For The Elovaters, success hasn’t come from one breakthrough album or one sold-out show. It’s come from years of piling into vans and buses, returning to the same cities and watching the crowds grow. I sat down with lead man Jackson Weatherbee and drummer Nick Asta while they we’re in Ohio to find out what’s driving their success.
Long before playing in front of thousands of fans, The Elovaters were performing at Woodland’s Tavern, a venue in Columbus, Ohio, that holds only a few hundred people. Returning to Columbus each year has become more than another date on the tour calendar. It’s a chance to see how far the band has come.
“We’ve been coming to Columbus for a long time,” Weatherbee said. “Each time we come back, it gets bigger, and it’s really exciting and motivating.”
That steady climb mirrors the band’s own philosophy. Rather than chasing overnight success, The Elovaters have built their career one tour, one city and one fan at a time.
The band, originally from the South Shore of Massachusetts, found its reggae sound naturally. Growing up along the coast meant summers spent on the water where the genre was woven into their upbringing.
“We grew up on the ocean,” explains Asta. “It’s a huge boating culture. Every summer we’re out on the water, and reggae is huge there.”
Bands such as Slightly Stoopid, Stick Figure and Sublime became early influences and for Weatherbee, hearing Sublime’s self-titled album as a kid became a defining moment. “My dad brought that album home, and I never stopped listening to it,” he said.
Those influences eventually grew into a band that now spends most of the year on the road, a schedule that has become both its greatest strength and one of its biggest challenges.
“We’ve been on the road nonstop for years,” Weatherbee said. That commitment to the road has paid off for the band and has allowed their fan base to organically grow city by city. Something we don’t always see from a breakout band in today’s musical landscape.
Spending so much time on the road leaves the band little opportunity to rehearse songs from their newest album, Shark Belly Motel.
“We’re playing pretty much all the singles,” Weatherbee said. “But we haven’t had enough time to really learn how to play all the other songs live.”
By the time fans hear a new album, The Elovaters have often moved on from the recording process entirely and are back on the road. Weatherbee said songs can sit for nearly a year between the final studio session and their public release. During that time, the band is back on the road, touring, writing new ideas and preparing for future projects. When the album finally reaches listeners, the musicians are often revisiting songs they haven’t played since recording them months earlier.
“Sometimes, nine or 10 months later, when the song finally comes out, it’s like, ‘Oh, we haven’t played this in 10 months since we wrote it,'” Weatherbee said.
That gap means learning the songs isn’t as simple as pressing play on the finished record. The band first has to remember the parts they recorded before figuring out how those songs should evolve onstage. “The live versions always become a little different than the studio version, in a good way,” Weatherbee said. “You have to nail it first like the album, and then you can start to kind of expand on the song.”
While recording allows room for experimentation, live performances demand a different approach. Arrangements shift, moments become more spontaneous and songs gradually take on a life of their own with each performance. Weatherbee said he often finds himself guiding those rehearsals when the band finally has time to regroup. “I think I may naturally be a leader. It was a necessity for someone to take the reins” explained Weatherbee. Asta described Weatherbee as a “natural leader and music director”.
Finding time to rehearse, however, is often the hardest part. Touring keeps the band moving almost constantly, leaving little opportunity to settle into a rehearsal space. “You wake up in your bunk on a bus and you’re like, ‘Where am I?’ You step outside, you’re backstage and right back to work,” Asta said.
Despite the pace, Asta explained that the band’s shared commitment to one another has helped keep burnout in perspective. “This is the coolest job I could ever have,” he said. “We’ve become such a tight family unit over the years, and we all have one goal in mind.”
Years on the road have also changed how the band defines success. While milestones like headlining Red Rocks Amphitheatre once served as major goals, the members now place greater value on building a sustainable career together. For Weatherbee, success is no longer measured by the size of the stage. “My holy grail would be complete stability and comfort,” he said. “To just be able to do this as a unit of brothers as a band and feel comfortable, financially and in our relationships. We’re putting everything into this.” Asta agreed and added that comfort to him would be being able to take care of all of his financial responsibilities and the bands.
While success can be measured in many different ways by various people, The Elovaters success seems to be measured by their commitment to their fans, the road, the music and each other.
TOUR DATES
AUGUST
