With red, gold, and green color schemes popping up everywhere, and reggae rock bands writing songs about smoking on the beach, Jeremy Carlson of Lion Heights felt the need to speak up on what he was seeing within the genre music industry:
“I wanted it to be more lyrically intense. You know, with a deeper meaning. Something different from what I was writing at the time,” he says when reflecting on writing their latest single, Reggae On The Rise. Jeremy’s influences at the time led him to pull dub samples from the likes of King Tubby or Lee “Scratch” Perry (mainly their earlier works), and orchestrating his own riddims using a hip hop/breakbeat approach
and styling. You can hear a similar influence on their album, Same Situation.

“This song actually dates back to our first years as Lion Heights, back in 2011 or so,” says Dane Foltin, bass player and singer of the band. “It was a totally different riddim and we originally slated it to release on Same Situation in 2017, but we never really got a vocal track we were happy with.” It wasn’t until 2019 during a Sunday residency the band had at the Oskar Blues brewery in Austin, that the song was dusted off and reworked into an acoustic trio version. The reactions they received from the Sunday
listeners is really why they even humored the idea of re-tracking the song. When newest member, Tom Leslie, brought a wicked drum beat to the acoustic version, the song evolved once more. That December, recording sessions began at their own studio, Tall Sky Studio.

With the song complete, and just before life as we knew it changed, Jeremy and Dane set off to Jamaica. The two met up with Phillip McFarlane of EarthKry to shoot the music video for Reggae On The Rise. “We wanted to make a point to pay homage to where it all began. Jamaica is the birthplace of Reggae music and we wanted to show where it came from while singing about where it’s heading, you know, on the rise!” said Dane. McFarlane shot, edited, and produced the music video. While there, they also got to experience Bob Marley’s 75th birthday celebration and perform at the Dub
Club in Kingston. Make sure to catch a vibe and ride the steady rhythm of Reggae On The Rise with the official music video.