Hawaii natives, Iration have come a long way since their college days of playing Bob Marley covers at backyard parties. Two Billboard Top Reggae Albums later, Iration is bringing their brand of sunshine reggae to the masses.

Iration will be hitting New York’s Gramercy Theatre as part of their Lei’d Back Fall Tour on October 15. Times Square had the opportunity to chat with bassist Adam Taylor about the band’s evolution and their expectations for this second installment of their Lei’d Back Tour.

Times Square (TS): Iration has done a lot of touring in their career, and I’m wondering if there’s anything special about this “Lei’d Back Fall Tour”?

Adam Taylor (AT): Actually, just being able to make it a second annual tour has been really exciting for us. It’s something we want to be able to do throughout our careers; to be able to maintain the steam for the tour and bring our fans the whole vibe of the Lei’d Back Tour.

TS: Tell me about these other bands on tour with you guys.

AT: Well, there are two bands travelling with us: Through the Roots is the opener and they’re from San Diego, and Tomorrows Bad Seeds, who are from Los Angeles. We brought both of those bands out because they’re two bands that we respect musically, and that we know we can listen to on a nightly basis. We know that our fans will translate to them and enjoy them as well. They rounded out the package really well: Through the Roots is more of a roots reggae band and Tomorrow’s Bad Seeds have more of a heavier rock influence, and we feel like we sit more in the middle, with more of a pop reggae edge. We felt it rounded out the whole package really well.

TS: Do you tend to spend a lot of time with the other bands, or do you keep to your own tour busses and spaces when you’re on the road?

AT: Well, actually I’m doing this interview on Tomorrows Bad Seeds’ bus right now. I rode on their bus last night with them and another one of my band mates – we’re all really close. We do have our own spots, we’ll go and get hotels right after sound check and we’ll kind of disappear for a few hours, but that’s another reason we picked these bands. We know we can get along and it’s easy to travel together. That’s definitely something we consider when picking bands to go out with.

TS: I understand Iration got their start in the college scene, and I’m curious to know how some of those initial shows were, playing parties and backyard shows, and if there was a moment when it hit you guys that there was a lot of momentum happening for your band.

AT: When we were playing those parties it definitely never seemed like a career at that point. The parties were all about having fun playing music. We used to sit in our dorm rooms or off campus rooms and play for hours. We were really into it and it was something that became our passion, but we didn’t consider it a career. Those parties we played always got to be really wild; we lived in Isle La Vista, which was a huge college town. I think it was after, when we started to get a few offers to play outside of Santa Barbara—we were seeing more fans paying for tickets—it hit us that we could really do it. I’d say the defining moment for us was when we released our four song EP called Sample This and we sold out the Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles. That’s when we knew that we would be doing this for our career. Shortly after, William Morris picked us up and that’s when things really started moving our way.

TS: I’m wondering if you can tell about recording your full-length in 2007, and your experience working and recording with Mikey Dread.

AT: That was really cool. We got really lucky because we were recording the album right around the time we booked a show in Santa Barbara with Mikey Dread. We were able to set the show up for him and make him some money and bring a ton of kids out and he really liked our sound. He mentioned that he’d like to do a song with us, and so after we spent a few months of hounding and tracking him down we finally got him into the studio. It was pretty surreal, his style and his work ethic and his knowledge of engineering and of sound. We learned so much from him. One of the things he said to us that really stuck out for me was that reggae music was like a train – you have to keep the rhythm on a steady track. The way we made the song was pretty cool; we basically played a groove for about 20 minutes and he would come in and do little vocal bits over it. He basically then worked with our engineer and they chopped it up. Instead of doing the song from beginning to end, he put pieces together to make a song. To this day we’ve never done anything like that.

TS: So tell me, what does New York have in store of your performance at the Gramercy Theatre?

AT: We’re really excited about playing Gramercy Theatre. It’s out first time headlining a big show there, and I know the tickets are already selling really well, so we’re looking forward to it. They can expect a high-energy show. I know all the bands are going to really bring it. Iration has really formatted our set list. As far as we’re concerned this is the best live set we’ve ever played – we’ve really analyzed it and made the flow as close to perfect as we can. We’re really excited to play it for New York. Just coming to the city is one of our favorite stops because it’s so different from anywhere else we go in the country. We’re all foodies, we like to go eat and we like to go walk around late night and check out all the jazz clubs and the food trucks. Just being in the city and feeling the pulse of the city is really cool.


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