After the audience wished her a belated happy birthday, we jumped into our conversation. Here are a few excerpts from the 50-minute discussion, cut for length and edited for clarity.<\/p>\n
Pendarvis Harshaw: How are you feeling? How are you ushering in this new season?<\/p>\n
Ruby Ibarra: I wouldn\u2019t say that things have slowed down particularly, but now that I am currently off tour after last year, I\u2019ve had those moments to sit and reflect \u2014 taking a look at the blessings that have come in my career. But also taking a look at how the music scene continues to develop and thrive here where I grew up.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know if y\u2019all were out here in the Bay during Super Bowl weekend a couple weeks ago, but to see our OGs, like Too Short and E-40, celebrated, loved and amplified, I feel like that was a reminder to me to stay rooted here and continue to build community here. I feel very inspired right now.<\/p>\n
How do you keep in mind how important art is, given everything else going on in the world?\u00a0<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t separate the politics and the social justice from the art. It\u2019s embedded in my identity. The fact that I\u2019m a woman and the fact that I am Filipino \u2014 even just to breathe, even just to be here is very political when there\u2019s people telling you that you don\u2019t belong here, when people\u2019s families are being separated right now.<\/p>\n
When I created the song \u201cBakunawa<\/a>,\u201d it really was being completely unfiltered, being unapologetic and just putting forth myself 100%. And I think that\u2019s really the way that I\u2019ve always approached my art.<\/p>\n I also wanted to share, it was also a very unique time of also winning the Tiny Desk Contest last year in 2025. We were sent off on a ten-city tour with NPR, and our first stop was Los Angeles, and this was the time when [President Trump] brought in the National Guard<\/a>.<\/p>\n My band and I flew into Los Angeles, and that same evening they put a curfew on the city. And I think that really put it into perspective: People are being silenced, and if I have the privilege and the opportunity to have microphone in my hand. That means I better say something with substance, I better speak for people who don\u2019t have a microphone in their hands.<\/p>\n Taking a step back from the music, from the technical work, you also co-founded Bolo Music Group. What has it been like for you to be on that side of the table?<\/p>\n It\u2019s been such a rollercoaster. It\u2019s been so interesting. It has been so fulfilling. So, to give a little bit of context for folks that aren\u2019t familiar with Bolo Music Group, it\u2019s an independent record label that I co-founded with my bass player from my band, Angelo \u201cLASI\u201d Macaraeg<\/a>.<\/p>\n Really the the intent with for Bolo Music Group for us was to create a space where we\u2019re making it easier for the next generation of artists. Because for me, this has not been an overnight thing, y\u2019all. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the audience wished her a belated happy birthday, we jumped into our conversation. Here are a few…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-201108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-san-francisco","9":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","10":"tag-san-francisco-news","11":"tag-sf","12":"tag-sf-headlines","13":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}