CASPER AND THE MiGHTY 602 BAND | ROCK iS RED PRESENTS AN EXCLUSiVE iNTERViEW WiTH CASPER AND THE MiGHTY 602 BAND AND CUTS FROM THEiR FORTHCOMiNG ALBUM "ELEMENTAL"

JULY 14, 2015

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ROCK iS RED
PRESENTS AN EXCLUSiVE iNTERViEW WiTH
CASPER AND THE MiGHTY 602 BAND
AND CUTS FROM THEiR FORTHCOMiNG ALBUM ELEMENTAL

After almost twenty years in the music business CASPER LOMAYESVA (Hopi) knows not rush a good thing. He and his band THE MIGHTY 602 pretty much have their seventh studio album ELEMENTAL in the can but have decided to wait till the first quarter of 2016 to release the album in all of it's glory. But that doesn't mean that we aren't privy to couple of tracks of the album such as APON THE RIDGE and FOR ALL THE CHILDREN both of which offer up that irresistible groove and positive message that have become CASPER's brand and trademark.

ROCKWIRED had a chance to speak with CASPER a couple of days after catching an electrifying performance fo his at the LAUNCHPAD in Albuquerque, NM. Here is how the interview went.

The performance that you gave at the Launchpad for the ELECTRIC 49 was amazing! You've got a very tight band behind you in THE 602 BAND. How long have you been working with this group of people?
CASPER: We've been working together for twenty years. Nineteen-going-on-twenty years but it's probably been about twenty years just knowing each other.

That's amazing to be together that long. That's quite an accomplishment there. Now you guys are on the verge of releasing anew album ELEMENTAL. So what's all going through your head in regard to it's pending release?
CASPER:This is going to be our seventh release off of THIRD MESA MUSIC. I'm not really in a hurry to release it. The one thing that I've learned through out this whole experience is that your never release a new project in the fourth quarter. You try to release it as early as you can so that you have a whole year to promote it. It's been a real challenge. I'm in that mode after our seventh record where I feel like the music will get done when it gets done. I'm not rushing it. I'm too old for that. The music will take it's course. It's like wine. You don't rush wine. You let it sit for a while and then it will flourish as it should. In this case Indian Time is okay.

It brings to mind that old saying of how you have your whole life to make your first album and sixth months to make your second. But for you it sounds like time is important in getting it right. So who helps you behind the mixing board and the recording console. Is it you who calls the shots as well or does someone help with production?
CASPER: Nowadays there is a team but early in the career you're talking to the booking agent, the driver, the babysitter, the whole deal. Nowadays the band is a big part of the stuff that we're doing. We've hooked up with some new cats. We've met up with some really cool people along the way. One studio we're working out of is IRON LION STUDIOS out here in the valley. It's a collective. It's a trade off. It's the 602 BAND's home spot if you will in return for us recording there and creating music in that studio the 602 BAND is the house band. Any artist that comes in there whether it's rap country or whatever it is 602 BAND will be the ones to lay it down. It's become a collective. In this business there is a lot of dis-unity because everybody wants to be the headlining act and there is a lot of competition in this music. That has never been the case with us. We're all important. Musicians are important. We're needed so you shouldn't sell yourself tot he lowest bidder just because it's an opportunity Opportunity knocks all the time in my opinion. In a sense some people are just trying to pay their dues and with this collective we give people a place where they can come and relax and enjoy themselves and play music and not worry about money. It's a collective so come and do your thing. For the past nineteen years we've had over 37 musicians. We've worked with multiple artists. We've molded musicians that are now headliners. One of our drummers happens to be playing with KY-MANI MARLEY and has toured the world with him. The list goes on and everyone is doing their thing. The biggest thing with me is that in these times that we live in everybody has to contribute something. I want everyone to contribute. I've never been the type to say "You can play with CASPER and only CASPER." I want my musicians to play wherever and with whom ever they want and then when they come home they bring some of those experiences form some of those other ventures to our circle so we can hone it and mold it into something. This biggest thing with this collective is that everyone has to bring something to the table. Not just musically. Vibes are good. I've got a bass player now who is second generation 602. His father was playing bass back in the day now the son plays the bass and his father plays guitar and what the son brings to the table is youth. He brings a sense of urgency tot he table. He's hungry to do something. That's what it's all about. Everyone needs to bring something to the table. That's all that I ask of anyone.

Talk about how music got started for you.
CASPER: Growing up I was always the oddball in the group. When everybody was listening to top forty in the radio back in the day. I was listening to THE FUNKADELICS, and ROSE ROYCE and CAMEO. I was really big on the soulful side of music like jazz or anything that was really soulful. Stuff like the COMMODORES. You know what I mean? I had an early sense of of this soulfulness in a way. Long before you could see a reggae band in any casino in America, reggae in Hopi land in Northeastern Arizona was a big thing. We were the first Native tribe in the world that brought reggae to the reservation. That was how I got introduced to it and that was over thirty years ago. People on the reservation got tired of traveling five hours or two hours to Flagstaff to see a reggae band that happened to be touring. So as a collective the tribe decided to bring these acts to them. They had a community center and they could charge 5 dollars at the door and boom reggae in Hopi Land was born and for twenty year we've had some of the biggest reggae acts in the world come to Hopi Land. BOB MARLEY would've come to HOPI LAND if he were still alive. I've seen them all and that was how it began for me. That was how I got into the reggae style of music. I didn't choose this music. It chose me. In a sense it was my calling. After seeing my first reggae act ever that was what I wanted to do. I was ten years old when that happened.

And getting started as a professional musician what were some of the challenges that yo faced?
CASPER: The first challenge was coming up with a band name. I remember it was 1997 and we had just released our first album ORIGINAL LANDLORD and it was getting a lot of play on community radio. You aren't going to hear any of my stuff on National radio. unless you're listening to public radio and they happen to be playing one of my songs. My music isn't in the mainstream. With community radio and native radio, and the dub circuit the album got spun and some of the songs blew up in a sense. Because of that the album wound up on the table of a music promoter in California and at the time he was putting together the SIERRA NEVADA MUSIC FESTIVAL which is still huge. It's still one o the biggest summer music festivals out there. After hearing our CD he wanted us to play there but he needed to know what the name of the band was. We didn't have name for the band. We lived in an area in Tempe Arizona where the area code was 602. I happened to be looking in the phone book as I was speaking to him and I told him THE 602 BAND. The name stuck and its' been with us for nineteen years. So the first challenge was coming up with a name. The second challenge was to hone our live performance skills. We were a fresh band. We were hungry and ready to go and there was a lot to learn in terms of how to conduct yourself in this music business. I had to learn how to handle notoriety so to speak. It was really a good run there from the very beginning. It was more than I imagined. We were playing everywhere including Europe. It was really a good run.

Twenty years later how does that first album sit with you as an artist?
CASPER: I'll tell you it was the cheapest album I ever made. I put that album out for about five grand whereas the last album that we put out was more like twenty. It's one of these deals where that particular project is timeless and after all of these years those songs still resonate with me. That music is kind of a testament to our seeds if you will. It's nice to look back and say "Wow! That moved a lot of people!" NPR picked up on one of the songs and used it for a piece that they were doing on Hopi farmers. and how they cultivate their corn in the middle of the high desert and how they've been able to do so for over four thousand years. The name of the song was RAIN and they used the backdrop in the music. Even through exposure on that show it rekindled interest in the album. We sold an additional five hundred copies in the course of a couple of days just because of that segment on NPR. Music is magic an it's timeless.

With this upcoming album ELEMENTAL how do you think it's going to be different form previous releases?
CASPER: It's not going to be different at all. It's just going to be more in your face. It's still the same style of music. We're still sticking to our guns in trying to promote sustainability and consciousness and love. We're living in some crazy times and I think this album needs to be more centered and even more of a reminder of what we are and what our responsibilities are to each other as well as our responsibilities to Mother Earth. and to our surroundings and our future generations. Unfortunately we're blinded. We're living in a time of technology where everything is instantaneous. Because of that we lose sight of the simple things. ELEMENTAL was an appropriate title for the album. Humans are nothing but elements as well. We're going to be dirt when we're done. We're part of this Earth. We're part of the elements so we need to go back to the beginning. In a sense that is what an element means to me. It's the beginning of everything. So lets see how it works. We're just going to keep pushing our positive message and try to remind people of who we are to each other.

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