Kicking off January 24th in Ventura, CA the upcoming Automatic Tour will take Iration, Natty Vibes, The Movement and Micah Brown to 38 stops around the continental U.S. As the bands prepare and rehearse, news recently dropped that Alific will now play the entire tour, joining The Movement as the 4th member on stage, supporting sets for headliner, Iration! 
Alific, pronounced ah-lif-ic, is artist/producer Brendan Dane. Previously a resident of San Diego, Dane originally broke into the scene as bassist for the reggae rock band Stick Figure. Before getting a chance to tour with that group, in early 2011, Dane relocated to Washington, D.C. Living on the east coast, working from his home recording studio, Dane was exposed to a different DJ and electronic downtempo scene. Influenced by the late night D.C. surroundings, his reggae-dub sound began to evolve. This eventually lead to recording sessions, allowing the artist to experiment, mixing reggae bass lines and downtempo beats.
The result was Echoes From The Soul, a 14-song downtempo-reggae album written and produced by Alific, released September 10, 2013 as the first release for Rootfire Records. Alific first connected with Rootfire in early 2013 when Seth Herman, founder of Rootfire, was exposed to Echoes From The Soul during a discussion on ideas for future mixtapes. Alific sent over the album, which featured guest collaborations with Scott Woodruff and Kevin Bong of Stick Figure, Frank Mitchell Jr. of Thievery Corporation, and others. It was then that the decision was made to use the album to help build the launching pad for Rootfire Records since it became classified as a grassroots label.
Looking to expand the Rootfire label, in search of more artists as passionate as Alific, in October of 2013 Seth Herman brought on The Movement. Originally based out of South Carolina, The Movement, who reformed as trio in May of 2012, independently released Side By Side in August of 2013 and signed with Rootfire looking to build a structure, allowing the band to continue to tour and record.
During their recent time on the road, the band had been contemplating the future addition of touring members to help fill things out. Now it seems, under the management of Rootfire, that the two acts have aligned.
Dane explains, “I met The Movement’s guitarist-vocalist Joshua Swain last summer at a Rebelution show, and a few months later I hung out with bassist Jason “Smiles” Schmidt and drummer Gary Jackson at the Cali Roots Carolina Sessions. We all connected over a mutual love of reggae and hip hop. After the Carolina Sessions, I sent The Movement a demo song in hopes that we could collaborate on a recording. The conversation grew and we found out that we had a lot in common musically. A few weeks ago, I was elated when The Movement asked me to join them on stage for their upcoming national tour supporting Iration. The band wanted to bring back DJ scratching and samples into their set, as well as filling out the sound with keyboards and guitar. As a huge fan and follower of The Movement, I’m beyond stoked to be joining them from January 24-March 9 as the 4th guy on stage performing in the band for the entire tour.” 
When further asked about joing the movement and the long term possibilities Dane told The Pier “This is what it’s looking like, but for now, we’re going to see how it goes on the tour. But its gonna be bomb!”
This isn’t the only addition worth noting on this tour. Last April after the departure of Iration vocalist/percussionist, Kai Rediske, the band brought in Micah Brown for most of the summer tour. When asked about the change up Iration front man, Micah Pueschel, told The Pier “We’ve discussed this and its something that we wanna do for the summer and we would love to make it work and keep him permanently. However, we respect that he has his own solo career and he’s worked to get himself to that point. We’re gonna play it by ear and not put any permanent titles on anything just yet. We’re just looking forward to having him join us because he’s really talented.”
Back for the winter, tour it appears the Micah Brown sound has resonated with the band establishing a permanent spot in the line-up. For more about these bands, their music and details about the tour, check out the information below.
The Movement Links:
The Movement Editorials
The Movement Website
The Movement Facebook
Alific Links:
Alific MP3 Massive
Alific Website
Alific Facebook
Iration Links:
Iration Editorials
Iration Show Locator
Iration Website
Iration Facebook
Rootfire Links:
Rootfire Website
Rootfire Facebook
Article By: Aaron Solomon
