Soldiers of Jah Army
Mention folk music to the average listener and the list of usual suspects c… Read Full Bio ↴Mention folk music to the average listener and the list of usual suspects come to mind: Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Woodie Guthrie, etc. Talk to SOJA lead singer/guitarist Jacob Hemphill, however, and you’ll walk away with a different perspective. “To me, Rage Against The Machine, Wu -Tang Clan, Sade, Johnny Cash, Bob Marley – they’re all folk artists,” he says. “There’s no difference between Raekwon saying, ‘I grew up on the crime side, the New York Times side, where staying alive was no jive,’ to Bob Marley saying, ‘Cold ground was my bed last night and rock was my pillow, too,’ to Johnny Cash saying, ‘I know I had it coming, I know I can’t be free, but those people keep on moving (around) and that’s what tortures me.’ Folk is all about storytelling and passing on a legacy. It’s timeless, it’s limitless and it crosses all boundaries. That’s what this band is striving for. It’s a tall order,” he laughs, “but we’re making our way.”
They’ve raised the bar with Strength to Survive, their fourth full-length album, an intoxicating mix of hot-rod reggae grooves and urgent, zeitgeist-capturing themes. The album, produced by John Alagia (Dave Matthews, John Mayer, O.A.R.), is the band’s first for ATO, the label co-founded by Dave Matthews.
Hemphill says the album was greatly inspired by Bob Marley’s Survival. “That’s the greatest reggae album ever made,” he says. “It has the best basslines and the best lyrics ever heard on one record. Marley wrote it after he went to Africa. I was 13 or 14 when I listened to it for the first time and it triggered all these long-forgotten memories of when I lived in Africa as a kid. My dad was an IMF res rep in Liberia in the late 80’s. I remember when the coup first started—- my family had to hide in these iron bathtubs for 3 days because the military was shooting at everything. I was 7 and that was one of my first memories. We made it out on the last flight. So Africa was always a big part of our lives—- it defined our family, in a way. Music came right after that, so, for me, music was always tied to Africa and music was always something powerful.”
Shortly after returning from Africa, Hemphill met Bobby Lee (bass) in the first grade in Virginia. The two instantly became best friends, finding common ground through their love of hip hop, rock and reggae which they performed together at their middle school talent shows. Throughout high school, they met Ryan Berty (drums), Kenneth Brownell (percussion) and Patrick O’Shea (keyboards) and together formed SOJA. The band gigged locally in the DC area while a couple of the guys finished school, all the while making plans to hit the road after graduation. They actually wound up owning the road.
Over the course of the past few years, SOJA has sold more than 200,000 albums, headlined large theaters in more than 20 countries around the world, generated over 40 million YouTube views, amassed nearly 2 million Facebook fans, and attracted an almost Grateful Dead-like international fanbase that grows with each tour, with caravans of diehards following them from city to city. Most impressive of all, they’ve accomplished all this on their own. This 8-piece band has spent the past year and a half grinding it out from venue to venue, playing more than 360 dates, including headlining sold-out tours of North and South America, as well as opening for O.A.R. and sharing stages with everyone from Dave Matthews Band to Matisyahu.
With Strength to Survive, the band makes an impassioned call for unity and change with universally relatable songs about faith, hope and love. “I could go on and on about the horrible damage we’ve done to the earth or the problems that arise when countries compete for money over an imaginary border, but the album has one central theme,” says Hemphill, “and that’s our hope for the world to be one family.”
It’s a concept best exemplified in the song “Everything Changes.” “People out there with no food at night,” sings Hemphill, “And we say we care, but we don’t, so we all lie/But what if there’s more to this, and one day we become what we do, not what we say/Maybe we need to want to fix it. Maybe stop talking, maybe start listening/ Maybe we need to look at this world less like a square and more like a circle.”
Among the album’s many highlights is the ethereal “Let You Go,” about the road not taken, “Mentality,” the disc’s hard-hitting opening track, and the one-two punch of “Be With Me Now” and “When We Were Younger,” the latter bringing together the macro and the micro with the simple yet resonant line, “All of my answers, now that I’m older, turn into questions.”
Hemphill says the band’s simple and honest approach to music is what’s enabled them to break through obstacles of language, distance and culture in amassing an international following. “What’s the alternative – pop music?” he laughs. “Pop music—especially American pop music, is about having money, sleeping with models, living in mansions, spending all of our time in clubs and generally being better than the rest of the world. It’s funny, ‘cuz everyone here is broke. We sing about different things—things that actually matter. I think our fans appreciate that.”
“When I look out in the audience and I see these kids with tears in their eyes, not because I’m singing a love song, but because I’m singing about how the world is dying and we’re the only ones who can stop it, that is huge. I live for that. We played a festival in Brazil in front of 80,000 people, and everybody was singing every word—in English. After one of the songs, I told them, ‘We’re on the road a lot, and people always ask me, “Don’t you ever get homesick? Don’t you miss your family?” I said, ‘It took me awhile to realize this, but this is my home, and you all are my family.’ The place just blew up. It was amazing. But it’s the truth—those are my people and I always want to do right by them. It’s is the only game in town for me.” ❖
They’ve raised the bar with Strength to Survive, their fourth full-length album, an intoxicating mix of hot-rod reggae grooves and urgent, zeitgeist-capturing themes. The album, produced by John Alagia (Dave Matthews, John Mayer, O.A.R.), is the band’s first for ATO, the label co-founded by Dave Matthews.
Hemphill says the album was greatly inspired by Bob Marley’s Survival. “That’s the greatest reggae album ever made,” he says. “It has the best basslines and the best lyrics ever heard on one record. Marley wrote it after he went to Africa. I was 13 or 14 when I listened to it for the first time and it triggered all these long-forgotten memories of when I lived in Africa as a kid. My dad was an IMF res rep in Liberia in the late 80’s. I remember when the coup first started—- my family had to hide in these iron bathtubs for 3 days because the military was shooting at everything. I was 7 and that was one of my first memories. We made it out on the last flight. So Africa was always a big part of our lives—- it defined our family, in a way. Music came right after that, so, for me, music was always tied to Africa and music was always something powerful.”
Shortly after returning from Africa, Hemphill met Bobby Lee (bass) in the first grade in Virginia. The two instantly became best friends, finding common ground through their love of hip hop, rock and reggae which they performed together at their middle school talent shows. Throughout high school, they met Ryan Berty (drums), Kenneth Brownell (percussion) and Patrick O’Shea (keyboards) and together formed SOJA. The band gigged locally in the DC area while a couple of the guys finished school, all the while making plans to hit the road after graduation. They actually wound up owning the road.
Over the course of the past few years, SOJA has sold more than 200,000 albums, headlined large theaters in more than 20 countries around the world, generated over 40 million YouTube views, amassed nearly 2 million Facebook fans, and attracted an almost Grateful Dead-like international fanbase that grows with each tour, with caravans of diehards following them from city to city. Most impressive of all, they’ve accomplished all this on their own. This 8-piece band has spent the past year and a half grinding it out from venue to venue, playing more than 360 dates, including headlining sold-out tours of North and South America, as well as opening for O.A.R. and sharing stages with everyone from Dave Matthews Band to Matisyahu.
With Strength to Survive, the band makes an impassioned call for unity and change with universally relatable songs about faith, hope and love. “I could go on and on about the horrible damage we’ve done to the earth or the problems that arise when countries compete for money over an imaginary border, but the album has one central theme,” says Hemphill, “and that’s our hope for the world to be one family.”
It’s a concept best exemplified in the song “Everything Changes.” “People out there with no food at night,” sings Hemphill, “And we say we care, but we don’t, so we all lie/But what if there’s more to this, and one day we become what we do, not what we say/Maybe we need to want to fix it. Maybe stop talking, maybe start listening/ Maybe we need to look at this world less like a square and more like a circle.”
Among the album’s many highlights is the ethereal “Let You Go,” about the road not taken, “Mentality,” the disc’s hard-hitting opening track, and the one-two punch of “Be With Me Now” and “When We Were Younger,” the latter bringing together the macro and the micro with the simple yet resonant line, “All of my answers, now that I’m older, turn into questions.”
Hemphill says the band’s simple and honest approach to music is what’s enabled them to break through obstacles of language, distance and culture in amassing an international following. “What’s the alternative – pop music?” he laughs. “Pop music—especially American pop music, is about having money, sleeping with models, living in mansions, spending all of our time in clubs and generally being better than the rest of the world. It’s funny, ‘cuz everyone here is broke. We sing about different things—things that actually matter. I think our fans appreciate that.”
“When I look out in the audience and I see these kids with tears in their eyes, not because I’m singing a love song, but because I’m singing about how the world is dying and we’re the only ones who can stop it, that is huge. I live for that. We played a festival in Brazil in front of 80,000 people, and everybody was singing every word—in English. After one of the songs, I told them, ‘We’re on the road a lot, and people always ask me, “Don’t you ever get homesick? Don’t you miss your family?” I said, ‘It took me awhile to realize this, but this is my home, and you all are my family.’ The place just blew up. It was amazing. But it’s the truth—those are my people and I always want to do right by them. It’s is the only game in town for me.” ❖
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Soldiers of Jah Army Lyrics
9-1-1 9-1-1 is the battlefield that we're living on. Trust in the…
Be Aware Be aware, and your mind must be clear Under any circumstance…
Be With Me Now In two months, I'm through the door way Put my guitar…
Better Hello True, we know we far away from us Two, we know…
Bleed Through every time I pick up a pen, its all you and there…
Born in Babylon I came from nothing but a nothing like nothing Nothing -…
Bring Back The Truth Think for yourself or be thought for, and, Fight for yoursel…
Brothers & Sisters intro: Jake talking. JAH RASTAFARI YEAH Haile i Selassie I …
Brothers and Sisters They said we'd come like water, but I know we…
By My Side I act like I left her, but I really beg…
Can't Tell Me I like women and I love getting high, I like a…
Creeping In Word of wickedness is pollution, Word of sin that is…
Decide you're Gone I used to think that I would go this all alone I…
Devils Help me to see Your way and Your light. Help turn…
Did You Ever Did you ever get that feeling that the Road of life…
Don't Forget It wasn't you, its just the way we Roll the dice,…
Don't Worry Why do we have to break down to know if…
Dub in a Time of War They say that Bush could be my president, But really…
Easier It's never been a problem for me Is what I'm always…
Everything Changes What do we really need In this life? I look at myself…
Faith Works Faith, works and unconditional love - No bad mind, no hatre…
Forgive Don't Forget Chorus We love our enemies as our friends, InI will…
Freedom Time I open my eyes, each morning I rise to find the…
Gone Today When I look to see the sun, I can feel…
Here I Am She calls me when i'm in town I pretend i'm not…
I Believe I believe, I believe, I believe, I believe No matter what…
I Don't Know Yeah well, I had one by my side, But she only…
I Don't Wanna Wait I don't wanna wait I don't wanna wait wait I don't wanna…
I Tried I cant forget that day I got you There's something about…
I've Got Time It's funny; how I live, And I go on without you…
In Jah I Must Fear They say that Bush could be my president, but really InI…
It's Not Too Late Oh yeah... Alright... Alright... Alright Oh, it's not to…
Jah Atmosphere Chorus In Jah Atmosphere Lord, there InI must be. v.1…
Let You Go It occurred to me as things are slowing down that…
Look Within Everyday all of these crimes are committed, and everyone's …
Losing My Mind Theres no picture in the wall Theres no rise and theres…
Lucid Dreams Every time I close my eyes I find myself in the…
Mentality Even asleep, mentality's awake.. Nobody realizes how much w…
Mother Earth V.1 They should have know this couldn't last forever They s…
My Life Alone Oh my God I'm alone in Your world With only what…
Never Ever She's looking like she might've Felt all this before Yeah …
Non-Partial Non-Political This is Jah Love, InI been waiting And now InI found,…
Not Done Yet It's hard for me when I Think about the things…
Nuclear Bomb August 6th 1945 one american plane in a japanese sky, The…
Open My Eyes I open my eyes, each morning I rise To find the…
Peace in a Time of War They say that Bush could be my president, But really…
Promises and Pills In war, combat is so heavily prepared for Returning home is…
Rasta Courage Try and remember now just what has been done enslavement,…
Reality This one is levitated unto The One, who created our…
Rest Of My Life Oh my God I'm alone in Your world With only what…
Revolution For so long InI feel as if I'm not a…
Shadow I'm not a shadow, I'm not the ground beneath your feet I'm…
She Still Loves Me I know it's hard now for you to see You can't…
Signature We deserve more than lies and illusions way more than what…
Sorry Baby I'm sorry For whatever it was I always did; The way…
Stars and Stripes Your oil's running out So you're gunning down Who's gonna …
Strength To Survive I'm amazed in the way that we've got this far The…
Strong For Them Strong for them, I will be strong for them I'm…
Summer Breeze You can feel it in the summer Breeze, there's something in…
Tear it down The situation isn't what it was and its never gonna be…
Tell Me I like women and I love getting high, I like a…
The End Intro:This one is livicated to all those Who thought they…
Thunderstorms I don't know one thing about you not Knowing a thing…
Time Come Due V.1 Well I won't fear my judgment day But rather…
To Whom It May Concern To whom it may concern and for those who are…
Treading Water I've been waiting on your conscience to call And maybe…
True Love V.1 Just like the land that bear the name Africa,…
Used to Matter See, these days its different, Its all new. The old is…
Wait You know I never said goodbye to you I just shut…
Waking Up Its a real strange world. Sometimes it feels like its…
War They say that Bush could be my president, But really…
What Would In this time we don't need war, In this time what…
When We Were Younger I never really got why we're here Just look at all…
You and Me Well, I had one by my side, But she only tried…
You don't know Yeah well, I had one by my side, But she only…
You Don't Know Dub Well, I had one by my side, But she only tried…
You Don't Know Me Yeah well, I had one by my side, But she only…
You Don't Know Me 2008 Well, I had one by my side, But she only tried…
Your Song [Damian Marley:] Now greetings to the world, voice of the o…
Zion Livity Zion liveth and Zion loveth Tell them about livity I and…