Rebel Control are a Brighton based reggae group formed by vocalist Andy Baron and bass player Richie Concrete.
The group has been carving their way in the European music scene from playing major festivals Boomtown, Bestival, performances in Italy, Poland, and Montenegro. They also toured with iconic reggae acts such as Luciano, Mad Professor, and Easy All-Stars. Rebel Control recently released their vibing new tune “We Nah Got No Money (But We Got Love),” and it is the perfect release to listen to right now to help soothe your mind.
Opening up with a lo-fi chorus before exploding into a high fidelity verse, “We Nah Got No Money (But We Got Love),” transports us to a heavenly bliss where we are surrounded by all of our family and friends. Rebel Control is able to keep a high energy feeling of a song being played live in “We Nah Got No Money (But We Got Love),” the organic instrumentation and recording come out to shine to bring together a unique experience that already feels like a classic record but with the flair of modern sparkle. We were in love with every second of this record and cannot wait to hear what else will be coming from the reggae group Rebel Control.
You can listen to “We Nah Got No Money (But We Got Love)” here.
Welcome to BuzzMusic Rebel Control! We are loving the feel-good vibes in “We Nah Got No Money (But We Got Love”! How did you come up with the lyrics to this one? Who wrote it and what does it mean to them?
Thank you! I'm glad you're feeling it, but I think you're going to be surprised that whilst it is as you say a 'feel good' track, it actually originated from something incredibly sad and it's very very easy for me to remember writing this one, I'll explain...
Exactly three years and one week ago I was abroad, I turned on an English tv news channel and was horrified to see that Grenfell Tower - a 24 story residential tower block in West London was on fire ( if you're not aware of what happened. just Google it, please )
I'm not from that immediate area but I lived most of my life just 6 miles away and years back had a monthly residency playing with a band at a pub one minute away, that area feels like home to me.
For a while I was just numb, overwhelmed with both sadness and anger, then after a few days, I read a news story saying whilst the government were busy doing nothing, school kids were clubbing their dinner money together to buy pizzas for the survivors of the fire who were now living in a nearby sports hall. Local people were bringing every item of clothing from their wardrobes to pass on and when a post went out on social media for basic necessities, such as underwear, tampons, toothpaste, etc, they received so many donations that it became an issue finding enough space to store it.
For the first time in days, I felt some positivity and love again in my head and my heart. that's where the song comes from. I recorded a rough demo and sent it to Andy, once he'd lived with it for a while and made some adjustments to make it his own, he really connected with it and I think his vocal carries the sentiment perfectly.
The tones of this record are amazing, what was the wrong recording process like? What types of challenges were faced while recording in isolation?
Thanks again! Actually, we were lucky enough to finish off the recording with producer Graham " Grammo' Pilgrim before the lockdown, but then he had to mix the track in total isolation in his studio in Rome at the very height of the coronavirus in Italy.
We recorded the rhythm tracks for this song and a whole new album with our band at Wolf Studios in San Cesareo in Italy and finished it off at various studios back in the UK, ending up with a mad couple of days with our friends at Soundflower Studio in London for the very final touches. Grammo is great, he has those old school skills, understanding the acoustics of a room, knowing exactly where to place the mics to capture the magic, he throws in some great creative ideas and, as you can hear, is a damn fine mix engineer!
Rather than going down either a retro reggae route using vintage equipment or going the other way and using technology to make it sound really current, we just wanted to honestly capture the songs and the performances and keep it simple. And natural.
There were countless phone calls, emails, and files being sent back and forth between me, Andy, and Grammo during the mixing process. Obviously we would have preferred to have all been in the studio together but it's ended up sounding great!
The intro has a perfectly lo-fi aesthetic to it, was this something thought to be done, or did it happen during the mix? How was this achieved?
Ahh... The lo-fi intro was a means to an end! The album version of the song is a lot longer with a lovely horn riff, it's great, but just way too long for a single so we had to be brutal and chop it! A dead-straight edit just didn't feel right so we ended up going for the lo-fi vibe as it just sets up that first verse so nicely.
It’s amazing to have gone and played in so many countries, what would some of your favorite live moments be? Do you have a favorite show?
Yeah, we are incredibly lucky to get to go and perform abroad sometimes (haa - I write that in the present tense hoping it won't be long until we get to do it again after the virus lockdown restrictions!!)
Honestly, there are so many amazing shows to choose from, but it's actually a UK show that comes to mind. The first time we played the Boomtown Fair festival, we were booked to open the Hidden Woods stage at midday on Friday. We turned up early in the morning and set up and sound checked half asleep.
We started the first song playing to a couple huddled up in a sleeping bag in front of us... but within two songs there were hundreds and hundreds of people crammed in from the front of the stage and going all the way back deep into the forest going crazy! We were the first band they were seeing and they were going to a party... hard!!
It was one of the times you just feel so happy, alive, at the moment, and doing what you know you should be doing! You'll see a pic of Andy with the biggest smile on stage in the forest on our social media which perfectly sums that gig up!
What other plans do you have for 2020?
Well, hopefully, we'll all get to see each other again soon! It's been ages! We're just finishing the new album which is entitled LovePeoplePower. With the live music scene on hold, I guess Andy and me will just keep on keeping on like we always do ... making music for the people.