P.O.D. (Payable On Death) are a year away from 30 years in the music biz and since then they have released 11 Studio albums, a couple live albums, over twenty singles, a couple of EPs and released around 26 music videos. Sonny, Wuv and Marcos have actually been playing together since 1991. In 1992 that they became P.O.D. and have barely missed a beat. In all that time they have only had three line up changes, original bassist Gabe Portillo left the band in 1993 with current Bassist Traa Daniels replacing him; the second was in 2003 when Guitarist Marcos Curial departed to be replaced by Jason Truby (formerly of Living Sacrifice); and then thirdly, when Marcos asked to rejoin the band three years later on the same day that Jason Truby handed in his request to leave for pastures new. The line up has pretty much remained solid since.
Their second album release on Atlantic Records, Satellite, enhanced their career further than their major label debut The Fundamental Elements of Southtown did. It broke into the Billboard Charts peaking at #6 and was their first and only UK Top 20 album. It followed on the back of a highly successful single, Alive, and a riviting music video that set MTV ablaze!
What often gets lost, when consideration of Satellite comes up for debate, is the circumstances into which it was released and the impact that it had at the time.
Tuesday 1lth September 2001 (forever known as 9/11), would have been a normal Record Release Day and the prospect that night of playing live on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno lay ahead for the band. That performance never happened that night (they would eventually perform on the 5th October 2001) because the script for that day was torn up and rewritten in a manner nobody could ever imagined as two planes were hijacked and flown into the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center in New York, another plane hit The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia and a fourth crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania on that Tuesday morning. The attacks resulted in 2,977 fatalities, over 25,000 injuries, and substantial long-term health consequences, in addition to at least $10 billion in infrastructure and property damage.
Howard Benson – Keyboards, Loops
Larry Corbett – Cello
Joel Derouin – Violin
Christian Lindskog (of Blindside) – Additional vocals on "Anything Right"
Eek-A-Mouse – Additional vocals on "Ridiculous"
H.R. (of Bad Brains) – Additional vocals on "Without Jah, Nothin"
Suzie Katayama – Conductor, string arrangements
The album saw the band blend the sounds of Metal, Punk, Hardcore, Screamo, Reggae and Rap over the course of 15 tracks. Lyrically it would take on new meanings for listeners far and wide the day after 9/11 with it's spotlight shining on the spiritual positivity in the midst of hard times and dark days of sadness and loss:
RISE- Stand up for yourself
RISE- Hold your head up high"
- Set It Off
I'm thankful for every breath I take
I won't take it for granted
So I learn from my mistakes
It’s beyond my control, sometimes it’s best to let go
Whatever happens in this lifetime
So I trust in love
You have given me peace of mind"
- Alive
No matter what you say
It don't take away the pain
That I feel inside, I'm tired of all the lies
Don't nobody know why
It's the blind leading the blind
I guess that's the way the story goes
Will it ever make sense
Somebody's got to know
There's got to be more to life than this
There's got to be more to everything
I thought exists"
- Youth of The Nation
With lifted hands to this Man (Jah), I'll stand in faith
I'll make it through, my trust in you
Close my eyes, make a wish, kiss the sky"
- Satellite
I need you more than ever now that I know who you are
I know you will complete this work started in me
I need you more than ever now that I've come so far"
- Ridiculous
I'll lay my life down for you and die over again
I and I, I'm not ashamed of the Most High
Even if I die tonight, if I die tonight
This I pledge, and I'll take it to my death
You can bet your life on my words and everything I said
You can't take away my love for this sacrifice
Even if I die tonight, if I die tonight"
- The Messenjah
I believe you and I believe in love
Whether you think I'm so confused
Or if you feel the way I do
So don't give in to this hate within
Living in this world of pain
Don't let it bring you down
The world is a ghetto"
- Ghetto
I know you're so much better (we made it through)
Now I know what it means to live for someone else
To give up yourself
Things have changed, at times it gets kind of strange
Your love remains the same
Do I make you proud? Mama, can you see me now?
Whatever is good in me is because you showed me how to take love by the hand
And so now I can share you with my baby
So that she can understand"
- Thinking About Forever
Yielding to you
Shape me in my brokeness
Empower me forever"
- Portrait
It's hard to believe that it's been 20 years since that dark and terrible day in America. What has unfolded in the world we live in since then still leaves many heartbroken with loss of loved ones and where one enemy seems to have been vanquished another has arisen to carry out even more atrocities in many places across the globe.
More than ever the lyrics of these songs on Satellite seem to be calling out afresh to us to open our ears to hear and a call to our hearts to remain steadfast in the fight to put out the flames of fear and hatred that seem to be prevailing at this time and embrace something better for us as individuals and as a society.
To celebrate 20 Years since Satellite was released, P.O.D. earlier this year filmed a performance of the album in full along with two other sets (B-sides, Rarities & Hits Set and also a full performance of The Fundamental Elements of Southtown album). The Satellite Over Southtown event was filmed at Petco Park in San Diego and was streamed on the Web over three nights in May and June (see poster above).
A new Remaster of the album has recently been released that includes four previously unreleased demos, four B-sides and four Remixes. You can listen to the Satellite Expanded Edition Here.
