Through the Roots: stacking the catalog to enhance the touring experience.

Through The Roots singer (and San Diego native) Evan Hawkins confesses to having seen a few hinky things on the road — sometimes his doing, sometimes not. “On Halloween in 2018, we dressed up like babies at a show in Virginia Beach,” remembers Hawkins, who appears with the band at the Music Box on September 7. “We had these creepy realistic-looking baby masks, and we all fashioned up some sort of diaper to wear and performed shirtless. The crowd didn’t know how to react. All in all, terrible idea, ha. Also, in 2015 our tour bus burned down. That was surreal. Everyone made it out safely, and we just watched the thing burn to the ground on the side of the highway in North Carolina. We didn’t miss a show on that tour, though. We rented a tiny car and a U-Haul and finished it out.”

Hawkins was born in Rancho Bernardo, but came down from the hills to the city proper at age five. Music runs in the family— not that the family always wanted it that way. “My dad was a musician. He grew up playing in the Motown circuit, for Marvin Gaye, The Dells, The Spinners, etc. However, I was born after his career in music. I would always gravitate towards his guitar that he told me to never touch — which I most definitely always did when he was gone — and go through my mom’s record collection. Lots of UB40 and Bob Marley. I used to go to my friends’ houses to play their instruments, and was more interested in that than really hanging out with them, ha. I was huge into MTV, so I was really into pop and hip-hop. I always was tinkering with the guitar, though, and ended up teaching myself how to play, one string at a time. In high school, I was more into metal, and unlocked being able to sing and play. That allowed me to start writing songs in my first years of community college. I will never forget being 19 when we started, having bar owners allow us to perform, but then immediately after we were done, we’d have to be escorted out. It was weird but, hey, we were able to get our reps in.”

He showed up for tons of rock shows at SOMA, and never missed the summer series at the Del Mar Fair for Steel Pulse, the Marleys, and other reggae acts. He’s happy to hail from San Diego, but has to confess a strong Aloha State connection. “The band frequents Hawai’i quite often, both to play and work on music and content. Our drummer Calvin [Canha] currently lives on Oahu and [keyboardist] Brady [O’Rear] from the Big Island spends three or four months out of the year there. Our most important influences are the [Hawaiian] culture and bands we grew up listening to, like Natural Vibrations, Ooklah The Moc, Mana’o Company, and Fiji.”

Those three musicians, along with lead guitarist Kam Quinata, make up the current lineup. “Our last bass player in 2019 was Ekona Ravey from Hilo, Hawai’i. After Covid, we introduced a new concept of having the bass as a part of our backing tracks, to keep a consistent and heavy bass tone that we are leaning into more. So our computer is our bass player. He never messes up, ha, best guy in the band.”

As for comparing one sun-filled paradise with the other: “SD and Hawai’i have a lot of similarities in their laid-back coastal culture, and lots of diversity amongst those that live there. Both places have a great mix of local food as well as tons of international choices. At the end of the day, we can’t say which one is better, because each one has something the other one doesn’t, but you know, we’re a little bit biased towards Hawai’i.”

As for future plans, in either home, Through The Roots aims to ease off on the stage antics. “We’ve definitely pivoted the focus to recording more music and touring less. We plan to continue to stack the catalog, so that we can enhance the experience when we are back in full touring mode. Not to say we won’t be playing shows, it’s just that we’ve out-toured our existing catalog, so it’s time to kind of flip that around and get ready to ride the next wave.”