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, Moja Nya 'for the p By FIKDOI S HAM.II Assistant features editor It you experienced the music of Moja Nya at Kockafcllas' this past Thursday and I liday nights, feel fortunate. I his is probably the best reggae band Columbia has seen. Their synthesis of reggae and rock A, is brilliant and lends to a wonderful ? irony. Irons'' When lour Kastas can get a Columbia crowd singing "Irie!" and shaking their fists to a protest song, but still be brutally political and true to reggae's Caribbean roots, that's irony. \1oja N'ya, which in Swahili means "for the purpose of unity," is Brian "Rocket" Rock on bass, Alex "Sty" Laroque on drums, Desmond "Desi" Hyson on keyboards and Robin "Bobby/Digital" Armstrong on guitar. I hey all write music lor the band and they all sing. Sty, Rocket and Desi arc from the Creole island of Dominica in the Caribbean and Bobby was born and A; bred in New York City. Consequently, the band's music, something they've called "Urban Tropical Rock," combines styles from New York and Paris, France, to Kingston, Jamaica, and I.agos, Nigeria. This is not another cover band and its ability to consistently pump out classic reggae tunes like "Rise Up" and "Are You Really Roots?" is uncanny and appreciated by those who want to hear new and original reggae. Your options? More often than Em Mm TmvEEtB^rl^^^Ur // (J m wfrnmr .r Rocket performs at Kockafellas' Thu *T~~q Cusi i| Costur Your pictures 9 50% i mm RFnm i V H Bn COLOR PRIM IIM /O . / V)/ I^ULCJC /-72 1417 Sumt COIOMWAJCM and tho KODAK COl >is quoiity monilonng services for i : thoughtfi urpose of not: I ancy lights, giant bead neck. ;es, lectures on the virtues of smoking ganja and reggae versions of Jimi Mendrix. Friday morning, after their show Thursday, / he Gamecock talked with Hobby Armstrong, Moja Nya's leau guitarist, in his hotel room. Here are some of his thoughts,/written to give you a sense of the way lie speaks. (}. Mow old were you when you first started playing reggae? A: 17. Q: I'm really glad to see reggae picking up down here. A: (liig smile.) Yeahhhhhhh, lah know, that is needed I tell you. Q: Does the audience you get sometimes freak you out? A: It's from every walk of life. Y' know we've seen little babies in their mothers' arms and y' know old grandfathers and grandmothers boogying, we have 'cm on video tape and stuff >' know? And all creeds too, y' know, all colors, y' know, everybody is welcome to join the ar my of Jah. y' know wha-l-mean? Once you reach a certain point in life, y' know, your heart opens up to the world, the world's problems, you start feeling, y' know, the problems that everybody else is going through. V know you've. . . you've. . . y' know. . . you've come home shall we say, y' know. Then it's just like joining forces and making your army strong, finding new brothers and ^^3 mm rsday ni^ht. ByfBB 1932 8 Bloc IHNTR^SXiG For Every \NCE SUPPLIES STUME RENTALS /* A lemuring , DANSKIN, SOFT T< BARELY LEGAL >es Tights Leotards ? Warn 1-11 ps Uni tare 'ts Swenters Poster. torn Costumes Availa ne Rentals from $5 a 254-8866 Street, Columbia, S.C. 1 m.-Sat. 10:()0am-6:00pm lever leave our sight OFF m r% All UK rnlUt UN IT OR (E-6) SLIDE JUST ONE G??( This c LMJ Sef; er St. Across from N OfWAfCM Sysletn s?ol oio (ogiMnrod Irodei'iafks ol foMrnon Kod ndependoni phoiolmistiftrs nl reggae unity' sisters who believe in the same sort of ideas that you go for, world peace atid love. . . Q: Do you uet that feeling when you play? Like people are really responding to w hat you're say ing just as much as the music? A: Ill.it's tin' miiIv r<*:is<iti I nl:iv lo portray that. I started when there was nobody who cared about that stuff at all, y' know? You wouldn't see a crowd like last night when we first started playing reggae. 1 started playing reggae about 15 years ago, in the United States, so not many people were into it, y' know, we used to see a crowd like maybe l ive people or something like that. And because ol those tough times, you learn to just look inside yourself and you close your eyes. Y' know it it ever were to come about ? just a few people ? you car. really close your eyes and see th? mass out there y Know, it really doesn't matter who's out there. We just believe m a unity and y' know if people can pick up that vibe while we're playing, more power to them. Q: Yeah, you're asking the audience "Are You Really Roots?" (title of one of their singles) and for those three hours. . . they are. (?): (laughs) Hut it they can take that feeling home then we've done what we had to do. Hven if just one p c r s o n passes o n 1 o v e a n d thought fulness to someone else, y' know, that's what it's all about. Y' know it really has blown me ' ?9 /()\ \llf i V H II I / ! WS //If (.amecock ROCK I OSTERS I lest Selection Anywhere! : MAIN ST. 256-2606 M ks North of the Capitol ( I I 'B?dv > 5 OUCII, ( 1 ,.n r son ! . 11 i ,s ;. y i SI l(. . mil'. Iff ! :. 1 Jt\" I I ble , * < J nd up ||yZ' pi Is St m f I 1 ! 1 2920f) PontS * Open Labor Day PROCESSING HOUR j for one roll r oupon expires )t. 30, 1987 'MCA 254-9329 j; lok Comporty loi ' (oslrnon KO'IOK Coii'pdny ''Ml/ j Hobby ArmstronK(center) and St> I manager Tony(top) i i heir hotel room away, well . . . no i. really hasn't because I know that Inh sirom; and mighty, his works will provide. But people in the Midwest, we played a gig in the Midwest, we thought nobody would show up, in the heart of KKk country, and the Na/i parties, and I ,()(K) people (urn out to a show. That is beautiful. Q: Did you feel the same way down South? A: Well, yah man, actually this is like our third time, even in Columbia. We played in Charleston right across the market square where they sold the slaves. Yah man, it was the heaviest when we first got here. We played in an old, original building also, and there's a big courtyard in the back. You can see. . . you can really feel the wicked \ibes. I was glad we went there first because that is like where slavery began. They uspfl In hrino :ill thf? tlavct trrim A I'ri.'n to Charleston, then deliver them to the West Indies and everywhere you have. This was the first place the black man landed, so it was good to make a strong hold too. Q: Did you walk through the market? A: Yeah. But Rasta strong man, Rasta hold his head up tall and walk through those things and just feel the vibrations, y' know and just take that and make things work for him. I or the world, y' know. Q: Your old band ? l ull Hand ? what happened to that? A: Guys feel like they can just go o I f and do t h e i i o w n thing. . . . When your head don't stay together you can lose track of all I'm yon /V / ft 1 C , ?L_ a, ? ! 4 _C <u-4 , - % , ^ i'mmi-" (Ll-l-i' t - (. i. x If y ! G I Coir Sept I > a roquet far rij?ht) relax with friend Ra> the right things in life. That's what happened in that case. One guy went ntI and took his songs anil left the band and he couldn't find another band to reach the quality he was going for. V" know even with the major musicians out there it was still hard to play reggae, especially at that time. Not main people were real I v devoted to doing that. You have to have the feeling and the heart tor it. Q: Are you a major song writer for the group? A: We all are. Q: You call your music Urban Tropical Rock. . . A: Yeah, \%e call it Nya Rock. Moja Nya means "for the purpose of unity," so it's purpose rock. Q: Have you ever played in Africa? A: Not yet. We had a tour lined up, we were supposed to do a thing with Peter 1'osh and Burning Spear, but the promoters never came through with that. Q: Where are you from originally? A: 1 was born in New York City, but my father's from Barbados and my mother's American Indian. 1 \vas born in a car in New York City and I've been on the road ever since. Q: When you come here, do you tec! like you're competing with other "reggae" bands? A: No. we're just here to do what we're supposed to do, we're supposed to take no prisoners. It's strictly front line action. We've gone to places you have no idea what to expect. There's like a war out there. Q: Where were you the most surprised? You thought you would have na need so with these! A J; ?'tf? y V I \ ' X-> 7 >"0\ ,)-V" yi '/ ? ill/ / j i^_ ' fTj 1 I 1 'ft' frri t" l- v a I d 4 ;?"' | I 0L_ (,LZZ , H ou'd like to work wit Harriet & Black Ycarbc we need your help. le to our meeting Wedi . 9th at 6:00 p.m. Koo Russell House. No previous yearbool experience necessary, L/Ul J71 V.1V.I 1 V.U. tainan Jah Femi(far left) and band a bad nighi and suddenly you were ' like, blown away. . A: hat comes to mind right away I was the Midwest gigs. I'm even ask- \-A ing my sound man, "am 1 allowed to b walk on the streets during the day |v light?!" V" know, 'cause 1 don't know what's going to happen to me. | 1 hat was in Indiana. Y know now there's like two states we haven't hit. It's like Alaska and Hawaii, (laughs), riiiight. In El Paso, Texas, we were driving from Austin to Fil Paso. . . there's nothing but desert. And then. . . the gig was packed. You don't see where these people could have come from. Q: You know 1 was really surprised, in your gig here, Desi (keyboardist) started speaking out against drugs. Are you part of Rock Against Drugs? Do you take drugs? Smoke grass? A: Well, y' know everybody needs a little inspiration, y' know. Abuse is not good. But, like a cigarette's a drug, a glass of wine is a drug. We do partake in the ritual of smoking, and we look at it like that: a ritual. We get the best properties we can from it. Also, you have the youth nowadays. We have to keep them fresh and clean, 'cause they're gonna rule us y' know. The way drugs are now adays . . . the big thing is that crack thing, and that's in the schools, elementary schools. We have to try to educate our youth. It's better to promote love and harmony and unity. f Moia Nva will be back in Colum- f bia at Grecnstreet's on Sunday, Sept. 13. me help ? 3 :r f. r * v ; j ' v " h the ; :iok nesday m 316 K l