Bermuda's traditions are the focus of a new single and video by a music group that have just released their second album.

'County Game Anthem' was released on YouTube by the band 'Bermuda Tri' this summer.

The song refers to the Island's popular Eastern County cricket festivities, the last of which will take place tomorrow at Bailey's Bay and which will include a performance by the band.

More than a dozen musicians, vocalists, writers and sound engineers were involved in the making of the song and The Royal Gazette spoke with four – Mainy Rankins, Synapse, Cryptik, and Star 45.

Mainy Rankins and Synapse met at Chewstick, the Island's popular open-mic jam session, and each had a huge deal of respect for the other's work. They found a studio in St. George's and began making music, mainly Hip Hop and reggae.

"We just put our heads together and collaborated on different things and now we have an album and we're working on videos," said Mainy. "We are just trying to promote ourselves and promote each other."

Coming from a Conscious Reggae vibe, Star 45 added: "I try to keep that (Conscious lyrics) in the back of my mind. I am the father of two and I am a strong believer in karma and reaping what you sow."

Star 45 started out rapping, but after listening to his father playing the likes of Bob Marley and other Reggae greats, he said 'something went off in his head'.

Cryptik started out writing poetry with courting in mind. "I used to write poetry a long time ago for girls and I did some things at CedarBridge (Academy) by writing some poems about the violence," he said.

"I always loved listening to music and I get tired of listening to trash music, so I make my own.

"A lot of people send the wrong message and wonder why the youth are (acting) retarded.

"We are just here to keep it real. One of my songs is called 'Wrath of Mother Nature', rather than just dealing with cars and rims, hos (whores) and everything else. Just trying to give the youth something good so that they can make up their mind."

Synapse added: "We are 13 members strong, we are releasing a new video, we've done several commercials, we've done several performances.

"It is a gradual process, but we are really picking up speed.

"We are focusing on the web presence and we have MySpace, Facebook and ReverbNation.com and we are working on our own website."

The group has also performed at Westgate Correctional Facility. When asked what it was like to go behind bars for the performance, Mainy Rankins said: "Well I saw a lot of people who I hadn't seen for a while."

The 'County Game Anthem' came about after the Eastern County Cricket League approached them about doing a theme song.

"We said, 'yeah' and that was the very beginnings of it," explained Synapse.

"So we said, we could come and do a performance and then with the last County Game we took it a step up and did a video, so we had full sponsorship and we went ahead and did it. The whole idea is that it is one of those songs that can go along with the event."

When asked whether they were ultimately looking for a recording deal, Synapse said: "Not necessarily and I would say that because we are affiliated with a publishing company in the States, it is an independent thing and this way we keep as much in house as possible.

"So the only type of deals we would be looking for is distribution deal, so that way you can play at the highest level.

"With the 'County Game Anthem' we will be putting out our second album and this one will be distributed a little more than locally.

"Now when we go into the second album, then yes, all stops have been pulled out."

The group's second album "Follow Me" will be available in stores from tomorrow and at Internet sellers, such as CdBaby and iTunes.

They will be performing tomorrow at the final County Game of the season at Bailey's Bay Club.