Four years into an impressive career and one year after the the release of their debut album, Boston-based reggae rock band The Elovaters announce the October 26 release of their sophomore album Defy Gravity on Rootfire Cooperative. The not-for-profit record label has been featured in Billboard and Forbes magazines as a disruptive force in the modern music industry, providing zero-interest loans and label services, and empowering artists to break beyond the confines of the traditional record label system. Available with the pre-order of Defy Gravity is the album’s first single “So Many Reasons.”
After spending the year touring the country coast to coast as support for acts like Ziggy Marley, Stick Figure, and the Easy Star All-Stars, The Elovaters were eager to get back in the studio to record more music, traveling to White Star Sound, a state-of-the-art studio housed in a barn in the middle of an expansive farmland just outside Charlottesville, VA.
Working with producer Danny Kalb (Beck, Ben Harper, The Movement, HIRIE), the band was able to explore different aspects of the sound that made its first album so popular. "Working with the Elovaters was a dream,” says Kalb. “Each person in the band brought outstanding and unique musicality. You voltron those six together, and you get a really special album. The head of the super robot is Jackson, and he has one of the best voices I've ever worked with. The album is beautiful, catchy, and timeless. I can’t wait for people to hear their music.”
From “Cool Down,” which reminds its listeners to slow down and live in the moment to “Gonna Shine,” which tells its listeners that no matter how much darkness exists light can always shine through, the album is all about providing positive vibes. While “Meridan” switches things up and features The Late Ones and a hip-hop influence, “So Many Reasons” brings the band back to its roots, with a progressive reggae sound that pushes fans to appreciate the reasons they’re in love. Whether working from an office or sitting on the beach with a cold beer, The Elovaters provide their listeners with warm sonic sunshine.
Inundated with news of political unrest and another mass shooting each week, the band began to notice a sense of division, hatred, and an overall feeling of depression both in its community and around the country. As the band members began seeing this sense of depression affect both their attitudes and the attitudes of others, they realized they had to turn to the one thing they knew that could uplift us all, that could keep us hopeful: love. Defy Gravity is about just that, the debilitating forces that try to convince people that they’re not good enough or that they’re not deserving of love. The band hopes that the music on the album can lift people up the way it did when they created it, allowing them to “defy gravity” and remain hopeful and positive no matter their life circumstance.
With plans to tour in support of the album, the band has just signed with Madison House booking agency. Lead singer Jackson Wetherbee is excited for fans to hear the new songs live where they take on a whole new energy: “I think that’s something that our fans have come to enjoy about our live performances. The music is going to sound like the album but you’re also going to feel it in a totally new way.”
Formed in 2014, The Elovaters are Jackson Wetherbee (lead vocal, rhythm guitar), John Alves (lead guitar), Nick Asta (drums), Matt Link (bass), Derrick Cabral (percussion), and Greg Nectow (keys). With Defy Gravity, the band is excited to have its fans hear the next evolution of its sound.
After working on the songs for the past year, everything is dialed in and sounding just right. Now all that’s next is for the world to hear it. Be on the lookout for the album, dropping on Rootfire Cooperative October 26, 2018, with fall tour plans in the works.
Pre-order Defy Gravity TODAY! → https://fanlink.to/defygravity
Track Listing:
Live By The Day
Hold On
Meridian (feat. The Late Ones)
Gonna Shine
People Go
Boston
My Baby
So Many Reasons
Cool Down
The Ladder
Shaking Off The Wolves
