Refuge, an up-and-coming blues-rock band made up of six friends from the International School of Kenya, began in 2016 when Patrick, Gabe and Silas got together for an impromptu jam session. At that point, as their official bio reminds, they “came to dominate the hardcore international middle school-social scene.”
More friends joined the proceedings, as Refuge’s focus on blues and jam-rock tightened. The lineup now includes bass, vocals and keyboards from Ben, Teresa and Ike. Featuring multiethnic and multilingual members between 12 to 15 years old, the group’s family roots run back to the U.S., Bolivia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, U.K. and Belgium. Their parents work in international aid and development, and those projects brought everyone to Kenya in the first place.
Through it all, Refuge remained focused on the idea – represented in the band’s name – that their music should provide a respite from the cookie-cutter sounds of today. Refuge started out covering their legacy favorites, but have since moved into original music. The goal, they say, is simple: to give blues, rock and jazz “a little kick from young people to bring some life into it.”
Greg Granger’s new Something Else! Sitdown delves deeply into this intriguing new group, now set for their first international gig at the Bautz Music Festival in August at Ludenscheid, Germany …
GREG GRANGER: We might as well begin at the beginning and with the basics – who is Refuge? How did this all come about? Do you come from “musical” families?
REFUGE: Our idea to form a band probably started when Patrick entered a middle-school talent show at the end of sixth grade and ended up winning, playing a solo version of “Iron Man” on electric guitar. Gabe, his close friend, was impressed and mentioned that he played some drums and bass. When the next school year started in mid-2016, the two got together along with Silas for a random, first-time-ever jam session. To all of our surprise, we weren’t terrible.
Patrick’s and Gabe’s dads were impressed right from the start, and did whatever they could to help the band along. In the early days, they were very involved in giving us ideas for what genres to play and what bands to cover. They also helped with the logistics around practices and our early gigs at middle school socials and other events – basically, they were our roadies.
None of us come from particularly musical families, at least not our immediate family members. But all the parents love music, and Patrick and Gabe’s dads are especially into the blues, classic rock and jam bands. They have had a massive influence on our musical tastes and preferences.
GREG GRANGER: You’re usually described as a group of young ex-pats, yet the band’s name isn’t Ex-Pat, it’s Refuge. Is the band itself your refuge from the challenges of living abroad? What’s the story behind the name?
REFUGE: The band is named Refuge because it represents what we are all about: somewhere you can go to and escape from the superficial, inauthentic music that fills our airways. However, we are not a throwback band. We believe blues, rock and jazz are timeless and universal, will always be great, and just need a little kick from young people to bring some life into it.
We came up with our name very early on, probably during our first week as a band. Back then it was more of a joke because we knew we weren’t very good. But we really hated the pop music that our friends always played, and were being a little sarcastic when we said that we were a refuge from all of that. Now, we are not so bad, so Refuge takes on a more serious meaning. Now, we are seeing our peers come around to our type of music. They understand our obsession with the feel that comes through in blues music, psychedelic rock n’ roll and improvisational jamming – and they can see how so much of that feel is lacking in modern music.
GREG GRANGER: Musically, Refuge comes across as firmly rock-and-roll. How would you characterize Refuge, musically? What are your main influences?
REFUGE: We would say that our sound is high-energy, guitar-driven rock n’ roll with strong influences from the classic rock greats of the ’60s and ’70s. We don’t like to use the term “rock” because, to most people today, that means hardcore and heavy metal – not rock n’ roll. We also hate the idea of mixing other unrelated genres into rock n’ roll, such as rap and electronic music. We joke that we are “post digital,” pure analog music.
Our influences are broad but some of the artists we listen to and appreciate include the Allman Brothers Band, Ten Years After, Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath, Santana, Led Zeppelin, the Grateful Dead, Eric Clapton and blues greats such as Albert King, Elmore James and Buddy Guy. Although our sounds has broadened since, the first two bands to really inspire us and help create our identity were the Allman Brothers Band and the Grateful Dead. They will always reflect our roots.
We are a bit cautious about over-characterizing our sound as classic rock, since that implies lost nostalgia and makes us sound like a cover band. At our core, we are just a rock n’ roll band that loves the blues and loves to jam.
GREG GRANGER: I’d like to segue to your set list, so to speak. How are covers chosen? And, with a movement toward more original tunes in your repertoire, what is the writing process?
REFUGE: Refuge was mainly an eclectic, retro-sounding cover band for the first two years, which was logical given our age and the fact that we were still developing our interests, tastes and identity. Initially, we started with covers of pretty simple ’90s grunge songs. Then, probably overly confident with our initial success, we tried to cover songs like Rush’s “Working Man” and the Black Keys’ “Just Got to Be.” We bombed badly with both, and that was a wake-up call that we needed to seriously improve. It also told us that we needed to expand the band and bring in all the necessary elements, so we eventually added Ben, Teresa and Ike.
With the full band in place, we became much more capable of learning new, more complicated covers. By the end of our second school year – the band had been together about one and a half years at this point, – we decided to organize a charity concert where we would show off our progress during a full show. We prepared like crazy, learning about 25 different covers to finally playing 12 of them during the concert. The music selection was quite broad, including songs from the likes of the Band, the Grateful Dead, Bob Marley, the Allman Brothers Band, Greta Van Fleet, the Beatles, Santana, etc.
That concert turned into a breakthrough moment for us as it helped us learn a ton of musical tricks by having to learn all those covers. In June 2018, immediately after the concert, our folks organized a chance for us to record some music in a studio for the first time. We were given just one day, and only planned to record covers. One parent suggested we write an original song but we initially resisted, since no one had ever written anything before. But just a week before the studio session, we got together and brainstormed. Patrick came up with a cool riff with a bridge and chorus; Ben moved that into a smooth progression that we could long-jam to; Silas and Gabe threw in a couple of soft drops during the long-jam; Ike filled it up with some trippy organ; and Teresa wrote lyrics. All of a sudden, we had an original song, “Gone Astray.”
Not exaggerating though, from concept to recording, that song was created in six days. It was intended to represent what Refuge was all about: riffy rock n’ roll, socially critical lyrics, and jamming – it’s 8 minutes long! To our amazement, “Gone Astray” made it quickly onto local radio and debuted at No. 1 in the East African rock charts, holding that position for months. We were blown away. That song was only made for ourselves, but all of a sudden people throughout Kenya were digging it!
With our EP, we now have nine original songs recorded and released. In addition, we have about 6 new songs that we are continuing to develop. Songwriting, for some reason, has come easier than expected. We don’t want to hold back the productivity, so we keep writing. The process is usually something like this: Patrick, Silas or Ben bring a concept to the band – usually a verse, chorus and bridge idea – then we jam it out and have fun with it. Those jam sessions become crucial to coming up with additional elements for a song, and tend to be completely improvised. Then we take the concept home and write some lyrics. As we continue to practice the new songs, they develop themselves.
GREG GRANGER: Congrats on the EP, Haven to a Heavy Soul. Let’s talk about the songs. Some of the titles are intriguing, referencing Buddhist concepts and the like. Are these songs influenced by spiritual or religious meanings?
REFUGE: The nine songs in Haven to a Heavy Soul are our first crack at songwriting and recording. Overall, we are happy with how they turned out, even though we had very little time in studio – just 2 days. Almost everything you hear is live. The only things layered in were some vocals and a few guitar licks. Now, we can’t wait until we make our first real album and have much more time – and experience – to produce the songs exactly how we want them.
The variety of songs in our album is an attempt to show the range of our musical sound. Some are very bluesy (like “Gone Astray” and “Down There”); some show our Sabbath and Jethro Tull tendencies with harder riffs and more elaborate composition (“Saw It Coming”); and others just happened. Our first single, “A Brighter Day” was actually the last song we wrote before recording. In fact, we wrote some of it as we were recording. There’s a bit of a “Cowgirl in the Sand” feel to it, but also some grungy elements in the hooks and Southern rock in the guitar solo. The message is open to the listener’s interpretation, but primarily it’s feminist and focuses on a young woman’s realization that the world is not fair and the only way to deal with that is to persevere and move beyond society’s games.
“Only Time” is a bit romantic and emphasizes how all relationships are imperfect and often bittersweet. “Gone Astray” has sort of a double meaning, addressing both personal and societal issues. Its main point is that so much of popular culture is shallow and meaningless. “Down There” is a straightforward blues-rock song that talks about a relationship gone bad. “Saw It Coming” is written from the perspective of the Earth itself, and how climate change is humanity’s problem – not really Earth’s. Nice catch on the Buddhist-inspired title for “Tathagata’s Stream.” There is no religious message to the song, but it does reflect its stream-of-consciousness composition.
GREG GRANGER: As you posted on Facebook, the message surrounding “Saw It Coming” is not difficult to discern. Do you see the band as having a political message or a sense of activism? Can your fans expect more along these lines?
REFUGE: More a sense of activism than political messaging. “Saw It Coming” is obviously about global warming, but we don’t see that as a political issue. In fact, it seems like the issue of global warming is only political in the U.S., where half the population still doesn’t accept the science. That is not the case anywhere else, where just about everyone accepts that humans have caused massive increases in atmospheric CO2, and that is leading to severe changes in climate. Science is a process, not a belief system; we don’t have the luxury of picking and choosing what we accept from it.
We will certainly continue to use our music as a medium to convey positive or sentimental or though-provoking messages. Our parents all work in humanitarian relief and development, and we know we have been given a great privilege to live in – or visit – interesting places around the world. This has taught us a lot about human suffering, inequality and injustice. We know we have a responsibility to use our experiences and knowledge for something positive. That will continue to come out of our music. We won’t back down from speaking the truth.
Our core message is compassion, which – unlike pity – implies taking action. Our parents took action, and that is something we are very proud to be a part of.
GREG GRANGER: And speaking of expectations – what is the future of Refuge? What do you have coming up in the near future, and how do you envision your evolution over time?
REFUGE: Who knows?! [Laughs.] Our future is pretty much the same as anyone else’s our age: school, family, growing up, etc. The biggest thing coming up in the near future is our gig outside of Kenya, at the Bautz Music Festival in Ludensheid, Germany on August 31. The festival is expecting over 12,000 people, and we are incredibly excited. At the same time, we continue to send out our album as a demo to record labels, A&R folks and others. Our goal for this coming year is to get signed in order to formalize the band and produce some awesome music. We know it’s ambitious, but we’re up to the task.
