Members:
King Julia - Vocals, Guitar
Music Read - Drums
Meet Fifth Nation
With the annual South By Southwest music conference and legendary festivals like Austin City Limits, it's never truly a surprise when incredible musical stories emerge from Texas' independent music mecca. But the serendipitous, creative, romantic and ultimately spiritual connection of singer/songwriter King Julia and drummer Music Read at a house party there on March 1st, 2009 just might be the most exhilarating and inspiring yet. Becoming fast friends, then lovers and collaborators as the cool and mellow, jazzy soul rock duo Fifth Nation, the two quickly holed up in the studio to work on their emotionally compelling debut album FLIGHT.
Less spiritual folks might see the coming together of these two compassionate souls and powerful musical forces of nature as incredibly lucky random chance, but it's clear that for whatever the reason, they have come together to cultivate bravely unique and compelling music. Proving that sometimes these transcendent connections cannot be explained or forged by mere words, the two performed together before they ever even spoke.
After moving to Austin and playing in bands that did everything from reggae to heavy metal, the U.K.-born, well traveled Music was working as a roadie for a company based in Laredo that contracted with tours by everyone from Merle Haggard to Ludacris and Akon. On the Greyhound back to Texas from his latest gig, he had a strange dream haunted by a mysterious female presence. The day he got back to Austin, a friend called out of the blue and invited him to a house party. Julia, who grew up in New York and studied at UC Santa Cruz, had recently dropped out of college and moved to Austin to focus on her music career. At the party, her friends urged her to get up on stage and perform some of her original material.
The minute she launched into a melody, Music instinctively took the stage, sat at the drum kit and played along. She had been looking to start a band from the moment she got to town, and had particular problems finding a great drummer. Music gave her the groove and, within days, a partnership in which to flesh out her growing catalog of songs?and her musical dream. Julia had written a handful of the eleven tracks on FLIGHT before she met Music, and he helped develop their sound.
"We have a wide range of musical influences," Music says, "from Julia's love for Billie Holiday, Stevie Wonder, Jeff Buckley, Radiohead and Lauryn Hill to my passion for everyone from Dave Brubeck to Led Zeppelin, Common, Talib Kweli and other hip hop acts and obscure punk bands. In creating our sound, we're inspired by jazz, blues, soul, hip-hop, rock, punk and hybrid styles." Julia adds, "Because we are both from different parts of the world and bring so many different experiences to this partnership, we are able to come together to make something beautiful, emotional, organic and original. The songs on FLIGHT truly represent the heart of what we are trying to convey, which is about loving and being open, genuine and honest with ourselves and our audience."
The band's sonic expression of their environmental consciousness can be heard in "Ocean," which Julia wrote while studying biology at UCSC -- she sings her love for nature and the majesty of the Pacific while reflecting on our microbial ancestors, evolution and the natural physical forces of earth. The hypnotic and emotional "Thanks For The Gametes" contemplates her own conception and the mysterious origin of life, and how each individual life perpetuates life on earth. She wrote the moody and seductive "Far As Sky Can Tell" when Music was back out on a two week roadie gig; the song describes the strength of their mutual feeling from the beginning, the feeling that their love is eternal. Although the tracks take on different themes throughout FLIGHT, and some are not specifically romantic, they are all based on love in some form. Love is the theme and the resounding message.
The duo's philosophy can be captured in the story of the origin of their group name, Fifth Nation. In the dawn of the twentieth century, the great chief Hiawatha united six scattered Native American tribes into the Iroquois Confederacy, in order to bring peace and order to the Americas. The Mohawk Indians were a wise and self-sufficient tribe, skilled in growing their own food and building their own houses; Hiawatha recognized them as the Fifth Nation. They had a matriarchal society and deeply respected their ancestors and their progeny -- they kept history logs that went back seven generations, and they planned wisely and carefully for the future. Most of their music was very rhythmic and consisted primarily of drums and lively singing. The similarities between Hiawatha's Fifth Nation and the twenty first-century love story of Julia and Music were striking enough for the couple to find familiarity in the name. Thus they were Fifth Nation.
"The fact that things happened for us the way they did, and that we are doing this together, makes every day thrilling and bursting with pure love energy. We put every drop of our effort into the tremendous task of growing as independent artists. And no matter whether we rise or fall in this journey, our love continues to grow. We will continue to share our emotional experiences and reach our goal with every performance, to inspire the audience to tap into this positive, infinite universal energy."
Fifth Nation Websites:
web: www.fifthnationmusic.com
myspace: www.myspace.com/fifthnationmusic