The three piece Native American music group’s motto of “breaking the walls of separation” demonstrates a message that the band says blends music and restoring dignity with healing to the broken hearted can be done.
With a sound clashing modern day native and world music with tribal, new age melodies, Broken Walls has been delivering political, religious and salable sounds for the past 12 years.
 Photo courtesy of Broken Walls Broken Walls, a Native American music band, will play at 7 p.m. this Sunday at the Church on the Rock church in Wasilla. The concert is free and open to the public. |
On their last CD, “The Father’s Dance,” Broken Walls gives a familiar battle cry towards freedom within their respective native cultures, a common theme in their music. Intertwining ambient world music, native drums and a strong message to its listener, the band hoped to help restore broken families in their community.
Most of their eight CDs incorporates sounds from the First Nation heritage, set within a contemporary arena ” diverse in sound, but common in theme.
First Nations flutes, Native drums and all the sound of a full three-piece band swelter through their sets, garnishing a lot of attention in world music lovers across the globe.
While two of Broken Walls’ members, lead singer Jonathan Maracle and bassist Kris Delorenzi, enjoy year-round residency in Ontario, Canada, Bill Pagaran, Broken Walls’ drummer, lives in Palmer. Pagaran said the distance can be trying on the band for recording and touring purposes, but that they somehow pull it off.
As the band’s percussionist for the past two-and-a-half years, Pagaran, an Alaska Tlingit, said he jumped on board with the band by accident, after the previous drummer left during their an Alaska tour in 2005.
“It’s a crazy story,” Pagaran said. “Broken Walls came to Alaska in 2005 to do some concerts in Fairbanks and I heard the announcement at our church. I came home and told my wife about it and after I heard a couple of their songs, I said, ‘I think I’ll play with them.’ She looked at me strange, but when they came to Anchorage, it turned out they needed a drummer, so I offered to help out.”
During Broken Walls’ Alaska tour in 2005, Pagaran said he was asked to join the band on a message left on his answering machine.
“My best friend at the time ended up moving, so I was having a pity party and decided to climb Lazy Mountain,” he said. “I came down and checked my answering machine and it was Jonathan Miracle, saying ‘hey our drummer is resigning. We’re in Ontario, your in Alaska, pray to be in the band.’ At least my music career wasn’t over. My wife and I discussed it and decided the conditions.”
Pagaran said he travels with the band two weeks out of the month, with shows booked solid months in advance across North America and Canada.
“It’s kind of like a dream come true,” he said. “I had had some Nashville failures, so this was a nice rebound.”
Pagaran said during his first year with Broken Walls there was a collaboration occurring in the area between the Alaska native and the white communities, with many local organizations joining forces to break the down the walls of separation still prevalent between the two cultures.
“There’s a lack of understanding of native people,” Pagaran said. “In Alaska, they have often been put in a position to choose between being a Christian or following their cultural beliefs. Jonathan [Maracle] understood this separation and incorporated the turmoil into Broken Walls’ music.”
As president of Carry the Cure, a suicide prevention program based in Anchorage, Pagaran said he is no stranger to the problems plaguing local youths and native people. He said he uses Broken Walls as a connection between the social issues he deals with daily and the hope they can find through faith and God.
“Native people go through the gamut of depression, suicide, loss of identity, drugs and alcohol,” he said “These are issues we all struggle with, but it seems Native Americans have a tougher time.”
At Sunday’s show at Church on the Rock, a Christian based organization with a sizable indoor staging venue, Pagaran said people can expect a lot of energy and emotion.
“This will not be a regular concert,” he said. “There will be some Native American dancers, good music and a message of our mission, trying to break down the walls that separate us. With us we believe, as a Tlingit, God didn’t make a mistake when he made me, or you, so I don’t have to chose which heritage to take on, even in the church. Through our music and dance, the show becomes more of an encounter, of an experience.”
The dancers, Pagaran said, believe that every step they take on stage is signature.
“When they dance, they dance on the injustice. They dance to see alcoholism broken and hopelessness go away. Every dance is a prayer. When we combine the dance with the music, it paints a picture, saying, this is what it looks like to see a Native American free to worship the church.”
Pagaran said it is not Broken Walls’ mission to put any culture down, or to ridicule other people’s faith base, but wants to showcase the band’s passion for music and help bring understanding and healing to all religions.
“It’s good music, first and foremost,” he said.
Contact J.J. Harrier at valleylife@frontiersman.com.
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1 comment(s)Ingrid wrote on Jul 15, 2008 7:14 PM: