Growing up in the technology age, the principle that “the medium is the message” still applies greatly. It seems as though almost anyone can record a song, put it online, and build some promotion, with the hopes that their message gets across to as many listeners as possible. However, Rebelution has gone with a more traditional approach. Their success has come through a grass roots campaign that has led their shows to be some of the most popular amongst reggae fans today. Bassist Marley Williams took the time to speak with me over the phone about their rise to popularity, which he explains comes mainly from word of mouth advertising. This form of advertising, he explains, could not be possible without one common similarity between the listener and the music: an honest feeling behind the message.
Growing up in the technology age, the principle that “the medium is the message” still applies greatly. It seems as though almost anyone can record a song, put it online, and build some promotion, with the hopes that their message gets across to as many listeners as possible. However, Rebelution has gone with a more traditional approach. Their success has come through a grass roots campaign that has led their shows to be some of the most popular amongst reggae fans today. Bassist Marley Williams took the time to speak with me over the phone about their rise to popularity, which he explains comes mainly from word of mouth advertising. This form of advertising, he explains, could not be possible without one common similarity between the listener and the music: an honest feeling behind the message.
It seems like you guys have a really big grass roots fan base coming up through college, which is a really hard accomplishment nowadays. How did you come up with such a large local following, especially with people not coming out and spending money on local acts like they used to?
I think we developed a sound a lot of people can relate to, especially the youth, us being two to four years removed from college. I think a lot of people can relate to what we’re trying to say and put out there, and it’s really cool to see their reaction. We even have a lot of high schoolers who come out to our shows. I think it’s mostly about the sound, and then I think a certain thing is how consistently we tour and how much work we put in, and how great of a job our management, our booking agency, and publishing [does]. Everybody plays their roles really well, and everybody has to stay up and keep up. That’s the name of the game with a lot of things, but especially with music. There’s constantly windows opening and closing if you don’t take advantage of those windows, your chances of reaching all these people diminishes. You’ve got to catch people while you can, and I think that we’ve done a good job of putting it all together and providing a show where people can go and get a consistent style with a few surprises. And people like them, who will put their worries aside and have a good time… That’s actually the strongest way to develop that grassroots following, is word of mouth. That’s more powerful than any flyer, any Facebook message, commercial, whatever.
Yeah, that reminds me of a conversation I was having yesterday about how live music is coming to a point where you have to truly create an experience in order to captivate people.
Yeah, you said it right, it’s about creating an environment open to anyone. We’re going to come to a certain city once a year, we’re going to bring something to the table. Acts are doing that more and more these days–it’s less about the studio albums. It’s about always keeping it fresh, always keeping it creative, trying to come up with some sort of mechanism that creates excitement that hasn’t been beaten to death. In the live shows it’s something that you can only be in one place at one time, so that’s what it’s about.
What’s something you do to try to give every show its own eclectic feel?
We always work hard on our set list. It’s not like were not the newest band, but we only have two albums out and we’ve only been nationally touring for about four years. And then on top of that, [we] go to all these festivals with [fans who have] expectations. So, we’re always trying to implement things in our set that keep it fresh or fun, or sometimes you’ve got to keep some traditions too, when people like things.
