www.myspace.com/rebelution GreenlandLive.net: Describe your band/duo/group. How did you come together? Rebelution came together about 3 years ago in Santa Barbara, Ca. Three of us met in separate music classes at Santa Barbara City College. We all found the common interest of playing music and we ultimately started a band. We covered Sublime, Bob Marley, Ben Harper, and played very few original songs. We used to pay 20 bucks each to rent a PA system so that we could play in our backyard. We would set up twice a month in the college town of Isla Vista on Friday or Saturday nights. This was our training grounds. GreenlandLive.net: How did you come to be known as Rebelution? Once we started gaining a bit of popularity around town, we realized we didn't even have a band name. We flirted with a couple ideas, but we thought Rebelution was fitting to our style and message. We figured we can be rebels without being violent and rather speak with our words, our music. GreenlandLive.net: Who and what are your influences? All 4 of us come from different musical backgrounds. To name a few artists, we like: Don Carlos, Dredge, Gentleman, Bob Marley, Black Uhuru. It's hard to narrow down specific artists. I suppose I like to sing with an influence from world music. Wes plays the drums with a rock influence. Marley adds the funk on Bass, and Rory plays keys with his roots influence. It's interesting because we never really know how to answer this question. We don't limit our style to one of just a few musical categories. We all enjoy so many different styles of music. GreenlandLive.net: How would you describe your audience? Our audience is pretty energetic. They feed off us and we feed off them. As soon as our set starts, we feel a special connection with the fans. We feel like we're starting a positive community of Rebelution fans. We wrote the song Feeling Alright for them. GreenlandLive.net: What are your goals as a group? At first it was all about creativity. We wanted to produce a sound that is different. While this still is the common goal, we know that being in Rebelution is also about being a good role model. It's important that stay positive through all aspects of life and really encourage everyone we meet to stay motivated. Because we were so encouraged by our friends and family when we started playing music, we know how important it is for everyone to be encouraged. GreenlandLive.net: What drives your music? Not only do we love to play shows and make records for the fans, but we love to be on stage for ourselves too. We get a thrill out of creating music. I think one of the things that drives our music is the fact that we are always questioning things. We are always thinking and learning new things everyday. All these thoughts are consistently appearing in our music and lyrics. This keeps us going. GreenlandLive.net: What message/s are you delivering to the world? We really want to encourage everybody. We feel like maybe what the world needs is for people to just give a compliment every now and then. We're not trying to be preachy, we just want to make everybody feel good about themselves. I remember when my mom used to tell me how good I was at the piano when I was growing up, and even though I probably wasn't the single best piano player in the world, I still maintained the confidence to continue playing because of proper motivation. GreenlandLive.net: What does your latest album portray? Courage to Grow is a mixture of concepts. We encourage people to read all the lyrics and define what it means to them. It's different for everybody. GreenlandLive.net: What roles do each member of the band act out/play? Well, we've been an independent band for over three years now and we all have designated tasks. Marley takes care of booking, Rory is our band accountant, Wes is our web/media manager, and I help try to help out in some of these categories but my job is to create the music. Once I have the song idea, I take it into our practice and everybody adds their own riffs and ideas to the song. Every song is always a collaboration. GreenlandLive.net: Describe a defining moment for your band. About a year and a half ago, we found out that our music was spreading in Hawaii. Somehow, our music got on the radio and the next thing we know, we were on a flight to the Big Island. We got off the plane and our music was playing on the radio in the airport. It was an amazing feeling.