Soltron’s activism is what Talib Kweli once called “the beautiful struggle”: a mix of political determination and feel-good party music.
The band music influences come from Cuba, Brazil, Central America — but their life in the Mission District of San Francisco informs their music, which, since the group’s formation in 2014, has stood against gentrification and colonization. Now, their message has become global.
“This band has been political from the onset, but we were just focused on our immediate community of San Francisco, in the Mission,” says music director and Electronic Wind Instrument (EWI) player Daniel Riera. “But I see now that we have to expand our focus and look at what’s happening in this nation, and the world too. Because Trump is not just impactful for the United States, but for the whole entire world.”
Soltron is: