Lei’d Back with Iration

By Joshua Allen

Rastas and SoCal reggae fans take note – Iration may soon be stopping in a town near you as part of their Lei’d Back Fall Tour! Synthesis was able to catch up with Michah Pueschel, Iration’s lead vocalist and guitarist, for a little chat recently. Originally from the Big Island of Hawaii, Pueschel spoke about breaking into the business, his band’s sound and his thoughts on the Occupy Wall Street movement.

What would you tell a local college band trying to break into the scene?
As a band you just have to keep playing as much as you can. Any gig, no matter what it is, just to be playing in front of people as much as you can. The more you get out there as a band, the more your name gets out there, get a fan base, and opportunities to get out on the road with other bands happen.

Your music is definitely laid back, which is also the name of your tour. Who are your influences and what do you hope to do with your music?
We all have different influences, as in different places musically. As far as reggae, it’s Black Uhuru and Bob Marley. On the other side for me it’s Weezer and the Beatles. Some of the guys like metal and punk. We like a lot of different music, so we try to take these different styles of music and implement it into our stuff. We would like to be able to continue to play and make a career out of it. Travel the world, play music to as many people as possible, and experience what the world has to offer. It’s one of the best things about being a musician; you get to see what very few people get to see or experience. As long as we can grow as a band, that is what we’re going to continue to do.

“Time Bomb” is by far your most popular song; what were you guys thinking about when this song was developed?
The song is about one of our friends. She likes to party with the guys. She’s tall and stands out. Being able to write a song about party girls, but not in a negative way, not making them feel bad about it, and just having fun.

“Cookie Jar” is also a popular song. It is very relevant to today’s issue with the transfer of wealth to banks and Wall Street that people are protesting in New York and elsewhere. How did you come up with this song and what are your thoughts about the protests?
That song was written by Michael Rose, an old reggae artist, who wrote it about the Jamaican banking system. We took it and made it our own. It’s an older song of ours that is kind of making its way back around with the current situation with Occupy. The Occupy website was using that song to express that feeling. We definitely agree and support the movement on the most part, as the disparity of wealth is pretty unjust. Though we have not been involved in it as a band, because we’re all individuals, and have our own thoughts about the movement.

Tags: Iration, Lei'd Back Tour, reggae