Music like Medicine For The People

Nahko and Medicine for the People is an American world music group. The six-member band is headed by frontman Nahko Bear.

Born in Portland, Oregon, of Puerto Rican and Filipino descent, he was adopted at a young age and raised by a white family. It wasn't until his early twenties that he would meet his birth mother. He wrote the song "Early February" shortly before this meeting; it describes a woman far too young to be pregnant putting her baby in the bed of a woman she'd never met. Bear says his creative inspiration is the desire to bridge cultural gaps, and that he has been musically inclined since the age of six, when he started learning to play the piano. He has also worked as a piano teacher and music director. In 2012, he began traveling around the United States in a van with his dog. In 2017, Nahko released a solo album titled My Name Is Bear, under the name Nahko.