“We didn’t walk a mile in their shoes, but we took a few baby steps and it was enough for us to sit back with greater admiration and appreciation for these individuals,” explained Prashant Vallury, bassist for Chicago-based Animate Objects.

For Animate Objects, a seven-member crew of culturally and musically diverse artists, trekking across the world to bring a little taste of home to our troops stationed throughout the Caribbean was an international excursion that would prove to be like no other they’d experienced.

On October 4, Animate Objects embarked on a 14-day tour that would take them to Cuba and Honduras. As a band of diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, all the members: Emcees CZAR Absolut and Wondur; DJ Mabbo (turntablist), Prashant Vallury (bassist) Brian Derstine (drummer) and Artur Wnorowski (keyboardist) with the exception of Steve Dobias (guitarist) had at some point journeyed abroad to either study or to visit family and friends, but traveling overseas as a group of seven performers was a whole new experience.

Arriving first at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, the band was awed by the historical magnitude of where they were, the countryside and the people. After Gitmo, the band traveled to Honduras for the second leg of the tour. “Honduras was eye-opening. We’d be looking over these beautiful vistas and see beyond to the shanty towns—to be in such a beautiful place and witness extreme poverty—it made us remember just how fortunate we are to live in America,” tells Vallury.

Animate Objects, a hip-hop group that uses live instrumentation to produce a unique jazz and soul infused sound, was scheduled to play five shows on the base but was rained out of two performances. Not letting the rain put a damper on their time in Cuba, the guys attempted to truly experience their surroundings. “We tried to do things that we can’t normally do in Chicago,” said Vallury. “We went fishing and gave snorkeling a try.”

As exciting as it was to the group to be visiting these impressive locales, it was interacting with the troops that had the greatest impact on Animate Objects. “It’s akin to playing a concert for a celebrity audience—you hear about these brave individuals on the news every day, but to actually sit down with them, speak to them, and have them watch and appreciate you... it truly validates every sacrifice each individual in this band has had to make to get to this point,” said Vallury. “Nearly everyone we met was eager to open up and share their stories with us. That’s fodder for albums upon albums of material and we didn’t have to do anything but just be in their presence—you feel their longing for home yet at the same time you also get a little taste of the courage required to make the life choices these individuals have made. It was definitely inspirational.”

Last year, while attending the SXSW Music Conference in Austin, Texas, Armed Forces Entertainment circuit and regional manager for the Pacific circuit, Frank Tagatac, and regional coordinator for the European circuit, George DeGrella, approached Vallury in the hopes to recruit Animate Objects.

“They just said, ‘Hey, how’d you like to travel the world and we’ll pay for your trip?’” recounts Vallury. “You’d have to be crazy to turn down an opportunity to see the world while doing what you love to do, and do everyday, for the most appreciative people that you might ever play for. So we signed up.”

Similar to most Armed Forces Entertainment performing artists, Animate Objects described the tour as a life-affirming and extremely gratifying experience. “Our last show in Honduras was the most memorable. After our last set, the band and the crowd were so into the music we just kept jamming — performing a 25-minute improvised set. When we got on the bus to leave, the base site coordinator ran up and asked us if we’d like to come back,” says Vallury. “I can’t even explain how good that felt.”