Wake up feeling Real Nice by spinning The Quasi Kings’ new single

Photo courtesy of The Quasi Kings.

Morning reflection is so important. Waking up feeling grateful and starting our morning at the right pace helps set the course for the day. One perfect way to start with reflection and good vibes is by listening to The Quasi Kings’ new single, Real Nice. We are absolutely loving this peaceful song highlighting the band’s thoughtful lyrics and beautiful reggae music. Dailyreggae.com caught up with Benny Coleman (vocals, bass) and learned Real Nice is about “the challenge of finding balance, fear and excitement about the future, and the struggle to be the best you can be for the people around you.”

Great to connect with you Benny! Tell us about The Quasi Kings!

We are a six piece reggae band out of Columbus, Ohio. Blessed to be a part of the thriving midwest / east coast scene. We truly love it here in Ohio. We just got back from a great time at Tropidelic’s Everwild Music Fest. We have a feature on Trop’s latest album (track called “IDWD”) and we got to hop up and sing it with them.

My brother Zach (24) and I (26) are the core of the group. We came up learning reggae from Columbus’ The Ark Band. In high school we joined Shrub and learned a lot from Jay and the guys. I recorded an album called Highceratops with them in 2013. I was 18. I play bass and sing lead on “Fast Lane”, “Coconut Tree”, and “What I Would Do”. My brother (sax, percussion and vocals) joined shortly after that. We earned our chops touring the U.S., opening for Badfish-Sublime Tribute for a few years.

This project (The Quasi Kings) features my brother and I, mixing elements of reggae, dancehall, hip-hop, soca, rock and more. We put out our six track EP, in late 2018. We released two singles in July: “How We Livin’” featuring our friend James Begin from Tropidelic (he’s also in a gnarly rap group called Cicero) and “Real Nice”.

We are loving your new single, Real Nice! How did you create the song?

“Real Nice” comes from a ridden I made on Fruity Loops way back in 8th grade or freshman year of high school. I was stuck in an early morning saturday school and had recently started experimenting with DAW’s and sequencing. I lost the file a long time ago but the tune stuck with me. I wrote the lyrics in early May, about two months into lockdown. The song talks about the challenge of finding balance, fear and excitement about the future, and the struggle to be the best you can be for the people around you.

We had a few core members step down over the last year and it had undoubtedly been tough. This record has been a process of finding our ‘new’ sound while staying true to our roots. It has been a pleasure playing with old friends (Kohl Fixari of the Ark Band, Andrew and Jess Willard) and forging new musical connections. This is the first of our releases to feature Odane Foster on drums, he’s got four more on the album. He brings a great energy to the takes. Pre-pandemic we saw Quinn Carson (trombonist/orchestra coordinator for Drunk History, Listen To Your Vegetables & Eat Your Parents) out on the road a lot (playing with Spiritual Rez and Badfish) and we’re glad we could get him on trumpet and trombone on this track. Lovingly engineered and mixed by our main man Eric Jones at Steezo Sound and mastered by Danny Kalb.

Real Nice by The Quasi Kings is the Daily Reggae Song of the Day.