Soul Rising on their upcoming single 'Not the One' and what it takes to be diverse and still come together
If there ever is a search for the one band that represents today's youth the best, we're quite sure it will narrow down to Soul Rising. Comprising musicians from completely different ages, genders, nationalities, cultural backgrounds, religions and sexual orientations, Soul Rising brings them all together to create a new sound. They bring to their sound the combined backgrounds of working with some of the world's top artistes, including Mariah Carey, Prince, Imagine Dragons, Kanye West, Rod Stewart, Janelle Monae, Mya, Andy Grammar, KISS, and dozens more. The Los Angeles-based seven-piece alt/pop band features members Khadia Handon (lead vocals), Nicolette Holman and Angela Michael (harmony vocals), Sandy Chao Wang (keyboard), Stig Mathisen (guitar), Mike McBay (bass), and Sandro Feliciano (percussion).
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MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) connected with members of the band as they spoke about their story of coming together to create music which is diverse in approach and resonates with their ambitious energy. Stig walked us through how the band came to being, as he explained, "I have been playing music in Los Angeles for 30 years and had put a band together with a girl named Candice Erica but that doesn't matter. She left the band and I was replacing her with several vocalists and instrumentalists. That took seven to eight years, and as a result, it was me Stig in the guitar, Sandro the drummer; we have been together for seven to eight years. We then found our vocalist Khadia, and alongwith that came Nicolette and Angela, and we found Sandy most recently about a year and a half ago."
What is interesting about the band is they try to keep their music as relevant as possible. "We try to keep an outside songwriter who is younger than we are to keep our music relevant, and not outdated sounding." Khadia then begins to work with the lyricists in order to understand the song so that "the themes are personal for her and the range is in her vocal range, and she likes it." Following their pattern of arranging their songs, the band is presently working on a new single 'Not the One'. Soon they will also be working on the choreography of their second single, 'Dead', following which they will shoot a video for the single and release it in 45 days.
As we wait for 'Soul Rising' to release their single, let's just say this is one band that you need to look out for. The band's name itself is a message for people to overcome adversities and the social differences that hold people apart. With their music, they strive to reach out to the soul which rises above all boundaries. The band explained, "We represent a group of people of different backgrounds, different national origins, different ages, different sexual orientations, all of it... it's more about crossing boundaries because boundaries don't exist. It's not that we advocate but why is there advocation in the first place? We can agree to disagree or we can accept our differences because that is what makes everyone unique."
Soul Rising releases their new single 'Not the One' on April 2. You can watch it here:
