Hayfa Abichahine is an activist, as well as the lead singer and guitarist for Hayfa Makes Music, a local trio that is making a very quick name for itself in the Vancouver music scene with consecutive sold-out shows, including the one cool word Summer 08 Release Party.

The curly-coiffed lead singer cuts an immediate figure — within seconds of sitting down with her, you become immediately aware that she means business, careful not to mince words, but unafraid to talk at length about the things she holds closest to her: her music, her band, and her passion for activism and social justice.

Hayfa Makes Music belongs to that rare breed of local bands that is marked with the “activist” label, “I think it’s somewhat bizarre how being tagged as an ‘activist’ is a negative thing,” starts Abichahine.

“If you look at the huge bands that have passed through our culture – The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix – they were all hugely political, and no one had a problem with them. Not to compare ourselves to those bands, obviously, but they’re so immensely popular, it seems funny to me that there seems to be a lack of political bands on a local level, and this negative stigma attached, when you have these bands who have sold billions of records doing the same thing,” says Abichahine.

She pauses to think for a moment, then continues, “… Music has been something I’ve always done, before the political thing, before the activist thing, and music has always been a way for me to express myself creatively. Once I became more involved in social justice, it just naturally started coming out in my music because music is how I express myself and fighting these causes has become so important to me.”

Abichahine and her band’s fiddle player, Alexandra Taub, have been a part of Students for a Free Tibet for over 5 years, after learning about the struggle from a fellow UBC student who came from Tibet.

“Once I heard about the things that were going on over there firsthand, I couldn’t not take up the cause,” she says.

“There was so much about it that was appealing to me because it’s 100% nonviolent. I’m a pacifist and not one to try and force things on other people, and because the struggle to free Tibet has been 100% nonviolent and because Tibetans want only a peaceful solution, it’s something I could easily get behind.”

On songs like the eponymous “Jailhouse” off the Jailhouse EP, Abichahine isn’t afraid to spread her message: “Tibetan flags hang high/above the city sky/colors painted with pride/everybody’s telling me that change is hard to find/all I can do is try.”

“To me, music is just one of the tools I have in my activist toolbox. I think it’s a very effective way to get people tuned into what’s happening around them. If you come to a show, you don’t see people protesting and chanting and shouting rally cries, you see a people dancing and having fun, and that’s really what it’s all about.

“I’m not here to force people into making choices. People are going to get out of our music what they’re going to get out of it. So long as the message isn’t affecting our audience negatively, I’ll never have a problem being political because the marriage between the music and the political makes so much sense to me.”

But does it always make sense to others?

“The bottom line for me, and the reason why I started this band, was to get people to have fun. As I said, the music came before the activism, and this has never been a vehicle for my political views. But I think if people can come to the show, get engaged, and maybe spend some time with the music and the lyrics, it might make them want to become more involved politically and I certainly don’t have a problem with that.

“People having fun comes first. And if they can have fun, then their willingness to learn about certain causes may go up. And if we can have a hand in that, that’s awesome.”

The audience engagement that Abichahine is talking about is evident watching the group play shows, two of which never seem to look the same. In addition to the three “core” members (Abichahine, Taub, and John Cullen on drums), the band also has guest instrumentalists from all genres that join them on stage during shows, from backup singers to slam poets, didgeridoo players to trombonists, and djembe players to percussionists.

“Part of why we want to change it up all the time is that music isn’t supposed to be exclusive. It’s supposed to be about people getting together and having a good time. Fun is contagious, and we hope that when we play, more and more people get inspired to be involved and have fun with us.”

“Nothing about this music is exclusive. I look at artists like Ani DiFranco and Michael Franti as inspirations, as they’re artists who are making very accessible music while having something to say, and I think that’s really important. We want to try and get as many people involved as possible, because the more we get the audience involved, the more they take away from the show, and that’s the ultimate goal.”

There’s no denying that Hayfa Makes Music has found its niche in a scene where heavy metallists and radio-rock bands seem to get far more attention than anyone else. After the recent release of their Jailhouse EP, the group will continue to write more songs for an LP that is to be recorded in the new year, and will continue to play multiple shows around Vancouver.