The Fremont Podcast
The only podcast dedicated to telling the stories of the people and places of Fremont, CA. The diversity and integration of people and cultures of Fremont truly makes it a special place. This podcast explores these stories.
The Fremont Podcast
Episode 130: The man and humanity behind Live At The Asher.
Aisea Taimani is a Fremont musician and the co-founder of the concert series: Live At The Asher .
You can find out more about Live At The Asher on their IG page.
You can find Aisea, samples of his music and his work as a creative director on his IG page.
You can hear music from the band Minor Islands on their Bandcamp page.
If you would like to contact The Fremont Podcast, please text us here.
Petrocelli Homes has been a key sponsor of The Fremont Podcast from the beginning. If you are looking for a realtor, get in touch with Petrocelli Homes on Niles Blvd in Fremont.
Haller's Pharmacy is here to help. They have been in our community for decades.
Founder: Ricky B.
Intro and outro voice-overs made by Gary Williams.
Editor: Andrew Cavette.
Scheduling and pre-interviews by the amazing virtual assistant that you ought to hire, seriously, she's great: your.virtual.ace
This is a Muggins Media Podcast.
Coming to you straight from Fremont, california. This is the Fremont Podcast, dedicated to telling the stories of the past and present of the people and places of the city of Fremont, one conversation at a time. Now, here's your host, ricky B.
Speaker 2:I'm going to start recording now, just to.
Speaker 3:Sounds good. Check one two. Testing one two.
Speaker 2:If I, you know, know when I'm adjusting anything, don't change anything that you're doing.
Speaker 2:You're good, bro, sweet, I say yeah, it has been a year since I first reached out to you to have you on the podcast yeah and, uh, we actually are close, we're neighbors, but basically you live, uh, in the apartments close to where I live and, uh, I want, I'm so excited about talking about what you've done there because, I mean, I got to visit it. I got to visit your live at the Asher for the first time this last week. It was phenomenal, that was beautiful. But before we get into that, I want to just kind of hear a little bit about your story. Did you grow up here in Fremont? Where are you from? What brought you here?
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you. First of all, thank you so much for having me. I was just processing with my buddy, sal, on the way here, like just how we started this conversation last year, so I'm glad we finally made it happen. I grew up here, brother. Ultimately I was born on the other side of the bay, but during the 80s, you know, there was a lot of violence gang violence that was happening between, specifically, tongans and Samoans and Tongans and Mexicans, when blood and crips were really prevalent. And so, even though my dad and his siblings all immigrated to the country for higher education and more opportunities, a lot of my uncles were actually getting locked up. It didn't matter if you were a good student or if you were not the strongest student. There's a quote like if you mess with one coconut, you know. It didn't matter, you know who was at fault. Whenever there was a fight in high school, everyone would jump in, typically how you would as a tribe. So because of that, we saw a lot of our peoples getting incarcerated, and so my father's simple solution was to create a little bit of separation.
Speaker 3:My father's simple solution was to create a little bit of separation. So, even though he was a pastor in San Carlos, um, and most of our community was in Redwood city and in East Palo Alto, um, he was like man if I can just give us a little bit of separation during the week, um, and allow my kids to be able to, um, uh, go to school with with just that pressure of needing to like, be with the good, bad and ugly. During that specific time, he moved us across the Dunbar Bridge to Newark. So in 89, I remember actually that was during the Giants and the A's World Series. That game was happening as we're moving out. So we moved over here.
Speaker 3:You know, growing up in River City it was super diverse. There were, you know, latinos, there were Polynesians, black, white, that was kind of the normal. And then when we moved over here to Newark, we were the only Tongan family, wow. So I grew up right here in Newark. Wow, newark and Fremont, we didn't really know the difference. But ultimately, yeah, this was where my family grew up. My mom and dad is still in Newark. My brother, him and his. He married his high school sweetheart and they're, you know, living in Newark as well too. He's a pastor in Newark and his wife works for the city. So this is, yeah, this is home for us. That's cool man. So this is, yeah, this is home for us.
Speaker 1:That's cool man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I moved around to LA, I moved to Bend Oregon but about 10 years ago I moved back to the Bay and this is home. You know, one of the things that I have enjoyed about you and both just things I've researched as well as just seeing you live you're just an incredible musician. You're just an incredible musician and you have a like, a true vision for like creative music and I love so. At least one band that I know that you're a part of is we are Minor Islands, right.
Speaker 2:Minor Islands yeah, or it's just called Minor Islands, yeah, so tell me a little bit about that and like what that means for you. Like, what is, what does it mean to have? Uh, is that number one? Tell me a little bit about your music story that brought you to where you are, and then tell me a little bit about minor islands, what you have going on with that.
Speaker 3:I appreciate that whenever someone asks me that question, I can't um not mention like my father prayed for me when I was in my mother's womb God, would you provide a son that could make his living off of music? Wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I try not to take it too lightly, but I'm an answer to my father's prayer and that's the beginning of my journey. My father's a psalmist. He's a well-known singer-songwriter in the kingdom of Tonga. I'll say he's a pioneer as well too. Before my father, it was still pretty taboo to have electric instruments in any sacred space in Tonga. But in 83, he took his American band and performed for the king and the king in a way, gave thumbs up for electric instruments and the king in a way, gave thumbs up for electric instruments.
Speaker 3:You know, that was really like anything that wasn't vocal or wasn't local was deemed worldly or secular right. So, first and foremost, I grew up in the church. My dad has always been. You know, music was never something reserved for the experts. It was a way that everyone sang. There wasn't the good singers, bad singers. Everybody sang, all the women. It was understood that they sang alto, soprano, and then the men sang tenor and bass. So I just grew up just with.
Speaker 3:This experience of singing is how we connect with God and it's how we connect with each other, and so that was my upbringing. And you know, my dad exposed us to a lot of music growing up. We were at church Wednesdays, fridays, saturdays, sunday morning, Sunday night, and it was just a whole lot of music, a whole lot of singing. So, first and foremost, I attribute so much of my love for music to my upbringing. But then, yeah, being born and raised in the Bay Area, I grew up listening to Bob Marley, to Pac. I listened to a lot of gospel music, the Wyandons, shirley Caesar, and at the same time, you know, I feel like the Bay Area is such an eclectic fusion of genres. It really just was an opportunity to kind of whatever my friends were listening to was kind of what I learned to love. It was no longer good or bad music, it was always like, oh, every genre is actually the soundtrack of a friend of mine, that's cool.
Speaker 3:I started at a really young age like rethinking how I think about music in that way, or art, um, but ultimately, um, you know, played uh, started songwriting uh in my teens, um, and then I would say minor islands. That concept, um, came from, um, from from from a mystic Thomas Merton, that no one one is an island, but a part of the whole. That really spoke to me, I think. You know, as I've been trying to reclaim my culture, and the things that I love most about being Tongan is one of the things is this very, very natural collectivism. You know, to be Tongan is to be together, and so that's something.
Speaker 3:Despite growing up in a very individualistic society, I saw the way that my culture embodied that very, very naturally and consistently in my upbringing. So I was so fascinated with that quote that I, we just you know something about music that's growing up in church that's very, very happy and has major chords. And then I think that I started to ask you know, why aren't there more songs? Why don't we sing more songs about when things don't work out? You know songs that have minor chords, so being able to weave even just that word minor, not just because Tonga consists of, you know a bunch of minor islands.
Speaker 3:Not just Tonga consists of a bunch of minor islands. Not just Tonga consists of the island that I'm from consists of three major islands, but what really makes Tonga is this collection of minor islands. I just thought that was so fascinating. So that's really where the name comes from. But the band that you saw Saturday is a collective of friends from different communities, a lot of folks who are connected to faith communities some not but really started to be more intentional about creating more collectives that are diverse not just in ethnicity but also spiritually as well too, Really seeing the value of folk who don't believe exactly what I believe and really seeing the benefit of that and just deepening my compassion for people who are different.
Speaker 2:One of the things that I would say that's beautiful, by the way One of the things that I took away from my experience of watching and listening to you guys was just the emphasis on our humanity. You know, we find I think we as a culture and a society, we find so many things to divide over, you know, whether it's politics or religion, even whether it's race, you know ethnicity, culture, whatever we just find ways to, and I think in some sense, there is an underlying, maybe even a healthy effort to take pride in your identity in some ways, and even, as you're talking about this, the Tongan identity that you have, identity that you have, that matters a lot to you. But I love the fact that you know, even in that quote of the mystic that you just quoted, that say that again for me.
Speaker 3:Well, the quote is no man, but I've kind of just like included everyone. So no one is an island, but a part of the whole. Right, yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 2:I love that. I love that you've got these individual things, but they don't matter if they're not grouped in with everything. So, instead of these things that we use to separate us and divide ourselves, you know, between each other, among each other, instead of doing that, find a way to be able to help bring beauty to the whole element. And I just love how you opened up your concert I guess, gig, whatever you want to call it. You know how you opened it up and just said you know, let's celebrate, you know, our humanity. How you opened it up and just said let's celebrate our humanity, discovering who we are and the things that really bring us together and that we connect over.
Speaker 2:I love that and I think that, especially, I didn't know this part of it until we just started this conversation. But even coming from a background of gangs, gang violence, I mean, those are the. That's the ultimate. I don't want to say ultimate, but that is a very, very strong expression of division between people and based on particular characteristics. Coming from that kind of a background and to be able to in some sense give your life, to create music, to create space for people to come together, and no matter who you are, I think it's just an amazing thing. It's really beautiful, thank you.
Speaker 2:It's one of the things I wanted to do with the podcast as well. Fremont is now diverse, unlike when you moved here. Fremont is now diverse, unlike when you moved here. Fremont is very diverse and we do get comfortable with our little sub communities, which can be very healthy as well, you know, having close friends and people that you rely on, people that you trust, and you can go to Um, but I think oftentimes even out of fear or laziness or whatever, we decide, you know, not to um gather and not to reach out to people that you know we might be unfamiliar with. That's right. And I think the podcast is where I'd like to have conversations with people, to kind of like create the space to have conversations that other people might be afraid to have with people they don't know or don't trust. You know that's right so.
Speaker 2:I think that at the heart of what you're doing is is very much what you know I hope to do with the podcast as well well.
Speaker 2:I want to talk about your live at the Asher. This is the third year you've been doing that is right, so it's interesting. The Asher I moved into my house down the street from the Asher before the Asher Apartments actually existed, and so I remember it being an open field and nothing there, and then seeing these big buildings go up and one by one, the lights coming on in the windows and people moving in and all this stuff. And it wasn't actually even until I went to your gig the other night that I got to see what it looks like inside the space, because I've always walked around outside but not inside. But what you've done there over the last three years to create that environment of music and people coming together is just phenomenal.
Speaker 2:I think there's so many good things to say about it. Bringing people together, like people are coming together in some sense into that community because they need a place to live Not necessarily anything that specifically draws them together and I think so many times in an environment like that you can have people just kind of stay to themselves. They live in their apartment and they don't go anywhere, they don't reach out, but what you've done is you've created a space for so many, there were so many different people from different backgrounds there on Saturday night and it just came together and it was a beautiful space. I don't think that there's a more beautiful space in fremont to be able to do something like that, let alone probably within 25 miles of here, like I don't know of any other place where you could have a rooftop concert around a pool with, uh, taco vendors, another, you know, a bar, coffee. All of that stuff was just phenomenal, and this is something that you put together and you've been doing for three years now.
Speaker 2:That's just beautiful. What, what? What gave you that idea? What is it about? Um, yeah, where did that start like? Why did? Why did what was the at the origin of of that idea? That has come together yeah, thank you.
Speaker 3:Um, you know, three years ago I married my best friend, elmira, and I was living in Menlo Park. She was living in Campbell and we wanted to move somewhere closer to home, you know, near the neighborhood. And then you know, instagram, every now and then, you know is listening to your conversations and you know, somehow the Asher ad kept on popping up. So I was like, babe, let's go check out this spot that looks amazing on Instagram. So we just came for a tour and the first thing they did was they brought us up to the rooftop. As soon as we saw the rooftop, immediately, um, I saw it. Yeah, I saw it. And, um, and I didn't just, you know, it wasn't just like, oh, this is a dream. Um, it felt very, very like I S, I see this and I know how to do this and I know who I'm going to do this with. We just got married a few months before that, and I'll say our wedding was a really creative project as well, too.
Speaker 3:She's a full-time artist. As a photographer, I'm a full-time artist and my work has been simplified to authentic spirituality and creative community. So everything that I do is, if it doesn't end up being that, it usually gets taken off my plate. So when I see beauty and I see a space like that, immediately I try to really consider this ancient invitation to love God, love my neighbor as myself. That's cool and I was like I think we can literally do that here. And so post-pandemic, you know, or I would say still in the middle of a pandemic, I noticed that people were still pretty to themselves, folks were not even saying hello, just walking right past each other, being on an elevator. So you know, my first few months here, I was just like wow, for such an amazing and beautiful space. You know, it seems like we're still incredibly isolated, not just in space, but even like in, when we are sharing it in the same space.
Speaker 3:So you know, I'm not going to sit here and have this grandiose like um. It was an idea. I, we, we, we were really surprised. Once a week, every now and then, they would have food trucks and we would get an email from the Asher saying, hey, here's a, some food vouchers, dinner's, on us. And that happened consistently enough to where I went to the Asher and say, hey, your amenities are amazing, the hospitality is awesome.
Speaker 3:I noticed that you're providing, you know, food for residents. But if you're looking to build community amongst the neighbors, amongst residents, I might be able to help out. So that's how that started three years ago and they gave me a small budget. It's like how much you need? I'm like, well, I don't really know, I've never done this before here. It's like how much you need. They're like, well, I don't really know, I've never done this before here. So it's kind of just been a journey.
Speaker 3:And after the second year they really wanted to invest. They really saw what I was doing. And that's how it started. I mean, the first time we did it and there was no food, I hit up my brother and I was like yo go to Costco, can you pick up some drinks, pick up some pizza from over there. So you know we have learned a lot. I mean this last one that we did was I mean we've been able to along the way but you know so much more than just serving residents and the neighborhood. It's been a great place for artists, you know, on the come up to be able to practice their craft as well. To songwriters who are sitting on songs that I'm like hey, workshop your songs with some of these monsters of musicians, my, my, my friends Marie and David, who's my MD and also vocal director as well too they've got songs for days. But the ability to exercise some of our original material with some of these musicians who are like touring the world, yeah, some.
Speaker 1:of the best musicians in the.
Speaker 3:Bay.
Speaker 2:Area Like and I'm not.
Speaker 3:I'm not exaggerating, yeah, that's been really awesome and just being able to utilize, you know, the amenity spaces for our rehearsals. It's just been such a great place to bring creatives together, friends who come from all different walks of life you know to practice somebody's song.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Something about that has been incredibly unifying and really life-giving. If you just ask a lot of the musicians, it's more than music. There's a community that's been forming at the Asher, and the residence has given us an opportunity to be able to really practice our ability to not just perform but to connect and engage.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love the fact that you platformed uh, other people who are trying to, to, to make a go at it like, um, I mean, this could be an opportunity for you just to kind of, like you know, get your name out there. But uh, I did not feel that at all. I felt like you were the thing that you were. Number one, above, above all, was a fan for the people you brought in there to show who they are and what they have to bring to the table, and I think it's just wonderful. But even when you got up there to do your part of the show the Minor Islands again, it was just bringing people together and it wasn't. But I, I and I, I did not, I was not able to be in there when you introduced the guy that was doing the tacos, but he came out there and sang, uh, sang, a song that was super cool um
Speaker 2:but again, just bringing him into the place and letting him sing and and people enjoying that together, I think it's just, I think it's wonderful, you know it's interesting. Uh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go a little dark, little negative for a moment, just because I think it's. I Want to emphasize something, but I'm not gonna say who it was. But someone recently said that they hate the Asher apartments and they, they were just like I hate you know he's like, I hate him and and I think the reason I don't I didn't actually get into that conversation, but I the reason he said that, I think is because that space and we've interviewed the people who used to own that ground used to be an apricot orchard and it used to have produce and fields and it was a place where farms, they made a living, it was, it was, it was what it used to be. And there are, you know, there's a whole, you know whole other generation of stories out there for that space, and so when you have something like that that is so grounding, something that is so human, that's replaced by a big cement building and concrete and iron and even rooms that separate people as opposed to bringing things together, I mean we want to. You know, for again, the spirit of, uh, our podcast and so many that I've heard, is that we want to bring people together, and it seems like a place like the Asher is actually breaking down and crushing what used to be there, and I think that what you're doing is, in some ways, bringing redemption to what has happened there, and I think that that's really critical, because we can do things that help put money in people's pockets to help people get what they want, to be able to build big buildings and house a ton of people and pile them up and stuff like that, but that's not building community and that's not. That's not really doing what's going to be best for our community.
Speaker 2:And I think what you're doing is you're recognizing, in the space that you live, you know, I want to bring this back together. So I just want to say that I, you know, without you know, trying to pat you on the back too much, and I, I want, I want to say I think what you're doing there is really counteracting whatever it, whatever might be at the heart of, of, of, of, of the problem that's created with a, with a space like that, and so I think that's really great. What do you hope to see come out of this? Like I mean, you've done this for three years now. It seems it started off with you know Costco pizzas and drinks and you know the band. Like I mean, as things go in the future, what have you dreamed of?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, right now it's a really crucial time because, um, currently the asher is under new management and so, um, I found out last tuesday that they actually wanted to stop live at no way, yeah that was.
Speaker 3:That was last Tuesday and so it was on my birthday and then I was actually with students from LA. I came back and had to get ready for live at the Asher and then I had to work and then my wife had surgery on Monday so I wasn't able to talk to management until a couple of days ago and just really wanted to pull up open-handed Because it's new management. They haven't seen what we've done. So I've got a little bit of work ahead of me to really be able to collect the amazing photography and even highlight reels and film that we've created over the last three years to really be able to present to the Asher this thing. That's so much more than you know resident, you know retainment or whatever that word is whatever the words?
Speaker 3:yeah yeah, but it's it's. It's the Asher creating a space for the whole community to come together on this small little rooftop. I would challenge any you know to find a more beautiful rooftop in the Bay Area. Every person that's ever come up again just like I felt when I first saw it was like man. I had no idea that this is Fremont. So I think, on multiple levels, my hope is pretty simple. I really do hope it's something that we can continue to do and do. Well, I think the older I get, the smaller I want to go, rather than trying to make this happen. I mean, I've already been invited to help other properties be able to curate these kind of experiences for residents and I'm open to that. But ultimately, I think my hope is to really invest in Fremont. I can't think of a more beautiful place to be able to bring people together. Just something about like bringing people to your home, not just at a venue.
Speaker 3:So, for me, I would love the ability to continue working with the Asher and for that to be a space where I can continue to develop meaningful relationships with my neighbors. I can continue to create space for creatives all over the Bay Area to be able to practice utilizing their voice. I can continue to tell good stories and continue to figure out, um, yeah, creative ways to bring people together. I think that's that's really my hope. It's not to expand, or, you know, like I, I I really do feel like what we have going um is really unique, Um, so I, yeah, that's my hope is that I can continue to partner with the Asher and if, for some reason, last Saturday was our last concert or we're not able to continue moving forward, I just want to be open, especially since we've got a lot of amazing content because we filmed and we recorded every concert, so that's a part of my background as well, too.
Speaker 3:As a producer and a recording engineer, I released a live album a few years ago that gave me all the tools I need to be able to offer that up to musicians as well, too. So all the musicians part of the payoff is they leave with professional photos, 4k video of their set and then, most importantly, the stems, the recordings, professional recordings of their set. So the ability for them to be able to create content of a live experience that they have at the Asher has been, yeah, something we're really excited to be able to roll out. That's cool this next fall. So a lot of my focus will be on that, but my hope is that we'll continue to be a place in Fremont that people look forward to checking out.
Speaker 2:I think one of the things that I hear most from people around both around that people live in Fremont as well as people live outside of Fremont is that Fremont has nothing, there's nothing to do, there's no place to go. But I can tell you that, you know, if this continues, this is a place to go. This is something to pay attention to and something to do, because you know you're bringing something very unique and something that's needed. Honestly, I think it goes above and beyond what you're going to find in a lot of other places, and I love the fact that your desire is to go smaller rather than big, because people just they need that, they need to feel not, I mean, I guess there's a sense in transcendence that transcend, you know, you kind of feeling small, you know, does something for you too, but there's something where you want to feel a part of something as well you know, so I think that's cool.
Speaker 2:What do you do? What do you do when you're not doing live at the asher? I know you said you're a musician, you're a full-time artist and stuff. What kind of stuff are you um doing and creating, uh, day in and day out?
Speaker 3:I mean, I'm a pretty simple dude. This is, this is my favorite thing I love. I love good food. I love, I love. I love hanging out, meeting, meeting new people, um, but yeah, I mean my, my, my wife and I, you know, we love spending time with people. This morning I got to hang out with an amazing friend who is a phenomenal artist as well too. So, yeah, I think you know the work I do. It reminds me of the quote that when you love what you do, you never have a work day in your life.
Speaker 3:You know. So ultimately, yeah, I'm a people person. I'm a strong, strong extrovert, and so you know I really do appreciate being able to spend quality time with my loved ones. I'm an uncle and proud of it, so a lot of my time when I'm free and able is checking out my, my nieces and nephews sporting events. Um, but other than that, yeah, I I really love because I'm with people a lot. Yeah, um, I really cherish just just just quiet days, quiet nights, uh, with my wife ellie at home, um, you know, watching, watching the show. So we're pretty simple in that way that's cool.
Speaker 2:That's cool. I love it, man well. I appreciate you taking some time to chat with me a bit. I'm sorry it's taking so long for us to get to this point, but we're here now.
Speaker 3:Thank you for the invite.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah and I you know, I hope that, whatever happens, whether it's at the Asher, I do hope that what you're doing at the Asher continues. I think it's critical to our community. You're doing at the asher continues, I think it's. I think it's critical to our community, um, but I hope that, whatever happens, wherever it goes from there, that you just continue to do what you're doing, because it's what you're doing is what our community needs and, um, and I think we need to, I think more people um need to need to own that and uh, and to embrace it.
Speaker 2:So that's great thank you so I say thank you so much for joining me and look forward to sharing this with our city.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you so much, Ricky. Thanks for having me and yeah, awesome, appreciate you yeah.
Speaker 1:This episode was hosted and produced by Ricky B. I'm Gary Williams, Andrew Kvet is the editor. Scheduling and pre-interviews by Sarah S. Be sure to subscribe wherever it is that you listen so you don't miss an episode. You can find everything we make, the podcast and all of our social media links at thefremontpodcastcom. Join us next week on the Frem Media Podcast.