SOJA will release a new album, Beauty In The Silence, on September 24 via ATO Records. The Washington D.C.-based reggae outfit also shared the single “Press Rewind” featuring Collie Buddz and J Boog.
Beauty In The Silence is SOJA’s first full-length album in four years following their 2017 LP, Poetry In Motion. Like their Grammy-nominated 2014 album, Amid The Noise And Haste, the new album’s title is derived from the Max Ehrmann poem, “Desiderata.”
SOJA frontman Jacob Hemphill spoke about the inspiration behind the poem in a statement:
My dad had that poem memorized, and before I’d go out on tour he’d sort of whisper it in my ear. To me it’s a reminder of what we lose when we get caught up in the distractions all around us. You get so used to life being loud and fast and goal-oriented, but then you go out in nature and hear the silence and realize, ‘Damn, I got tricked.’ Life doesn’t have to be all go, go, go. The real key to life is in being still.
With the poem as a guide, SOJA took their time recording Beauty In The Silence in a number of locales including Miami’s Circle House Studios and Dave Matthews Band’s Haunted Hollow. The band also enlisted a roster of eclectic producers such as Niko Marzouca (Pharrell, Rick Ross, A$AP Rocky, Damian Marley), Mariano Aponte and Johnny Cosmic. When stay-at-home orders went into place, SOJA began working remotely, a process where Hemphill found a silver lining.
“I really love that this record is a mix of all of us together in a room and all of us far apart,” Hemphill added. “It’s something that I’d love to keep doing in the future: let’s get together, let’s get the vibe and the groove, and then let’s go off into our own worlds and discover what’s there.”
The band also teamed up with a variety of outside artists including UB40, Slightly Stoopid, Dirty Heads, Rebelution, Common Kings, Mihali, Nanpa Básico, Eli Mac and more. The album’s lead single, “Something To Believe In,” features Stick Figure and SOJA now follows with “Press Rewind,” a collaboration with J Boog and Collie Buddz, which came to fruition on the latter’s tour bus.
Hemphill detailed the new single:
When we first fell in love with this band, we were kids. We worked our other jobs. In a band, if you’re lucky, music eventually becomes your real job. While that’s amazing, if you’re not careful, it becomes more ‘job’ than ‘awesome.’ That’s when you gotta press rewind and remember why you fell in love, and why you’re still in love, with music. I was on Buddz’ bus after a show we did, and he was playing beats he made. He’s a dope producer. He got to this riddim and I freaked out and said ‘wait, dude pause it.’ He paused it for like 30 seconds and I wrote the hook, then he started it over and I sang it. It was on after that.
Listen to “Press Rewind” below:
Beauty In The Silence Tracklist:
- Press Rewind (ft. Collie Buddz and J Boog)
- It’s Funny (ft. Eli Mac and Common Kings)
- The Day You Came (ft. Rebelution and UB40)
- Break It Down
- Something To Believe In (ft. Stick Figure)
- Things You Can’t Control
- Back To The Start (ft. Mihali)
- Jump (ft. Slightly Stoopid)
- Still You
- Messages
- Reason To Live (ft. Nanpa Básico and Dirty Heads)
- This Heart Of Mine (ft. Eric Swanson)
- Fall Like Rain
