TRANSCRIPT
Episode 24: Listen Up: More Music as a Voice for Climate Action
Sean Mendelson: Thank you for joining me, Sean Mendelson, as your host for this episode of Everyday Climate Champions. Today’s topic is “More Music as a Voice for Climate Action.”
In July, 2023, I interviewed Pete Kronowitt, a vocal member of climate action group, Music Declares Emergency, about how he uses music to impact kids. Another member of Music Declares Emergency, Sam Lee, a British folk singer, aptly told Songlines in 2020, I often quote the line that ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast,’ said by a management guru, Peter Drucker. Music reaches places that other aspects of information and awareness can’t get to. It’s an extraordinary straight to the heart art form.”
As a music artist myself, today, I’m thrilled we are joined by Mike Roberts and Will Hammond Jr., co-founders of the band Eco Soul Entertainment. Mike is a songwriter-instrumentalist and Will is a singer. They make fun and informative songs that we’ll be talking about today. They hail from Berkeley, territory of the Ohlone tribe. Thanks for joining me, Mike.
Mike Roberts: Thanks for having us. Happy to be here.
Sean Mendelson: Thanks for joining me Will.
Will Hammond Jr.: It’s always a pleasure to meet a fellow musician.
Sean Mendelson: Appreciate you. So, first question, I’ll start with you, Mike. How did you guys get together under the banner Eco Soul Entertainment?
Mike Roberts: We really first got together, before Eco Soul, playing in a cover band together, which is now playing our originals. It’s a band called The Radioactives. And we met through our kids’ school. And that was a great training ground for the kind soul, funk, R & B music that we are now using as our language for these climate songs. So that led directly to Eco Soul. I got this zany idea to write songs about home electrification for starters, and Will had the great idea to create this umbrella of Eco Soul Entertainment as an organization between the two of us to make all of this happen.
Sean Mendelson: Right. And Will, I know you’re a great singer. I’ve heard your voice on these songs. But before we get back to the music, I wanna ask you guys about your climate journey. So Will, please tell me about your journey to doing some of the climate work you’re doing, especially where you ended up at the climate group, Rising Sun.
Will Hammond Jr.: Yeah, I think it was the summer of 2024 I came back from France. And so I was working remotely. I came back and I got fired the same day I came back. But then I said, you know, I used to be a teacher and I’m also interested in climate. And the universe said, “Guess what? You can have both.” So I applied for this position that was looking for a youth workforce development person in climate. And I said, “oh my God.” And I told my wife, I said, “I think this is it.”
Basically, I found Rising Sun and Rising Sun’s whole mission and vision is, you know, economic equity and climate resilience, sustainability. And it just seemed like such a perfect kind of marriage between me working on these climate songs and also me working with this other, amazing company.
Sean Mendelson: Awesome. And Mike, what about your climate journey? What got you to the point where you decided to end up writing these types of songs for your project with Will?
Mike Roberts: Yeah, it was a fairly long road to get to the point of actually bringing music into it… maybe six, seven years as a volunteer in climate and environment, after having been a full-time musician for my entire adult life. It took that long for me to realize, oh, I could bring music and climate together.
I volunteered with East Bay Community Energy here in, Alameda County. And I did some work for the Sierra Club and I eventually joined Citizens Climate Lobby and The Switch Is On. And The Switch Is On, specifically is all about advocating for electrification. And we electrified our whole home.
I just thought, this is an area where I can make a difference I can help other people with their journey and share my experiences. But, you know, I’ll admit the, everyday work of doing that advocacy was not super exciting to me. It can be a lot of emails and phone calls. And tabling can be really interesting when you have some good conversations. But it wasn’t really lighting me up.
I had a very interesting conversation with one of these staff members at the Building Decarbonization Coalition, which administers The Switch Is On, And she sort of half-jokingly said, “You should write music about electrification.” And, I treated it like a joke at first, but it got me thinking “Why not? You know, I could have some fun with this.”
Sean Mendelson: What is the problem you’re addressing that you feel music is offering a solution for?
Mike Roberts: That’s a great question and it does go right to the heart of why we’re doing this. And same reason why I was sitting there as a volunteer saying, “Ah, you know, this is important work. I’m glad I’m doing it. I wish more people would do it, but it’s not super compelling to me.” On the other side of it, it’s hard to make it super compelling for the people you’re trying to connect with, right? And so it was a solution on both sides of the coin. Something that’s compelling for us is going to be more compelling for the audience.
Sean Mendelson: I completely understand that perspective and appreciate it.
So Mike, why were you inspired to write about specifically heat pumps? I love the juxtaposition between what is the least sexiest thing in the world right now and making it so desirable with the D’Angelo vibe. Talk about that.
Mike Roberts: I mean, look at the name. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see what’s sexy about a heat pump, right? And all you have to do is set it to the right music and it’s very obvious, right? You just have to think, you know, more like a teenager. I artfully borrowed from D’Angelo. His beautiful, unique, smooth and very romantic sound with definitely a large dash of Barry White thrown in there and Will really embodies all of that perfectly.
Sean Mendelson: When Mike brought this to you, Will, what was your feeling? And, and did you immediately jump on board or did it take some convincing to, to go with this?
Will Hammond Jr.: I’d known Mike for a long time. It didn’t take me that long to be like, “Yes, I will do it.” And the fact that like he just said, yeah, we’re doing this thing, this climate-based song. And I was like, “okay, okay.” And, you know, and in span of like a half an hour, I was like, “I’m sold”.
I really felt like me learning and me trying to be, you know, a lifelong learner about what’s happening in the world, I’ve always done that as a teacher, set me in that path. So it was great.
Sean Mendelson: Well, let’s listen to a piece of that song right now. “Heat Pump”!
[“I’m Your Heat Pump” excerpt]
The double entendre and Will’s vocal really makes that one pop. That’s no joke. So nice job, Mike,
Mike Roberts: Thank you.
Sean Mendelson: And what about “Geothermal,” your second song you put out? Can you tell me a little bit about that song?
Mike Roberts: That really sprang right out of, “Heat Pump” and the response that we were very fortunate to get in the press. Specifically, we had a piece on NPR. And the day after it appeared on their website, I got an email from Project Interspace. And what they do is advocate for geothermal energy and there are lot of great reasons for it, right? It’s renewable. It’s on 24-7. It really is a critical piece of the Clean Energy puzzle and their whole thing is messaging, bringing people around to this technology.
We worked with the same team that created the music video for “I’m Your Heat Pump.” It is conceptually very much the same vibe as “I’m Your Heat Pump” in terms of, bringing in those double entendres and using love and heat and everything that goes with it, and making geothermal fun, trying to make it a little bit sexy.
Sean Mendelson: Well, I think it’s super essential to make art that draws people in, not just the facts. And that’s why this is important.
So let’s listen to that right now. “Geothermal”
[“Geothermal” excerpt]
That was a great piece of “Geothermal,” and that song has a great hook, gentlemen. So well done on that one as well.
And finally, there’s a song you guys have called, “I Like Flowers.” You’re doing a crowdfunding campaign at the time this podcast is being recorded. This song has a tremendous groove and I wish you luck getting this video made. Can you tell me a little bit about, “I Like Flowers”, Mike? And then, Will, let me know what your feelings are about the song after he’s done.
Mike Roberts: Yeah, so “I Like Flowers,” definitely, I would say James Brown is more the godfather of this one, so to speak. The climate tie-in, where we’re doing heat pumps and geothermal before, what we’re talking about here is native plants and pollinators. We’re really excited to be getting a little more back to nature. Will is singing about all the flowers he loves. You know, we need something for the kids.
Sean Mendelson: That’s right.
Mike Roberts: This is a little more, G rated, you know, maybe PG. Here we’re partnering with several different local nonprofits who work on native plants or wildlife. These organizations do not have deep pockets. They’re working on shoestring budgets…
Sean Mendelson: Right.
Mike Roberts: …to do really amazing work, and that’s why we’re crowdfunding this one to raise what we need to make the video.
Will Hammond Jr.: I think Mike’s whole play on pollinators and native plants, it’s such a funky way to sell the whole pitch of ‘we need to save our planet.’ We need to really preserve these plants and help to pollinate the earth, you know, and help the birds and the bees… “the birds and the bees and the”, you know, again, I feel like… pollination all across the nation, pollination all across the nation baby.
It’s like, I always say, it’s a way of edutaining the people, you know, you educate them on the facts and then you entertain them through the music. And so really Eco Soul Entertainment, that’s really what we’re about is trying to. give the people what they want, baby.
Sean Mendelson: Yeah. Let’s go ahead and listen to a, a little bit of, “I Like Flowers” by Eco Soul Entertainment.
[“I Like Flowers” excerpt]
Mike, what challenges have you found, as an artist, raising awareness in the climate movement?
Mike Roberts: Exactly the same challenges that all musicians and artists face, which is how do you introduce the public to what you’re doing and make them care?
Sean Mendelson: Right.
Mike Roberts: That’s been the same challenge that we’ve had, I’m sure for you as well. Anytime you’re writing something new, it’s hard to make people care. You know, there’s so much music out there, it’s hard to get people’s attention.
Now, the stakes just feel higher. I feel like I’m doing this for something that is really deeply meaningful and important for not just me, but everyone. What can we do to get this out to more people? And not just people that are kind of already into climate.
Now I’m very happy to be entertaining those people. Um, but what I really want is for them to be sharing it with their aunt and their grandma and whoever who maybe doesn’t think about climate at all, um, but maybe needs an entry point, right?
Sean Mendelson: Will, what do you see the future holding for you and this type of music?
Will Hammond Jr.: Really, I look at the youth, right? So you think about Rising Sun, we’re working with 15 to 24 year-olds. You think about how we could actually go into the high schools, maybe even the middle schools with a cooler message. Really talk about what’s happening, you know, to our climate. Those are the things I think would be kind of fun to do.
But my vision is to have a huge, outdoor eco-fest where all you hear is people singing songs about, everything in the world that’s happening on climate sustainability. Let’s do it.
Sean Mendelson: Mike, what does the future hold for you and this type of music?
Mike Roberts: What I love about this is I think there’s just so much potential. There are so many subjects that we can tackle with these songs, you know, I’m just starting to record a song about induction cooking.
Will Hammond Jr.: It’s a badass song.
Sean Mendelson: Oh, that’s awesome.
Mike Roberts: For me, this so perfectly brings together my biggest passions. I feel like I could spend the rest of my life writing these songs. If we can stick with it, we can kind of gain a critical mass of songs that we can continue to perform live. And again, just be messengers that reach people in a really positive way.
Sean Mendelson: Well stated. Appreciate your guys’ time. Thank you for being with me today, Will.
Will Hammond Jr.: Thank you. I appreciate it.
Sean Mendelson: And thank you for being with me today as well, Mike.
Mike Roberts: Thank you so much for having us. It’s been a fun conversation.
Sean Mendelson: Hey listeners, look below the episode’s description to find the links to all the resources that our guests mentioned, including ways you can get involved.
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For this episode of Everyday Climate Champions the sound designer was Martin Sanchez and the executive producer and editor was Dalya Massachi. I’m your host, Sean Mendelson. Our full production team is listed below.