Artfulchange InterViews: Where Passion for Art and the Environment Intersect

Guest post by Scott James

Artful Change creates art & music events to raise funds for other environmental and social nonprofits. Our mission is to provide opportunities to raise your awareness & make an impact.

Soul Majestic is a reggae based in Santa Cruz, the Bay Area and Santa Barbara, California with a message straight from the heart. According to their website, “the band’s mission to raise awareness of global interconnectedness, and how people’s actions impact one another and the earth, has moved to the forefront.” The band definitely combines a passion for music with a strong connection to the environment that comes out in everything they do- they even tour in a 15-passenter Bio-diesel van. Their Spring 2009 release, Better World, is currently available on iTunes and in stores. 

I had the chance to talk with Eric-I, lead singer of Soul Majestic, during a break from touring to support the new album, and talk to him about Soul Majestic, how his passion for music and the environment manifest in what the band does, and what to look for from them in the future.

How would you describe Soul Majestic?
We all have a lot of influences. What we have is a kind of a rootsy sound, original and based in reggae music. Influeces from California and all over the world. We’re a rootsy group of people who collectively write music. We write about what we believe in and take a stand.

Why do you do what you do? What inspires you?
I feel we don’t have another choice.

I’ve aspired my whole life to make music and be in a band- To express myself through music and lyrics. We have a responsibility as musicians because we hold a megaphone. We have a responsibility to make sure that what we say out of that megaphone helps to make change for a better world.

How do your own passions for your music and the environment intersect? What is the connection for you?
At a young age I was inspired by Bob Marley, the Beatles, other bands and the underlying message of everything being connected to nature- how that is where we came from. I spent a lot of time hiking and swimming in rivers. I found a deep connection in that.

As time went on and we started facing the global crisis we became aware of the food we were eating, diets, and organic farming. Before it became mainstream, we thought about it and sang about it- we started realizing this was our mission and this is what we should focus on. We don’t really like to preach, but you can hear it in our music.

What are you proud of as part of Soul Majestic?
Our actions are pretty rewarded – traveling in our biodiesel van is great. We just did a tour up to Canada and we got to feel good about stopping to fuel up along the way at some amazing biodiesel stations. Playing festivals like EarthDance that are taking measures to make it greener and have less of a footprint. And taking it down to the grassroots level with green packaging- our last album was recycled materials.

They have an incredible gas station in Eugene, Oregon- a living roof on top, 3 grades of biodiesel, ethanol stations, and the food is organic. There were others in Seattle, Humbolt,  and of course here in Santa Barbara.

So what is coming up for Soul Majestic?
We have a show in Denver, Colorado on October 23rd and a show in Fairfax at 19 Broadway on the 10th of October supporting local non-profits.

We are doing a big promotion with the Sierra Club coming up this fall, which will offer a free MP3 download from their site of the title track to our new album “Better World” to the sierra club supporters, to show our gratitude of their support.

Do you have a message for the Artful Change community?
The world is at our fingertips, the fact that we all have a passion for art and music and for the environment, let’s speak loudly to everyone that there is a lot of hope in the world to make better change. It’s just a matter of uniting and being as strong as we can and standing up for what we believe in.

How can people find you and your music?
Website: http://www.soulmajestic.com/
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/soulmajestic
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/soulmajestic
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Soulmajestic
Email: info@soulmajestic.com
Our new album Better World is on iTunes and it is currently released in stores.