Through The Roots’ new album Departure is a global collaboration, a unique twist on today’s reggae
Photo courtesy of Through The Roots.
Dailyreggae.com spoke with Evan from Through The Roots to learn about the band’s new album, Departure.
Exciting to see the release of your new album, Departure in November. Tell me about the album. There are some cool collaborations throughout the new album!
The idea to do the collabs was something that we wanted to do for a long time. We had our album, Arrival, that we released last year and that was us finding our sound as a band. We didn’t have any features on that album, because we wanted that to be our thing and showcase us as a band.
For Departure, it was like now that we’ve established our sound, let’s have some fun with this, and let’s see what other sounds we’re capable of performing. We love all different sorts of music and are inspired by all different sorts of genres, and we’re capable of performing those. With that in mind, we wanted to showcase some of the best artists that could help us shine a light on those genres in the right way.
For each feature that we had, some of those styles were fitting for those features and were very carefully picked. We kind of went out on a limb and touched on some different styles of music that we’re interested in, but don’t typically make. It came out cool for our Through The Roots fans and interested other listeners that maybe might not know who we are.
For your new fans, tell me about Through The Roots and your journey as a band.
The band originated in San Diego. A few of our members are from Hawaii, so I’m outnumbered at this point from all the different members we’ve gone through. So basically, it’s me and a bunch of Hawaiians in the band now (laughs).
We started in 2007 and started getting things going in 2008. We started playing college parties and backyard parties, then started doing some local festivals. From there, we went on our first tour with Iration and that snowballed into all kinds of national tours.
We’ve been through several different members, all for the right reasons at the right time, and those guys just moved onto different things which were either bigger or better, which is awesome that this was a great platform for them, or they decided to do other things in life, which is cool too.
It’s something we are very passionate about. We love making music that people can connect to and also music that can help people cope with the ups and downs of life and give people a soundtrack to their emotions. For so long, we wondered why are we doing this, we are so lucky to be doing this, why is it us? And trying to figure out our purpose. Within the last several years, people have come up to us at shows and told us your song has helped me stay sane through all of my chemo treatments, I’ve had cancer for this long and your music has helped me through that. Different fan stories have helped us realize this is why we’re doing this. This is what our music is doing for people. It’s bigger than us at this point. It’s been an amazing journey. We’ve been able to pretty much all of the country and have done international shows. It’s a blessing to be able to do what we do, and we give thanks to our fans for supporting our music, our mission, and our journey.
Is Through The Roots a part of a label?
We were with LAW Records for our Arrival album. We wanted to try something new with Departure, and we chose to put Departure out on Ineffable Music, and it’s been great working with them. Our music is getting passed onto a lot of new people and a lot of new playlists. It’s cool and we’re blessed to be working with those guys.
We are inspired by reggae music from Jamaica. Because we are so inspired by their culture and music, we wanted to give back and pay respect to that inspiration by making this album. From the artwork to the producer to a large amount of the artists on this album. That’s us giving back to music from Jamaica that’s inspired us. We had four Jamaican features. The artist that did all the artwork is named Taj Francis and he’s from Jamaica.
We teamed up with J.L.L., who is a huge producer in Jamaica making huge waves over there working with artists like Masego and a lot of hip hop and R&B artists. Working with him was cool, because it gave us an opportunity to have a different style and put a different twist on our music that maybe we wouldn’t have headed towards. It was very much a collab. We are grateful to be working with J.L.L. He does work with artists like Protoje, Lila Iké, and Chronixx. Anyone in Jamaica in the modern scene right now. He also works with legends like Beres Hammond and a lot of artists like that.
What is the music and reggae scene like in San Diego?
When you listen to reggae, obviously you think of getting away or a vacation sound, or at least as California reggae goes. Really any kind of reggae. You want to go to Jamaica and listen to reggae. You want to be at the beach listening to reggae. We have the beach here in San Diego, so it kind of aligns with that same kind of vibe and beach culture that Jamaica might share.
It’s a pretty big scene here in San Diego. We have a great music scene. There are a lot of great artists that are developing and moved from other places to have this be their hometown and tour out of here. We’ve got Slightly Stoopid, Tribal Seeds, HIRIE, and Eli Mac.
Where is a good place for fans to support Through The Roots?
Check us out at throughtheroots.com. We have merch at throughtherootsmerch.com. On any social media, you can follow us at throughtheroots. Check us out on YouTube, Spotify, Pandora, and all the other digital streaming platforms.
