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'THE AGGROLITES' INTERVIEW
Category:
Interviews
Posted:
Monday, July 28, 2008
Website: aggroreggae.com
Interviewed: June 25, 2008 at Van's Warped Tour - Glendale, Arizona
Names: Roger Rivas, organ; Korey Horn, drums
The Aggrolites have been playing their brand of dirty reggae for around 6 years. They've got 3 studio albums under their belt and are one of the best (and only) bands playing their particular style of music. They put on an energetic and rocking live show. Read on to see what makes these guys so funky!
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 Brief history:
ROGER: Basically we started the band as a side-project, like an All-Star band kind of thing. We put it together to do a session for Derrick Morgan. When we did the session, half of us were from Rhythm Doctors, half of us were from a band called the Vessels (that really sucked). We came together in the studio just to do this session for Derrick Morgan, to do an album for him. The album never came out, but we were all so pumped on how the session went that we started doing live shows. We got offered a tour, more live shows, and it just snowballed from there.
Was the style of the album like early rocksteady?
COREY: Yeah, it was sort of like early/late '60s/early '70s reggae, and a lot of ska stuff. We were doing a lot of the same thing. We chose all of the musicians that we knew then who could play that kind of music.
ROGER: Corey is an original member, I'm an original member. We've been through some changes, but that's the story of how we got together.
COREY: It was kind of like one of those, 'meant to be' things. We played together for one show, and everyone kept asking when we were going to play again. It snowballed into quitting jobs, doing this fulltime, and the next thing you know, you're at Warped Tour.
What year was that that you were doing the Derrick Morgan project?
ROGER: Six years ago
So after the ska bubble burst?
COREY: Definitely after. At that time, the ska thing - it was so cool to be into ska music. Then it hit this period where you were embarrassed to even admit you listened to it.
ROGER: That's how we wanted it. We wanted it to be after the ska thing, because we didn't want to be mistaken for a ska band - we played early reggae.
COREY: 1969 Jamaica/UK-influenced reggae, which is very unique, really bubbly reggae.
How is playing Warped Tour different than other tours?
ROGER: I would say it's a million times different than any other tour we've ever been on. We've done a lot of ours; we've supported Madness and Dropkick Murphys and all these other bands, but this is hard. This is really work. We're used to waking up at noon, and staying up late.
COREY: It's like boot camp!
ROGER: We've got to go to bed early, wake up early, do our load-in, we're still carting around stuff -
COREY: We try to be self-sufficient. All these other bands have assistants, but we're up in the morning loading our own equipment. I kind of like it like that. It humbles us, and it's the right time to do that, because it's easy to get mixed in with the whole, 'I deserve this, I deserve that.' You go through that and you get really humbled by stuff like this. It kind of grows you as a band, because you have to get up and sweat together, sleep together, don't sleep together. It's kind of cool.
How did you guys first get into ska? What was your first influence musically? What brought you to where you're at now?
ROGER: We all grew up listening to ska. For me personally, my family, my uncle is into ska - the scooters and stuff like that. I just grew up, it was music that I liked and listened to. I didn't even really know it was ska until I was like 12 or 13. Then I was like, this is cool! There's a whole scene of this music? Then I started getting into traditional stuff like the old stuff - like Byron Lee and Skatalites and stuff like that. It just got better from there. Local bands in L.A. were trying to imitate the traditional ska stuff. Later on I discovered this rare reggae that no one's ever heard of. It's just so raw and gritty and funky.
COREY: It ain't ska, but it ain't 100 percent reggae either. It's like the punk rock version. Me personally, I love traditional ska, but this stuff is different and fresher.
ROGER: I joined this band called the Rhythm Doctors, and it just started going from there. I started collecting records and trying to copy this and playing that, then more and more and more, and here we are.
COREY: That's pretty much the story for everyone in the band.
What are the top three bands on your iPods right now?
COREY: I'm gonna tell you the truth. I'm very happy that this band has a bunch of influences, all across the board. There's every genre of music that we're into, with the exception of KISSFM-type music - we're not listening to NSYNC or Backstreet Boys. For me right now, there's a band called The Bees out of the UK, really cool modern band, but they sound really old-school. It's kind of crazy, because people who don't know that we've been listening to this stuff.
ROGER: On my iPod right now - what I'm listening to the most? Probably some John Coltrane, some old-school fusion stuff like Billy Cobham, and maybe, like, some Toots, 7 Seconds...
COREY: We always gravitate back to the reggae, but then we always branch out.
ROGER: We always like listening to stuff that people we were making the music that we play were listening to at the time. So, it's like oldies, old funk at the time, or maybe some jazz, maybe some bossa nova - you never know. It kind of helps us with our writing and playing. We love all kinds of music.
Did you hear about The Specials trying to reunite? The O.G. Specials with all the original members. We would love to get on that tour - even if we would have to pay.
People always ask me, who do you get star struck over? Jerry Dammers, Stevie Wonder and any of the Beatles. That's it. So to see Jerry Dammers in the flesh... it's just an era that's gone...
Favorite Two-tone era, Top 3 songs?
ROGER: Mine are rare. I'm a collector. When I deejay, all two-tone stuff. 1: Jeanette, by the English Beat (it has been my favorite song since I was five years old. I would spin that record in my room over and over and over). 2: Murder, by The Selecter, and 3: Hey, Little Rich Girl by the Specials. Three good songs and they're not normal ones.
COREY: 1: Friday Night, Saturday Morning by The Specials, 2: Do Nothing, by The Specials and 3: Swan Lake by Madness.
 What has been your favorite band to play a show with?
COREY: It was a big deal, we backed up Prince Buster; that was a big deal for me. I remember when we were doing rehearsal, we're playing all of his songs, and I think Jessie, our singer was singing them rehearsing for him to come in. He walked in, didn't even say "Hi" or nothing, grabbed the mic and started singing right where we were at, and it was like a magical moment. I had never felt anything like that playing, ever in my life. It was totally awesome.
ROGER: Yeah, we were playing in Switzerland during this past tour, and Roy Ellis, a singer for a band called Symarip - they are the definition of this genre that we are trying to emulate. This guy does a flip onstage with white suspenders. He heard we were in town. We do this song called Banana, that's an original Symarip song. We're all backstage in the dressing room, and this guy comes through the door and he goes, "Remember me?" which is a line from one of his songs. Long story short: he was onstage with us. He played, it wasn't scheduled, it was spontaneous. That was a very cool moment.
What's it like being one of the traditional reggae/ska bands playing in a festival like this? Do you get a lot of fans, or no?
ROGER: I don't think a lot of the fans that we have know what we're doing. I think it's great for us, I think the stagehands and the roadies, people who work here love it. But kids who are here to see all these other bands listen to what our parents listen to. So I think we're basically playing for ourselves and the people that work here. We get our fans from the Tim Armstrong album that we did, and people who are fans of that stuff. From them, the reception is great.
COREY: We don't have long hair in our face and different neon-colored glasses and girl pants on.
ROGER: Maybe we're getting too old; I don't know if we fit in the Warped Tour, but it's good exposure for the band. I think that's one of the reasons why Kevin's got all these oranges and we're the apple. It's pretty cool. There's still the kids who went to see Reel Big Fish earlier who have heard of this band called the Aggrolites and come to check us out and end up liking it.
COREY: It's funny, because all of us have our own stories to where we were into this kind of era of music and then switched over. For example, when I was into Two-Tone, I had a tape and all it said was, "Studio 1." Turned out to be the Skatalites, and I was like, "I like that band Studio 1," but I didn't know. So that's the moment of turning over to the old school music. I think that's what we're trying to do, is to let kids know. We've got kids who are into this whole zany circus kind of ska music, and if that's the moment where they're like, "Wow!" they have this epiphany, and they go and investigate. The more they hear the Specials version of Skinhead Moonstomp and go, "I love it - that's an Aggrolites song!" because we cover that, they investigate. That's the same way I was when I was younger. I'd hear Tears of a Clown by English Beat. When I'd hear the original, I'd think they were covering English Beat! We're hoping that's the same effect we have on kids that listen to our music.
Did you guys back Tim Armstrong on the album he did?
ROGER: Yeah, it's all us. Tim just brought songs in, and I think he had a concept of dirty reggae. We don't want to say we just play skinhead reggae; we play ska, we play some soul. He wanted a dirty reggae album. He brought songs in and showed us the songs and said, 'Here. Do what you will with them.' They came out great; he was so stoked. The whole label, Hellcat Records, was stoked on it. We only played one show, we did Weenie Roast and KROQ Weenie Roast. It was unique. He gave that album out for free.
Any last words?
ROGER: The Aggrolites have a new album coming out early next year. We've got two tracks on Kevin Lyman's movie, Endless Bummer ... we cover The Specials Ghost Town and Pass the Dutchee - both of those will be on the soundtrack - we're really happy about that. We're touring after Warped Tour; we'll be in your town soon!
Interviewed by Ben T.
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