Bold Life
April 2008
Robin Tolleson

Laura Reed formed her band Deep Pocket while attending Appalachian State University in Boone, and they moved to Asheville last year. It’s the perfect spot for her world beats and one world vibe. “The overall message of our music is the concept of one love, for all humanity. It’s this whole concept of being connected,” she explains. “That’s something that I picked up being from South Africa and seeing all the craziness that South Africa has to offer, then coming to the United States, which is a pretty wild place too.” Reed spent a lot of her childhood traveling with her mother. “Once you get out of the country and meet people all over the world, it’s hard not to love them all,” she contends. “It’s hard not to see the connection and just see how similar we all are. A lot of our stuff is kind of blues-oriented, experience-oriented, where maybe the message isn’t trying to change the world, but at the same time behind everything is the concept of trying to be connected. I started noticing at a young age that the language of music was universal, and was the best way to communicate anything worthwhile to people.