Two internationally popular reggae artists top the bill for this year’s MayJah RayJah reggae extravaganza, tomorrow and Saturday at Aloha Stadium.
SOJA (Soldiers of Jah Army), based in Arlington, Va., and touring in support of their “Poetry in Motion” album, top the bill tomorrow.
Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley, Bob Marley’s son and a major star in his own right since the 2005 release of his album “Welcome to Jamrock,” closes the show on Saturday. Marley won his fourth career Grammy for current album, “Stony Hill.”
The two-day festival is Oahu’s 10th MayJah RayJah event. Acoustic reggae artists will perform on a separate stage both days.
Marley and SOJA frontman Jacob Hemphill both made time for telephone interviews anticipating their performances here.
“TO EVERYONE who has ever listened to our story: Everything we do is ultimately for you. We continue to make music and live our lives for you.” So read the liner notes for SOJA’s current album.
Hemphill, lead vocalist and a founding member of the eight-man group, says Hawaii is an important part of the SOJA story.
“Hawaii was like the first place where we saw ourselves on a billboard or heard ourselves on the radio or read about us in a newspaper, and I think Hawaii was the first place that showed us that we were a real band,” Hemphill said, calling from Sterling Heights, Mich. on July 6, during an earlier leg of SOJA’s summer tour. “We didn’t expect the reception we got in Hawaii.
“This was before the success in the Caribbean or South America or Central America. Now we do a lot in South America but Hawaii was really the first time that we felt like maybe we could do this for a living. After my first tour in Hawaii I went home and quit my job.”
That first visit was the beginning of a lasting relationship that has included recording work here as well as playing concerts.
“SOJA — Live in Hawaii,” a full-length concert DVD was made in 2008; the music video version of “Not Done Yet,” from their “Strength to Survive” album was shot in Hawaii.
Watch the music video version of “You and Me,” a song from SOJA’s previous album, “Born in Babylon,” and there are several shots of SOJA drummer, Ryan “Byrd” Berty, wearing an eye-catching “Defend Hawaii” T-shirt.
“For us, the significance of (the T-shirt) is that we are not native-Hawaiians, we’re not Polynesian, and so when we come there we feel like a guest in someone’s house,” Hemphill explained. “ We got that in our upbringing being North American but not being native Americans, and we play reggae but we’re not Jamaican, so we understand that relationship a little bit. When we got to Hawaii and we saw how rich the culture and the history and the tradition was, we felt lucky to be included — to be a guest in someone’s house.”
Another example of the group’s respect for Hawaii can be found in the first song on SOJA’s current album. “Moving Stones” was inspired by the Hawaiian custom of ho’oponopono (to correct or put right through discussion), the band notes.
SOJA has another album on the way, although no release date has been set.
Hemphill, 39, said SOJA has found that what works best for them when working on an album is to live together in a studio for a week or two, work on the music together, and invite friends in to join them in the process.
That process now involves a pretty big group.
“The original three guys were me and the bass player and the drummer, and then over the years we just met musicians that we didn’t want to play without, that we didn’t want to write without,” he said. “And so we went from three to four to five to six, seven, eight — and now there’s eight of us.”
“STONY HILL,” Marley’s most recent Grammy Award-winning album, brings with it references that are not immediately evident. The title is the name of the upper-class district of Kingston where Marley grew up with his mother, Miss World 1976 Cindy Breakspeare, her husband and the couple’s children — Marley’s younger step-siblings.
The district is also a place far removed from the Government Yards (public housing projects) of Trenchtown where Marley’s father, reggae superstar Bob Marley, came of age in the late 1950s.
Marley embraced his father’s Rastafari faith in his late teens — his dreadlocks are said to touch the floor when he lets them down — and many of the songs on the album convey uplifting Rastafari messages.
“The messages and lyric content are always held in high regard,” Marley said, calling from Miami. “It might sound a little bit conceited, but I like to think it’s important information.”
”I learned so much about my father through his music, and the messages in his music that have helped to guide me through my life, even though he hasn’t been here physically for most of my life,” Marley said.
“I would hope that my music can live on and do the same for a lot of young people. That’s a big part of where (my music) comes from.”
The youngest of Bob Marley’s 11 acknowledged children, Damian Marley was two months short of his third birthday when his father died. He seemed destined to be a musician himself, and made his professional debut as an entertainer at 13 as the leader of a group named the Shephards; the group opened the 1992 Reggae Sunsplash festival and broke up shortly afterwards.
Marley, now 42, released his first studio album, the aptly titled “Mr. Marley,” in 1996. His second, “Halfway Tree,” a reference to his position “halfway” between the “rich world” of his mother and the “poor world” of his father, earned him his first Grammy Award in 2002. He won two Grammys for his third album, “Welcome to Jamrock,” in 2006.
Bob Marley was known for love songs as well as for his political and religious writing. Damian Marley is following his father’s example there too.
“My albums have always come with a lot of variety of cuts on them. Doing love songs is not anything new for me. Doing a ballad (like “Autumn Leaves” on the “Stony Hill” album) is something new, but doing love songs is nothing new.”
Looking back on his childhood, Marley says he had a “great upbringing” despite being darker than his step-father and siblings.
“In relevance to the album and the statements I’m making, what stands out about it is that it’s a very nice place to grow up, a very privileged place to grow up as opposed to a lot of other areas in Jamaica that i could have grown up in,” he said. “That’s really the point that I’m trying to make.”
Marley added that he wants the MayJah RayJah audience to enjoy their time with him.
“We want everybody to have a good time,” he said. “These songs speak for themselves.
“There’s always a message of positivity and building awareness — whether it be awareness for problems that need attention or awareness of victories that we’ve won and can celebrate together, or and awareness of love.”
MAYJAH RAYJAH 2019
With Damian Marley and SOJA
>> Where: Aloha Stadium
>> When: 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday
>> Cost: One day, $50-$120 (VIP), two days $90
>> Info: tmrmusicfestival.com
