Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready for a funky good time? See-I, a long-running reggae band from Washington DC, will be bringing an amazing reggae/funk experience to The Canal Club this Saturday night.
Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready for a funky good time? See-I, a long-running reggae band from Washington DC, will be bringing an amazing reggae/funk experience to The Canal Club this Saturday night. Formed in the 80s by Roots and Zeebo Steele, two brothers from the Virgin Islands, See-I both come from and contribute to the cultural melting pot of our nation’s capital. Their eight-piece band features members from legendary go-go artist Chuck Brown’s band and Thievery Corporation’s backing band, with the Steele brothers out front contributing lead vocals and taking the whole vibe to another plane. Mingling reggae with funk and soul, See-I are the ultimate funky party jam band, and will be sure to start your weekend off right! In preparation for their show this Friday, we spoke with See-I about roots, reggae, and their spiritual outlook.
Who is See-I, and where are you from originally?
See-I is Rootz and Zbo, raised by our mother, the youngest of 6 children. We didn’t have a TV for most of [our] lives, we would sing, dance, draw, tell stories, play sports, and things. And all the kids in the neighborhood mingled in our yard so we had a ready made audience.
What does See-I mean? How did the name come about?
See-I is a way we see the world. The I being the first person present, the essence of life. My brother and myself had a dream. One day we were talking about the name we would call our music group and discovered that we had similar visions, and the name See-I came into being. I recently learned of a dictionary definition: State, Elaborate, Exemplify, and Illustrate.
What artists have influenced the sounds of See-I the most?
James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, Temptations, P-Funk, Earth Wind and Fire, Bob Marley, Super Cat, and Ninjaman.
What elements make up a See-I show? And how would you describe your sound?
It is the orchestration of all the elements of the universe on the one. Because when everything is on the one; it’s plain to See-I; we are all one.
When making a new See-I song, how does the process start? Lyrically, or from the music?
There’s no certain way because word, sound equal power.
How do you make something popularly funky?
Funk ain’t something you can make. You can’t cook it up in a cake. You just got to be born funky.
What do you enjoy most about playing live?
Live means being directly connected to the source of all the universe, that energy, that creative process.
See-I performs live at the Canal Club, located at 1545 E. Cary St, this Friday, April 19, as part of a two-floor Funky Reggae Jam party featuring live bands upstairs and DJs downstairs. In addition to See-I, The Polychrons, Antero, and Hubble Bash will be performing upstairs, while downstairs, there’ll be DJ sets from Congo Sanchez of Thievery Corporation as well as Party Liberation Front DJs Reinhold and Akasha. Show starts at 9 PM and goes all night, well into the wee hours of 4/20 (and you know what that means). Advance tickets are $12, and can be purchased HERE. For more details, check out the facebook event page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/169433196540557/
