Rootz Underground is Jamaica’s newest roots rock reggae band, whose mission and purpose is clear: to provide enlightenment to the masses through their music; which is filled with messages of hope, liberation, self awareness and love. Islandevents.com was fortunate to chat with Rootz and get some insight into their music, perspective on life, goals, hopes and dreams and so much more….
click here to listen to "Victim of the System"
IE: Why the name Rootz Underground?
RU: Rootz Underground because we are apart of the underground music scene which by under ground music scene in Jamaica we mean there is an alternative music to the top dancehall culture like Bounty Killer Beenie Man, the alternative scene typically used to be rap music, R&B, very grunge metal things like that was the scene prior to our existence but we came in we were the only real band in 2000 that played traditional reggae one drop etc. so we were part of the underground but a roots band; till a sistren said it “Yo you’re like underground but roots same way” at that time had been going on six months and we were the no name band and then (laughs) she like said it to Jeff and he was like yeah it’s a cool name lets work with that for a time like till we come up with a name. So we will just be the roots part of the underground music you know in fact we used to call ourselves Rootz Underground Movement. Everyone loved the name every time they were “Whoa Rootz Underground we love that name its so cool” and it just kinda stuck and everybody subsequently in the industry thinks it’s a great name everybody we’ve met even some of the bigger fishes were like oh “Wicked name…where’d you get that name?” and we just worked with it!
IE: Where do you take inspiration for your music from?
RU: Well of course inspiration comes from the One you know however you want to term that we say Jah but that’s the original inspiration, the giver of life; and am through that like it opens the perception to the reality of nature around you and by nature we don’t just mean uh you know mountains and earth we talking about nature as in sun, moon, stars, people, you know am love things that are natural you know and we draw on all of those things whether they are conjugal or not. All of our songs are pretty much are about either love, Jah love or romantic love or inspiration or standing up against the status quo or fighting down injustice that type of thing. So we draw from that natural part of the Earth that if you could picture the Earth or picture people without knowledge of what is no human knowledge if we just animals and apart of the earth cycle that is what I term as reality…not reality as MTV or reality as what would you do say there was a big storm in Trinidad and everything in the house blow down and you nothing at all had no food, no clothes, no shelter nothing what would things you draw on what things would make you smile again? And that is nature.
IE: A Rastafarian was crowned as the first ever Miss Jamaica Universe how do you feel about that?
RU: Yes….awesome about normally to tell the truth I am not really a big proponent or not proponent I should say I love everything positive but I don’t really follow beauty contents that much you know. It is very good because typically the same way I don’t like beauty contests I stand corrected now which is the fact that all along I had this impression that the girls the girls who win are much deeper than the contest I find it was to judge someone on their outer beauty alone is a bit superficial…also over the years in Jamaica due to whatever social stigma the winners tended to be not to be dark-skinned girls they tend not to be afro centric girls they tended to be white or Syrian girls and nothing is wrong with that all women are beautiful from all ethnicity but its good to know its not biased like that anymore because this girl have darker skin and dreadlocks she never trim from she was born and those are two very big stigmas in Jamaica being black and being a rasta so you know that the fact that she is a part of both what I would call proud fraternities and she was able to get over that says a lot for the competition, it says a lot for the judges and says a lot for our people says a lot and the fact that everyone embraces her… she was really beautiful just not skin deep the way she carried herself the way she spoke everything its good I am actually for the first time in 10-15 years going to watch Miss Universe just because I want to see her up there against the other ethnicities and support her….
IE: The Ocean Spray campaign how did that come about?
RU: Right its Ocean Spray Cranberry ad campaign it’s a full media campaign which commenced in Jamaica at the same time the Cricket World Cup started a pre launch party. Its outdoor, press, radio, television and we are every proud of it because it features in the soundtrack our first single “Victims of the System”…funny enough but the song has line about not selling out and people may take us to task on it but it’s a kinda subliminal medicine as well…so it fits well with the campaign as we are all for health, exercise and fitness and wellness and that is what Ocean Spray brand represents…and we love cranberry juice.
IE: How do you feel you affiliation with RebelMix digital music can do for Rootz Underground?
RU: It can open up a whole world of exposure as people can go online and purchase our music also right now we have a compilation EP available and very soon as in august as soon as we do and official launch for the album which is also titled “Movement” that will become available there as well as videos, singles etc. as well as another project we are working coming soon to a mind near you which is another musical experimentation very interesting more like hard core unpolished version of Rootz Underground but that’s coming out as an under under ground project so we working on that so a lot of good things are happening with that…
IE: Where do you see Rootz Underground in 5-10 years time?
RU: Oh wow in 5 years time dunno where we’d be but we would like be on a musical heights of you know any of the classic rock or reggae bands, the Who, U2, the Rolling Stones, the Wailers any of those kinda bands Third World we’d love to be there in terms of exposure we’d also love to reach a heights of consciousness with our music that you know we’ve gotten into the real abstract poetic even more than we are now and learn a language to speak in to say things as simple as possible that relate to as many millions of people as possible as it can at one time. So from a philosophical standpoint we want to get in the groove of people we want to meet and absorb people’s vibrations and you know and we want people to reciprocate to our music and in 5 years we should be pretty much be experts at that because we already on that vibes now.
IE: What would you like the band’s legacy to be what would Rootz Underground like to be remembered for?
RU: As soldiers in a revolution for positive change in a time when the world is crying…
IE: As you mention that what do you think can be done to turn things around in the world so that people are more tolerant and less selfish towards their fellow man?
RU: That’s an ironic question because first you have to start with yourself you need to look into yourself and self examination everybody has flaws, everybody is human, everybody bleeds, everybody cries, but if you can look into yourself then you’ll be able to put to somebody else shoes on for a second and wonder how it woulda feel if you were on that side of the fence and if you can do that and really realistically not just imagine but project yourself into other people or other people’s situations then you’d realize that we are all the same its just the big man in the office who is your boss who you afraid of, or the likkle man that wipe yuh window we are all the same…and is just about once we realize this to try and help and what would you want me to do if you were in those shoes its like if I come wipe your window and you are like oh God that man him smell a way him smell stink but if it was you how would you want me to treat you would you want me to run you? Would you not want me to give you $20??And if we start thinking at that level then automatically our families we start first in the home like we have a song which the lyric is says “war in the class room begins in the bedroom” and what we mean by bedroom it begins in the house---mumma and daddy the household, the family. So if you make that change in you and right don’t bother to fight your sister, your mother, father today then when you go out in the streets you won’t fight your friend, and then they will pick up off your positive energy and won’t fight their family and then once the family stands together things will be better…because family is also the people around you it don’t have to be mom and dad…it can be if you’re lonely and there is another lonely person there and the two of you is a family…and you just sat peace link with each other and share that love…so to start with yourself and slowly send it out and that’s how the band Rootz Underground was built as well fan base etc. when we used to play shows 20 people used to come and watch us it was just our friends …. and because of the love we have for each other and the good vibrations we were putting out it started to attract more, more and more people until now we still have a small following but its growing and it grows offa that vibration the reality it doesn’t grow off of not gimmicks or pyrotechnics or anything like that but the strength of what we are saying, the strength of what we feeling, and the strength of the love we projecting and absorbing….we want when you’re going through a tough time you can put on a Rootz Underground song and lose your cares; you cant pay your rent but suddenly it doesn’t matter as much to you because you have love and breath in your lungs…
For more information on the band you can check out their website www.rootzunderground.com and their myspace page www.myspace.com/rootzunderground
