The Sunday Music Drop is a weekly radio series hosted by the KQED weekend news team. In each segment, we feature a song from a local musician or band with an upcoming show and hear about what inspires their music.
Singer-songwriter Kerry Wing of the island-reggae band Pacific Vibration says the song “Smile” is about the uncontained feeling “of excitement, inspiration, muse and feeling alive and connected to the beauty in someone else.” In other words, it’s a simple love song. “Smile” was officially released on Valentine’s Day as a single under Pacific Vibration.
Wing plays the guitar and ukulele, and “dabbles” in many other instruments. He and a friend were traveling in Saint Kitts and Nevis and saw a woman walk by. “She just gave us this beautiful smile,” he said. That moment provided the inspiration for the song — a love song with an island-reggae vibe.
Born and raised in the Bay Area, Wing describes his musical upbringing in the Bay as both challenging and beautiful.
“It’s influenced my music in the sense that I think my music also represents that mixed emotions about everything — about life,” said Wing.
Now based in Pacifica, Wing said that when he was a baby, his older brother Aidan (also a musician), who was very into cowboy songs, would play him songs like “Whoopee-Ti-Yi-Yo.”
“I’d start humming along and singing the melodies of the songs he was playing for me,” he said.
Wing comes from a musical family: Both his parents sing and play guitar. His mom started him on the piano at age 6.
“You can see music so much more visually on the piano as an instrument to start off with,” Wing said. His early love for music blossomed into playing with different bands, travel and a growing spiritual alignment.
For Wing, playing music is part of a spiritual process. In his late teens, he followed a Craigslist ad for spiritual voice lessons, which led him to John DeRobertis, whom he described as a tough guy with a “guru vibe.” They formed an intense student-teacher relationship, and Wing became his caregiver for nearly 10 years, until DeRobertis died in 2021.