MYSTIC ROOTS BAND INTERVIEW
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Southern California's Mystic Roots Band has been a permanent fixture on the reggae scene since the late 90s. Now with a duel role of doing the Mystic Roots Band thing and performing as reggae legend's Pato Banton's backing band, the guys are more involved than ever. Band leader and vocalist cootdog was more than happy to spend some time at The Pier to talk all things reggae and all things with a positive influence.
The Pier: So tell us how you ended up being Pato Banton's backing band and what has the experience been like?
cootdog:I met Pato in Chico California in 1997 when he was doing a concert there. Anyone who has ever seen a Pato Banton show knows that he will pull someone up from the crowd to perform one of his songs with him. I leapt at the opportunity to come up to the mic even though at the time I didn't know any Pato Banton songs by heart. I had already started my band Mystic Roots, so I just wanted to get up there and perform.
He asked if I knew the words and I said "no and that I was hoping I could do my own thing." He was like, "alright go ahead." So I started going into a Mystic Roots song and since this was in Chico, my home town, we had a lot of fans there and they went crazy for what I was doing. Pato was kinda amazed at how I was killing it.
We exchanged numbers and stayed in touch over the years and many years later I found out he wasn't working with his backing band (Reggae Revolution) back then anymore and that he was coming out of retirement. So I told him that Mystic Roots could audition and be his band.
He was a little skeptical because he worked with this other professional outfit for so many years, but he gave us a shot at the audition and we nailed it. He was astounded and floored by it and agreed to us immediately being his band in 2006.
The Pier: So what has been the best thing you have learned from the whole Pato Banton experience?
cootdog: He really up the stakes in terms of working professionally. Stage moves, stage etiquette, the outfits, basically all of it. It's important to be professional with all that and even when we are not playing with Pato now we try to follow that same code of ethics and our attitude.
It has been great and a real humbling experience. We are also living a double life. Mystic Roots is still searching for new markets and getting fans everyday, but with Pato he is this international superstar and we are playing these huge arenas in front of thousands of people. We don't get too comfortable being successful, as we live right in between in all of it.
The Pier: The band's debut studio album, Constant Struggle, is regarded as a classic underground reggae album. What do you remember most about recording it at the time?
cootdog: We were all college kids back then and it was a labor of love. We just tried to capture this music we were playing live at the time and put it on CD. We were recording in between classes and we created this positive message and it is amazing it has reached so many people.
The Pier: Nice. So the song Pass the Marijuana from the album has become one of the Mystic Roots Band's more popular songs, why do you think that is?
cootdog: It is a rite of passage for youth when they discover the medicinal herb and they latch onto Bob Marley, Sublime and Mystic Roots. The song is responsible and does not encourage you just to get high. It's about finding inspiration and I think a lot of people can connect with that. It is no doubt that is our big break-out song, but there is so much more to us than that.
The Pier: What was it like winning the 2005 Los Angeles Music Award for Best Pop/Reggae Album for Constant Stuggle? That must have been quite the honor?
cootdog: We were very surprised, and it was crazy that we won. There was not a lot of famous people at the ceremony, but a lot famous people have gone through the process. I know the Black Eyed Peas, No Doubt and Sugar Ray have won that award. So that is very inspiring to build on from that.
The Pier: Now it has been almost 10 years since Constant Struggle originally came out and there hasn't been another full-length album released since then. Has that been frustrating?
cootdog: Not really because we have always played lots of live shows over the past 10 years. We haven't stopped being a live band, it is what we do and so it is hard to find time to be in the studio to record a whole new album.
Though we do plan on doing that this winter season. I'm actually flying up to Northern California to begin work on the new album this Saturday. We got a bunch of songs and we are going to work on some brand new stuff that is really hot.
The Pier: So I heard a rumor you have actually recorded a follow-up to Constant Struggle. Is this true?
cootdog: We recorded a bunch of songs, but our band line-up changes a lot. Every few months we seem to have a member rotate in and out. So the actual material recorded for the follow-up album is by a bunch of guys that aren't even in the band anymore except for me. So it's not fair for me to put that out and I need to represent the current band. We might draw from some of those songs and re-record them with the new guys because there is some great material in there.
Yeah I feel bad that we never released it, as it is a great session and we paid a lot of money for it. It is not going to be a total waste though, as they have been the 'learn' tracks for the new band.
The Pier: Have you or are you going to record an album with Pato Banton?
cootdog: We have recorded an album with Pato and are probably going to do another one. The recent one was called Positive Vibrations and it is a collection of Pato Banton classics. It is nothing new, but Pato will be guesting on the next Mystic Roots album.
The Pier: I love your version of Sublime's Don't Push that was featured on the live Sublime Tribute CD/DVD package, what was that like trying to cover that song?
cootdog: For me personally that has always been one of my favorite Sublime songs and when I heard about the tribute I really, really wanted to get on it. I was too late with my submission to Cornerstone RAS, then they decided to release the double CD/DVD package and re-opened the door and we could be included. I was stoked. We recorded that song in a day, maybe two with the vocals and then Tranducer produced the remix.
The Pier: There is a lot of young up-and-coming reggae bands at the moment. Why do you think that is and what’s the best piece of advice you could give to them?
cootdog: I think it's getting more popular because reggae is beginning to grow into every part of American culture. Like Gwen from No Doubt wearing the red, green and yellow wristbands, then there is Shaggy and Sean Paul crossing over to the mainstream. Damian Marley has had a successful a career too. I think since reggae is the message of love and peace and obviously in war-time period that we live in now that message is going to get into everything. Unfortunately not all the reggae stuff you hear right is peaceful.
Sometimes they just borrow the culture of the Jamaican style and write bad boy lyrics and gangster kind of stuff. That's unfortunate, to me that is regressive of reggae. That's like in the 80s how all the bad guys were Jamaican with long dreadlocks. Like Steven Seagal movies where it was them selling the drugs to all the communities and ripping people off. Which is a horrible stereotype, as a true rasta is nothing like you would see in a Steve Seagal movie. That's kind of happening again now with some of the bad boy types, like Collie Buddz. I really like his voice and style but he doesn't really represent anything positive either.
Music has the power to change people more than politics does and it is very influential, so for me it is your responsibility to keep it positive. I hate hearing artists saying, "well it's not their fault and that their lyrics are just reflecting their environment they live in and what they see." To me that's a cop out. It might be true you live in the ghetto and are surrounded by negativity, but the more you focus your energy on something the more that something becomes real. Talking about how bad is everything around you, how does that fix anything? You say you are bringing awareness to the problem, but we are passed that. Everybody already knows there is poverty and there is violence that is not news to anyone anymore.
You look at Bob Marley and the Wailers they came from the slums in Kingston and that is pure drugs, pure violence, pure poverty and they never sang about any of that stuff. They sing about love. The point is to get out of that negativity by getting into a positive mindset and singing songs about love and freedom. As an artist you have a responsibility, as your music is going to affect people and is going to affect children.
The Pier: That's a really cool message. So what has the Mystic Roots got coming up in 2008?
cootdog: We are just going to focus on finishing this next Mystic Roots album and hopefully get it out by the summer. Also this year I would love to see Pato Banton, backed by the Mystic Roots Band become the biggest drawing reggae act on the circuit and at the same time I want to see the Mystic Roots become more successful in the crossover music world with bands like 311 and No Doubt and have that all co-exist. That’s my perfect world right there.
Thanks to cootdog for taking the time to answer these questions. To check out more from the Mystic Roots Band visit: