by bob panza
Last week I spoke with Brett Wilson after he wrapped up a national tour that took him and his band, Roots of Creation, from the Atlantic to the Pacific and back again; landing at their stomping ground of New Hampshire on Halloween for their largest headlining show to date. After two studio albums the band recently released a live album simply titled, Live.
Entering their 4th year of full time touring, RoC continues to push musical boundaries as they the gain the attention of noteworthy musicians and producers.
Quiet Color: When I describe Roots of Creation music to people who’ve never heard you guys before I tell them, “Roots of Creation is a reggae band with its dread locks cut off.” What do you think about that?
Brett Wilson: (Laughs). That’s an interesting way to look at it. I’m not sure. Dreadlocks signify certain things like Rastafarian and kinds of counter cultural stuff. I like the dreads but none of us have dreads. The reason being I don’t think we look that good with them (laughs). My hair doesn’t grow that way naturally so I don’t really want to force that on my hair.
But musically we are a rock band and we do talk about certain Rastafarian things and certain spiritual things and a lot of things to do with reggae. But you know it’s not like a normal reggae band. So that description is interesting (laughter). I like the way you see it because I understand what you’re trying to say with that. It’s reggae but…
QC: Yea, it’s certified.
Brett: It’s totally different. It’s totally changed around. It’s a whole new thing.
QC: Speaking of different, listening to your new album, and this is the live album I’m talking about. I notice a lot of electronica. There’s definitely a strong presence of it on the album and it’s a little different from the two studio albums you’ve done in the past. Where do you see the direction of Roots of Creation going in the future?
Brett: More along the lines of what the live album sounds like; where we have our songs that the fans love, and they’re stretched out. And there are long explorations in side of them that have the electronica vibe but also a reggae vibe. We’re kind of developing our own kind of sound and it’s headed in that direction but we’re not going to lose our original sound of the reggae rock vibe with good lyrics and good song writing. We’re just adding that element into it and just kind of forging forward to create something even more original.
QC: Your last national tour, what was the single greatest high light that took place off of the stage?
Brett: I have to say there are a couple highlights. At the, We the People Festival, in Los Angeles, stepping off the stage and having Bassnectar come up to our keyboardist, Tal, and say, “I loved your set.” And having Les Claypool come up to our bass player, Chris, and say, “I loved your work.” Having them approach us without us approaching them at all was really a highlight to us.
Les Claypool’s guitar player said, “You guys are gonna be big, you guys are gonna be huge.” It was a great honor to have those people say that. I met the RZA and Eek-A-Mouse and some guys from the Black Eyed Peas. Meeting all those guys that you know and see on TV, or have grown up listening to and are influenced by. To have them be your peers and enjoy your music was just an amazing experience.
QC: If you could have it your way, no holds barred, if you could can play anywhere in the world. Where would you want to play?
Brett: I’d like to go and actually play in Jamaica and show the people what we’ve done with their original music. I think that would be pretty cool. That or Japan; I have heard that Japan really likes improvisational jam band music.
QC: That’s no joke. I always wondered because I see some cool jam bands going to Japan. Phish tour, Sound Tribe went on to Japan. Even Deep Banana Blackout went to there.
Brett: We sell a bunch of CD’s in Japan. The great thing about Japan and why we do great there. They love reggae dub rock bands. Long Beach Dub All-Stars, all those bands: Slightly Stoopid, a bunch of the new California reggae rock surf bands. They love those bands. And they also love jam bands. They love the [Disco] Biscuits. They love The Slip. They love Phish and Sound Tribe. So if we went over there I feel like we would just blow up because they love those two genres that we are a perfect fusion of.
QC: I sometimes notice fucked up fans approaching musicians after the show and the musician doesn’t want to be a jerk and blow them off, but it’s awkward. What’s the worst fan you’ve had to deal with on tour?
Brett: This is going to make me sound like an asshole but some are way too much in your face. You know, drunk and just so excited and you don’t want to be an asshole but at the same time they’re talking your ear off and you can’t even get a word in. It’s just kind of one of the things in the business that you just have to deal with. You remember what they look like and try to avoid them. [Laughs]
QC: Thinking of the happy go lucky fans now. What can we expect in the future as far as a tour and maybe a new album?
Brett: This summer I think we’re going to start working on an EP with a producer. We met Money Mark in Los Angeles at that festival and I actually got an interview on the radio with him, which was awesome. He’s done stuff with Slightly Stupid and the Beastie Boys. He really enjoyed our cover of Elvis Costello’s, ‘Watching the Detectives,’ and wants to work with us. We want to work with a producer so they can give us an outside opinion and bring some new ideas to the table. We have 12-15 songs that we want to record but we might just record 6 and release a small EP to tide people over until we finish that album. And I think we’re going to release another live album soon too. We’re looking over this Halloween footage and audio to see if there’s something in the works that the fans might enjoy from that stuff.
QC: Maybe a DVD in the future?
Brett: Yea I think we do need to make a DVD in the future. We have the lights now, the production and an exciting stage show I think that’s really improved over the years. I think it’s time to make a DVD where people will be able to see what it’s like to see us if they’re from another country or if they’ve seen us and they want to watch it again. I think that’s a great idea. I think we’re definitely going do that in the future.
Were going to start hitting the northeast in February and March and then in late March we’re going to tour the west coast again and hopefully the south. Then this summer we’re just going to try and play as many festivals as we possibly can. That’s our favorite thing to do. We just love the vibe there and its where our audience really is. They love to go to festivals so that’s where we want to be.
QC: You know summer time is a really good for the Reggae sound. Being outside, the warm weather…
Brett: We love playing festivals because we can do our chill vibe afternoon set with mostly our reggae stuff and a little bit of jam and then we can do our late night set with a lot of dance beats with a lot more high energy stuff. It’s cool that we can do that kind of thing.
QC: Last question Brett, you’ve been touring. Now you’re off. What do you like to do?
Brett: Ahh, I feel horrible but lately I just like to veg out with my girl and watch TV. I watched no TV for basically four months and it kind of sucked because I Didn’t get to watch a lot of the presidential election that I was interested in.
So I really like watching, ‘Entourage’ and ‘House’. I also have enjoyed reading a little bit and playing my guitar; trying to work on some new songs and some covers.
Going out to eat; especially home cooked meals. Spending time with family. I’ve just been trying to do those things and keeping contact with my friends that I haven’t seen in so long.
One Comment
Sweet little interview, well done.