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!