Ricardo (“Ricky”) Carrido learned to play flute and Latin percussion from his father, Romeo Carrido, as well as Afro-Cuban traditional master drummers from Cuba. He has performed and recorded with such artists as Stevie Wonder, Jessica Simpson, Alfredo de La Fe, Chuchito Valdez, Chucho Valdez, Pete Escovedo, Charanga Cubana, B-side Players, and Poncho Sanchez, among others. As of the winter of 2008, Ricky Carrido became a sworn batá drummer (Omo Añá, or child of Añá, the deity that lives in the batá drum) from the batá set by the name Obbá koso that belongs to the Obbá Enrique Barriero, from Mantanzas, Cuba. Ricky resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico where he teaches Afro-Cuban Folklore Drumming at the New Mexico Jazz Workshop along with his father, leads the Cuban band called Luna Llena, and plays with the group Son como Son. Ricky is also active as a private instructor.
Interviewed by Raquel Paraíso, 09/30/2020.

Lifelong musician and cultural anthropologist David García works at the Center for Regional Studies-University of New Mexico. He calls himself a community musician since he is a multi-instrumentalist who plays in different community settings and in various community ensembles as well as professional ones. He plays violin for the Danza de Matachines, a dance that takes place during a particular festivity on December 27 in northern New Mexico. He plays also in religious settings and funerals.
Interviewed by Raquel Paraíso, 09/21/2020.

Zachariah Julian (Jicarilla) has produced the We Are the Seeds stage since its inception. He curates programs that are diverse, balanced, interesting, and entertaining. A musician and performer, he is knowledgeable in production and stage management. He has lived on the Apache Nation for nineteen years and has been playing piano for over 20 years. Zachariah started composing when he was sixteen and attended University of New Mexico majoring in Music Theory and Composition. He has just released a CD called These Marked Trees.
Interviewed by Raquel Paraíso, 09/15/2020.

Lyla June is an Indigenous environmental scientist, doctoral student, educator, community organizer, and musician of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne), and European lineages from Taos, NM. Her dynamic, multi-genre performance and speech style has invigorated and inspired audiences across the globe towards personal, collective, and ecological healing. Her messages focus on the climate crisis, Indigenous rights, supporting youth, inter-cultural healing, historical trauma, and traditional land stewardship practices. She blends her undergraduate studies in human ecology at Stanford University, her graduate work in Native American Pedagogy at the University of New Mexico, and the indigenous worldview she grew up with to inform her perspectives and solutions. Her internationally-acclaimed performances and speeches are conveyed through the medium of prayer, hip-hop, poetry, acoustic music, and speech. Her personal goal is to grow closer to Creator by learning how to love deeper.
Interviewed by Raquel Paraíso, 11/02/2020.

Known as a “virtuoso de la quena,” Nathaniel Kuster (whose stage name for many years was Chichí Pérez) plays wind instruments from the Andes Mountains, including the quena, the quenacho, and the zampoña or siku. Nathaniel first heard the music of the Andes Mountains as a child in Peru. When he was an adolescent, he realized that it was the music he wanted to play. He soon mastered the quena and the zampoña with the help and support of many friends who encouraged him and accompanied him on the journey. He subsequently learned to play many other Andean wind instruments. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico where he works as the principal of Coronado Elementary School.
Interviewed by Raquel Paraíso, 10/1/2020.

Bayou Seco plays music from the Southwest. Jeanie and Ken have collected music from older traditional American musicians for most of their lives and have learned to play many of their tunes and songs. They especially focus on Cajun music in southwestern Louisiana and, since 1980, have learned from traditional Hispanic, Cowboy, and Tohono O’odham musicians in New Mexico and Arizona. Both of them play fiddle and guitar and sing. Ken also plays one- and three-row diatonic accordions, five-string banjo (fretless), harmonica, and mandolin. They play at concerts, dances (where they can teach Spanish colonial dances from New Mexico and other dances), art centers, schools, museums, folk clubs, weddings, wakes, state fairs, and other types of events. They help run the radio station Gila Mimbres Community Radio (GMCR.org) in Silver City and their radio show, Roots and Branches, airs on Saturday (8-10 a.m. MST) with a jam-along with Ken and Jeanie from 9 to 9:30 a.m.
Interviewed by Raquel Paraíso, 09/22/2020.