Popular Reggae Soul band, Culture Crew, from Utah, U.S.A, is heading to Samoa for a nine-day tour next month.

On tour with a mission to weave the two universal languages of music and love, these soulful singers aren’t just coming to serenade us with their soulful sounds. 

Their goal is also to end the water crisis in the world by educating and supplying water filtration so that everyone has access to clean drinking water.

Formed in 2017, the Culture Crew is made up of four members of experienced musicians of different musical calibers, but all have the same purpose driven ambition to make a universal impact with their talents.

With cultural connections to the Pacific, band members Aaron Watene, Ammon Watene, Sam Schultz and international Pacific Island Reggae artist, Pati are looking forward to their “music with a mission” tour to Samoa and American Samoa.

In an interview with the Samoa Observer, co-founder of Culture Crew, Sam, gave us an insight on why their Samoa leg of the trip is special to them and what they hope to accomplish while they are here.

“Samoa is a special place to us, most of us have roots there,” Sam said. 

“Our band members also grew up there. When we enter a community to play music, we also want to bless the people in that community. This consists of social outreach projects pertaining to those less fortunate, struggling with illness, addiction.”

 “A big passion of ours is working with schools, to help inspire, heal and guide our youth to be the best version of themselves. Along with inspiring today’s youth through school tours, we are on a mission to end the water crisis in the world through water filtration.” 

“One out of every five deaths of children under the age of five is due to a water-related disease. There are 783 million people who do not have access to clean and safe water. We travel worldwide to help, educate and supply water filtration so that everyone has access to clean drinking water.”

The reggae soul band are particularly interested in holding speaking engagements with Samoan youth and at the end of their humanitarian trip, locals will be able to enjoy Culture Crew’s soulful blend of reggae and r‘n’b sounds at a free concert they plan to perform.

“In Samoa specifically, we are going to many schools to perform and to speak to students at their own level, helping them to understand their true potential,” said Sam.

 “We are also holding our first Culture Fest, a music festival that gives back. We (Culture Crew), Tenelle, Swells, and Vaea will be performing at a free concert to give back to the country that we love.” 

Although Culture Crew was only formed at the beginning of 2017, its members are experienced musicians who pressed pause on their musical careers for a couple of years to raise their families. Having never been able to get music out of their system, Sam, along with his musician friend, Aaron, decided to pick up where they left off.

“At the beginning of 2017, Aaron and I (decided to quit our 9-5 jobs, and follow our dream of music, both having grown up in the music industry, you could say music is in our blood,” said Sam. 

“We followed music as a passion for many years of our lives but then life happened. We became dads, had families and our music dreams slowly faded away. When we decided to start Culture Crew, we were ready to start living our dreams and pursuing our passions again.” 

Their crew got bigger as they attracted like minded individuals and musicians, 

“About halfway through the year and touring, we felt like something was missing from the group. Soon after that, we met Pati, an international reggae artist.  Almost instantaneously, he and Ammon (Aaron’s brother), officially joined Culture Crew.”

Samoans all over the world will feel connected to Culture Crew’s brand of music that never seems to go out of style with Polynesians worldwide and has the ability to bring them together. Their combined sound reflects each members musical influence which is a blend of Polynesian style reggae soul and r‘n’b. The band will tour Samoa from February 9th-18th and American Samoa February 18th-25th.

Culture Crew has set up a Gofundme page where supporters can contribute to their humanitarian efforts on tour by visiting their link online. https://www.gofundme.com/cleanwatercc