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SOJA

SOJA



iCal
Import

November 10, 2013 8:00 pm


All GA show. The theatre has seats in all rows. There are no
“standing room” sections.  General Admission in Rows A-BB. GA is first
come, first choice of seating  with doors opening at 7 pm.


Official Website


They’ve raised the bar with Strength to Survive, their fourth
full-length album, an intoxicating mix of hot-rod reggae grooves and
urgent, zeitgeist-capturing themes. The album, produced by John Alagia
(Dave Matthews, John Mayer, O.A.R.), is the band’s first for ATO, the
label co-founded by Dave Matthews.

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Hemphill says the album was greatly inspired by Bob Marley’s
Survival.  “That’s the greatest reggae album ever made,” he says. “It
has the best basslines and the best lyrics ever heard on one record.
Marley wrote it after he went to Africa. I was 13 or 14 when I listened
to it for the first time and it triggered all these long-forgotten
memories of when I lived in Africa as a kid. My dad was an IMF res rep
in Liberia in the late 80’s. I remember when the coup first started—- my
family had to hide in these iron bathtubs for 3 days because the
military was shooting at everything. I was 7 and that was one of my
first memories. We made it out on the last flight. So Africa was always a
big part of our lives—- it defined our family, in a way. Music came
right after that, so, for me, music was always tied to Africa and music
was always something powerful.”


Shortly after returning from Africa, Hemphill met Bobby Lee (bass) in
the first grade in Virginia. The two instantly became best friends,
finding common ground through their love of hip hop, rock and reggae
which they performed together at their middle school talent shows.
Throughout high school, they met Ryan Berty (drums), Kenneth Brownell
(percussion) and Patrick O’Shea (keyboards) and together formed SOJA.
The band gigged locally in the DC area while a couple of the guys
finished school, all the while making plans to hit the road after
graduation. They actually wound up owning the road.

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Over the course of the past few years, SOJA has sold more than
200,000 albums, headlined large theaters in more than 20 countries
around the world, generated over 40 million+ YouTube views, amassed
nearly 2 million Facebook fans, and attracted an almost Grateful
Dead-like international fanbase that grows with each tour, with caravans
of diehards following them from city to city. Most impressive of all,
they’ve accomplished all this on their own. This 8-piece band has spent
the past year and a half grinding it out from venue to venue, playing
more than 360 dates, including headlining sold-out tours of North and
South America, as well as opening for O.A.R. and sharing stages with
everyone from Dave Matthews Band to Matisyahu.


With Strength to Survive, the band makes an impassioned call for
unity and change with universally relatable songs about faith, hope and
love. “I could go on and on about the horrible damage we’ve done to the
earth or the problems that arise when countries compete for money over
an imaginary border, but the album has one central theme,” says
Hemphill, “and that’s our hope for the world to be one family.”


It’s a concept best exemplified in the song “Everything Changes.”
“People out there with no food at night,” sings Hemphill, “And we say we
care, but we don’t, so we all lie/But what if there’s more to this, and
one day we become what we do, not what we say/Maybe we need to want to
fix it. Maybe stop talking, maybe start listening/ Maybe we need to look
at this world less like a square and more like a circle.”


Among the album’s many highlights is the ethereal “Let You Go,” about
the road not taken, “Mentality,” the disc’s hard-hitting opening track,
and the one-two punch of “Be With Me Now” and “When We Were Younger,”
the latter bringing together the macro and the micro with the simple yet
resonant line, “All of my answers, now that I’m older, turn into
questions.”


Hemphill says the band’s simple and honest approach to music is
what’s enabled them to break through obstacles of language, distance and
culture in amassing an international following. “What’s the alternative
– pop music?” he laughs. “Pop music—especially American pop music,  is
about having money, sleeping with models, living in mansions, spending
all of our time in clubs and generally being better than the rest of the
world. It’s funny, ‘cuz everyone here is broke. We sing about different
things—things that actually matter. I think our fans appreciate that.”


“When I look out in the audience and I see these kids with tears in
their eyes, not because I’m singing a love song, but because I’m singing
about how the world is dying and we’re the only ones who can stop it,
that is huge. I live for that. We played a festival in Brazil in front
of 80,000 people, and everybody was singing every word—in English. After
one of the songs, I told them, ‘We’re on the road a lot, and people
always ask me, “Don’t you ever get homesick? Don’t you miss your
family?” I said, ‘It took me awhile to realize this, but this is my
home, and you all are my family.’ The place just blew up. It was
amazing. But it’s the truth—those are my people and I always want to do
right by them. It’s is the only game in town for me.”


SOJA is:Jacob Hemphill (lead
vocals, guitar)

Bobby Lee (bass, vocals)

Ryan Berty (drums)

Kenny Bongos (percussion)

Patrick O’Shea (keyboards)

Hellman Escorcia (saxophone)

Rafael Rodriguez (trumpet)

Trevor Young (lead guitar)
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