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Laura Reed & Deep Pocket - Press Article
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Sweet Soul Music
by Robin Tolleson, Bold Life Magazine
October 30, 2007
Laura Reed never heard much American soul music while growing up in South Africa.
She came to love it later in life.
On Reed's new CD with Deep Pocket — Soul Music — it seems that every song has a soulful feel and message.
"If you live in America, you might understand more about South Africa than you realize," Reed says, comparing the segregation she saw there to the Jim Crow laws in the Southern United States in the 1960s. "There were laws trying to keep people apart from each other, but if people want to spend time together, they will.
"In South Africa you didn't get that much American music, you got a lot of stuff coming from England," she adds. "I listened to my mom's music — Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin — and I listened to my dad's records — James Brown and Bob Dylan. But a lot of what South Africans were listening to was called Township Music — Miriam Makeba, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Brenda Fassie."
As Reed approached her teenage years her family moved to Chatham County, N.C., to be closer to her father's family.
"It's kind of in the middle of nowhere, so we just go by the county name, Chatham County," she laughs. "I started playing guitar when I was 14. I taught myself guitar and started writing songs and singing in my room when I was a teenager. I was grounded all the time. I'd sit in my room listening to music, and one day I realized that I really loved the guitar and lyrics and music and wanted to create my own."
Reed met her band mates in Boone, where she was earning a degree from Appalachian State University in sustainable development.
"Ryan Burns (Keyboardist) is a big Emerson, Lake and Palmer fan and he grew up on the Jimmy Smith type of organ playing," Reed says. "Jimbonk (Drummer) likes metal and world grooves, real powerful. And Ben Didelot (bassist) is really into reggae and hip hop.
So it's diverse when we all get together, and our powers combine," she adds. "It's interesting. I've got the South African influence, but I moved to the United States and fell in love with blues and Motown and R&B. The old soul, that's what I listen to all day, and its fun to add that to the mix and see what comes out."
Reed has been collaborating with Burns for Deep Pocket material lately.
"Ryan will come up with music, something that's really inspired," she says. "He'll play it, and I only have to hear a couple measures and a lot of songs have just fallen out. "A lot of times recently it's been very inspired. I guess that's what everyone's looking for in their band mates, people that are inspiring the music. You're not having to put much effort into it — it's kind of flowing out of everybody."
After traveling throughout South and Central America, the Caribbean and Europe with her family several years ago, Reed decided to pursue music seriously.
"I realized that music is the best way to communicate anything worthwhile to people, because it is so universal," she says. "Behind all of our stuff is the concept of trying to be connected...One love."
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