Aivar (pronoucned Eye-var) performs at Brittania Arms every Wednesday and played at Tent City in the Main Quad March 1.

La Voz: How do you classify your music?

Gardener: Alternative reggae.

Reed: Exactly! If we could classify it, that’s what we would say.

Gardener: Rastafar, I be bumba claat!

LV: What sets you apart from other alternative reggae bands?

Reed: There are no other alternative reggae bands!

LV: Okay, what about other reggae bands?

Reed: The thing is, that there are so many different genres of reggae that I feel like … most people really just stick to raga or dancehall or roots. But we try to incorporate a little of everything. We don’t focus on it being one way or the other.

Gardener: Yeah, that’s the nice thing about it, we don’t just stick to just general reggae, roots reggae, and we do all kinds of different things. We don’t want to be classified as just one certain type of category. I mean, it’s reggae, but its not your typical reggae. So that’s what’s cool about it.

LV: Why did you play at De Anza today?

Reed: Ah! Matt-eo, why don’t you tell us why?

Gonzales: Well, there are proposed budget cuts in the state of California and also they are going to be cutting around $4 billion. $4.7 billion are going to be cut, teachers are going to lose their jobs, kids aren’t going to be able to afford school. And also we’re here just to kind of use our voice as a vehicle for change and we’re taking our stand as well. You know, I don’t go to school because I can’t afford it.

Reed: Yeah, none of us [can].

LV: And you guys would go to school if you could afford it?

Gardener: I can afford one class, one class next year, yep.

Gonzales: You know, as musicians and as students and as everything, we’re really just here to stand up for that cause, you know?

Reed: To raise awareness! That’s the biggest thing that we were talking to everybody about. It’s fighting apathy all the time. We’re fighting an apathetic society. So it’s just raising a little awareness, and hopefully evoking a little hope in someone that they can actually do it, you know? So that’s why we’re here.

LV: What other causes do you guys promote, with your music?

Reed: We’ve done a lot of benefit shows, we’ve thrown a lot of benefit shows, and the most recent effort that we’re working on really hard right now is for Haiti. So we’ve done a few benefits, he (Gonzales) has thrown a bunch.

Gonzales: I myself have thrown two already, two benefits in downtown San Jose. We raised about $3500 to $4000, and the last one I think it was $900.

Gardener: We’ve done a couple of food drives too.

Gonzales: We do a lot of live art music shows and they ask for donations of clothes, food and stuff like that so it’s cool.