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SOJA’s lead singer, Jacob Hemphill, is on a mission. His band’s latest album, “Amid the Noise and Haste,” has just been released and he’s eager to talk about the songs and offer some general prescriptions for the human race.
Helmed by Grammy-winning Jamaican producer Supa Dups, who has worked with Bruno Mars, Eminem and Rihanna, SOJA’s new album features collaborations with the likes of Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley, Michael Franti, Collie Buddz and Maui’s Anuhea.
Known for fusing inspiring messages with stirring roots rhythms, SOJA is adept at uplifting with catchy melodies while addressing serious global issues and struggles.
One of the highlights on the album, the powerful opening “Tear it Down,” is a cautionary tale about the coming tribulations, using symbolism of a great flood.
“It’s about, we can do whatever we want in life,” explains Hemphill. “We can cut down every tree, we can cut them down to make room for cows, we can feed all the cows grasses that we plant, and we can burn gasoline and let it go right into the air. There’s no parent reminding us how bad all this is, but in truth, there is. The parent is the earth, and if you listen to the earth as it gets hotter every year and as the ice melts and the waters rise and the wild fires rage, your parent is reminding you. We can literally tear ourselves out of the picture if that’s what we really want to do.”
Among the guest artists featured, Jr. Gong sings on the buoyant “Your Song,” which invites fans to help the band remain righteous. “If you see me forgetting, forget who I am,” Hemphill sings. “Just try to remind me and put up your hands in the stands.”
“It was incredible,” says Hemphill about working with Bob Marley’s son. “He’s one of my favorite musicians. You are kind of in awe the whole time he’s working with you because you are into his music so much.”
The anthemic “I Believe,” co-composed by Franti, is a new crowd favorite with its inspiring, self-empowerment message.
“Every night, we see audiences singing along to it,” Hemphill reports. “And they’re not singing the part that I wrote; they’re singing the part that Michael Franti wrote.”
And it’s a delight to hear Maui’s Anuhea collaborate on the catchy track “Easier.”
“Anuhea and I wrote that song about a year and a half ago,” Hemphill explains. “I’ve got a studio, and I did a verse and she did a verse to an acoustic guitar. We put other instruments to it and it just got beautiful. The song’s about, maybe life is just for living, and it’s very obvious who would you ask about that, a Hawaiian.”
Hip-hop artist Alfred The MC introduces “Promises and Pills,” a sobering portrait of the devastating impact of post-traumatic stress disorder and prescription drug abuse among war veterans.
“I have a couple of buddies who came back from tours in Iraq, and one of them can’t sleep in the same room as his wife, because he’s worried what he might do to her,” Hemphill reports. “In 2012, the U.S. (military) suicide rate passed the (combat) casualty rate. That’s the year I started writing this record. These men and women deserve a lot more than promises and pills.”
The title and inspiration for the band’s latest album comes from the prose poem “The Desiderata of Happiness,” written in 1927 by Max Ehrmann.
“It’s something I’ve been told my whole life,” he explains. “Every time I would go out on tour, my father would say, ‘Go placidly amidst the noise and haste.’ Amidst the noise around me there is beauty and silence and peace, and I’ve got to find that to survive. So I started crafting these little self-help chapters for the human race.”
Originally formed in 1997, over the years SOJA has toured 20 countries and generated an almost Grateful Dead-like international fan base.
“We love playing everywhere,” he says. “We play reggae, so we’re lucky. We play music that’s about change and love and compassion. Everywhere we go, we look out at the audience and everyone is feeling the same vibe, and we ask them to take it home with them and keep it as long as they can. In doing that, it feels like a family, like we’re all working towards the same thing.”
SOJA has been touring this summer with Michael Franti & Spearhead. On some dates, the Soulshine Tour has featured pre-show yoga sessions led by Spearhead’s singer.
“We’ve been doing yoga with the audience members before the music,” says Hemphill. “It’s pretty rad. He’s an inspiring guy.”
“I’d play an acoustic set and have different yoga teachers teach asanas, including Nicki Doane, a teacher I practice a lot with on Maui,” Franti explains.
Franti and Spearhead will open for SOJA on Maui, radiating positive vibes and exhorting fans to rise up and join in a celebration of the healing power of music to change the world.
Following in the tradition of visionary artists like Marvin Gaye, Bob Marley and Gil Scott Heron, Franti creates what he calls “conscious music for the masses.”
For years, this San Francisco-based musician has spoken, sang and rapped about injustice and social revolution, and increasingly he has voiced these concerns with hopeful, inspirational messages.
His latest album, “All People,” is probably his most appealing, commercial record to date. Wrapped around joyous, soulful grooves, he delivers upbeat messages of love, unity and optimism.
“I love this record, it’s my favorite,” he says. “I try to approach making songs that are memorable, that you can sing along to, but are also invested with powerful themes in the lyrics that people can take into their lives and carry with them.”
Some of the most exhilarating songs on the album include “I’m Alive,” which just makes you want to jump up and down and sing along. He’s just so gifted at composing uplifting songs.
“I think where it comes from is that I grew up kind of a sad kid,” he reports. “And music was the thing that got me through it. I was given up for adoption at birth, and my father who raised me was an alcoholic, and it was a really challenging childhood for the kids in the family. We all turned to music, and I learned from a young age that music can bring out emotions in me that were stuck. And so I love finding lyrics and melodies that are transformational for people.”
One of the album’s most potent tracks, “11.59,” presents a picture of our world on the edge of a precipice, wondering whether we’ll fall or ascend.
“It was 11:59 and 59 clicks,” he sings. “The whole world’s burning, but the clock just ticks. Some people cry, others occupy.” And later he continues: “We can’t live this way. That’s why so many people stand up and say, one love, one blood, one heart, one soul.”
“I wrote that originally when I came back from a trip to Iraq in 2004 and played music on the streets there,” he says. “Then I travelled to Israel and Gaza and throughout the Palestinian territories. When I came back seeing so much war and violence, I thought I was going to write this really angry song speaking out against war, but I had met people along the way who were working for peace and I realized I could be on the side of the peacemakers in each country. So that song is about feeling that you’re at the brink of destruction and chaos, but still being able to find that heaven and that place where we love each other and find compassion and humanity.”
Fronting Spearhead since 1994, Franti didn’t breach the mainstream until the 2008 album “All Rebel Rockers” with the hit single “Say Hey (I Love You)” came out (with 10 million YouTube views).
“It was a huge surprise,” he reports. “We had never had a song on the radio, then suddenly I had a song in the Top 20. That same week it went in the Top 20, my appendix ruptured and I came close to dying. I came out of surgery and people said, ‘Your record is in the Top 20, isn’t that amazing.’ I was in so much pain, I didn’t care about anything. When I got out of the hospital, I saw people playing the song and dancing to it, and I remembered being a kid on some horrible car trip and we couldn’t wait to hear our favorite song on the radio.”
An inspirational live performer, Franti and his band in concert lay down an exuberant, positive vibe that ignites audiences.
“Concerts are the best part of being a musician,” says Franti. “The collaboration that we have with our fans is why over the years they’ve kept coming back. Every time we try to make it the best it could possibly be.”