Passafire started the way a lot of good bands do: two art students who kept ending up in the same room with instruments. Ted Bowne and Nick Kubley formed the band in Savannah, Georgia in 2003 while attending the Savannah College of Art and Design. The lineup settled a few years later with Nick’s brother Will Kubley on bass and vocals, and Mike DeGuzman on keys.
What sets them apart in a crowded genre is restlessness. Plenty of reggae-rock bands are content to live permanently on vacation. Passafire keeps wiring roots grooves to progressive rock structures, funk, and hip-hop — music you can sit back into, with more going on underneath than the beach-day label suggests.
The records
Eight studio albums across two decades, on Easy Star Records:
- Passafire (2006)
- Submersible (2007)
- Everyone On Everynight (2009)
- Start From Scratch (2011) — hit #1 on Billboard’s Top Reggae Albums chart
- Vines (2013)
- Longshot (2017)
- Strata (2021)
- Remember a Time (2023)
Along the way they’ve shared stages with 311, Slightly Stoopid, and The Wailers.
Why they’re here
Twenty-plus years is a long time for any band, and longer still for one that never took the easy version of its own sound. If you’ve only heard the singles, put on Strata or Remember a Time and hear where they’ve gone.