Interview Conducted by Chad Hillje
Photo Credits: Trevor Albair
Fillmore Auditorium: Denver, Colorado 3-17-12
Reggae music is more than just music dedicated to the Islands. Since its inception in the late 1960’s reggae music has evolved via the creation of Ska and Rocksteady. Now, one can catch a reggae show on the mainland any day of the week. Denver, Colorado is no exception and is one of the most reggae friendly states in the entire country. On March 17, 2012 The Fillmore Auditorium in Denver, Colorado was treated to a show featuring, Hawaiian reggae outfit “The Green”, opening up for one of Reggae music’s biggest names in the scene; Santa Barbra’s Rebelution. I was given the opportunity to meet up with JP Kennedy, Ikaika Antone and Jordan Espinoza of The Green. This is what they had to say. Enjoy!
Welcome back to Denver gentlemen! It’s so good to see you again. Two times in six months here in the mile high city! You just played to 7,000 plus fans. You must be high on life! How ya feelin?
Absolutely stoked brah. Absolutely stoked.
I’m sure that goes without saying! I personally want to congratulate you on the success of your recent album release “Ways and Means”. The album is more than a musical masterpiece as well as an artistic “visual” masterpiece done by your friend and respected Hawaiian artist “Kamea Hadar”. How did this relationship come to fruition?
I grew up with Kamea and we lived like two houses down from each other. He is actually from Israel. He was born in Jerusalem but he was raised in Hawaii. He is killing it right now! His art work is one of many things going on right now. He has a clothing line and everything.
That’s great! Can we expect to see his art work on future releases from “The Green”?
For sure! His art speaks for itself.
You guys recently treated you fans to your first music video for the hit single “Love and Affection”. In your video you guys kept a realistic vibe by not flaunting “hot women” or “fancy cars” and kept it well… real! Can your fans expect another music video anytime soon for your other fan favorite “Gotta Be” for instance?
We are definitely down to make more videos but right now we are in the midst of this tour and are not really thinking about it at this time. We like to record a lot of music so that conflicts with recording videos. JP likes to make tour videos and by recording those, we keep the fans in the loop.
You guys are rolling with a new drummer “Jordan Espinoza”. Is this a permanent change, considering “Leslie Ludiazo” is back touring with “Hot Rain”?
“Hot Rain” has been around a lot longer than us. That’s Leslie’s original band and we wish him nothing but the best with “Hot Rain”. The crazy thing is that when we found out that we did not have Leslie before our last tour, we were leaving in like ten days. We asked Jordan if he was ready to hit the road with us for like 8-10 weeks without even practicing and he was all about it. He rocked it without missing a step!
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Jordan, what bands were you playing with before joining “The Green”?
I played with this band called “RootiKaL RiDDiM”. They are an underground Radics Jamican roots style band. You have to check them out!
I’m sure the fans reading this interview will want to check them out! Many bands in the reggae/rock genre gravitate towards releasing a dub/acoustic EP. Can your fans expect something like that in the future?
I think so. We just record whatever we feel, ya know. We never go into it like “We have to do one of these”. We go into the studio and if we are feelin it we will roll with it. We have a couple of things that we want to take outside the radar.
With that being said we want to thank you guys for your time and it has been a pleasure having you back in Denver, Colorado.
We love Denver! Please let your fans as well as the Denver fans know that we are so grateful for them!
I’m pretty sure they know. We will pass on the word.
Photo Credit: Trevor Albair
