Iration’s Micah “Poosh” Pueschel Talks Roots, Real Emotion, Mario Kart Therapy and the Communal Magic of Live Music.

May 16th, 2026

There’s a certain kind of album that feels less like a release and more like a return. Not a retreat, not a nostalgia grab, but a circle closing in the best possible way. For Iration, Where It All Began carries that feeling from its title down to its warm, wave-washed bones.

Listening to it, there’s an easy throwback pull, the kind of stripped-down, beach bonfire energy that makes it feel like someone handed you a drink, pointed you toward the shoreline and told you to stay awhile. For Poosh, that mood came partly by design and partly by instinct.

“I think a little bit of both,” Poosh said of the album’s old school feel. He explained that much of the record began taking shape during the same creative stretch as Daytrippin’. As the band sorted through songs, a natural split appeared. Some tracks leaned more into rock and alternative territory, while others carried the reggae pulse that traced back to Iration’s earliest days.

“We had these other ones that are kind of more in this reggae vibe that feel like kind of old school Iration,” he said. “So we said let’s push these back to the next cycle.”

That decision turned into a record built around memory, roots and musical muscle memory. Before Iration became a touring force with nearly two decades of road stories behind them, the band started as a reggae cover band. Those early covers were not filler. They were the foundation.

“That was the first thing that we did,” Poosh said. “That’s how we learned how to play together.”

That history is what gives Where It All Began its lived-in comfort. The title track itself, he noted, was not originally written as a band origin story. Still, once the group began searching for an album title, it became impossible to ignore how neatly the phrase wrapped itself around the project.

“Where It All Began makes a lot of sense,” Poosh said. “It ties into the fact that these songs sound so much like stuff that we’ve been doing for years, and the songs that inspired us.”

The album is not built as one straight lane. Poosh hears it in movements. The opening section leans into roots reggae with songs like “My Kind of Vibe,” “State of Mind” and “Stay Positive.” The middle shifts toward pop, rock and brighter hooks with tracks such as “Show You,” “Obvious” and “Number One.” By the back half, the band lets the sound drift into dubbier, more experimental corners with “No Gravity,” a Tom Petty cover and “Island Time,” which he described as “a Jimmy Buffett kind of homage.”

That range has always been part of the band’s identity, even when it left the band floating between worlds.

“We’ve always kind of been in this awkward in between,” Poosh said. “In the reggae world we’re considered too rock, and the alternative people consider us too reggae.”

Rather than fight that label limbo, Iration has learned to live inside it. Maybe that is where the band’s sound gets its personality. It does not apologize for the guitars. It does not apologize for the groove. It does not sand off the island influence to fit an alternative radio lane, and it does not mute the rock instincts to satisfy reggae purists.

“We just make music the way that we want to make it,” Poosh said. “We like rockin’ and we like playing reggae. No apologies about it.”

That confidence did not stop the band from opening the door to new collaborators this time around. Poosh said Where It All Began marked the first time they sourced beats from outside producers. That included Pana from Hawaii, whose work connected naturally with the band’s island-rooted spirit, and longtime friend Leslie Ludiazo, also known as Bimwala, who has been part of their extended musical world for years.

The outside energy helped shape songs including “My Kind of Vibe” and the title track. The record also features a horn section that added another layer of warmth and movement, with Quinn Carson now joining the band on tour after appearing on recordings. Pueschel also pointed to producer Suzy Shinn, whose credits include work with acts like Weezer and Modest Mouse, along with a team of engineers and mixers that helped polish the album without cleaning away its soul.

Still, the center of Iration remains emotion. For Poosh, that is the difference between songs that sound good and songs that actually land.

“Writing music is about writing about real things,” he said. “Real emotion.”

Early in his writing life, he noticed the contrast between putting words together because they sounded cool and writing from something that carried personal truth. The second kind hit differently. Listeners heard it. They felt it.

“As long as every song has got it, it doesn’t have to be about me, it doesn’t have to be autobiographical, but as long as it’s about a real emotion,” he said. “There’s something real in it.”

That reality has helped Iration’s music become part of other people’s lives in ways the band could never have planned. Poosh said people now send him clips of Iration songs playing in random places, from gyms to baseball games. One of the strangest encounters happened on a small island off the coast of Scotland, where two teenagers recognized him in a tiny grocery store after discovering the band on YouTube.

“That’s crazy,” he said. “This is so far out in the middle of nowhere, and the internet connected us in a way.”

Even more surreal is seeing the band’s audience grow up, bring their own children and turn Iration shows into family milestones. At meet and greets, Poosh now meets parents who listened before they had kids and are bringing those kids to their first concerts.

“We were listening to you before we had kids, and now we’re a family that listens to Iration,” he recalled hearing from fans.

One story stuck with him from Atlanta, where a mother brought her daughter to see the band again. The last time the girl had been at an Iration show, she was five and had been brought on stage. Now she was 15, with the photo to prove it.

“For us, it feels like it went by so fast,” he said. “But for them, they’re growing up.”

That sense of time passing gives the band’s current chapter more weight. Iration is not chasing the same version of success it once did. Success, Poosh said, has not changed the mission as much as it has raised the pressure to keep the quality high.

“If I stop caring about the quality, then that’s a problem,” he said. “Then I probably should stop making it.”

Nearly 20 years in, the band still cares, and the fans still show up. That exchange matters to him, especially in a touring climate where everything costs more. The band’s 2026 mindset has been framed around giving back to the fans, and the band’s official tour announcement echoed that by calling the Where It All Began Summer Tour a chance to bring new music, a new setlist and a more intimate experience to core fans. The album itself was officially introduced as their 11th studio album, with Poosh describing it as a tribute to the music, islands and feeling that first made the band want to create together.

For him, giving back means more than saying the right thing. It means investing in the live show, tightening the set, improving the sound and making sure fans leave feeling like their money and time mattered.

“People pay hard-earned money to come see us play music,” he said. “If people are going to spend their hard-earned dollars on seeing us play music, then we want to make sure that they’re getting their money’s worth.”

The road itself has changed too. The band is older now, with families, routines and a better sense of how to survive tour life without losing their minds or tossing one another off the bus. Poosh joked that they have come close, but maturity helps. So does not touring as much in winter.

Once the band reached a certain point, they told their agents they did not want to do winter tours anymore. Summer touring means being able to go outside, walk, exercise, play golf and find moments of normalcy between shows.

“That’s what helps keep you grounded when you’re on the road,” he said.

There is also Mario Kart.

The band still plays often, using the game as a pressure valve for whatever passive aggressive energy might otherwise float around the bus. No one has full bragging rights these days.

“We’ve all played so much now that every day somebody has more success,” he said.

As for who kills the vibe? Poosh laughed it off as a rotating responsibility.

“We all take turns killing the vibe a little bit,” he said. “Everybody’s got their own moods.”

Fortunately, the tour bus has curtains and hallways. After this many years, that space may be as important as any guitar pedal.

“We wouldn’t have made it this far if we were that close to each other,” he joked.

The humor is part of what makes the band’s longevity feel human. The band’s music often carries sunshine, but it is not weightless. It understands escape because it understands why people need escape. It understands community because it has watched strangers become families, kids become teenagers and songs become memories attached to weddings, road trips, summers and nights people wish they could bottle.

For Poosh , that is still the chill-inducing part of live music. No recording can fully replace the room, the crowd or the shared moment between band and audience.

“Live music is an escape,” he said. “It’s community sharing in a moment and a time.”

That may be where Where It All Began finds its deepest meaning. It is not only about the band looking backward. It is about Iration recognizing what carried them here in the first place: the reggae records that shaped them, the rock edges that never left, the fans who stayed, the families who joined in and the nightly reminder that no two shows will ever be exactly the same.

The album may start at the beginning, but Iration sounds far from finished. They are still chasing the real feeling. Still keeping the vibe alive. Still giving fans a place to exhale, sing along and be part of something that only exists fully when everyone is there together.

For a band that built its name somewhere between reggae, rock and whatever wave happened to catch them next, that in-between space has become more than a challenge.

It has become home.