1. Growing Up
Growing up, music was everywhere. Most of us all went to high school together and played music. Sam (bass) and I would often cop it in year 12 for spending more time on our guitars than studying, but it all worked out. I’ve always been drawn to the lyrics and meanings of songs since I was little. I can remember watching documentaries about Tupac when I was about ten and learning about the struggles of his community and how hip hop was (and still is) a voice for African-American political expression. Since then, music was a kind of political compass while I was growing up and got me involved in activism on climate change and other issues which comes out strongly in our music.
2. Inspirations
I get inspiration from bands that combine great grooves with a great message. Artists like Blue King Brown, The Roots, Michael Franti and so many others have had a big influence on our sound and songwriting. Outside of music, stories of ordinary people standing up on issues like climate change provide a great inspiration. Our song Won’t Stand Down which is on our latest EP is a dedication to people like Tim DeChristopher, Jonothan Moylan and many others who are willing to face jail for taking nonviolent actions to stand up for our future by acting on climate change.
3. Your Band
We’ve been playing together for the last four years. We’ve mainly focused on playing in Adelaide so far and have had the opportunity to play with great bands like Sticky Fingers and Melbourne Ska Orchestra but our goal for this year is to spend a lot more time playing interstate and reaching new people with our music. We’re a seven-piece reggae band which is always fun, but can make it difficult to organise (although our friends in the 30+ Melbourne Ska Orchestra probably wouldn’t have much time for us whinging about it!). We have a great time playing together and all of us bring different influences to the table, which makes song writing exciting and pushes us not to sound generic.
4. The Music You Make
We’ve grown a lot in our sound over the last few years. Our music is rooted in reggae but we like to experiment with other genres like dub, hip hop, Latin and funk music to create our own sound. Throughout our music is a message of social change that is a long tradition in reggae music and something that is really important to us. We’ve just released a new EP Silence Rains, which we are really happy with after lots of hard work in the studio experimenting to create the best sound we could. Playing live is my favourite part of doing music, people can expect a high energy show with highly danceable grooves, soaring horn solos, driving bass lines and intricate percussion – there’s always something happening onstage and we can’t wait to bring the show to Melbourne on Friday April 24.
5. Music, Right Here, Right Now
Melbourne is a new scene for us, but we have found there to be a great camaraderie between bands here and a thriving reggae/soul/Afrobeat scene with bands like San Salvador and Manny Fox who are joining us at the Curtin as well as others like Echo Drama and Kooyeh who’ve been great at helping us connect into the local scene.
BABYLON BURNING play the John Curtin Hotel on ANZAC Day Eve this Thursday April 24.
