THEY may have American roots, but reggae band Big Mountain do not consider themselves fans of the American way of doing things. In fact, the mere mention of the United States and politics brings an outpouring from lead singer Joaquin 'Quino' McWhinney, peppered regularly with words such as 'hypocrisy', 'imperialists' and 'taking advantage'.
For Big Mountain, which has just released its latest album Resistance, the politics and the culture are part and parcel of what reggae music should be.
'Reggae music gives people from all walks of life a positive form of expression which is very important these days when people are using so many forms to express themselves in a negative way,' McWhinney said, from his home in San Diego.
'It's important to give them, especially children, a message that is productive and allows them to build upon that message. Reggae music is something that gives examples of religious, political and social aspects of life.' While some may not find vociferously condemning their own government as being 'positive', McWhinney feels it can only be constructive.
'People tend to be blindly patriotic . . . [but] it's healthy to question the US Government and [corporations]. It's something we don't get a lot of because we tend to be filled from a very young age that life doesn't get any better; that basically the US is all-good and we have a right to be the police of the world and everyone else in Third World countries are just ignorant communities that were created so we can take advantage of them.' Originally called Shiloh, the band - which also includes Lynn Copeland (bass), Lance Rhodes (drummer), James McWhinney (percussionist), Shanni Harriott (singer), Billy Stoll (keyboards) and Tony Chin (guitar) - adopted their present name because they sympathised with the cause of the Hopi and Navajo Indians in the Big Mountain region of Arizona.
'They're involved in a struggle right now to retain rights to their land and maintain control of their sacred ground because mining companies are going in to mine for coal and uranium,' McWhinney said.