About Me
In 2005, after a tour of Europe, Tyrone "LBD" Lovelace and Brian "Stingshark" Ray made a decision back home in Seattle to blend digital and live rhythms, taking digital tracks from the studio then playing them live with a full band in a different way. This made the Role:one sound. Showing a strong influence of Beck, Manu Chao, Jimi Hendrix, A Tribe Called Quest, and pure funk groove, Little Black Devil or "LBD" (MC/Vox/Gtr) and Stingshark (MC/Vox/Intergalactic Gtr) use their variety of songs to keep the pace going, always sending you into different directions. $cotty X on finger-slap bass, eYe on keyboards/sounds, Brimstone on percussions and DJ Leopold Bloom on turntables are the building blocks that create the solid rhythm section.
Starting out in the funk powerhouse Phat Sidy Smokehouse, Stingshark and LBD grew up playing together, and have shared the stage with Morris Day and the Time, Fishbone, Parliament/Funkadelic, Digital Underground, Spearhead, Joe Higgs, Eek-A-Mouse, Greyboy Allstars, and the Pharcyde, eventually playing with DJ Leopold Bloom in the improv jazz-funk group Marmalade (featuring members of Shawn Smith, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Wheedle's Groove, and the Tiptons). Stingshark and LBD shared their desire for a new sound with DJ Leopold Bloom. Not only did he want to be a part of it, he introduced Classical Pianist Ayako "eYe" Okano who is experimenting with the electronic keyboard to the mix, while a chance meeting with Flamenco drummer/percussionist David "Brimstone" Levin, of the North American touring flamenco troupe Carmona Flamenco, gives an underlying Latin feel. The choice of $cotty X as the low-end sonic controller comes naturally since he switches with LBD regularly.
Using musicians with different backgrounds, meeting together on the groove, gives Role:one the ability to move the crowd like no other. Role:one comes in to take the crowd to the highest level and then take them higher – a live show dedicated to pumping up the crowd.
