On Sunday afternoon in Monterey Boston’s finest took the Cali Roots stage (and the crowd’s hearts) at the year’s most beloved reggae festival in California.
A long time coming for Bostons The Elovater’s
The Elovater’s played tracks from 2021’s critically acclaimed Castles, as well as newer singles like “All Her Favorite Songs” feat. Little Stranger, “Sunlight” and the sultry “M.I.A”, released just a month ago via Ineffable Records.
The journey to the top has been a long time coming for the quintet, and while the pandemic divided them geographically, it didn’t slow them down. Playing the long game, The Elovaters have only picked up momentum on the road to success and fame. After wrapping the “Sharks and Frikin Laser Beams” tour with Surfer Girl and Claire Wright earlier this year, they’re embarking on yet another months-long tour alongside Stick Figure and Pepper June 6th, following their direct support on Pepper’s “20 Years of Konatown” mini-run in Hawaii this week.
While their rise to the top took years of dedication and resolve, drummer Nick Asta explains,
“There haven’t been any real challenges. We’re just happy and we’re thankful. It’s been great … just being on the west coast and having so many friends now out here and so many fans—it’s amazing. We’re happy and lucky.”
Lead vocalist and guitarist Jackson Wetherbee adds, “It’s a constant grind, but we love being on that tour bus and getting to see the world. We’re just trying to keep it going”.
Winning over fans far and wide has been a core strength of the group and if the slow burn to becoming a household name continues, The Elovaters could take the path of Dirty Heads and bridge that precarious gap between the world of Cali Reggae and the mainstream.
“We’re not trying to create any ceilings for ourselves”, Wetherbee muses, “we’re taking any song that we want to create and writing it and recording it and if that takes us above and beyond we’re here for it”.
Between non-stop touring and festival appearances, it’s hard to believe The Elovaters have a new album on the horizon, yet somehow they’ve pulled it off.
This conceptualization looks a little different than the quarantine baby that was Castles, and Asta explains: “The years have gone by, but as musicians we’re all progressing daily in that respect. I gotta hand it to Jackson, his songwriting just gets better and better. He has so much more life and it really shows in his writing and what he’s bringing to the table. Sorry to kiss your ass, dude”.
Wetherbee laughs and continues, “I gotta give a shoutout also to my friend Nick Bailey in Nashville, it’s the first time I’ve ever co-written with anyone, so a bunch of songs on the album we wrote together when I was down there. It’s been beautiful expanding what I can do through other people’s brains—their creativity mixed in with the old school Elovaters. We’d have a week or two at home [between tours] and I’d fly down to Nashville or go up to Maine with Carter [Reeves of Surfer Girl].
“Life has been super full so I’m learning how to appreciate the moments, whether it’s on the road or with friends or with my family at home. You never really have enough time to devote yourself fully to any one of them so you learn to really appreciate those little pockets of time you do have”.
Catch The Elovaters with Pepper on June 2nd in Kona and June 3rd in Honolulu before they kick off the “Wisdom” tour with Stick Figure and Pepper June 6th.
Article by: Allie Adams
