All Love Everything’s Aloe Blacc on his music career, marriage and biggest influences

Mum drove most of the family’s day-to-day activity. Dad was in the military and travelled a lot for extended periods of time. He came from a family of 13 brothers and sisters. It was Mum who made sure we all stayed in touch; that took a lot of effort but she made it seem easy.

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My sister Indhira was the singer of the family and inspired me to want to do the same, although as a kid – she’s four years older than me – she wasn’t impressed by my attempts. We used to play a lot of popular music in the house and dance.

When Indhira moved out of home, I became the eldest and really looked after my sister Kedra, who’s eight years younger. I was more like her teacher. I taught her to read and do math. She learnt to play the clarinet and is a self-taught piano player.

My first kiss happened at school when I was 13. My girlfriend and I stole away from the crowd at a basketball game and hid behind a brick wall on campus. We had been sharing a packet of M&Ms and that was the moment it happened.

Mum saw music as a hobby, not a career, and it took her a little bit longer to see it as something that could potentially sustain my livelihood. After I lost my corporate job at Ernst & Young I decided that I would pursue music full time. She still asked me when I would get a real job. I contemplated becoming a substitute teacher if my career didn’t take off.

I only had one serious relationship prior to getting married. My heart was broken but it was a long-distance relationship, so I managed to justify to myself that it wouldn’t have worked out because we didn’t live in the same country. I was 23.

I first met my wife, Maya Jupiter, over the phone in 2006. She was hosting a hip-hop show on Triple J and interviewed me about my debut album. She was born in Mexico and raised in Australia. I was in Melbourne for a music conference a year later and she was, too. She interviewed me for a show she was hosting on Channel V.

I invited her to the finale party. After a while I figured she wasn’t coming. As I was going to leave, she got out of a taxi that I was about to hop into. We hung for a few hours. We began dating in 2007 and she moved to Los Angeles a year later. We married in 2010 and have two children, aged four and seven.

Maya and I are both passionate about activism and care about humanity, justice and equality. We
see eye to eye on a lot of things.

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My daughter, Mandela, is very attentive, emotive and empathetic. That’s not to say that my son Satya isn’t, but this part of her character trait is unwavering.

I always thought I would marry and have a family. It’s something Maya and I talked about when we first began our relationship. It felt natural.

I have written many songs about Maya, including asking for her hand in marriage. When we visited her grandpa in Mexico a few years ago, she asked him what was the secret to a lasting marriage – he had been married for 62 years until his wife died. We wrote a song based on his answer and it’s our own personal marriage song.

Aloe Blacc’s latest album All Love Everything is out now.

This article appears in Sunday Life magazine within the Sun-Herald and the Sunday Age on sale February 21. To read more from Sunday Life, visit The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.