Iration Interview from Big Island Weekly

Adam, Cayson, and our Manager, Michael, stop in for an interview before the Kona Bowl Show.

http://www.bigislandweekly.com/articles/2008/10/22/read/a_and_e/arts01.txt

Local boys do good

Iration comes home for Kona performance after major mainland tour

By Lisa Malakaua

Wednesday, October 22, 2008 2:06 PM HST

Word has it that the reggae group Iration is best heard in a live setting where you can truly experience the full spectrum of its range. On Oct. 25, the Kona Bowl will be the place to find out if that's true.

Iration will be returning to its irie roots here in Hawai`i. These Hawai`i-raised musicians look forward to spreading their original sound, aloha spirit and cutting-edge surf culture as far as possible.

Iration, born from a love of all types of music -- reggae, rock and pop mixed with keyboard/synth and melodic vocal lines -- always guarantees its fans something unique, and this time it offers its newly released CD, Sample This, an EP that includes its smash hit "Falling," sure to knock that reggae cap right off your dreadlocked head.

Iration has proven over and over that it has an understanding of modern and traditional performance techniques to keep the fans of all ages waving their hands in the air, their heads bobbing and hips gyrating.

In 2007, Iration released its first full-length album, No Time for Rest, at Castaway 7 Studios in Ventura, Calif., which featured one of the last recorded performances by reggae legend Mikey Dread, who produced accomplished musicians such as The Clash and UB40. The single "Cookie Jar" reached No. 1 on Hawai`i Island's radio station 93.9 DaBeat and was featured on Fuel TV's "Triple Crown of Surfing" recap. Its music was also featured on the MTV shows "Maui Fever" and "Living Lahaina."

This year, Iration embarked on a national tour titled "Playboys in Paradise" in support of another home-grown local band, Pepper. The band traveled 16,000 miles and played in front of numerous sold-out crowds at major venues in Austin and Dallas in Texas and Myrtle Beach and Orlando in Florida. It continues to tour extensively and looks forward to bringing its sound to even larger audiences at shows such as the "West Beach Music Festival" with legends Ziggy Marly and George Clinton, along with Jason Mraz, in Santa Barbara, Calif., and "Back to School Orientation" with Sean Kingston and Shwayze in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Sample This is a four-song EP featuring two songs, "I'm With You" and "Electricity," that were co-written with a fellow local Hawaiian musician, songwriter and Grammy-winning producer Charles Brotman of Hawaiian recording company Palm Records.

I really enjoy "Electricity." "Falling," which has already been added to several radio stations in Hawai`i and Guam, has become a favorite to many rastas but, "Wait and See" is rapidly becoming popular as well. These few tracks have a newly focused emphasis on capturing a popular sound along with the trademark rock-reggae feeling. The EP is available worldwide for digital download through all online retailers.

As of September, Iration was one of Myspace's top three unsigned reggae artists and in its top 100 unsigned artists, averaging around 5,000 plays a day.

Iration has performed with great acts such as Slightly Stoopid, Ziggy Marley, Steel Pulse, Stephen Marley, Don Carlos, The Expendables, The English Beat, Yellowman, Mikey Dread, Katchafire, Natural Vibrations, Rocky Duwani, Shwayze, Soja, Rebelution, George Clinton and P Funk, Fishbone and Ooklah the Moc.

Because of the group's fevered tour schedule, BIW was only able to pull in Adam Taylor (bass) and Cayson Peterson, (keys) along with their manager, Michael Burnett, to answer a few questions on behalf of the rest of the group, Micah Pueschel (vocals, guitar), Joe Dickens (drums) and Kai Rediske (vocals, percussion).

BIW: Aloha, Iration. So you're coming home for a visit. Tell us how has this beautiful place we call Hawai`i influenced who you are today?

Taylor: I moved to Hawai`i when I was 10. My dad is a pilot, so we moved around a lot. I was born in London, England, but traveled all over Europe and Southeast Asia, and went on surf trips to places like Tahiti, Australia and Indonesia. Getting a perspective of different cultures around the world gave me an insight to how music is such a universal thing. Music is prevalent and is an integral part of every culture that I've visited. Traveling a lot also gave me a desire to explore and move around, which fits the touring lifestyle ideally. We recently traveled across the U.S. with Pepper and it was a blessing to be able to see each state for its unique, individual qualities. Living in Hawai`i for the majority of my life also influenced the style of music that we play. We like to put a lot of positive energy in our music and write about things that make people happy.

Peterson: The Big Island is an amazing place to grow up. It has shaped who I am as a person and who we are as a band. The vibe of Hawai`i has put that mellow and laid-back personality into me, but there is also so much to do with music and surfing and the Hawai`i lifestyle that makes us go-getters.

Burnett: Hawai`i has influenced all greatly in that I think our outlook on life is a lot more happy and positive than most musicians these days. So many bands out there are making songs about depressing stuff like the economy and the war and their jeans being too tight, and although those things matter to us as individuals, we like to keep our music in the positive vein. Hawai`i is a happy place and when you grow up there, in general, you have a more balanced outlook on the world. We're not angry or depressed guys. We like to have fun and that's what we want to put across with our music.

BIW: What is the weirdest thing that has ever happened to your group?

Taylor: The weirdest thing that happened to our group was last week when our CD Sample This hit No. 3 top-selling reggae album on iTunes. It was weird because I never imagined that we could attain that kind of success, though it really validates the hard work and sacrifices that we made over the years to achieve that status. I mean, who would have ever imagined Iration beating out Bob Marley's entire catalog with the exception of Legend that hasn't budged from the No. 1 slot in years? It's surreal.

Peterson: Adam and I were doing our driving shift, pilot and co-pilot, at about 3 a.m. while on our national tour with Pepper. I think we were driving through Utah. The weirdest creature ran right in front of our van and we [almost] hit it. We think it may have been a Chupacabra because we saw a special on the Discovery Channel about the Chupacabra and it said some people describe it as a large hairless dog with a bushy tail, which is exactly what it looked like. So yeah, almost hitting a Chupacabra was pretty weird.

Burnett: Well, we've been robbed in Troy, New York, and we've lost members here and there but probably the weirdest thing that's happened to us was the time we met Elvis. He told us that our hip movements were lackluster and we needed more thrust. We implemented it into our live performance and it has worked miracles for us. Elvis is the man.

BIW: Stop it, you're killing me, but I love it. So what would you say is the group's biggest career regret?

Taylor: This might sound cliche, but I don't regret anything we've done career-wise, as the choices that we made, that may have seemed wrong in the past, have shaped and influenced the position we're in today, so I wouldn't change a thing.

Peterson: We stopped at a bridge that spanned a swimming hole while on tour through Oregon. I claimed I was going to jump the bridge into the river, so we got the video camera ready. The water was freezing and the sun just set. I got to the edge and realized it was about 90 feet into a moving river. I stood there for about six minutes, then climbed back over. I swear next time we drive through Oregon I am going to jump that bridge.

BIW: My heavens, son, don't do it, you'll kill yourself.

Burnett: Not naming our band the Jonas Brothers and starting when we were 16. We got started kind of late as far as bands go but other than that I'd say we have no regrets. We've definitely made some questionable decisions on the road after a couple of drinks, but hey, that's life and that's how you learn.

BIW: If you can ask one person in the world one question, what would it be and why?

Taylor: I would ask Isaac Gillette of Keopu Coffee, "How do you make your coffee so good?" Isaac has been sending the band coffee since the conception of his Holualoa farm, and I must say that it is a must on every tour we do.

Peterson: I would ask Brian May from Queen about quantum physics. That guy is a rocket scientist and was in one of the greatest rock 'n' roll bands of all time. That's really legit.

Burnett: We'd probably ask Lil Wayne if we could be on his next album because if he sold a million records in his first week, then there's a good chance we'd get some publicity out of it.

BIW: Knock it off, you're doing just fine on your own. So what is it like to be you guys?

Taylor: Being in Iration is the best job in the world. As a kid I was always big on surfing and playing music, and being in the band Iration has allowed me to do just that. If I had to give any aspiring musicians some advice, I would say that if you believe you have the skills and the drive to succeed, then you can do it. During the first few years of our band starting out, we constantly heard people saying, "You can't do that for a living" or "Music is just a hobby," though we never, ever doubted what we wanted to achieve. We knew we had the talent musically and the motivation to pursue it, and we toured relentlessly, playing bar gigs and parties, and anything else that would get our music out there, and it definitely paid off.

Peterson: It's fun but really exhausting. Life on tour is hard. Not a lot of sleep and lots of heavy lifting. It's all worth it, though. Once you get on stage, the energy of the crowd feeds you.

Burnett: Tired, sleepy, hungry, surfy, stawny, sometimes drunky and always lovey.

BIW: If you were reincarnated, what would you want to come back as and why?

Taylor: Cayson will tell you that I'd be a golden flaming hawk (don't ask), though I'd like to be a dolphin so that I could enjoy the benefits of being in the water and still go surfing.

Peterson: I would come back as Slater's future son and use those genes -- ha ha.

Burnett: Diddy, who wouldn't wanna be Diddy?

BIW: I wouldn't want to be Diddy, that's who. Wouldn't mind his money, though. So, besides performing, what else are you all looking forward to doing while you're home?

Taylor: We look forward to writing new music for our fans, and to begin recording for the next album, which should be due out sometime in spring '09. We also look forward to seeing our families next week and spend some much-needed days at the beach in beautiful Hawai'i. We'll be blogging about our trip on http://www.irationtheband.com, so if you want to come say hi, check the website for our whereabouts.

Peterson: I look forward to being back home in Hawai`i and just being in the warm, clean ocean and seeing family and friends . . . and of course playing music in my home town, "K-town" peace.

Burnett: Most everyone is pumped to get in the water in Hawai`i. Surf, fish, chillax. Seeing our family and friends in Hawai`i is always nice. Other than music, we don't have much of a life, so everything we do pretty much revolves around performing.

Doors open at 8 p.m., tickets are $20 in advance at the Kona Bowl and A`ama Surf Shop, $25 at the door. Concert-goers will also have a chance to win an ESP monster guitar.