Music does a lot of things we can’t quite explain. It vibrates through us and touches our souls the way nothing else can.

Physically, we find ourselves dancing, jumping up and down, and having full-blown mosh pits. Emotionally, music takes us on a journey depending on the song. We feel empowered, energized, sad, dominant, and everything else in between. Mentally, we’re taken into worlds beyond the physical, where only we exist, and the concerns of reality lack the power to hold us to the ground. Dammit, music gives us wings to fly.

The most special of artists have a god-given knack for making songs that touch us on all three levels. Physically, mentally, and emotionally. The trick is they do it seamlessly, you don’t even realize your high off of their sonic delivery. The experience is a phenomenon all its own.

Quantum Split is all of the previously mentioned rolled into one. Chances are you haven’t heard of Quantum Split yet—that is, unless you’re a connoisseur of live performances, someone who appreciates the way bands used to grow their following. You know, the old fashion way of hitting the stage venue by venue and earning an organic fan base off of the intimate face-to-face experience.

REVOLT is all about introducing you to soon-to-be household names and, as of right now, there are no music videos or singles floating around. Hell, they don’t even have a Soundcloud. For once, there’s a band out there that’s not worried about the social media following and streaming numbers they need to score a record deal. Quantum Split just loves the music. Rock and roll seeps through their pores; they live this shit. What’s even better is that they’re a black and brown band comprised of lead guitarist Adrien Read, bass guitarist Ivan Hardy, drummer Anthony Anderson, and lead singer Soleil Laurent.

Their mission? Simple: take rock and roll back to the roots and crush the stage every chance they get.

After lead singer Soleil put the band together through a series of Instagram messages, emails, Facebook connections, and some serious grilling about the seriousness of the band, Quantum Split came to be. Get to know the up-and-coming band!

Where did everyone’s passion for music come from?

Read: I didn’t like music until I got to high school. Whenever I saw someone with a guitar, I always felt like I wanted to play. There was a program dedicated to guitar in high school. I started out messing with hip-hop and jazz before transitioning into rock and roll.

Laurent: My dad’s side of the family does music. He worked around a lot of music and a lot of artists. I look at my dad like a hero, but Quantum Split is where I found myself. It’s where I wrote about my life and what I see and became really vulnerable. Then it became so much more. I wanted to impact the world and I can do it through music.

Anderson: I started playing drums out of inspiration from my dad who passed away when I was 9 years old. In middle school and high school I was in and out of marching bands. I learned different genres, but it was majorly self-taught.

Hardy: At 14, 15 years old I was trying to find my identity in high school. I stumbled upon acts like SevenFold and Marilyn Manson. I started to establish my rock identity in punk, hard, and metal rock. At 16, I picked up bass. I saw Fallout Boy at Bamboozle and it changed my life. That’s when I definitely picked up music.

How would you describe your music and the way the public perceives you?

Read: Rock started with black people and that’s why this matters. There was an era where people were sleep, but people are waking up now. We’re part of that by showing that rock came from black roots; it was taken and turned around. Rock stands for something that’s bigger than us. It stands for a revolution. People don’t think it sounds pretty or appealing, but it stands for much more than that.

Naturally, you don’t find people like us playing this type of music. Our roots are different so it’s not gonna sound the way the old rock and roll sounds like. We have a mix of experiences based on the fact that we’re black. When we sit down to write, it just comes out. We come from backgrounds where people don’t respect us because of how we look. Even my family asked why I’m not doing Spanish music.

Laurent: We get a lot of love. But we get people who are against us I’ve gotten insane things. Comments like: “Do you niggers really think you’re gonna take rock and roll from rock bands? You’re just niggers.” We gotta keep moving forward we know what the message. I’ve had men tell me, “You’re not really playing guitar” because I’m a woman. Because of all that, we know that this is going to be something revolutionary. We know it for a fact and it pushed us even more. We’re going to stand for our people and what we believe.

Through a joint love for music and a passion for ushering fans into an appreciation for the roots of rock and roll; Quantum Split has established a family like bond. They’ve been through the ups and downs of learning each other as bandmates. On top of that, they’ve been able to travel halfway across the world to perform in front of thousands of people. Their latest gig took them to Africa, a truly life changing experience!

At the Kigali Up Festival, sponsored by the Embassy of Kigali, Quantum Split rocked a crowd of 10,000 people and left the stage to fans rushing them for pictures and autographs—the stuff rock stars are made of. Dreams do come tru and you don’t need 100,000 social media followers to do it. Keep your eyes peeled for Quantum Split; in 2017, they are dropping their first music video and an album to go with it.