It has been a long time coming, but The Pier has finally scored its first interview with the East Coast reggae root sensations SOJA. With a much anticipated new album out (Born in Babylon) vocalist/guitarist Jacob Hemphill has a lot to talk to us about. Enjoy.

The Pier: I am sure you have been asked millionaires of times before “what got you into reggae music?” So I’ll ask what is it about reggae music that keeps you as passionate about it today?

Jacob: Reggae is a little bit different from other kinds of music, as there is a backbone message of equal rights and justice. It’s more like a movement. That’s what we really dig about reggae music is that we feel we are part of something bigger than just our band. 

The Pier: What goals did you have in mind when you when to record your latest release Born in Babylon?

Jacob: Born in Babylon was really fun for us. Some of the goals we had for when writing this album is we wanted the songs to be fun to play and we got it the way we wanted. Now it is fun because we get to tour behind these new songs.

The Pier: How has the music evolved on this release from your previous efforts?

Jacob: I don’t really know I guess that is up to everybody else to decide. Just like everything in life changes mean different things to different people. I am sure some people hear the new stuff and think it’s more this or more that. But for me to offer my opinion I am going to say I like it better(haha). 

The Pier: Where does the album name come from?

Jacob: It came from one of my good friends back home in Arlington.  We would sit and talk for hours and one night we were listening to all these new songs and he was trying to describe the album and he was saying, “It is not reggae rock and it is not exactly reggae - it is born in Babylon.” I was like, “Shit really?” Then that was it forever. 

The Pier: It has pretty interesting album art too with the earth pig. You put this together right?

Jacob: The album art was not even my idea. It was an advertisement I saw. It is just represents my perspective. I am trying to sing about those same things that traditional reggae artists sing about, but from a flip perspective that’s why the pig is flipped and it represents us singing about those same things, just from a different hemisphere here in North America not Africa or Jamaica.  

The Pier: How was the recording sessions for this album?

Jacob: We play the songs for months together and we like to put a lot of breaks and skips into the songs, we don’t like to do it in the studio but live in the music. So there is a big period of time where we have to practice the songs live over and over again. We do the drums and bass in a studio then rest of everything else in our houses.

Different people would come in and influence different songs. There was a time when we had five other songs that ended up getting cut from this album because we felt that they weren’t ready. So now we have five songs already written and three more new ones. So the most interesting that happened while writing Born in Babylon is that we also wrote the next fucking album (haha).  After this tour we are going to go home and start recording again.  

The Pier: You have quite a few guests on this album, including three members of Rebelution featured on Here I Am. How did working with them on that track come about?

Jacob: We have known the Rebelution guys for a long time and we used to tour with a couple years back. We had time off and we were in Santa Barbara so we were with them chilling at Marley’s house and we threw this party for about three days. Every night we would get tired of it. So Marley and I would go upstairs and I played him a new song we were working on and so he wrote the bass. Then the next night Rory the keyboardist did the same thing in the living room. When we got around to recording, we got them to do the song on the album. I remember them going, “Are we really going to do this?” and I just said, “Why not?”

Rory even used the same keyboard for recording he has this Realistic Audio Keyboard, it is the worst keyboard you have seen in your life. It is a 12 key keyboard and I forced him to use that on the album. We had to mic it and shit. I love that song and want to do more collaborations like that. 

The Pier: Tell us about filming the video for the I Don’t Wanna Wait in your home city of DC.

Jacob: Yeah, that was fun for us. I don’t really write the videos but I kinda do. And I don’t really know what the hell I am doing. I don’t direct them at all. The guy (Marc Carlini) who directed our Hawaii DVD does our videos too. But If I have an idea for video he will do it. Since I don’t know what I doing… at the end of the video people will be like, “Dude, that was great.” I am like, ”Was it? I don’t know.”  I don’t see where it was going or what I was thinking that day.

It was fun to make it. The part where we were shooting in front of the monument across the Potomac River the Park Police came. To get all our stuff there we had to throw it over a jersey wall. So we had pulled up on a four lane highway and we were throwing amps over this wall as cars were driving by at 65 miles (haha). We were halfway through the video shoot when all this police showed up and they were telling us how illegal it was for us to be throwing all our shit on a fucking monument and start filming. So Birty the drummer was trying to finish his close-ups as all this shit was going on. They just kept filming him without the music. It was kinda funny. There was about 18 illegal things we did in that video.   

The Pier: I saw your Live in Hawaii DVD. Tell us about that. How long were you were over there for?

Jacob: That was Marc’s idea. We are actually shooting a music video with Marc tomorrow here in Santa Barbara for the song You and Me. The DVD is the coolest, a proud parent also wants to show people a picture of their kid doing what it is that they do. So the DVD in Hawaii is really cool for them. Every January we go to Hawaii for a couple of weeks, we have been doing that for about four or five years. They dig the vibes for sure and we like them too.

The Pier: Tell us about the compilation disc produced by SOJA, I am totally going to pronounce this wrong - Syr Mahber.

Jacob: That’s not even a real word in English. Its Amharic it is not a Latin language, they don’t really know how to  write it in English. Syr means roots and the word Mahber means association.  So we use the same two songs for all the artists on that compilation. So everyone is associated by the same root.  We asked our Ethiopian friends to translate it. No one knows what it means and no one knows how the hell to pronounce it as it is not a translation of anything. We got to remix the songs a million times so it was really cool.

The Pier: You have built a rabid following through a strong touring ethic. What advice would you give to bands about touring?

Jacob: The biggest thing about touring is you have got to truly be friends with the people you are touring with. You have to be considerate of other people. Touring starts with are you like a family or not? If not, you have got to work on that first. That is if you want to enjoy yourself otherwise you are going to hate that shit and count the days till you got home. My dad always told me if there is anything in the world you can possibly think of that you could be doing rather than playing music you should do it. Because music is the hardest thing to do. You are never home, it is always a suitcase, a hotel and a phone call. If you can’t think of anything else do music 100%. He was right!

By Pilipo