The Steppas release a new single, Stay; a new album in the works

Dailyreggae.com caught up with Star from The Steppas to learn about their new single and record in the works.

Tell me about The Steppas. When did you come together as a band? Is the band based in Hawaii?

We are a collective of musicians of Hawaiian island boys. We are all based on Hawaii island, which is the Big Island. We started in about 2010. We made the band name and started printing out stickers around our hometown. In about 2011 is when we first came out in the scene here on the Big Island and started playing music locally while working on our first album. We made it to play in the states in 2013. It’s a long time coming almost ten years of The Steppas.

What does The Steppas mean to you?

When we started the band, we used to play with a bunch of other bands in Hawaii and I used to do a lot of backing for other bands. For solo artists around Hawaii, for Jamaican artists when they’d’ come down to Hawaii. The Steppas was kind of like a collective of us stepping away from doing the backing of other musicians and playing with other bands and making it our own. We’re stepping forward and making it our time to do what we want to do and put our music out. It’s a step forward.

Tell me about your new single Stay. When did you release it? The video also came out great!

We released the song on October 9th and the music video came out about a week after that. It was a fun project. I got to record the single with a Jamaican producer by the name of Phillip McFarlane, who also plays in a band called EarthKry out of Jamaica, which is an amazing reggae band. I linked up with the keyboard player/producer and we made this single happen via email, DropBox, and What’s App.

Are you working on a new album?

After the single, we came together and decided to work on an album between myself and Phillip and Irie Yute Records. Irie Yute Records is his label. We are trying to cross the bridge right now between Hawaiian reggae and Jamaican reggae. I have my melodies and music on the Hawaiian reggae side, so we are trying to cross that bridge over to Jamaica and use the Hawaiian reggae melodies with the Jamaican roots feel. Right now, we are making the album with Irie Yute and Easy Star Records as well.

Is this the first time you’re working with Irie Youth?

Yes, we took a chance with Stay, and it sounded super good. He was super stoked and loved the song. I love the sound and we said, let’s do it. The song and The Steppas got picked up by Easy Star Records out of New York. They helped us get the song out to the world. Now we are all coming together and we’re going to try and do this album. I’m going to try and get another single out before the end of the year. Planning on the album coming out spring of 2021.

Tell me more about The Steppas. Is the full original band still together?

We went through a bunch of changes. It’s hard being from Hawaii and traveling to the states a lot. We were doing a lot of touring and being away from family. Missing all those important fun things with family is hard. We went through a few members throughout the years. The only original members are me and our bass player, Kekolu Pavao. We have some friends here in Hawaii and on the mainland that we use to fill out like the drums, guitar, and keyboards. We still have a set core, but we’ve used friends as backings.

Where is the best place for people to support the band?

Right now, streams are the most important thing. Stream our music through Spotify or Apple Music, or whatever digital streaming outlet that you have. Try and support in any way possible. You can purchase our music on iTunes.  Stream our music, check out our videos, and spread the word about the music and the band.

Is there anything you’d like to tell your fans?

Thanks to all the supporters and just remember we’re all going through difficult times, and that we can make it through these times. The sunshine is right around the corner, so we just have to believe in ourselves. Keep doing what we want to do in our life and keep pushing. I always like to say that we are just a bunch of local boys stuck in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and we’re living our dream. Take this time right now to pursue what you want to pursue. Just take that step forward and get to stepping!

Courtesy of The Steppas.