Climate activist, artist and entrepreneur Eric Pasi debuts music from his Polynesian surf rock project, Palms Psalm. After a several-year hiatus, Pasi, a first-generation Tongan-American, returns to the stage with a concept album addressing climate annihilation, colonialism, and Polynesian culture. Alongside fellow musicians Jeff Marcovis, Brian Casey, and others, the music is supported by climate-focused visual artistry from Nolan Morice of Linebreak Media.
Palms Psalm is a music project created by Eric Pasi. The music weaves surf rock with island vibes, specifically recalling old Polynesian music dug up by Pasi, a first-generation Polynesian-American.
In 2014 Pasi started a project called Palms Psalm in the wake of a few other projects, including Minneapolis-based Hunting Club. The music was an outlet for more socially-focused commentary on the climate crisis, advocacy that has consumed his adult life.
That year included a formative pilgrimage to Nukualofa, Tonga —his father’s homeland and site of recent volcanic devastation. Much of Tonga is just feet above sea-level, which was exposed by the resulting tsunami.
In 2015 Pasi’s father Siaosi passed away suddenly. In the aftermath Pasi put musical ambitions on the shelf to focus on climate solutions, and solar power specifically. He is better-known professionally, as a leader of IPS Solar. The influential American solar company was recently acquired in April 2022 by a public utility company. He also authored a book on clean energy careers in 2020 called CleanWave: A Guide to Success in the Green Recovery.
In part to deal with the very secretive 12-month acquisition process, Pasi returned to the studio to work out a mix of songs, some tracing their origins to 2015. The process included inspiration from old Polynesian music, much of which was handed down personally by his father.
The forthcoming album, scheduled for release in early 2023, is a journey through Pasi’s life and heritage. The protest undertones reflect anger at a world complacent with climate-fueled annihilation. As Pasi wrote in CleanWave, “there’s a saying that we, everyone on this planet, are all standing on the shoulders of giants, propelled forward into the present by a confluence of our ancestors’ struggles and triumphs. How fraught their journeys must have been; facing catastrophes, hunger, and disease. Today we’ve lost our sense of vulnerability. The current crisis threatens not just our future and present, but everything that has ever come before us. We can’t let the sacrifices of our fathers and mothers, and their reverence be in vain.”
Diane is a St. Paul-based musician and radio host/producer of The Local Show on MPR’s The Current. Primarily a vocalist and guitarist, Diane plays and writes an eclectic variety of music including hip-hop, folk, rock ‘n’ roll, experimental improv and jazz.