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Indian Country Today
October 4-11, 1999
by Leta Rector, Today Correspondent
Tahlequah, Okla. -- Blame it on the Beatles. When she was a child, Arigon Starr saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show and she knew, "That was what I wanted to do."
"I swear I remember, nose to the TV, saying, 'What is that?'"
"Yeah, I remember, too," says her sister Gay Wahpecome, who plays and flute and percussion for the band. "It was like, 'Get out of the way, Arigon!'" Gay said.
"If I hadn't been watching TV, there might be no Arigon Starr band," Arigon said.
Kicking back in the cushy writing room of Cherokee novelist Robert Conley's home in Tahlequah, Arigon said, "I was non-stop with the Beatles."
Drummer Nicholas Peters, Luiseno Indian, concurs. "Si, we went to Beatle U."
The band was in town to play a club date to coincide with the annual Cherokee Holiday. Conley, a friend, put them up for the night.
Their tour includes the 13th annual Milwaukee Indian Summer Festival and closes out at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kan.
"Our common ground is humor. We've been laughing all the way since L.A."
Arigon says. Exchanging looks, they burst out laughing again.
Arigon, registered Kickapoo and also Creek, is excited about her four nominations by the Native American Music Awards -- Best Female Artist, Best Pop Artist, Best Independent Recording and Best Debut/Group. They will also be one of the acts performing at the "Nammys" Nov. 6.
After touring and playing full time since 1996, Arigon hopes a Nammy will enable them to take it to the next level.
She started playing guitar and writing songs in sixth grade. "I had things I wanted to say as a child, observations," she said. She still writes all of her own songs.
Her father, Kenneth Wahpecome, is from Shawnee, Oklahoma, her mother Ruth Cornell, from Tulsa. "Dad took a look around and said, 'There's no work for Indians in Shawnee.' So he joined the military," she said. After the typical "being from everywhere" upbringing of a "military brat," her dad home based the family in San Diego. When she was old enough, Arigon moved to Los Angeles to find her destiny.
She worked briefly with First Americans in the Arts and with the American Indian Registry for the Performing Arts, established by Will Sampson in 1984. She took some University of California at Los Angeles extension courses on the music industry and everything the university had to offer in entertainment.
She started working as a legal secretary, and from there, wiggled her way into positions in public relations for Viacom Productions and Showtime Network.
"Every job I've had, I talked my way into it," Arigon said. "It was perseverance. I convinced them I could do it. They knew I was a good secretary, so they thought I must be able to do PR. I learned from "the best" and, in her PR jobs, she "got over that star thing."
Meanwhile, she was playing coffeehouses and wherever she could, but feels she got off center. "I learned a lot. I survived all the major earthquakes and riots, even the O.J. Simpson trial!" (As a protest, one Halloween, she dressed up as Judge Lance Ito.)
"But I was a casualty who got sidetracked. Some people get lost in the drug world, some get lost with sex. I got lost in corporate America. I got lost in Hollywood."
One day she woke up and realized, "I did not move to Hollywood to work PR..I realized what I was doing with my music had some value and it was worth putting the effort in it."
She decided to got for it -- fortunately , she had freelance cartooning and painting skills to provide an income. She quit her job, formed a band, recorded a CD called "Meet the Diva" and put her public relations skills to work -- for herself.
"It's gone from knowing nobody to where it is today. Last year, we didn't play that many gigs. Now people are knocking on our door," she adds enthusiastically.
Unexpectedly, when Arigon began to form her band, she discovered the musicians she chose were also Beatles fans.
Arigon met Nick at a party three years ago and he has been with the band ever since. They later discovered they had been at all the same art-house film festivals. "We've probably been in the same room many times," he said. "We shopped at the same places."
"He is the brother we never had," said Gay.
"We found our other half," Arigon adds.
Arigon is delighted to have her sister (who shooed her away from the TV in earlier days) in the band. "With family harmonizing, it adds a lot. It's crystal clear, perfect. She is a rock," Arigon said. "She's not prone to flights of fancy. Except for BR5-49 (her fave band)."
Recently, they found their fourth band member, Johnny B, bass player from East L.A. He is trying to track down his grandfather's heritage, who Johnny thinks might have been Navajo.
Arigon does her marketing and promotion herself. "That's the only way it's gonna get done right. If there's an artist who things they don't need to know that, they're crazy. Artist take if for granted thinking, 'Someday I'll get signed and someone else will do it.' You can't rely on other people to do things for you."
"A lot of it is really hard work, like owning your own business," she said. "Not all businesses make it."
"I used to have to promote really rotten movies in my PR job, but I found out how to deal with the media. If you find out how much it costs to buy that much space in a newspaper, you see how valuable interviews are!" she said.
Arigon is teeming with sage advice on the "business" of show business. "I think artists really should work in 'the business' for a while. You see how it is from behind the scenes. You need to educate yourself...take charge of your own destiny. It's the balance of art and commerce."
She also realized the best advice she ever had came from her Indian heritage. "All the stupid things I hated my grandma for, they were real," she exclaimed. "They were true things. I learned that kids need to listen to their elders. Grandma told me, 'Do what you love.'"
Arigon sees one of her functions as "dispelling stereotypes. Letting people know (Indians are) still here..We have a lot of things yet to contribute."
"People are stunned to hear the truth! Most people don't know what's going on as far as Indians are concerned." Her music "doesn't hit people over the head. The humor softens it up so it's easy to chew."
"We have music where you're entertained," says Johnny. "One catch phrase may make them listen."
Managing the group and traveling with them part-time has been an education for Janet Miner, Arigon's friend since high school. "Being a white girl, it has been amazing to me to see people's stereotypes," she said.
"Our songs are short and very pop-influenced. Some people have been shocked because it's not traditional Native music. They're shocked when we walk on stage. We're not stuck in time," she said, echoing the words of one of her songs. Earlier this year, the band was invited to England to promote the book "Of Earth and Elders." With actor Steve Reevis, they did a three week tour of 15 cities in England, Scotland and Wales.
They are working on a second CD to be released in early 2000; Oct. 2 they will play at "Dinner in the Canyons" in Palm Springs for the Agua Caliente museum fundraiser; and on Oct. 23 they play at the anniversary reunion of the Alcatraz takeover near San Francisco.
Arigon gave one last piece of advice," don't sign your publishing away. Keep your publishing rights. You never can tell if someday somebody bit might cover one of your songs. If you hold onto your publishing, you'll still get paid."
Although she's been told her music is too contemporary, she likes it that way. "I want it to go mainstream. We're starting to move outside of Native radio. There is a gal in Big Bear who broadcasts. She plays my song 'About Geronimo' along with Sarah McLachlan. She told us we are part of a crossover trend!"
"It's more than just being an Indian now. It's just having good music."
"We just wanna shake people up a little bit." Arigon smiles at Nick and Gay, and adds, "I think we're doing a pretty good job."