Meet Harry Friio

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Harry Friio a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Harry, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

Ever since I can remember, music has been my only real true love that has gotten me through the worst and lead to the best of times, and will continue to create them. I did band, chorus and theater in elementary and middle school, and would have in high school if they had it at the four different ones I attended. I always knew that I would have a career founded in music, the path was and is never clear though. As I’ve been exposed to and learned more about the entertainment world, specifically music, I realized that the market and space for creating real, authentic, heartfelt music of all genres, especially coming from a skinny white red head is not the most accepted in the industry. The more I realized this, and the more I came into contact with people said one thing and did another, the more I realized that I will have to create and pave my own lane and lead the way to live through my passion. That in mind, it definitely has taken and still is taking a lot of self reflection and outside the box thinking and action. I found myself tuning more into myself and my spirit, healing the traumas and overcoming major fears in my life, particularly addressing blood family tensions and forgiving them for myself, not to repair those relationships. Through this process, I fell in love with reggae music and Rasta culture, which has and continues to be a huge part of how I carry myself and treat others, something I am very grateful to have learned about through music and reading. I rekindled my connection with God, Yahweh, Jah, or however you may refer to the divine force or being of the universe, this time though through my own exploration, acceptance and belief in Him, which has clarified my vision for myself and how I need to and will impact the world for the better. Through all of this, I realized that my purpose, and everyone’s purpose on Earth is to serve and better each other through our passions and gifts that God gives us. After reading “The First Rasta”, by Helene Lee, the legendary story of Leonard Percival Howell very much influenced and inspired me; he bought and provided land for his Rasta followers to cultivate and turn into their own community, which lasted for about 10 years, and prospered peacefully for about 5 until the Jamaican government burned and raided the ganja farms that they had grown for political and corrupt reasons. This subsequently forced families back into the ghettos, ultimately leading to the revolutionary spirit in Kingston and other cities. After reading and visualizing such a possibility being real, my goal in life shifted from simply becoming a successful music artist to building a self sustaining community on my own land, in which we grow and maintain crops and the community through the help of fellow lovers of life. It will be essentially free to live there, so long as we help each other maintain each other’s well being and necessities by providing value for the community! I will fund this mission by using my gift of music and great energy to create my album and all of my music, in which all of the proceeds will go towards my building fund, in addition to using direct marketing skills I learned at the marketing job I did for a little over a year, which is actually how I relocated to Atlanta, something that I believe was the work of God. That was essentially my last actual “job”, and so I will set up a table to present this concept and music to people and generate donations through this means as well, in addition to me saving my own earned funds doing Amazon Flex. In addition, this new purpose of mine has inspired me to start leading “group enlightening sessions”; these weekly meet ups, every Sunday from 2-4 at a park the overall closest for those in attendance, start with yoga to ground ourselves in the moment together and then transition into group discussion about crucial hidden history I prepare a lesson plan on with key takeaways. These sessions lead to those who participate leaving them more in tune with theirselves, and more educated on how to move better as a people by learning from history and breaking our primitive selfish cycles in civilization. This movement will lead to the communal and eventually global awakening of our conscious, and we will build a better world because of it! Ultimately, I have found and will continue to grow my purpose by serving the world, something that I believe is everyone’s purpose in their own way, which is largely driven by my by belief in a divine force. Through my gifts blessed upon me and inspiring and spreading love in the best way possible through music and art, my vision is growing into reality, which the more it develops the more it will evolve to be even greater!

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

Being that I live through my purpose, this answer definitely overlaps with how I found it, but there are definitely areas in which I feel it makes sense to add and elaborate upon. Especially when it comes to music, I’m a creative control freak, in the sense that I feel a need to be in charge of or at least part of the whole creative process, in whatever I’m creating. So, I produce my own beats(no samples as of yet), write my own songs, often times mix, engineer, and record them all, and create and design the visuals for it. I also have fallen in love with different forms of art and expression, which started from me designing my first pair of shoes to embody my album concept, Misoverstood Monarch. This album represents my journey from New Jersey and the grid life, a fear and trauma based mindset I was stuck in, to developing into growing into my true self in Georgia, now in Metro Atlanta, through self exploration, a constant process which is part of what makes life beautiful! Like a Monarch Butterfly, I had to migrate and change environments to do so. I am working on this album now, and my goal is to be done with it by December, at latest the new year- this is because I will most likely be mixing most of the songs, and producing and creating all of the tracks. I just finished a single for it, entitled ‘Too Raw (Higher Purpose), which is getting released on September 19th. This song is about exposing the truth of how the system exploits and programs our people, and explores insights on communication and how we can build to be better, taking our shot “to the stars”. I model as well, although I have fallen back from it, at least from the runway aspect, as I currently feel that world isn’t conducive to my mission, although I’m always open minded towards opportunities that provide the potential to put me in a better position to attain my aforementioned goals. That said, I greatly appreciate Nathaniel Ellis, the designer and creator of his brand @enigmaticliving , for providing me opportunities to model for his brand Enigmatic Living, which is about uplifting our mental health. He also has helped guide me and been a great friend for me, especially through these last few months. Also shoutout to @cashleybanks_boss for bringing on to her Billionaire Squad and providing me opportunities to model for her brand, @afbillionair, as I grew and learned a lot from those experienced and opportunities she provided. Also thanks to @n3whollywood for selecting me to model for her brand N3w Hollywood, in a couple shows as well, and connecting me to people she felt would be good for me, and keeping it real. I love to dance as well, and just finished being part Savy Milan’s video shoot for the song, “Hi, I’m Chucky, Wanna Play?, playing Chucky in the video as I’m a crazy dancing redhead. It was executive produced by Money Beats @soundtrendsllc, and the director, designer, stylist and for the girls part semi choreographed as well by Renee Parks, @divaparks. Me and Rasheed, my dancing partner in the video and a great person, @rasheedtwin2, choreographed our main parts and freestyled the rest. Shoutout to Ari and the other girls that were in the shoot as well and made it all possible, and @kittkatt1204 for helping with the makeup. They are the parents of Savy, which I feel is beautiful to see, a family of creatives working together to build a legacy and future. It is coming out in early or mid October, and we will be doing a live performance of it this September on the 22nd. In regards to making an immediate and tangible difference for the world, I have started an organization called Awoken Altruist Activists, which meets up weekly on Sundays from 2-4 p.m, comprised of people that seek to grow into the best versions of themselves and change the world by starting with themselves and each other. We start with yoga, and then into collectively learning and discussing important hidden history, as this is how we learn from our mistakes and formulate a plan on how to build better and sustainably in the future. This time frame is tentative as I decided this was the best time frame to have as many people as possible be able to attend; if a better day and/or time is required by those who want to come, then obviously it will change, and the location is determined weekly by the closest park to those attending that week. Although I currently prepare the lesson plan and key takeaways, these meet ups are not about boosting our egos, so anyone that has a question or topic that they wish to bring to the group to improve our consciousness is more than welcome to do so! This is the form to confirm attendance- https://form.jotform.com/242387597180164 (https://form.jotform.com/242387597180164) . Going back to the shoes, I customize shoes for people based off what they love about life, and draw an inspired design onto the shoe based upon those elements. And of course as I stated in my purpose, I am working towards establishing a self sustaining community that provides for itself and inspires the rest of the world to follow suit!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

This is a great question, and it is an honor to even be asked this question, considering I feel I am still early in my journey relative to where I will be before my life is all said and done, God willing. One of the most impactful qualities that by far has been and continues to be the most impactful for my journey is simply my obsessive commitment to my goals by any means necessary. I have put in so many nights ,including last night, of staying up until 6 a.m or later to complete songs or aspects of one or a project, waking up and getting straight into music, and healthy or not, not eating until I accomplish what I need to. So I guess I kinda put two in one on that one but they are symbiotic, obsessive commitment requires heavy sacrifice. The next one I would say, which is equally if not more important, has been living and prioritizing my time and resources according to my goals,. This means not letting distractions get in the way, weighing the pros and cons of my every action, and staying consistently disciplined. This leads to my third, which is the leader and compass of them all, learning to live through love, God, and my purpose- nothing sustainable will ever be achieved if you do not genuinely love doing it and have a purpose behind it. I stretch, work out and briefly meditate everyday because I highly value taking care of my mind, body and spirit, because this is how I stay on track and keep clarity with my overall goals in life. If you are doing something for material gain, you will assuredly become exhausted and miserable in life, as only spiritual fulfillment will set and keep you free- we are really just spiritual beings inside a body. My advice for developing these attributes is very straightforward- just start and never stop. Do not worry about the how, just stay focused on why you are doing and what you can do right now to make progress. As in right now- well finish reading if you want but then start! If you are unclear about what your purpose is or what you are meant to do in life, exploring what you love about life which comes through gratitude is the answer. Once you have some ideas, write them down, and then research/brainstorm and talk to God about how you will turn those into a career or business- ultimately into a way of life to sustain yourself. From there, once your path is decided, keep an open mind to growth and your vision, and make it a requirement to work on that goal everyday, no matter how tired you may be or how you feel. If we are not moving forwards, we are moving backwards, so anytime not dedicated towards furthering our development and goals is detrimental.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

Yes, I am most certainly always open and looking for people to collaborate with! It is literally impossible to change the world by ourselves, we learn from others and our experiences that inherently come from growing outside of ourselves. That said, the type of people that I need to work with are those that share my goal of serving and builds our communities consciousness up to be emotionally, spiritually and mentally wise and intelligent, through their gifts and abilities. They also need to respect my vision like it’s their own, and vice versa as that is the only way to effectively and healthily grow together. With that in mind, I’d love to grow with anyone that fits that criteria, and you can connect with me through IG at @Harryfriio for music, @awokenaltruistactivists for the revolutionary aspect, and email me at friioonthebeat@gmail.com (mailto:friioonthebeat@gmail.com). Also, I have an app for educational resources and to stay updated on our meet ups, where there is a link to request to be part our group chat on GroupMe. This is that- https://app.jotform.com/242292352805152 (https://app.jotform.com/242292352805152) , and again, this is the form to sign up and get in contact to attend our meet ups- https://form.jotform.com/242387597180164 (https://form.jotform.com/242387597180164) . To check out my work to support and hear my vibe and style, simply look up Harry FRIIO, which stands for Free, Raw, Insightful, Intellectual, Outspoken, on YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud, and more participating platforms through DistroKid. I sincerely look forward to getting to know and grow with more like minded individuals that share aspects of my vision!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://app.jotform.com/242292352805152
• Instagram: Harryfriio
• Facebook: Hippie Harry
• Youtube: Harry FRIIO
• Soundcloud: Harry FRIIO
• Other: GroupMe Group For Enlightenment Meetups- https://groupme.com/join_group/102433823/7y3PEtQAAttendance Confirmation Form- https://form.jotform.com/242387597180164

Image Credits

IG for yoga pose pictures- @shots_by_tolli
A Capella and Poetry flyer- @rjxtheeternal_