Hans Johnson grew up making music. After high school, he set out to record the little-documented songs of East Africa’s Maasai tribe. He eventually moved into professional videography and continued writing the music for his own films. These combined talents and understanding of the movement of music and film gives Hans' music an imminently relevant sound. Born in Minnesota to musical parents, he began writing and recording his own songs by singing into a little tape recorder at the age of 5. His family moved around a lot when he was young, giving him a deep appreciation for different cultures and music. This led him to study anthropology in college. He would spend hours in the college's music library with headphones on, listening to vinyl recordings made by Alan Lomax of indigenous music he had collected from around the world. After first hearing a recording of Maasai music, He was enamored. He contacted the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian, but could not find any other recordings. Inspired by Alan Lomax, He decided to take what little savings he had from working in a record store to buy a plane ticket to Kenya. In a few weeks, he was living with a Maasai family in a mud hut in search of Maasai music. His trip to Kenya was a transformative experience. He learned about Maasai culture, hitchhiked around the countryside recording over 300 songs, and even went through parts of the warrior initiation with my age-mates. He was hooked. He returned to Kenya many times ther

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