Toft Willingham, lead singer and guitarist of reggae fusion band Spiritual Rez, spoke with The Daily Orange about the band’s origins and its new album and music video, ahead of its performance at Funk ‘n Waffles downtown Friday.

The Daily Orange: Let’s start by talking about how Spiritual Rez was formed. Where, or how did you guys meet?

Toft Willingham: We formed Spiritual Rez at Berklee College of Music as freshmen. The bass player and drummer, Ian and Jesse, and I formed it there and it sort of evolved over the years while we were in college. We started playing at house parties and throwing big parties in our college houses, in Allston, Massachusetts, which is kinda like a college student ghetto. That’s where everyone would go from all the colleges in Boston to party. So, we started as a party band just in the basement, and then we sort of grew into the clubs, and we were playing nicer venues. When we graduated, we were like, “Let’s take this show on the road.” We started touring, and that’s pretty much how it was formed.

The D.O.: If you were to describe your music to someone who’s never heard it before, how would you describe it?

TW: It’s a high energy, reggae rock dance party, basically. It’s horn-driven, and we play rock music, we play reggae music, we play ska. It’s very multi-genre. If we really had to attach a name to it, it would be reggae fusion, but it leans on the reggae rock side, I would say.

The D.O.: Your latest album, “Setting in the West,” is out. Can you tell us a little about what producing it was like?

TW: Our last album before “Setting in the West” we did all ourselves, in our studio. Our last album was 100 percent self-produced and we kinda wanted to see what would happen if we brought in outside producers. I happen to have a connection to Kenny Carkeet (of AWOLNATION). We both grew up in central Florida. So I knew him, and didn’t know what he was up to musically, but eventually we made the connection on social media. So, we started talking about this idea that we really needed, a great song, a hit song, the best song we could possibly write. We were like, “Let’s try to co-write together on something we can do for Spiritual Rez.” And we went out and we did three songs with him, and that was “Sober,” “Red Room” and “Tidal Wave.” We had this great writing experience, and we thought, “Let’s do a whole record out there and see what happens,” and we ended up having a record that we’re really proud of.

The D.O.: The video for your single “Together Always” was recently released too. What was it like filming it?

TW: Oh man, it was a blast. My brother lived in that house that’s in the video, and it was like this really cool mansion underneath the Hollywood sign, and it was Keanu Reeves’ house, and a bunch of famous people have lived there. We had this song that we had done with HIRIE, and we were brainstorming music video ideas, and we were like “that house needs to be in the video.” It was great to get HIRIE involved. It sings as if it’s a duet, so she would need to be in it, or she would need to be like, my significant other in the video. So, we wrote a little story and came up with the idea, and I flew out to Hollywood and she drove up to Hollywood, and we did it. Basically, it was just me, her, my brother, who is super talented videographer, filmmaker, director, artist. So, it was the three of us, and a couple of his friends for lighting. She brought a friend to do makeup. So it was like a super small crew, really fun. We just spent the whole day and shot the video, and it was a blast. She was really fun to work with.

The D.O.: Are you guys excited for the Syracuse show?

TW: Yeah. We’re playing Funk ‘n Waffles, which is a great venue. It’s run by our homeboy Adam Gold, who is in Sophistafunk, he owns it. So we’re boys with Sophistafunk, and Adam, and that whole crew, and we love what he’s doing with his business. Great waffles, great food, lots of support for live music, original live music that’s out in the scene. We love playing there.

Published on November 16, 2016 at 9:30 pm

Contact Malavika: mnrandiv@syr.edu