The story of the Dub City Renegades reads much like an adventure from Gulliver’s Travels. Or Jurassic Park…More on that later. The Dub City Renegades were formed in 2008 and kicked off their journey by playing at local bars in their native Fairfax, VA. The members include: Akshan – Vocals ,The Dub Architect – Guitar / Dub Production, Matt Bauer – Guitar, Evan “SSM” Herring – Sax, John “Big L” Larsen – Bass, Andy “Dr. Dub” Myers – Keyboard, Stephen Mensah – Percussion, Kevin-Shawn Talbot – Drums, Mark Allred – Trumpet.
Some members of the renegades including bassist John “Big L” Larsen also attended local George Mason University. I got up with John and his producer & band-mate The Dub Architect. We’ll call him, J.
John, J and I kicked back on the couch and exchanged stories, shared ideas and had a few laughs. One story that J told was particularly intriguing. In late 2009 J found out about a music festival in Costa Rica and contacted the organizer. The festival’s organizer offered to have them be a part of the festival. J agreed and the band would shortly be off to Costa Rica. Before the trip the Renegades found a group from Costa Rica who was also taking part in the festival and set up a show with them in the capital a few days before the actual event. The festival wasn’t simply for fun though, “It was set up as a fundraiser to save the rainforest, it was on the peninsula, the most remote part of the rainforest on an old military base,” J explained.
“The festival was actually at the place where they filmed parts of Jurassic Park, like where the helicopters landed. There are no street signs, no GPS you know, Haha, we still had not seen our keyboardist.”
So off the Renegades went to Costa Rica, not having all seen each other in over a month. “We told our keyboardist at our show about a month beforehand where we would be in Costa Rica,” said J as he laughed, “He didn’t show up for the show at the capital”. When they arrived in the capital they went on over to the venue they were playing at called “El Observatio”. They walked in as the other band was playing and there was “..a lot people” said John. They got on stage and jammed out in front of several hundred people who they said were extremely receptive to their sound, “Oh they were great, we didn’t really have a way to promote before the show you know, but they actually gave our stuff to the local radio station who was promoting the show and pumped it for a few weeks beforehand – it was one of the coolest things we’ve ever done”. The group hung around in the capital a few more days before heading out to the festival.
“We took a 44 person tour bus for the 14 of us, there were like hammocks up and all that,” J said chuckling and the group took off on a 12 hour trip out in to the deepest part of the rainforest, “The festival was actually at the place where they filmed parts of Jurassic Park, like where the helicopters landed. There are no street signs, no GPS you know, Haha, we still had not seen our keyboardist.” Shortly before the show about ten o’clock the group had to find their gear they had arranged to be there, and discovered their keyboardist, “He popped out of the rainforest with like some coconuts or something.”
The band played the first night in front of an appreciative crowd and simply took in the scene the second day. Their trip got a little tricky though on the way back to their hotel. “We hopped in these cabs, which were like cattle trucks, it was the coolest thing,” then all of a sudden the driver stopped in the middle of an intersection. Four vehicles with bright headlights approached, “This is it we thought, we’re getting kidnapped, game over, but he basically said that the people at the festival hadn’t paid him enough to drive us where we were going and he wanted like 100 bucks – we ended up staying at this lady’s place where they had these little bathrooms and these, like, raised tents with bug nets around them like 30 feet from the water. There were monkeys flying around and stuff. It was the middle of the rainforest.”
The band hopes that the festival in Costa Rica is only the beginning of their international travels, “We like how groups like SOJA perform a lot around the world, we would love to do that.” They may well get that chance. The group won “Best New Artist” award at the Virginia Reggae Awards and followed it up with their self titled EP in October of this year. Many members of the group also have solo projects. The group’s Vocalist, Akshan, recently released a solo album. J (The Dub Architect) produces numerous instrumental dubs as part of the Polyphonic Dub Collective. The musical force is strong within in this group. They’ve already collaborated with the likes of Josh Heinrichs and a number of producers around the globe and will be playing a number of upcoming shows with some impressive company. Their show schedule includes:
- Dec 30 – The Whiskey – Annapolis, MD – w/ BALLYHOO!
- Jan 7 – Jammin Java – Vienna, VA – w/ Feed God Cabbage
- Feb 3 – Rock & Roll Hotel – DC – w/ Nappy Riddems & TBA
- Feb 11 – Jammin Java – Vienna, VA – w/ PASSAFIRE
- May 28th – Viva Vienna Festival – (Headliner)
Dub City Renegades are planning on producing a full length album in the near future, and just want to continue to grow as a unit, “We just want to continue to progress our sound, add new things,” said John. And progress they shall. They’re once again nominated in a number of categories for the Virginia Reggae Awards. There is no doubt that the Dub City Renegades will continue to be nominated for a number of awards for years to come.
Stay tuned tomorrow for more on DCR and an opportunity to get a copy of their self titled EP for FREE!
The Dub Architect Dec 3 2011 - 9:26 pm
MAX RESPEK breddren! Great article! Thanks for spreadin the vibes! BOOM BLAZE!
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