Soma Rasa recently spent 2 weeks in Los Angeles as a part of the Musexpo Conference - With 2 shows in LA; one at The Roxy and the other at the Key Club (Plush Lounge). Below is their tour diary that was originally published in Scene Magazine (Australia). Only weeks 1 and 3 are below > week 2 will be uploaded shortly.
WEEK 1 (Published April 26 '06 - Scene Magazine)
By the time this goes to press we'll be on a plane to LA.. Shit is crazy right now! Soma Rasa is a blur of activity. We no longer sleep and LA is seeming more and more like the right place for us to be right now.
Thats right, we are heading to L.A to perform a showcase at The Roxy in West Hollywood as part of the Musexpo Conference a.k.a. "the united nations of music". QLD Trade and Q Music have really helped to make this happen for us and we are hitting it with all guns blazing. We never thought we were the kind of band that would be into doing showcase gigs and going on about how good we are to strangers but hey, it's L.A., weve been invited, lets go, let's turn it on and turn it up !
Soma Rasa - Venice Beach L.A. May 4 2006
Were taking the full band; the Hazard Brothers, Kina, Sampology, our VJ Bree and we are flying MC Handy to LA from London where he has been for the last couple of months doing a residency at Fat Records club night "Chew The Fat" at The End. All up the 6 of us are doing an 11 day stay in LA. To top it off we also have the 4 members from L.A Hip Hop luminaries Digital Underground joining us onstage for "Say What You Say" at The Roxy show on May 2nd. All up 10 artists from 3 countries.
As soon as we heard that we were selected to showcase in L.A we were straight onto contacting Digital Underground (LA locals) to try and hook up with them and get them on stage at The Roxy gig. Within a day or two we had replies from all members locking in for the show and all the rehearsals when we arrive in LA. The DU guys have been a great support for the trip helping us hook up an extra show in L.A at The Key Club on Sunset Blvd. Shock G has also offered to give us a tour of L.A. when we arrive, couldn't think of a better tour guide!... He told us the other day that the hotel we are staying at in West Hollywood is across the road from where Tupac got his first tattoo back in the day when Digital Undergroud were shooting the video for "Same Song"; Shock said he loved this part of town; "it is my home away from home" - "I sleep well there". Comforting words for a band that doesn't sleep.
We have been rehearsing at "Out Loud" in West End for a couple of weeks getting the tracks ready and refined into a 30 minute set. In the last 2 weeks we have also put together a 9 track CD release for the U.S titled "Step Up" along with a DVD featuring new film clips and a documentary we filmed last year when we recorded "Say What You Say" with Digital Underground. This must arrive in L.A by Wednesday next week! Last minute freak outs included a conversion of all of our DVD videos to NTSC for US video format and packaging dilemmas. We have also been flat out getting together packages and releases to represent other Freefall Records artists Teschnik and Whispa at the conference and make them massive overseas stars before Australia fully realises how great they are. If all goes to plan, all our promo should arrive by the time we get to LA - if not....well.. we will tell you about that next week.
So far the tour is a technical nightmare, the live show needs 3 laptops to run or to even barley make sense... what has become of us? Sampology (our DJ who has been filling in for DJ Kristian while he has been re-located in the UK for 6 months) has Serato software that he uses to scratch (from vinyl records) audio sounds of his laptop, Bill has Ableton Live to run the backbone of the Soma Rasa set and Bree is using Arkaos to mix our live visuals. No wonder we are freaking out....traveling 6 people 20,000 Km in the hope your computer works.... thank god for Drums!
No really everything is cool.
Next stop, LA on the 26th May, where we move into our West Hollywood Hotel for 11 days, then straight into rehearsals with the full band, Digital Underground and MC Handy at Swinghouse rehearsal rooms; a radio interview on Indie Indie 103.1 FM, press interviews and a QLD band welcoming function put on by Musexpo and A R Worldwide, did someone say "free drinks"...