Cory at Discovery Ventura
I had the honors to link up with Cory Mahoney guitarist for East coast based reggae band Dubbest to talk about favorite tour, how the quarantine is affecting him and his band
and so much more!
Q: Plans for future
A: more tours (as soon as we’re allowed to by the country :( ) and maybe a dub album soon ! We have new songs already for next album but won’t rush that for another year or two. Just wanna always improve as a whole. Q: Do you have any craz tour stories you’d like to share?
A: Once on a tour with the expanders and sensamotion we were robbed in Miami and our personal belongings were taken, hard drives/iPads/clothing etc. Sensamotion was robbed that same day twice , gear stolen out of trailer. Be careful in Miami ! Another time in 2015 we toured to Cali with a shit van and it broke down almost the whole time leaving us driving 40mph across country , when we finished that tour we drove straight from the San Fran gig to Boston, only stopping for gas. Made it in 50hrs flat. lol we were ready to get home. Q: What got me involved in music
A: my dad and brother were both music junkies and always were handing down CDs to me, got me into punk and rock when I was young , had me playing music by 5th grade and learning every punk song I loved. My dad took me to Pearl Jam when I was 13, stuff like that changed your life. All of us grew up similarly in that sense, our parents always supported music and took us youngsters to concerts together etc. Q: How do you feel about the Internet in the music biz
A: it’s a double edged sword in many ways, you can reach so much more ppl so easily and promote shows and contact venues etc. Then on the other side ppl can get all your music for free anywhere so that itself changed the biz, music sales have been low since but what you gunna do, just gotta move with every life punch thrown at ya. So use it to your advantage until the next big thing comes along.
Q: Favorite New music
A: as far as new albums go, Aggrolites newest album is killler, Iya Terra put out a great album last year, The Expanders new single is fire fire , The Movement put out an awesome album last year, love all those guys. Giant Panda always been a big influence on us and they just released a new song and we did a run of shows with them, great music and amazing people. We all have a very broad music taste tho, the new phish album has some nice jams on it too !
Q: What other professions could you see your self doing if not playing reggae
A: I’m sure musically we would all like to do something aside from performing, like producing or just making other genres of music for fun. Outside of music, we’re all big heady brew heads and stoners so weed business is always good, we’ve brewed beer as a band handful of times, always kinda wanted to have a brewery seems like a fun time. Q: Musical icons you were influenced by
A: mainly were very driven by late 70’s to mid 80’s roots reggae and dub. Another big influence from us from the start was Phish, and also Grateful Dead. We’ve all attended many shows and had life changing experiences. And also when we first started Dubbest , John Browns Body/10ft Ganja Plant/Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad we’re almost solely responsible for what we wanted to do, fellow east coast roots reggae influenced bands we grew up seeing. Q: Favorite local venue and why
A: We always have fun at local shows but our favorites in San Diego are the observatory or music box, both amazing venues with great hospitality and vibes, but we’ve only opened for bands there. Winstons OB is always a packed blast of a show as well. Q: How Is this quarantine affecting you and the band?
A: we’ve had to cancel a tour and several festivals so far since the outbreak. It rly sucks but I know it’ll get better and things will be normal again someday. Me personally it just means more work and less fun. Most of us are still “essential” in our day jobs so we’re still working , but just not playing shows. Trying to go live on social media as much as we can to keep people entertained in the meantime, much love to everyone out there I hope your safe and well. Q: Have you been working on any new projects lately?
A: Nothing new we still get together weekly to work on new material and practice harmonies etc. We def still workin on stuff and trying to keep the train moving, but not much outside of Dubbest, that’s our main focus. Been watching lots of movies like everyone else as well. Q: What has been your favorite gig/tour?
A: favorite gig maybe Janus Live in St Pete FL, on the arise roots tour. Amazing venue and crowd. Favorite tour, the arise roots tour was super epic and smooth throughout. Also the expanders/sensamotion tour was epic, but a very bumpy tour for sure. Car problems often and that tour basically changed all of us, Devin left expanders, along with Juan Love as TM, Joe left Sensamotion, and Sean left Dubbest , all after that 1 tour. But it was still a blast and great shows. Big up Gunnar thanks for the questions, stay well my friend! We’ll be back up touring ASAP I promise ! -Cory Mahoney
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