Veggie rockers Botanist have released another single, “Royal Protea,” from forthcoming album Paleobotany. The new album is set for release May 17 via Prophecy Productions.
Regarding “Royal Protea,” Botanist’s Otrebor states:
“There are practically innumerable variants of Protea, and most of them grow in South Africa, where the eponymous plant of the single originated about 65 million years ago. Back at the time, the area that is now South Africa was a rain forest.”
If you’re wondering what in the world “Royal Protea” is, here’s the scoop. The ancestors of the plant family of Protea evolved about 75-80 million years ago on the supercontinent of Gondwanaland, which covered most of the southern hemisphere. Because of the continental drift of earth’s tectonic plates, Gondwana separated into smaller parts which comprise our modern-day southern continents.
Presently, Protea are mainly found in the area of South Africa. Its largest species, the self-fertilizing Protea cynaroides, also called the Giant Protea, and King Sugar Bush, is the country’s national plant. There you go, rock on!
When composer, lyricist, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist Otrebor created Botanist 15 years ago, he had a specific, plant-based lyrical concept already germinating in his mind. Its main protagonist, “The Botanist,” is characterized as a possibly deranged man of science who lives in self-imposed exile to avoid from humanity’s crimes against nature.
Paleobotany is Botanist’s 12th studio record.
Photo courtesy of Botanist
