Thursday, April 22, 2010

UCSB Student Studying Abroad in France Meets Band For First Time- Check Out This Interview!!

Hey Everyone,
It is Jake here. I am back from hibernation. Below check out an interview done by a UCSB student studying abroad who not only met the band for the first time but got a chance to interview them.

Check it out!

Monday, April 19, 2010

France Footage

Some songs from a show in France on April 13, 2010 have been posted. The fellas sound great as usual. Thanks to Youtube user Mozart59560 for posting the videos and they do have some other sick videos which you can check out by clicker the user name.

Have a fantastic and fun filled 420!




Instant Classic

Jacob Hemphill from SOJA joined Eric for an acoustic version of "Suffering". This is by far one of the best in studio MoBoogie videos. Check this shit out!

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

End of Tour Update

I first want to thank Eric Rachmany for taking the time to write such detailed accounts of the bands trip to France. It is so cool to see his perspective on playing for new crowds and spreading the vibes of our favorite band. Usually during the tour here in the states we rely on the fans to help provide content, but to get a band member to give us his account of the experience is truly something special. Much respect to Eric!

Wednesday, April 7th
Tonight we played in a small town called Nancy. There were more people here that knew our music than many of the other shows. I'm not really sure how they knew about us but they seemed to sing along to most of the songs. During the encore, Broussai came out and sang Lazy Afternoon with us. It was a very cool experience, and the crowd loved it. Tomorrow is our last show with Broussai so I might get up on stage for one of their songs. Only three more shows left on our European tour.

Thursday, April 8th
One of the cool things for us is to try to win over a crowd that doesn't know our music. While we have some fans out here, most people have no idea who we are. Tonight was a challenge to get them going but in the end everyone opened up to us. Broussai came out on stage for Lazy Afternoon again and I jumped on stage for one of their songs. The crowd goes crazy for Broussai and it was an honor to collaborate with them in France. We hope to someday to bring them out to California to play a few shows.

Tuesday, April 13
Well, we're on our way back to Paris now, getting ready for our flights in the morning. Now that our first European tour is over I have some things to say, but first I should explain what we've done the last few days. After we parted ways with Broussai we played one show in a suburb of Paris with a familiar band we've played with before called Rootz Underground. The crowd took a little bit to get used to our sound but they opened up at the end. We then spent the next few days in Amsterdam with our time off before the last show which was tonight. Amsterdam is a pretty amazing place. Beautiful looking city with water canals everywhere, great food, and fun coffee shops to explore. When we were there we really got the feeling of the rich history that took place in Amsterdam. We came back to Lille, France and played the final show with Danikil and The Gladiators which was tonight. Danakil is very very popular out here in France. I jumped on stage with them during their set and had a lot of fun. They are a 10 piece band and have a rich and full sound. The show tonight was probably the biggest of the tour and I'm sure we made some new fans. Since the beginning of the tour here it's been a challenge to win over the crowd because they simply don't know who we are. I suppose in a way, this has been fun for us. It's a gratifying feeling to know that people who have never heard us before enjoyed our sound after our set is done.

I think that Reggae here in France never really got modified as much as it did in America. More specifically, roots reggae has remained very popular out here. France never got the Sublime movement, or the "hybrid reggae" sound that's happening in the states right now. Hence, exposing our music in France even in 2010 is something very new to the listeners out here. The other thing I wanted to mention is that this trip has made me realize how lucky I am to be where I'm from. I'm not talking about my rights as an American citizen, even though I'm very grateful for this also, but I'm really talking about the fact that I speak English and write songs in English. English is a language so widely spoken around the world that it's become familiar in music as well. Both Broussai and Danakil made the point that their music is restricted to France and a few other French speaking countries. I feel very very lucky to have grown up where I did and write music in a language that is understood in other countries. Although both Broussai and Danakil are very successful out here, they are limited to these grounds. Lastly, I've been writing a lot of new music on this tour. During these long drives, I've been either writing journal entries or writing lyrics and melodies. I think you're going to see some great Rebelution songs in the future. 6 songs are written for the next album already and I'm stoked on all of them. It takes a really long time for me to write songs, and the fact that I was able to finish three of them on this trip tells me something good is in the air. Thanks for reading these journal entries and I'll keep you guys up to date more and more as time goes by. Peace!

Monday, April 12, 2010

A little Update

Tuesday, April 6th
We had the day off today and spent the entire time with Broussai in their home town of Macon. We started out the day by meeting majority of the band for lunch. We've been taking advantage of all the good red and white wines out here. Afterwards we went to check out their studio where they practice and record. Their setup is very cool where they can live, practice and record in the same building. After this we went up into the countryside to see the vineyards. We climbed up a mountain to get a great overview of the village where they are famous for their wine. Afterwards we went to a winery they knew of and we wine tasted for a couple hours. Time flew by and next thing we knew we were watching an important soccer match at a local bar. We got the full experience today.

Also...Rebelution has been added to the Summer Camp line-up. Those in the midwest- this will be a good opportunity to see the fellas live!

Monday, April 5, 2010

Updated Journal

Seems like the tour is going well so far! Here's Eric entries from the last couple of days- check out the bands he's mentioned!

Saturaday, April 3rd
Today we played at the big festival called Garorock that we were looking forward to for months. We were the first band on the main stage and from the get go, the crowd was very responsive. By the time we were done playing there were well over a thousand people. We played for 45 minutes. After we were done we took advantage and checked out a lot of the other bands at the festival. One of the bands was called Danakil who we had heard a lot about. They seem to be one of the most popular reggae bands here in France. They played an hour or so after us and killed it! It was really cool to see the crowd sing the lyrics to there songs. We met them afterwards and they had heard about us already so that was very cool. We will see them again at the last show in Lille on April 13th. Then the biggest act of the day was Alpha Blondy, who originally is from the Ivory Coast, Africa, but sings mostly in French and is a huge international reggae superstar. His
set was incredible and I was fortunate to meet him afterwards and give him a Bright Side of Life CD. He was very nice and thankful.



Sunday, April 4th
We played in Limoges tonight and the vibes were good. Broussai, the band we've been touring with is on point every night. Although we have to ask them what the subject matter is on each song, you can really feel it just through the music. The two singers are very melodic. It has been very nice talking to them and sharing stories and learning about each others culture. After the show tonight we talked about doing a couple songs together for the remaining two shows so we'll see what happens. They all have mentioned to me how cool it is to be sharing the stage with us because they haven't really seen a style like ours before. Most of the France reggae groups out here are strictly roots reggae, so for them to see us do our thing is very new to them. Despite the language barrier, it's been so easy to connect with them. I encourage people to check out Broussai. I like the songs Le Cours de l'Histoire and Jackpot the most. Check em out!!

Bonjour-- A Very Special France Update

As you all know Rebelution is out on tour in France for their first international tour - how cool is that! What is even cooler is that Eric Rachmany is doing something very special during the tour - he is journaling about their experience there and is allowing us to post it. We have our first update which you can see down below...hope you all enjoy it and keep an eye out for another entry soon!

Tuesday, March 30th

Today we arrived in Paris, dropped our bags off at the hotel nearby and caught the train into town. We are lucky to have Derrick, our front of house sound engineer with us, who has been to Europe several times before. He led the way to a nice dinner spot and afterwards we went to check out the Eiffel Tower. We met some interesting people on the train. Everyone seems very nice out here. After several hours in town we decided to head back to the hotel to get rest for the show tomorrow.

Wednesday, March 31st

The show tonight was one for all time. The crowd in Paris was energetic. Although we were the first of three bands, it was definitely crowded for us and lots of them were singing along. From the get go, people were moving. We played an hour set and spent the rest of the night doing interviews and mingling with people in the crowd. We really got the feeling that these were fans that had heard about us for a long time. They had been waiting years for us to come out. The whole night was very special for us. None of us four have ever been to Europe, so to come out here and meet people AND play music is really indescribable. We're doing these 9 shows with a band called Broussai that is from here and they were great tonight. First show out here was a good one! Tomorrow we head to Bouvron.

Thursday, April 1st

What we've learned over the past year and a half of touring is that it really takes several tours to build yourself up in different markets. As I sit here in the back of this van, I remember what it was like 5 years ago, when we would pack two trucks full of gear and drive ourselves to different parts of California to play shows. Back then we would play for free or for very little and there was something very humbling about setting up our own gear and working so hard physically to just get to the point where it was show time. Now that we are in France for the first time, we're back in that mode. We have a driver and a tour manager provided for us that knows his way around but this brings us back for sure! We have a few days off to chill during this tour but we'll be working hard to make sure we put out the best sound we can. Should be a good show tonight.

Friday, April 2nd
Tonight we played in a very small club in a town called La Rochelle. The crowd reminded us a little bit of the Isla Vista days in Santa Barbara. They were one of the most energetic crowds we've ever had. A lot of them knew our songs. We were really really impressed with how much they knew. Again, the feeling was that these have been fans for a couple years now. One fan said he's been listening to us since we started and only found out that we were coming to his home town yesterday. He was so grateful that we came to his town. It has been pretty amazing connecting with the fans here in France and realizing how our music is making a positive impact on peoples lives all the way out here across the Atlantic.