High Minds Cafe

High Minds Cafe is the product of a vision Jaquan had while on his journey on the islands of Hawaii during February-March 2015.

From across the ocean, he contacted Rickey and Lord back in Chico, and asked if they would be interested in starting a new band. Over the next month, Jaquan recorded his new song ideas on his cell phone and shared them with Rickey and Lord on a shared Google Drive folder, who would download the songs and play along with them at home.

April 1, 2015 Jaquan flew back to California. On April 2, Rickey picked Jaquan up from the Oakland airport. April 5th was the first time High Minds Cafe met since the initiation of this collaboration. On April 5th, while discussing possible band names, the name High Minds Cafe came up. After a quick Google search, we discovered it hadn't been taken, and we had our name.

During the two weeks after Jaquan came home to Chico, we practiced almost several days a week for hours on end. At the end of our second week, on April 19th, we played our first show for Chico Breaks the Record at the Tackle Box in Chico, CA. Along with a second show that same evening at the Flow-Love House.

In May 2015, we recorded the first demo version of our song "Dizzy" in Rickey's tool shed. We also released a music video made from bits of video throughout our journey to that point. There was also a photoshoot with the wonderfully talented Shoot Sharp Studios. As well as a music video shoot with our friends in the Music Video Production class out at Butte College.

On May 30, 2015, we released our first two song demo Dizzy at a show in Chico where we shared the stage with the likes of: Be Calm Honcho, Bogart the Monster, and Smokey the Groove. On July 18th, we will be playing at the Oroville Rock Reggae Jamfest with Wyclef Jean and Stephen Marley!

Many good things are coming up in the future of High Minds Cafe!