Today, JUNO-nominated alternative rock band Rare Americans announce their most ambitious project to date; Searching For Strawberries: The Story Of Jongo Bongo. Combining a revolutionary 33-minute, fully animated musical feature and accompanying album to create an immersive listening experience, Searching For Strawberries tells the true story of Rare Americans multi-instrumentalist “Jongo” (real name Jan Cajka) and his transformation from corporate pawn to rock star. Take a trip with Jongo as he ditches the rat race and goes on a journey of self-discovery on the Santiago De Camino, a 900km pilgrimage through Spain.
Searching For Strawberries: The Story Of Jongo Bongo, the animated musical film, will be available for viewing in its entirety on July 10th, with the project rolling out in a series of Acts, pairing the new music with the animation. Fans can check out the first block of songs and accompanying animation when Act One drops June 5th, followed by Act Two on June 19th and culminating with Act Three on July 7th when the entire album will be available.
“I’m really proud of what we accomplished. I think Jongo Bongo will be influential, and more artists will attempt to tell their stories in this animated album fashion in the near future,” says frontman James Priestner. “It’s so powerful for the listener and viewer to be able to see the story unfolding visually while synced perfectly with the music.”
Following the success of their four previously released albums and the Songs That Don’t Belong EP, and hot on the heels of sold out U.S. and UK tours and a triumphant run of Canadian dates, Rare Americans were recently nominated for Breakthrough Group of the Year at the 2023 JUNO Awards. Since launching their debut album in 2018, Rare Americans have established an identity as inventive storytellers. Their songs, paired with narrative-driven animated videos have garnered them their first Billboard 100 album, 500M+ streams, 2M + social media followers and global support. The genre-bending act has built a passionate fanbase with their positive message, relentless work ethic, diverse sound, and captivating visuals. The band also owns the twenty person, award-winning animation studio Crooked City Studios in Toronto, known for clients like HBO Max, New Balance, Jessie Reyez, Donald Glover and more.
Rare Americans is James Priestner, Jan Cajka and Duran Ritz
