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Photo by Mick Eagleson/The Advocate
Rootdown performs at New Student Orientation in the main mall Sept. 15. They will play Wednesday of Welcome Week Sept. 23.
Rootdown rocks New Student Orientation
The Advocate
Rootdown, a Eugene band, will play Wednesday as part of MHCC’s Welcome Week and also played in the Main Mall Tuesday as part of Mt. Hood Community College’s New Student Orientation events.
Rootdown, which played several tracks from their recently released album, Summer of Love, released their first EP in November 2007. The self-titled EP was given away online in exchange for submitting email addresses.
“We got over 10,000 e-mail addresses,” said lead singer and guitar player, Paul Wright. “We’re completely independent, we fund everything ourselves.”
Summer of Love is completely self-funded and produced. Rootdown recorded it in Nashville, Tenn., with the help of some of their friends in the business and has released it on their own label, Ocean Ave Records.
Trumpet player and percussionist Tim Hemphill has been playing with the band since its founding. “I was working at (Paul’s) old high school with a group of kids and he came in. He was talking about starting this band Rootdown.” That was in the winter of 2006.
Drummer Craig Paulsen has known Wright for three years and started performing with him during the singer’s previous solo project, after which he was present for the founding of Rootdown.
Jackson Wright, Paul’s brother, joined the band a year ago and plays bass and adds vocals.
The band had their first practice on the first day of summer 2007. Since then they’ve undergone a few changes in the roster. In June of 2008 the band almost broke up. Instead, they decided to continue playing and proceeded with their tour. After their Hawaii tour, they added guitarist Matt Salinas to the band and began writing new material.
“I got laid off and Paul gave me a call about a week later,” Salinas said. “It kind of worked out great for me.” That was about six months ago, since then the band has produced what Paul Wright has called “two of our best songs” and recorded and released their album Summer of Love.
“It has just been a really cool experience for me so far. You know, looking forward, I think our best music is still ahead of us,” Salinas said, commenting on his experience with the band. “Every week I’m knocking something off the bucket list.”
The band’s self described Pop-Reggae-Hip-Hop sound stems from Paul Wright’s exposure to reggae and time in San Diego where the culture inspired their music. He wrote the lyrics to their first song, “Roots,” on the plane as he flew back to Eugene.
Speaking about the goal of the band’s sound, “The Music would be the soundtrack for what we are living for. Kind of like the smoke to the fire.” The goal of Rootdown’s upbeat style is to inspire positive change in the lives of its listeners. “That’s kind of the meaning behind Rootdown. Putting our roots down and making a positive difference in our community,” Paul Wright said.
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