Beyond just trying to make music, Rawayana is a Venezuelan group that invites people to escape from reality to an imaginary island of much reggae and experimentations with Latin American sounds.
With the firm intention to make music to some extent help people to escape political and economic crisis in Venezuela, he was born in 2007 Rawayana. Initially made parodies of recognizable songs. Then they had the conviction that through sarcasm could make a direct criticism of what Venezuelans live each day to "escape the pathetic reality in which we are" as says vocalist Beto Montenegro.
The four musicians Rawayana, Beto, Fofo, Tony and Bee, live on an island shaped like broccoli imagined that integrate more artists. Apart from them are José Corredor, a photographer who accompanies them on every tour, because "we have a team that, apart from worrying about the music, is awaiting constantly generate content in social networks and always around the concept that we are developing in the moment, "says Tony Casas, guitarist; and Joaquín Salim, who is responsible for the graphical part of the band, since according Montenegro, "the idea was to create a place where people could bring creative and social ideas."
Indeed, a band considered Internet. Following the release of their first album, License to be free, they achieved recognition in their country because two of his videos, something different and blue fire, became viral on Youtube. Besides music, since they began have paid attention to the audiovisual: "We could compose a song, dressed in black and sing in front of a camera and already, or do what we do today," says Montenegro. Their videos range from parodies telesales programs to an idyllic love story unlinked on a paradise island.
"The videos have been important to be what we are today, because when we started there was a very active, neither record nor media in our country, which itself had developed elsewhere industry. So took advantage of the web section, "says Casas.
After his first album, in which reigns parody of what it means to be young in Venezuela, turned them into pop stars of his country, thought to improve his playing and the message they wanted to convey, as Montenegro explains, "always based on personal experiences, between inspiration that could give us the environment because Venezuela has a very interesting natural and social wealth. At that time we realized that the project mood gradually began to become serious and we understood we could talk about things other than laugh with your friends making music ".
Therefore, in his second Rawayanaland, which also worked Rafael Greco, exguitarrista Los Amigos Invisibles, the goal was different, and in search of an identity experimented with other Latin American sounds as well as with other artists such as Natalia Lafourcade, while personally, according Montenegro, "we work on what we were writing and why we were saying." On this album, with a gentler sound than the previous one, is shaped to the island that gives the name to the album through songs that not only speak in reggae and ska, but experience even more with hip hop and pop.
Hence the pop trippy, name given to the music you make now born. Beyond wanting to be typecast in a genre or a type of sound, have worked in the last two years in a new accent and spice, prepared with Latin American music, but with the essence of what is done in Venezuela.
According to Fofo Story, drummer, do not follow a plan seeking to buy up to a larger audience, but simply as since they started, they do what they like, but with a clear intention now. "Because we have been able to handle a wide range of musical choices in what we have done, from Cuban music to reggae roots or R & B, we have not pigeonholed, but, on the contrary, we have tried to be open enough to do whatever we want. "
Trippy Caribbean is a much more Caribbean album than the previous two, in which, as a band, consider that already have a demarcated identity, so dare to make this latest work a "Caribbean indigenous party," from Venezuelan sounds so typical as the rucaneao merengue or calypso El Callao.
This, in part, for their interest to internationalize further, showing through his music a little identity of their country. Now not all live in Venezuela; They are divided between Mexico, Miami and Caracas. "When there is work day glued to the live video conference day because, although most of the team is in Caracas, we are in different countries. In fact, now part of the management team is in Puerto Rico (...), "says Story. In addition, for some time they opened two offices of his production, Broccoli Records in Miami and Bogota, while earlier this year in Canada began a tour that will take them across America.
In this musical island there is also room for his followers. And the visual is important since the creation of each of the songs, interaction with your audience is critical daily. According to Tony Casas, the main idea when composing is that through a topic may arouse the interest of the listener to know the rest of the work that has made the band and thus can believe the story, make the sound travel and stop worrying about what is happening around.
"So if we have a new single, we try to have everything sorted and plan how are we going to deliver to the public, depending on the digital platform on which it is to receive. There is always a specific design for each of our networks and, in fact, the photographer José Corredor always with us so that our followers see what happens to us internally. That is something that is not very traditional in many other bands, "says Montenegro.
Today, the band is presented in Stereo Picnic, as part of the tour which makes the continent releasing his new album. Although plans to emphasize the songs of his new work, its members say they bring a compilation of music they have been doing for ten years and have released over the Internet.
