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Why we do this. An introspective look at The Green’s album Hawai‘i ’13 on its release day.

a the green photos blastAn album release day feels like a never-ending daydream, playing out a long line of what-ifs.

As much as we try, we can’t help but think to ourselves:

Are people listening? Does the bass sound clean on iPhones? Damn iPhones, why isn’t everyone listening to the album on good speakers?! Do they get it? Do they like it? My Dad called the radio station and the DJ did not have the album. OMG why didn’t the DJ have it? Our team said they would send it. Do you think the other DJ’s got it? 
Fewwww he called back, the DJ is playing the song. Our song. 
It’s working, we are moving up the iTunes charts. #4 in reggae. Click refresh. #3. Come on, no one looks at #3, its gotta be #1 or it doesn’t count. 
<I click refresh for the 15th time> Finally, #1 we can say it hit #1, over Legend.  How many sales is that?

The list goes on and on.

The truth is… it all matters, and it doesn’t. The album is the whole sum of its parts. A whole (band + team) that has been working, creating, promoting, emailing, texting, traveling, instagraming, practicing, writing, smoking, quitting smoking, drinking coffee, etc.. for years before this album came out. In that sense, on release day, the skinny details matter only to the extent that the foundation is penetrable. The roof is new, the heat is on, come and get us skinny details, we have been building this thing long before you even knew it existed.

The Green’s new album Hawai‘i ’13 (H13) is a gateway for you to go deep inside the life of six Hawaiian musicians. Their music shows you the depth they are reaching as people, what their art stands for, and how strong their foundation is. H13 is the sum of all parts of The Green, and shows their true colors brighter than anything since they first broke into the scene nearly four years ago.

In addition to the album, the campaign is on display, featuring the work that the team surrounding the musicians has been doing. The release is our open house too.  The art is beautiful; Kamea Hadar nailed it again. Danny Kalb (the engineer) went into the studio and brought out a sound that lets H13 stand on its own against any reggae album to come out during the musicians’ lifetime. Easy Star followed through on their promise to create a true partnership with the band, something that began as a conversation backlit by snowflakes and streetlights in 2009 and truly came into its own during this album campaign.

As for me, this has been the hardest album campaign that I have ever been part of. We all wanted “it” so bad, and set our bar higher than any campaign I have worked on. We walked through doors that had never been opened before, and were forced to take a deep look and ask ourselves “why are we all doing this?” Tears, confrontations, yelling, verbal rants, apologies, apologies again, and weekly conference calls brought out the reason. Something we have known all along. We do this, because we can’t imagine doing anything else. Good isn’t good anymore. It must be exceptional, and we have to be exceptional with each other for it all to matter.

-Seth Herman, Manager of The Green

The Green’s album Hawai‘i ’13 is out today on Easy Star Records.

Connect with The Green: thegreen808.com | Facebook | @thegreen808

To request promotional copies of the album and press interviews, please contact: [email protected]

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Seth founded Rootfire while he was managing a group of influential modern reggae acts, including The Green, John Brown’s Body, and Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad. The goal of the project has always been to connect the people who participate in the modern reggae movement.

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