Song City Hippies

Song City Hippies
Origin:	Song City
Faction Affiliation:	Song Dominion
Genre:	Dreamfunk
Band Members:	Hadrion (Lead Vocals) Sprout (Backup Vocals) Bunis Zi'abbiam (Synthboards) Joris Lyseios (Drums) Naksa Qiyasa (E-strings)

Song City Hippies are one of the most famous bands in the sector and their name, perhaps, says it all. Affiliated with the Song Dominion, they are a group of eclectically mixed musicians of wildly different ages and races, ranging from the vast experience and surprisingly spry wisdom of lead vocalist Hadrion at over 800 years old, to militant Amaian activist Joris Lyseios on drums and the more recent controversial addition of Naksa Qiyasa. The band's common purpose is to spread a message of peace, love and engagement with nature in their wholesomely political dreamfunk. Critics opine that the combination of Hadrion's experience with Sprout's energetic creativity is what makes Song City Hippies a household name - the group remains wildly popular with a wide-ranging audience.

Band Members

Hadrion

Genderless - Decheeran
Hadrion was over eight hundred years old when it started professionally recording music, a dramatic departure from its previous occupation of sunloft cultivation specialist. The creative force behind Song City Hippies, the elderly but still spry Decheeran vocalist remembers the Bushraki wars, and many of its lyrics reference a green and growing planet. Hadrion has a strong relationship with the SRS, often putting on sector-wide charity concerts for the restoration effort. Although it is an elderly Decheeran; venerable and overgrown, Hadrion still seems plenty spry. Its karafee-hued eyes and the effortless, practiced deftness of its movements upstage its venerable and overgrown looks; pale brown bark, craggy and thick, and dark green foliage which sprouts liberally from both its head and chin, with long, willowy leaves tumbling down over its broad chest and defined shoulders. Its attire is generally free-flowing and colorful (in an earthy way) e.g. a long, brown vest that stretches from its shoulders nearly to its knees, over a flouncy white shirt with flowing sleeves and a pale lavender skirt that swishes around its legs. It usually wears simple synthleather sandals on its feet.

Sprout

Genderless - Decheeran
A youthful foil to Hadrion's ancient wisdom, "Sprout" is considered a musical prodigy, whose hooks and beats are always fresh, chill, and on trend. Built with the slenderness of youth, this Decheeran has pale, smooth gray bark, and seems to be filled with a restless energy. Its body language is always quick and darting, and it has long, clever fingers that are constantly in motion. Its foliage is always buzzed close to its head emphasizing the immensity of its curious green eyes and revealing the rather boxy, elongated shape of its skull. It wears casual, artfully dilapidated clothes. Usually cargo pants, combat boots, and an oversized white t-shirt with ironic advertising (e.g. the Daughters of Ur 40 year anniversary tour), all of which is strategically ripped and torn for maximum style.

Bunis Zi'abbiam

Female - Shen
Bunis Zi'abbiam was orphaned at a young age, and raised on Atria by a Decheeran caretaker, giving the Shen synthboard player a unique outlook on life in the galaxy. Her public persona is famously dreamy, unfocused, and detached. When on stage, she lends an ethereal quality to the soundscape of the "Hippies." With pale green skin, like the young leaves of trees in spring, which covers her willowy body, Zi'abbiam has a ruff of rippling, lighter yellow-green skin flowing back from her narrow, austere features, and her wide eyes are a striking and iridescent emerald. She often wears dramatic makeup. which darkens her eyelids, lips, and high cheekbones. Her style of dress is bohemian yet stylish. Flowing, batik-patterned dresses with tassled closures swish around her ankles; always sleeveless to show off muscled arms.

Joris Lyseios

Male - Amaian
Joris Lyseios has been twice incarcerated for violent protests against industrial pollution bylaws passed during the reign of the last Lord Commander. A rabid activist, the Amaian brings a manic energy to the drums, and is responsible for some of the more militant-sounding lyrics of the Song City Hippies. Wiry and lean, he doesn't have a bit of fat on him, giving him a rather corded appearance. His pewter-hued skin has is nearly covered with intricate, tight-packed tattoos scrawled across every visible bit of his skin, even some of his face - though his dark blue eyes are left untouched save for the wild and passionate light that glows within them. His head fins sweep long, past his shoulders, and are scrawled with more ink, his skin a tapestry of intricate political history. Likely the ink continues underneath his clothes. He can usually be seen wearing a t-shirt with the arms ripped off, some black cargo shorts, and a pair of shockingly bright orange sandals on his feet. He sometimes provides backing vocals.

Naksa Qiyasa

Female - Ry'nari
The newest member of the Song City Hippies, Naksa Qiyasa was born in Song City to a wealthy tribe of Ry'nari conservationists. Controversially, she uses her inheritance to fund a lavish, jet-setting lifestyle. Often criticized as "fake" and a "shill", her antics regularly make the gossip clogs. More often than not a pair of wraparound shades with holographic lenses shield Qiyasa's eyes. Her ribbed frill is pierced asymmetrically along one side with a row of transteel and amethyst rings and abstract, bold tattoos wrap her muscular, scaled forearms; purportedly created using nanite ink that allows them to shift color and shape at programmed intervals. Her tail is banded in wide cuffs of platinum tribal jewelry, artfully scuffed to appear more worn and less expensive, but without sacrificing quality. She is normally dressed in a slouchy pair of pale blue fleetweave wide-legged pants and a pale ivory tank top. Multiple long pendants always loop her neck. Usually walking barefoot, she paints her clawsin brigh colors, often red. Electric Cello

Discography

'Memory Gardens'

'Sunloftin

'Modern Mirrors'

A song that urges the listener to reject technology, to return to a more natural way of living, to give up screens and augments in favor of communing with the natural world. "Let's go back to the way we used to be. When we were free. We'll see things clearer when we aren't looking through these modern mirrors."

'Roots and Leaves'

A song filled with lush imagery and longing for a better future for a dessicated world.

'Verge of Sin'

A slow, crooning song. As a rarity, Naksa Qiyasa sings sultry and smoky lead vocals at the start of this song. "Vertigo, you make me dizzy, pretty. Looking all the way down below." Hadrion and Sprout then sing the second verse. "Dance slow, cause it's just one night, a pity. But we can see the flow, when we're on the Verge."

'Electric Clouds'

A lush, almost discordant instrumental to start with, in this song Hadrion sings, '"Being with you is just like...it's like walking on electric clouds..."'. It ramps up into an anthem about a weightless love, addiction and passion blending through long, hot nights in a place where summer exists. The final verse is about a city starved of gravity touching down for good.

Other Media

Song City Hippies have a plethora of live recordings on the commsphere, but less official music vids. A sample of one of their vids was used to make a holoposter which is now an incredibly rare piece of memorabilia:

Swirling pastel colors make up the background of this holoposter for the Song City Hippies. Blocky, hand drawn pastel flowers form a border, as if you're peering through a floral hedge. Beyond the flowers, the members of the Song City Hippies bounce, sing and play in their famously jovial style. Around the edge, the name of the band floats around the flowers in a wavy circle.

Notable Appearances

- Song on the Verge 938 A.E.

Set list:

'Roots and Leaves'

'Verge of Sin'

'Modern Mirrors'

The band then announced their upcoming album, 'Floating Soul' at the show, and debuted a new single: 'Electric Clouds'.

"Proceeds from this set is [sic] going to the SRS! We want that big, dead home we're floating over to be green again! So let's make some noise, Dominion!"

(Hadrion at Song on the Verge 938 A.E.)

Fun Facts

• Clover Moonchild, Guardian Envoy for the Celestine Ascendancy is an avid Song City Hippies fan.
• Lead vocalist Hadrion has been known to carry an empty EMPATHY rucksack. Worn for style or perhaps in support for an ethical brand with similar values.
• Joris Lyseios only knows how to hand-write because of autographs. Prior to his fame, like many spacers, Lyseios had never had the need to pick up an archaic 'pen' before.