E.N Young, born Ian Allan Young, is a roots musician born and raised on the USA\/Mexico border in San Diego, California. E.N started playing piano at age 6, which was the beginning of his musical life. E.N has been performing music since the age of 15, and has made a name for himself since 2010. On October 7, 2017 he was in Orlando, FL as part of the lineup for the annual Reggae On The Block music festival. E.N took the time to chat with us on Altwire about his latest album, \u201cCall On Me,\u201d his upcoming tour, and life.<\/p>\n
[AltWire\/Omayra Lopez]: I first wanted to thank you for taking the time to do this interview with me today. For our readers who haven\u2019t heard of you, can you tell us about yourself? \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n [E.N Young]:<\/strong> My name is E.N Young, I was born and raised in San Diego, California and I produce and perform reggae music to spread consciousness, spirituality and a positive message to the world.<\/p>\n [AW]: What was the writing process like for \u201cCall on Me\u201d album? How did you decide which songs went on the album, and which ones didn\u2019t?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n [E.N]:<\/strong> So far in my career, I put out everything that I\u2019ve created. Every little idea that I\u2019ve had, I\u2019ve put out. I feel like that\u2019s a different way of going about it. I don\u2019t have a big collection of music I\u2019ve been sitting on and choosing the right tracks. I was creating tracks just for the album. On the \u201cCall On Me\u201d Album, I came up with the song \u201cCall On Me\u201d and then after that,\u00a0 I wanted to base an album around that song, so I created tracks with that in mind; with different energies and different consciousness within each song.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [AW]: You have produced and written songs for other artists on the reggae scene. What advice would you give up and coming artists and why?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n [E.N]:<\/strong> I would tell them to grind and grind with intent. Do work but know what you have to give, what message you have and come to the people musically and spiritually with intent. I feel that if you have intent and know what you want to give to the world and you really manifest and strive forward in that direction, anything is possible. Grind, start from the ground up and build.<\/p>\n [AW]: What was the best advice someone gave you that stood out to you when you started?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n [E.N]:<\/strong> The best advice was through Jamaican reggae music that had a spiritual\u00a0conscious message, that message has been with me every step of the way. Living consciously and spiritually. That\u2019s what reggae music from Jamaica has taught me, especially early on. That message has stayed with me the entire time. I\u2019m grateful for that message because it crafted my path.<\/p>\n [AW]: With the reggae scene always changing and evolving, what are the things you like and don\u2019t like about it?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n [E.N]:<\/strong> There\u2019s good and bad with the progression of reggae music. On a positive note, I love how reggae has been in the mainstream and certain elements of it in pop music, even the spiritual foundations you see in Rihanna and pop stars, with reggae music at times. I like that because it\u2019s pushing the energy forward. I like how it\u2019s blown up to a level where Rebelution is performing in amphitheaters and there\u2019s a lot of successful tours all around, that\u2019s very inspiring and I\u2019m grateful.<\/p>\n What I don\u2019t like about it is that sometimes in the 3rd and 4th generations in the US, the foundations of Jamaica get lost. There\u2019s bands that have like a song called \u201cYes I\u201d and they don\u2019t connect to the spiritual foundation of the music, like party energy and that exists within reggae too you know? Because we gotta be strong and live up all the time but I wish that all involved with reggae music just understand where this music came from, and that this music had a spiritual foundation. There\u2019s a lot of groups that do know that like for instance Rebelution, who I brought up. You see spiritually and positive energy within their music and they get that from the origins of reggae music and that\u2019s really good you know? And I wish for all up and coming generations in the future to understand where this music comes from. It\u2019s a blessed music and it\u2019s why it\u2019s gone so far.<\/p>\n [Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”33″ gal_title=”E.N Young”]<\/p>\n [AW]: What aspects of the industry do you feel have hurt or helped your career?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n [E.N]:<\/strong> I feel the aspects of the industry that have pushed me forward is the independent entrepreneurship of the new internet and media world. I see that as a benefit. I would stand in front of all the shows I\u2019ve ever played in the last 5 years and hand out 500 CDs at a time and hand out samplers all across the US everywhere I go. I think a lot of the connection was possible because of all I learned through the internet and all the connections we\u2019ve all had with the internet. It can be a positive thing or a negative thing. I feel like I\u2019ve taken a lot of positivity from it. I\u2019ve taken my career into my own hands since my first album in 2010. These are all the positives, I don\u2019t know what\u2019s hurt my career I don\u2019t think anything has hurt my career.<\/p>\n [AW]: What do you miss from home the most during your tour?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n [E.N]:<\/strong> I miss my family the most. I just had a baby, he\u2019s 3 months old, I think about him and my wife the most. My extended family, my parents. Going out on the road is a difficult thing because you have to leave people but it has its reward because you get to connect with people and you get to better the world. I\u2019m grateful to go out and have the opportunity to that. There is difficult parts of it and leaving my loved ones is one of them.<\/p>\n [AW]: What do you enjoy doing when you\u2019re not recording or performing onstage?<\/strong><\/p>\n [E.N]:<\/strong> I love to backpack. I love to go to Sierra Nevada mountains with everything I have to live in my back for 5-10 days. It\u2019s an incredible feeling to be to be 10\u2019000 feet and\u00a0 above, above tree lines where there\u2019s snow at certain points but it\u2019s summertime. It\u2019s incredible. I get to do a few trips a year, I feel alive up there, it\u2019s definitely grounding. It adds balance to my life. I also live in Imperial Beach and I love to go to the beach and enjoy my city, and lot of music.<\/p>\n [AW]: You live a vegan lifestyle. For how long have you been a vegan and what inspired this change?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n [E.N]:<\/strong> I\u2019ve been full vegan for 5 years but it was a long process. My mom was a vegetarian when I was 11 years old. I really remember that. It was a big pivotal moment in my life where I understood the consciousness of not ingesting animal products. I also got a heavy influence from Rastafari and from reggae music and all the culture over there and they would eat Ital and that was really a flag in my life. It was a spiritual thing. It involves your diet. Those were strong influences from me at a young age. But being in culture like everyone does it\u2019s hard to make a change. Everything we know is opposite of that. We grew up eating dairy and meat products. At first most people say \u201cI don\u2019t know how I would do this, I don\u2019t even know what I would eat.\u201d In reality it\u2019s a really easy thing, I call myself a vegan ninja now but it\u2019s an incredible thing, I love it! Anywhere I go I can find vegan options. I find it a challenge. It opens a lot of doors to energy and things. Even just trying to order at restaurant, asking people for help and things. It increases energy. It\u2019s been a long process, I was just eating ital for a while where I was eating just fish for a long time and I saw a bunch of documentaries and I didn\u2019t understand that information before but now I understand that the biggest polluters in the world are cows and dairy farms and the way animals are treated and the way we\u2019ve mass produced animals for so long that at this point evolution has taken place and it actually hurts us, it causes disease.<\/p>\n Every society says that carcinogens causes disease. That would be meat, dairy and all that intake, so there\u2019s direct relation to animal products and disease. When I understood this from the documentary \u201cForks Over Knives\u201d it opened my eyes to this information and I started doing more and more research. I realized that these were facts and people have been overlooking this because of our culture and the way we\u2019ve always lived. I think at one point we needed to eat animals to survive because we didn\u2019t know when we were gonna get the next big source of protein and source of food but at this point with the technology we have and 8 billion people in the world, we don\u2019t need to eat\u00a0 animal products anymore and it\u2019s a secondary source, the foundation is vegetables, fruits, plant based foods are the source of all nutrients that heal us. I started getting into different healers like Dr. Sebi and other healers that really preach an alkaline vegan diets to heal and it just changed all my way of thinking and changed my life. Now I would consider myself a vegan activist but I\u2019m really challenged because if I put anything about this on the internet I get so much negativity in return that it\u2019s a battle within my soul to spread this but I spread this on such a constant basis and I\u2019m passionate to be an activist and my wife is vegan too and we\u2019re raising our son vegan, and he\u2019s been breastfeeding for 3 months and he\u2019s in the 98th percentile for weight and height and he\u2019s a huge vegan baby. I feel so grateful for that. I will continue with that vegan plant based message for the rest of my life.<\/p>\n [AW]: Before we close, is there a message you\u2019d like to send to our readers and your fans?<\/strong><\/p>\n [E.N]:<\/strong> Spirituality in general is hard to show people and it\u2019s hard to show a tangible proof that it exists but I feel very connected and that everything in life is meant to be from the foundation source of life which is the Universe or God or whatever you want to call it there\u2019s a source of energy that we\u2019re all from, all plants, all life, all planets, have come back to one source and I feel that source guides us in a way and challenges us to do good or evil. I\u2019d tell people to strive towards the\u00a0 positivity and know that we\u2019re guided, and look for the signs, and really tap into the spiritual realm because that\u2019s where we can get answers and tap into a whole \u2018nother part of existence really. It all really boils down to good over evil. Just being positive and being grateful for what you have. With that you can manifest whatever you want. If you have ideas in your head and you want them to happen, if you truly think about them in a positive light day in day out all the time and you strive for them, it can happen easily. I\u2019m living my dream right now and that\u2019s a small example. Manifestation is real and it comes from a spiritual foundation of positivity. A secret that no one knows, a simple idea that can be said in different ways. Staying positive and really creating your own life. It\u2019s all creation, a blank canvas, we can do what we want. We might have hard times but stay positive and move towards the light. There\u2019s light waiting. Be grateful and do what you wanna do, you can do it.<\/p>\n [AW]: Thank you so much, E.N for taking your time to chat with us, it\u2019s been a pleasure.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n [E.N]:<\/strong> I\u2019m grateful to be here.<\/p>\n