tackled by a little girl in Kindergarten.
Aaron-Andre Miller
If music were a religion here in Central Oregon, Aaron-Andre would have a place at the pulpit. Born here in December of 1970, this guy has a love of music that comes as no surprise; considering his family made it a point to always provide access to music and a number of instruments. Would you believe he once rescued someone from a burning building while everyone just stood around recording the event with camera-phones. That’s no joke. But, toss a rubber snake his way and wait for the panic to ensue. Aaron-Andre spends his time out of the spotlight as a music teacher; inspiring, mentoring, and instilling a love for music.
Best Band: MOsley WOtta
BY ETHAN MAFFEY
Look! Up on the stage! It's a rap artist! It's a rock band! It's... expressionist art?
The fact is that all answers are at least a little bit true when it comes to describing Bend collective MOsley WOtta (MO WO). The 2010 winner of Bend's Last Band Standing competition has been dazzling local and regional stages with energetic concerts ever since earning that title. Last year they took their songwriting capabilities to a new level.
Front man and father Jason Graham combined the storylines into one colossal album titled KinKonK. When Graham was a child, his family moved from the Chicago suburbs to Bend. That fish-out-of-water tale, when magnified through the lens of the 1933 King Kong film and the slave trade, resulted in the fictitious—but reality-based—central character of the album, the larger-than-life KinKonK. The experimental hip-hop concept album wound up rightly placed at No. 4 among the Source's top 200 albums of 2012.
Larry and His Flask (runner up)
The boys of the Flask have been hometown punk-folk heroes since they emerged out of the whiskey-drunk ether of the Breezeway busking their fingers to the bone years ago. The members may no longer be permanent residents of area—the band is on the road most of the year, and even toured as far as Canada and Europe in 2013—but they still manage to draw a loyal crowd to all of their hometown concerts and rally votes to be runner up for Best Band.
Necktie Killer (runner up)
Ska music hasn't been popular since the 90s right? And even then its sway over the airwaves seemed to last for only a millisecond.
Today in Bend, Ska is alive and well thanks to the dynamic band Necktie Killer.
Fast paced is a bit of an understatement when talking about the bounce-til-you-upchuck rowdy offerings of this murderous group of ultra-talented musicians. Necktie Killer compounds the brightness of their danceable dub-pop rock with lustrous brass like trumpet and trombone. (EM)
http://www.bendsource.com/bend/best-band-mosley-wotta/Content?oid=2284815
MOsley WOtta concert coming to Madras
By The Pioneer - Wednesday, 31 July 2013
MOsley WOttaHip hop poet and singer MOsley WOtta will be performing a free concert in Sahalee Park on Friday, Aug. 2, with his full band at 6:30 p.m.
WOtta, a rising star out of Bend, has been featured on Oregon Art Beat and TED Talks. His music is hopping and infectious.
His message to his burgeoning fan base is that we are all MOsley WOtta — that is mostly water — hence we celebrate our common human experience.
MOsley WOtta, also known as Jason Graham, wowed Jefferson County students on a visit to some of the Jefferson County Schools in the spring, including Michael Preston’s music classes at Madras High School.
WOtta performs regularly in Bend and throughout the state of Oregon and has a considerable following of very enthusiastic fans.
The MOsley WOtta Band includes song-writer/vocalist Jason Graham, Thomas Tsuneta on bass, Jason Schmidt on drums, Aaron Andre Miller on keyboard, Colton Tyler Williams on guitar, and Stephanie Slade with amazing back-up vocals.
Some seating will be provided at the park, but concert-goers are also encouraged to bring their folding chairs or blankets to get comfortable for this event.
This free concert is sponsored by the Jefferson County Library and grant funds from the Jefferson County Cultural Coalition.
For more information about MOsley WOtta, go to www.mosleywotta.com.
http://portlandtribune.com/msp/131-features/157968-mosley-wotta-concert-coming-to-madras
Telling His Story, Keeping His Promises: MOsely WOtta as performer and father
Michelle Bazemore January 27, 2013
It’s difficult to spend time with Jason Graham without feeling like you’re in the presence of someone on the brink. Here is a person who has understood the art of performance since he was very small: a kid who could make his divorced parent laugh through her tears after a particularly nasty telephone conversation with her ex; an artist not content to kill it in his hometown; a man who empowers kids to find their voices by directing them to “tell your individual version. The theme has been done, but not your version.”
His version is a study in juxtaposition. He is a rapper, but doesn’t embody the mainstream definition of a hip hop star. He is modern, but inspired by ancient themes. He is physically graceful, yet enjoys playing a grotesque role to make his audience uncomfortable, and to relay a philosophy about superficiality. In his music he will break up a rapid-fire delivery of rap with a sudden drawn-out melodic phrase, often with a theatrical inflection a la Busta Rhymes.
To label Jason Graham a rapper is selling him rather short. Seemingly driven to express himself creatively with whatever medium he is given, Graham is rightly labeled a performance artist. A distinctive voice coupled with the ability to manipulate words into a rhythmic, thought-provoking stream of consciousness make him a natural spoken-word poet and emcee. But he also paints on anything that paint adheres to, from canvas to shovels to jackets, and uses his theater background to create masks, costumes, and props to evoke different characters on stage. Graham’s upbringing in a creative, multi-cultural family has influenced his artistry, adding depth to his performances.
Compared to many commercially successful rappers, Graham is unusually willing to express vulnerability and self-doubt. “I’m comfortable being uncomfortable,” he says without irony, “and that’s what makes me glorious.” As a mixed-race kid transplanted to Bend from Chicago when he was nine years old, he knows about being self-conscious, but says emphatically that he wasn’t “supposed to escape that one way or the other.” He has gradually become more comfortable with calling himself an artist. “It’s dangerous because you invest so much of your love into something you’ve been told time and time again may not work out,” he admits. “But just because you’re an investment banker doesn’t mean it’s going to work out either. Security’s very relative.”
In a world fueled by calculated branding, it can be slippery to not commit to a name and a logo. Graham, however, adopts different aliases to accompany unique projects. As Herein Rookery, he was one of Person People’s most identifiable emcees. He paints under his given name, Jason Graham. He created the moniker MOsely WOtta for himself as the front man of a new band, and, for the name of the actual band. He also now performs spoken word under MOsley WOtta. The MOWO brand is used for his one-of-a-kind hand-painted jackets. He points out how the Aboriginal people celebrate milestones based on achievement with a new name. “You go from being Little One Who Whines,” he explains, “to Not Too Big Who Killed Kangaroo.”
The name MOsely WOtta refers to the water content of the human body. At most times during life, the human body is made up of more than 50% water, or “mostly water.” It’s an overt gesture to draw a line of internal commonality among people who are increasingly driven to express themselves as individuals externally through fashion, body art and other surface displays. “We’re always trying to find a balance between fitting in and being ourselves,” says Graham.
Graham rides up to the interview in jeans and flip flops on a vintage 1971 red Schwinn he has just purchased. He recently celebrated his twenty-seventh birthday; he MOsely WOtta as performer and father1simultaneously demonstrates a wide-eyed wonder and a razor-sharp ability to articulate his perceptive observations, belying his youth. While he is quick to admit insecurity and own his shortcomings, he is also at ease and optimistic. Tall and lithe, Graham wears wire-rimmed glasses on his expressive face, giving him a thoughtful demeanor. The comfort and happiness he seems to enjoy now has come, due in large part, to his fiancée and daughter. “This is really good,” he says. Initially, he didn’t embrace fatherhood, though.
The impending arrival of his first child two years ago rocked his world in a way he was unprepared for. “I was so scared to give up my selfishness, and so scared to give up my time,” he admits, “anything that had to do with me. Through the whole pregnancy I was in a state of shock and panic.” Graham and then-girlfriend Catheryn Mollman welcomed a daughter, Harvey, in August 2008. “Next time around I will be more checked in,” says Graham. “I was really cracked open, which is almost selfish to say since Katie was literally getting cracked open,” he says ruefully. “I was getting open to a new me. Everybody gets born in that room.”
Haunted by the inner conflict he felt as a child negotiating the choppy waters of divorce, Graham has gone through a process that now has him embracing his family life with a fierce dedication. He says his family doesn’t distract him from his work; they help him concentrate on it. “When you focus you think it’s going to get narrow,” says Graham. “You think everything else is going to dull, and it just gets brighter.” Fatherhood has inspired him and given his work new meaning. “Everything is more serious,” Graham says. “And that doesn’t mean any of the fun has gone away — the fun and the silliness have increased — but the seriousness and sincerity has increased as well.”
He celebrates his commitment to his woman, and broadcasts his unavailability to groupies, even in his music. “I gotta good lady right by my side,” he chants in “Roll On Bye” off the MOsley WOtta debut release titled “Wake.” “I gotta good lady at home tonight, going home tonight.” Not that he has always been sure. He admits he has tested the relationship with “rancid” behavior. Nonetheless, the relationship has endured and flourished. Graham and Mollman are engaged to be married on October 3rd.
Perhaps the most profound impact this new family has had on Graham is the feeling of being compelled — primevally programmed even — to provide. Being beholden to his woman and child has given him the freedom to pursue success with ambition and unapologetic determination. Shedding the self-doubt has allowed him to put a value on his work. “It’s okay to get paid a lot of money to connect with that many people,” he says. “I refuse to take part in this recession. I’ve been poor for days.”
Despite the poor economy, which has most people on a tighter budget with less disposable income for extras like entertainment, Graham insists that music is a vital necessity. “Music kills cancer cells — music is good for you — whatever music you listen to,” he says. “Yeah, maybe it’s a 30 or 50 dollar ticket, but how much are hospital bills?” he laughs. “Those are really expensive!”
In “Poknomo,” he raps, “You keep the promise you made to yourself and it’s sure to come true.” In addition to his work as an artist and performer, Graham shares his MOsely WOtta as performer and fathertalents with various community and arts organizations as a teacher. He particularly likes working with middle school and high school-aged students, hoping to inspire them to find their unique voices and encouraging them to express themselves with confidence. He currently teaches spoken word classes at CADA/CASA, an organization that offers arts, sports and academic instruction to kids.
Along with five band mates, including his stepfather Thomas Tsuneta who plays bass guitar, Graham has been focusing more of his energy on bringing MOsley WOtta to a larger audience. The band has a new website, MOsleyWOtta.com, and recently won Last Band Standing in Bend. Some serious grassroots marketing has made Graham recognizable on the streets of downtown Bend, and made MOsley WOtta a well-known regional band. A viral video making the rounds on Facebook and YouTube features a flaxen-haired toddler named River grooving to the made-for-radio single “Boom For Real” in his car seat. “I’m not trying to be a shooting star,” says Graham. He says he’s spoken with music executives who have told him to “let me know when you have your [act] together,” says Graham. “And I have my [act] together.”
Top 200 Albums of 2012: #4
By Ethan Maffey on Wed, Dec 26, 2012
I've got a Spotify playlist coming out with tracks from nearly all of the top 200 albums of 2012. But one of the top ten selections from this year isn't on Spotify. Actually— that's just fine. The #4 record of the year is best experienced as a full album anyway.
Local Bend group MOsley WOtta's concept album KinKonK was one of the most solid efforts from 2012. You can check out the feature piece I wrote earlier this year for more insight. Just make sure you give this record a listen while you do.
http://www.bendsource.com/Bent/archives/2012/12/26/top-200-albums-of-2012-4
Mosley Wotta Releases New Album
By Ben Salmon - September 14. 2012
Anyone who knows local artist, musician and educator Jason Graham — aka Mosley Wotta, leader of the hip-hop band of the same name — knows that his relocation to Bend at age 9 from Chicago's north side has had a profound and longstanding effect on his worldview, and thus, his art.
Get Graham, 29, talking (not a difficult task at all), and you're likely to eventually hear about his experience as a mixed-race kid moving from an ultra-urban environment to the lily-white Bend of a decade ago. And he won't hesitate to point out that his own stereotypes about “the country" were as deeply entrenched as those he encountered in others.
The collision of race and culture is a subject Graham has always touched on in his music, going back to his time in the local rap collective Person People, up through his first solo album, 2010's “Wake."
But tonight, Graham will celebrate the release of the second Mosley Wotta album, “KinKonK," at the old PoetHouse Art space in Bend (see “If you go"), and at the same time, he'll unveil a more direct, more forceful and more thoughtful set of songs on the subject than he ever has before. It's also material that may surprise some of the folks who've come to love the Mosley Wotta band that, since winning Bend's inaugural Last Band Standing competition two years ago, has dominated local festival stages with its upbeat funk-hop and positive message of unity through music.
“I think I'm at the point in our relationship with the folks that are really committed and dedicated to what we do that I get to take a poop and Bend, Oregon, gets to brush their teeth, and we're in the same bathroom at the same time," Graham said earlier this week. “And that's love."
At 13 tracks and 39 minutes long, “KinKonk" is a concept album based loosely on the story in the 1933 film “King Kong." It begins with a sample from the movie and an overarching theme (“the information broke formation, an indication that the jungle lives on"), then follows along as the title character is discovered, captured and taken to civilization, where he escapes his cage, falls in love, scales the city and then falls to his death — but not before leaving his stamp on those left behind.
Along the way, Graham employs his usual dizzying wordplay to extrapolate the story into a deceptively frank discussion of race relations, cultures clashing, the birth of hip-hop (on the East Coast, where incoming slaves met Western life) and the transcendence of art.
“One way or another, it's actually leaked into my life, and I experienced that coming here, but (I) was both the savage and the city kid," Graham said. “There was this alien mystique that I had for a while (because I) looked different and was from somewhere different. Most of the kids I went to school with were from Bend ... and most of the outside stuff they got was from TV, not from the actual world.
“I got educated on black music by white kids in Oregon, which is the country, not the city," he said. “I got the fears removed by white kids here because I was scared of ... angry, scary black music."
Speaking of outside stuff, Graham is a voracious consumer of culture, both highbrow and pop. In conversation, he'll drop rapid-fire references to poet Buddy Wakefield, 20th-century novelist James Baldwin, comedian Reggie Watts, rappers Lil Wayne, Atmosphere and Macklemore, comic-book heroes Storm and Wolverine, ethnically diverse McDonald's ads and African-American icon Booker T. Washington, the namesake of Graham's third child, due early next year.
“I appreciate when (artists) are able to creatively, honestly talk about how they feel, their imagination, what is on their mind or just uncut, raw, 'This is my life' kind of things," he said. “Sometimes I think artists get caught up in (their) image and they start to lose the foundation. They get too high in the branches and lose touch with the roots."
For Graham, “KinKonK" is a risk, both in subject matter and musically. He sings well but imperfectly all over the album, and the songs' beats range from gnarly, grinding dubstep to soft, warm, jazzy jams. And thematically, he's no doubt working to stay in touch with those roots he mentioned earlier.
“I think it's much more vulnerable than anything I've done before," he said. “Before I was working off of a template based on what I'd seen other people do. (On) this one the template was a very clear but sort of intangible vision of what I wanted to do artistically, and I went for it, whether or not I felt comfortable with how my voice sounded singing ... (and) whether or not I was comfortable with the subject matter."
How it's received by Mosley Wotta's legions of fans remains to be seen. But artistically, it's a triumph. And if there's a backlash, Graham says, so be it.
“Eventually ... when the wound has scarred over, it's not only stronger, but that's what you talk about at the bar," he said. “You're like 'Check out my scar. Check out my scar.' And then there's actually more connection than there was before."
— Reporter: 541-383-0377, bsalmon@bendbulletin.com
http://www.bendbulletin.com/article/20120914/NEWS0107/309149998/#
Picking Up the Scraps: Mosley Wotta is here to check your ego
BY MIKE BOOKEY
"It's not the bottom of the barrel or anything, but it's what I have around me that I love. It's the idea of using what's around you to improve what's around you," says Mosley Wotta, a.k.a. Jason Graham, of his new EP Scrap Mettle.
The five-track record has been in the works for a few months now, and is for the most part quintessential Graham - crisply voiced hip-hop lyrics that lean closer toward poetry than rap music laid atop constantly innovative instrumentals. While locals will likely recognize Graham's loud, low and direct voice within the opening seconds of the album's opener, "Boom For Real," the EP is hardly same-old-same-old fodder from one of Bend's most visible artists.
Just as he wears masks during some of his solo performances or is apt to changing his stage name (some might know him not as Wotta or Graham, but rather "The Rook"), Graham doesn't seem to mind reinventing himself, perhaps not drastically, but enough to keep things interesting in a musical landscape where change is often necessary.
"It's like stories I've heard of Japanese calligraphers who keep changing their names. They'll build up an entire career and then change their name," Graham says. "You gotta keep allowing yourself to be you - I mean I'm still going to be a six foot tall man of color in Bend, I'm not going to be able to get away from that, unless I become so successful I can go the Michael Jackson route or something like that, which I probably wouldn't."
At times during our conversation, Graham's hummingbird-fast pattern of speech and voluminous cache of witty one-liners (or five-liners) doesn't sound much different from the flows on his EP and it's hard not to think that this is all pretty easy for him.
While it is seemingly effortless, the work on Scrap Mettle, however, is hardly sloppy. In fact, tracks like "Smoke" and "Herd in the Head" are meticulously produced numbers, thanks to Mosley Wotta collaborator Mike Graham (who is of no relation, and is formerly known as DJ Lacuna and more recently DJ Mud) who Jason says is a key influence to the multi-genre influences heard on the record.
Scrap Mettle's production prowess isn't hard to find on the record and begins precisely when Graham opens up "Boom For Real" with his quick-and-clean rhymes, doing so by overdubbing the vocals twice. Once in the now-familiar Jason Graham baritone, and again an octave higher, all with deadly precision and the harmony is goose-bump good.
Perhaps what's most refreshing about this Mosley Wotta disc is the conscious ego check that weaves throughout the record. Graham doesn't fall into brag-and-boast rap laziness, instead dishing out crystal clear poetics often that breeze into your brain like Clemens-on-extra-steroids fastballs.
"It really behooves one to keep a certain amount of humbleness and humility. It's kind of that whole 'drop in the bucket' thing," Graham says. Not only is it excellent to hear Graham say words like "behooves" in his regular speech, but it's further satisfying that, although he's probably Bend's most well-known musician, he doesn't leak even of a whiff of arrogance.
Call him what you want: Mosley Wotta, The Rook, Jason Graham, Person People MC, a new dad, an established visual artist, Rise Up International's do-it-all man, poetry slam champion, or any other number of titles, but at the end of the day, this is just a dude with a lot to say, a microphone and a pretty damn good new album.