4 Questions with Offshore Riot

With their reggae inspired blend of modern pop, Offshore Riot seem to have that special ingredient often missing in today’s over-produced, sample based music scene. Catchy, hook-laden originals take the focus here. Deep funk and dub rhythms, basslines dropping low as physically tolerable, shimmering guitar lines and erratic vocal stylings make up an undeniable force comparable to the hurricanes often looming on Florida’s coastlines. Main man Tyson Marshall (vocals, guitar) took a few minutes to fill us in on what 2009 holds for Offshore Riot.

1) Tell us a bit about your song on the No Lip Vol. 2 compilation.
We wrote “Wanton Soup” a couple years ago around the Hurricane Katrina crisis up in the Gulf and the Tsunami catastrophe in Asia time period. Not a deep song by any means, but I wanted to write the lyrics more towards overcoming adversity and looking for those little great things in life to take our minds, if not briefly, off of the great negative situations that often, but temporarily engulf our lives. And we like Chinese food.

2) How is the music scene doing in your town? What can be done to improve it?
The music scene around the Tampa Bay area has been a little wobbly for quite a few years now. There is a lot of talent and good bands, everybody has such a unique sound that it’s hard to peg where a movement might begin.

3) Why did you decide to go with Mohawk Bomb Records on this comp?
We were excited to work with Ivan and Mohawk Bomb out of the shear passion Ivan shows for music and promoting others as well as his own projects. We all got to work together in this field, and Mohawk Bomb really hits the core of that.

4) What are your plans for 2009?
2009 we plan on having our second album released, start a southeastern tour of the states and bring the party out to anywhere or anyone with open arms!

Learn more about Offshore Riot on their MySpace