Throughout Vine Sweetland’s early life, he was always drawn to many mediums of art, continuously creating as a writer, artist and multi-instrumentalist. All of these experiences would help the transition into what Vine would continue to create and produce in the following years.

During the tumultuous 1992 Los Angeles riots, Vine Sweetland was inspired by, and penned, Hell is for the Harlot.

As a poet, Vine has performed in over 100 venues throughout California, receiving various accolades and awards, as well as being featured in widely diverse publications, such as Gnosis magazine, Psychedelic Illuminations (for which he later became the poetry editor), and numerous others. He was also ranked as one of the top three performance poets in southern California’s poetry magazine, Next, for three consecutive years and appeared as one of the top Orange County poets in OC Weekly magazine.

In 1994, Vine assisted Ron Piper with hosting the psychedelic symposium, Gathering of the Minds, at Chapman University in Orange, California. Numerous speakers included John Allen, Cliff Benton, Peter Bralver, Gary Bravo, M.D., Chris Conrad, Valerie Corral, Jim, Dekorne, Rick Doblin, Troy Donahue, Donna Dryer, M.D., Bruce Eisner, Robert Forte, Dr. Jochen Gartz, Steven Gaskin, Michael Gilbert, Charles Grov, M.D., Peter Gorman, Roberta Hamilton, Ph.D., Jack Herer, Oscar Janiger, M.D., Ellen Komp, Paul Krassner, Lorin Lindner, Ph.D., Timothy Leary, Bernard McGrane, Dennis McKenna, Ph.D., Ralph Metzner, Ph.D., David E. Nichols, Ph.D., Judy Osburn, Lynn Osburn, Jonathan Ott, Thomas Pinkson, Ph.D., Ram Dass, Peter Stafford, Richard Yensen, Ph.D.

Vine played tambura with pandit sitarist, Rahul Sakyaputra for eight years until Rahul’s passing in 2002.

In 1995, Vine Sweetland formed Vine Sweetland & The Forefathers of the New Millennium, a collective of guest artists, some of whom included: master sitarist and close friend, Rahul Sakyaputra, Ivan de Prume (White Zombie); Brendan McNichol (Masters of Reality); Preast (Peter Gabriel); Ron Wagner (Ottmar Liebert); violinists, Tony Selvage and Loghman Adhami; master percussionists, Ramesh Kumar and Roger Gillespie; santoorist, Rupesh Kotecha; flamenco guitarist, Michael Olsen; jazz guitarist, Takeshi Nishimoto; saxophonist, Greg Dahl; bassist, Gary Montemer; symphony cellist, Vigo Taylor.

Vine and company performed weekly on KPFK’s 90.7 Global Village radio show, hosted by Mario Casetta.

In 1996, Vine recorded several TV and radio commercials, including Honda and Taco Bell. That same year, he opened up for guitarist, Michael Shanker and Gilby Clarke, formerly of Guns N’ Roses.

Other performances during this period included headlining at the Desert Sky Pavilion Earth Day festival in Phoenix, AZ for an audience of 13,000, multiple appearances at Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA, as well as the Los Angeles Sol Festival at Griffith Park in Los Angeles, CA, Hollywood Directors Guild premiere of the movie “Fire” (directed by Deepa Mehta) and accompanied Rumi poet, Coleman Barks, at Scripps College in Claremont, CA.

Vine organized a poetry festival in Southern California, for which Jack Herer appeared as a guest speaker.

As an activist, Vine worked with Dr. John Beresford and was on the Board of Advisors for two Political Action Committees: Californians for Drug Policy Reform and the California Alliance for Industrial Renewal. He also worked with Dennis Peron with the passing of California’s Medical Marijuana Proposition 215.

As part of the final evening at the legendary Fahrenheit 451 in Laguna Beach, CA, Vine was the featured poet.

In 1999, Vine Sweetland & the Forefathers of the New Millennium recorded at Custom Taylored Studios, working with Keith Taylor, and released the debut album, “Light Shining in the Distance”, which received positive reviews globally.

Vine, Rahul Sakyaputra and Ramesh Kumar performed for the Dalai Lama at the World Festival of Sacred Music in Los Angeles, CA, for which they also appeared on the covers of both The LA Times and LA Weekly.

Vine and Rahul performed at a concert benefiting the Mandala Project at Forest Lawn, Glendale, CA.

In 2000, Vine produced “The Denmark Sessions” by Rahul Sakyaputra. Vine also appeared in recorded collaborations with various artists.

In 2001, Vine produced “Montreal Moonlight Meditation” by Rahul Sakyaputra.

In 2002, he produced “Kaleidoscopic Re-entry” by The Takeshi Nishimoto Entourage, as well as “Divine Beauty” and “Nirvana” by Rahul Sakyaputra.

In 2003, he appeared on the French compilation “Free and Freaky”.

In 2007, Vine released his poetry book, “Light Shining in the Distance”.

In 2008, Vine, Ramesh Kumar and Neal Bharati performed at the Martin Luther King, Jr. 50th Anniversary memorial celebration in Los Angeles, CA.

Since this time, Vine has continued to write both poetry and music and, in 2018, went back into the studio to digitally remaster the 30th anniversary of “The Denmark Sessions” by Rahul Sakyaputra, released 2022.

In 2022, several projects were completed, including releasing Rahul Sakyaputra’s “Footprints in the Sky”, as well as Vine Sweetland’s 30th Anniversary of “Hell is for the Harlot” and the new double album, “Candles for a Dying Guru”, by Vine Sweetland, featuring Rahul Sakyaputra.

In 2023, Vine released “Montreal Moonlight Meditation”, also featuring Rahul Sakyaputra. That same year, “Candles for a Dying Guru” received an 8/10 review score, being one of the Top 25 New Music Critiques of 2023 by Music Connection Magazine.

In June 2024, the single, “Elephant Memory” by Jerry Zepeda, featuring Vine Sweetland was released.

In September 2024, Vine released “The Resurrection Ragas”.

Vine resides with his wife in Larimer County, Colorado, USA.