Box Juice
About Box Juice from Auckland
If you had asked anyone if they’d heard about the reggae band, Box Juice a year ago, almost everybody would say no.
Well, things are a slightly different now after the band released its debut album, ‘One Heart Many Lives’ in July at the Atamira-Maori in the City event at Auckland’s Greenlane Expo centre where they performed alongside House of Shem and Nesian Mystik.
“We formed initially to do a couple of cover gigs”, say’s Ray Bishop a vocalist and manager of Box Juice. “I recognised that the combined talent of the six band members could venture into the world of original reggae music quite easy”.
Box Juice’s popularity has grown quickly since the Atamira event and gets the weekly opportunity to perform all of the tracks from their debut album and classic reggae songs on Thursday nights from 8pm to 11pm at the very popular Kingslander Bar in Kingsland.
The band consists of members, Tere Ngaeruaiti who was the musical director of the “One Heart Many Lives’ album and he has been in the music industry for close to thirty years not only as a guitarist of some repute, but a producer and engineer.
Earle Holtz has spent the last twenty years honing his craft with all kinds of bands and is becoming an exceptional reggae bass player. Earle’s exception skills will be heard on the second Box Juice album being released in June of 2010.
Tala Lyndon Ofamooni played drums on the ‘One Heart Many Lives’ album and is a graduate of Auckland University where he was an honoured jazz student and he’s been a part of the music industry for the past eleven years. Tala has also played with Ruia and the band, dbub.
John Ellis is a musical monster that is classically trained, he is also very passionate about ‘world music’ and has a major appreciation for all musical forms. John played keyboard, saxophone and percussion on the album.
Mark Steven was a member of iconic kiwi band, Ardijah and has played keys for 30 years. He recently joined Box Juice to add his magical talents to the second Box Juice album, Reggae Dreams.
Megan Pickett adds a very soulful female voice to the mix of Box Juice. Megan has played in bands most of her life as well as growing up in the world theatre. The wonderful lady element this young woman brings to Box Juice is a real pleasure and she keeps the boys honest.
“Reggae music is known universally as the music form to talk of struggle and desire for change”, says Bishop, who utilises a very simple personal and business philosophy that recognises the power of television, radio and print media to promote a better world, and that music can be the key instrument to motivate and inspire people to pursue their personal dreams and aspirations.
The reggae prophet, Bob Marley put it best for Bishop when he said, he would use the power of music to share and tell his political aspirations for the betterment of his people with the world.
The ten songs on the ‘One Heart Many Lives’ album address subjects important to Bishop’s motivational company the Dream Academy that umbrella’s the band. His Academy was formed in 1993 and was designed to utilise the art forms of song, dance and drama to encourage people to pursue their personal dreams and aspirations regardless of age.
The Dream Academy speaks of utilising our minds, bodies, lives and spiritual guidance in balance with family, health, education and role models to measure and appreciate life whilst pursuing our true passions.
An innovative approach has been taken by Bishop to offer specific songs from the “One Heart Many Lives’ album with licensing agreements to government departments charged with reducing smoking, family violence, unemployment and alcohol and drugs within our New Zealand communities.
There are other songs on the album that support and encourage the pursuit of education, the importance of the family unit and also songs to encourage the future generations of New Zealand to chase their personal dreams and aspirations to help make not only New Zealand but the world a better place.
The song ‘One Heart Many Lives’ was written to support Pharmac and its ‘One Heart Many Lives’ campaign of the same name to promote the importance of men’s heart health amongst Maori and Pacific males over thirty five years in New Zealand.
The song ‘Shine The Family Light’ was written to promote the importance of the ‘family unit’ and it reiterates the fact that ‘love’ is required to mend the incidence of family violence and to stop children from dying.
The song ‘Pick Up The Knowledge’ was written to support the importance of education and it encourages people of all ages to attain the knowledge they require to achieve their personal dreams and aspirations.
The song ‘We Don’t Need It’ was not only written to encourage people not to smoke, but to say the giant cigarette companies simply just want your money and they don’t give a stuff about the ultimate cost which is human life and ‘death by smoke’. The lyrics reiterated by Bishop say, “they don’t care about you and I, they don’t care if our loved one’s die.
The song ‘Taihoa Mo Te Whanau’ was written to support the work of ALAC and its campaigns that encourage whanau to think about alcohol and its effects when it’s around them. ‘Become Someone’ was written as the anthem song for the Dream Academy and its sole purpose is to encourage personal dreams.
Box Juice has contracted the services of Rhythm Method an independent record company to release their ‘One Heart Many Lives’ album to radio stations and music nation-wide.
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