Aural Reports

Ras (just Ras, thanks) and his beach-rock band Qwiksand know the importance of mixing things in the right proportions.

How long has Qwiksand been around, and how did you start?

Qwiksand started out a few years back. We just wanted to mix up a few different sounds. The band's been through a bunch of good changes over the past couple of years. I think we have a good group of musicians now that respect one another, that are all on the same page musically, and are actually trying to get out there and make something cool happen. We're just trying to spread the good vibes.

You mentioned all the musicians in your band being on the same page. On the songs I heard, you mix rock, reggae, funk and other styles. Did you bring together everything you guys listen to, or style yourselves after other genre-mixing bands?

I think it's a combination of both. When you're putting material out there, you want it to be different and unique, but at the same time, you want it to represent what you're all about. Our goal isn't to put out three-minute radio songs just because it sounds good for formats. Our goal is to put out good music. It's hard to balance art, business and friendship. That seems to be the winning formula for us. If it's too business-heavy and too friendship-heavy, people make money and attitudes get bent. But if it's just about the art, nothing gets done. People just sit in a garage. It's trying to find that balance.

Do you think your attitude about mixing art, business and friendship is an outgrowth of your band's musical approach, the way you mix genres?

We have a variety of influences. When you put that all in a blender, you try to see what happens. That's what the sound is. It's not like we're trying to make a sound. The guys in the band now, we're starting to connect musically and creatively, and we're starting to come up with ideas together.

With having different musical backgrounds, have you had occasions where you just don't see eye-to-eye?

Absolutely. That's just the process. You've got to go through that. Over the course of a career, certain things work. People go back and look at that and go, "Oh, I guess that was kind of cool. Maybe I wasn't hearing that." It is hard to have a vision and really see it through. You've just got to believe in yourself, experiment, play in front of people, and see what people respond to. We've been playing up and down the coast for a few years. Certain cities you go to, they get it right off the bat. Other towns, it takes a little while to warm up to you.

Even though you mix things up quite a bit, there's still a lot of reggae in what you do. Are people ever dismissive of you since you're from California and not Jamaica?

Yeah. Bands like the Police, the Clash, Sublime—they had a lot of success with that sound. I grew up here in Southern California surfing, skating. A lot of the events that I went to, there was either rock or reggae playing in the background. That was just infused into our genes. You get older and you learn your instrument, you start honing your craft as a writer, and of course some of those things are going to come out. To label ourselves as a reggae band . . . there are reggae bands out there with 15, 20 musicians. We're just kind of a stripped-down four-piece beach-rock band. That's the way I try to sum it up. We play surf, funk, reggae, rock. We're starting connect with people who have an open mind and want to relax and party.

You called it beach rock. Do you think the strong surf and skate cultures in the area make the kind of genre mixing you do more natural?

I grew up in West LA. I moved to Orange County because the surf was better. The first song we wrote was written about a pool that I drained while my neighbor was on vacation. "Liquid Dream" was written about the experience of being out in the ocean. You start connecting things that resonate with who you are and where you're from.

VISIT WWW.MYSPACE.COM/QWIKSAND AND WWW.PLANETSQUARED.COM FOR MORE INFORMATION.