The Pirate Signal
Background information
Origin	Denver, Colorado, U.S.
Genres	Hip hop Rap Alternative Rock music
Years active	2000–Present
Labels	Unsigned
Website	http://www.thepiratesignal.com
Members
Yonnas Abraham Chez Strong Sam "DJ 5am" Trumper Hogans Danielr

The Pirate Signal is a 4-piece hip hop

Hip hop

Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...

 band from Denver, Colorado

Denver, Colorado

The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...

. The band is composed of MC/Producer Yonnas Abraham, Chez Strong on keyboards and guitar, Sam "Dj 5am" Trumper, and Hogans Daniel on drums. The band is known for their highly energetic live performances and their sound has been characterized by a mixture of rap

Rap

Rap may refer to:*Rapping, performance in which rhyming lyrics are used, with or without musical accompaniment ; while an MC performs spoken verses in time to a beat/ melody**Hip hop subculture**Hip hop music...

, hip hop

Hip hop

Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...

 and alternative rock

Alternative rock

Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

. The band was voted Westword Magazine's Best Hip Hop Group in their 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 award showcases.

History

In 2000, the band was a originally started as an underground mix tape exchange by Ben Serruto, but became a full-blown band when Yonnas Abraham entered the group and asserted that they make the greatest album of all time. That album, Norma(l) Hugh Manchild's American Revolution(s) (2004) (referred to as The Norma(l) Album), may not have accomplished that goal, but it was not for lack of ambition. Sprawling, challenging and fiercely explosive, the album served as more of one long melodrama than a collection of songs, many of the messages and lyrics lost in the outright aggression and complex arrangements. "What we learned from that album is what not to do."


In 2006, the founding member, Ben quit the group to pursue a solo music career just as DJ A-What was beginning his tenure as man on the decks for the band. Quickly regrouping The Pirate Signal released an EP

Extended play

An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

 "The Name of This Band is The Pirate Signal", featuring hit singles on the college radio circuit, "Go!", "I Can't Wait," "An Emergence of Black Heroes", "You Will Get Dirty", "It Might Just Go Down," and "All I Know is.....It Was an Accident". Six, songs getting regular rotation on college radio throughout the country, out of eight. The project was so so strong that locally, it garnered them Best Hip Hip in Colorado 2007, 2008 and 2009 from the Westword, the local Village Voice Media Publication, beating out 30h!3 and Flobots for the honor the first year. Nationally it earned them a slot on the 2008 Vans Warped Tour headlining the Skull Candy Tent, as well as an opening slot on 3oh!3's subsequent Myspace 2008 Fall Tour, an opening slot on the west coast leg of Kool Keith's 2006 Return of Dr. Octagon Tour, and two summer tours of their own, one on the west coast, and one national, all in the summer of 2007.

Then in 2008, they released a mixtape, "Of Gods And Gangsters Vol. 1", that earned them mix tape of the year honors in the Westword, as well as garnered the attention of a few major blogs nationally. Eventually labels began calling, as TVT

TVT

TVT may mean:*TVT: Canine transmissible venereal tumour*TVT Records*TVT: The callsign of a TV station in Tasmania, Australia.*Televisheni ya Taifa: The state broadcaster of Tanzania.*Télévision Togolaise: The state broadcaster of Togo....

, Atlantic

Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...

, Warner Bros. Records

Warner Bros. Records

Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...

, and Sony expressed interest, as well as major indies like Def Jux, Rhymesayers, Strange Famous, Black Clover and even Epitaph itself inquiring about the band. As interest mounted and buzz grew, the crew, including then member Joey Kloss, hunkered down to accomplish their original task, to make the greatest album of all time, in the form of a project entitled OneAlone. "OneAlone as an album actually began before the EP and the mixtape and they were released to garner interest for the full-length", explains Yonnas. Inexplicably however, Joey quit the group and horded all the recordings and to this day has refused to give them back effectively destroying the project. Needless to say, legal proceedings are slated to begin at the turn of the decade.


Without an album, but a growing, even deafening buzz in some circles staring them in the face, again the group quickly reconfigured and began work on the project that has their focus currently, No Weak Heart Shall Prosper. "OneAlone began to become an albatross the way the first album did, and so much of it was not right for us to perform live that even though it's not what we wanted, the album being abandoned like that was probably best. As we toured more and more, the things that people loved about our live show and our music was not, we realized, on that album. We needed something immediate, powerful and full of energy, and that's what No Weak Heart Shall Prosper is, we're both much happier with this album and how it's coming together. As an album and as a band, this project contains so much more of what we've learned about ourselves in these past three years, that I wouldn't have it any other way, our time is fast approaching, and when it comes, this is what it sounds like. From this we can make the live show that much more incredible, and continue to streamline our sound and accomplish our goal of being the best band in the world."


In July 2010, DJ A-What parted ways with The Pirate Signal and then DJ Soup joined the band, shortly followed by Chez Strong. The album "No Weak Heart Shall Prosper" was released on August 24, 2010. Following the album release the band went on a west coast tour of the US. In February of 2011 DJ Soup was replaced with DJ 5am and Hogans Daniel joined the band. In the spring of 2011 the band released two music videos, one for the song "Saga of Dirty Street kids", produced by Randal Kirk II of Streetlight Films; and the second for the song "Love in the Time of Swine Flu", produced by Dennis Flippin of Flippin Entertainment and Chez Strong.
The band continues to tour nationally.

Media

The Pirate Signal has been featured in several promos for the acclaimed television network HDNET, using the song “I Can’t Wait” 2007, and (You Will) Get Dirty in 2008 and 2009.
The Pirate Signal song "Go!" was featured in FSN sports program Jookt, in October 2009.

Tour History & Awards

• 2009 Monolith Festival
• 2008 Sundance Festival, Ed Hardy AfterParty
• Opening Slot for 3Oh!3, MySpace Tour, 2008
• 2008 Warped Tour
• 2007 700 World Series Tour With X-Kid, Alpha P, DJ Inform
• 2006 Summer with Kool Keith, R.A The Ruggid Man, Tash from The Alkaholiks
• Winner of the 13th annual Westword Music Showcase for Best Local Hip Hop Group-2007
• Winner of the 14th annual Westword Music Showcase for Best Local Hip Hop Group-2008
• Winner of the 15th annual Westword Music Showcase for Best Local Hip Hop Group-2009
• Winner of the 16th annual Westword Music Showcase for Best Local Hip Hop Group-2010
• Winner of the 17th annual Westword Music Showcase for Best Local Hip Hop Group-2011

Discography

• No Weak Heart Shall Prosper - 08-24-2010
• Of Gods And Gangsters Vol 1 - 11-26-2008
• The Name of This Band is The Pirate Signal - 06-01-2006
• The Norma(l) LP - 10-16-2004