"I think I'm even more passionate now, because before there was a passion that came from narrow-minded ignorance, (and) I wouldn't even realize the impact the songs would have," said the dreadlocked leader of the band, David Hinds, during a phone interview he conducted from a Holiday Inn while in Cleveland last week.

"I didn't really care how the message used to come across. But now, I have emptied all these feelings about the African Holocaust, and now I'm really trying to get into the heart of matter."

Hinds uses the word holocaust to refer to the centuries since slavery was introduced in Africa.

Steel Pulse is in the midst of a 21-city tour that lands at the Waikiki Shell tomorrow night. The tour promotes not only the album, but also Black History Month.

"Its been a few years since we have been out there, which is weird because (Hawai'i) is one of our strongest fan bases," said Hinds, who's bringing the full 6-piece band and two new female vocalists to the shell. "We don't want to shortchange the people, we don't believe in that jack."

His latest work concerns itself with the diaspora of the African people in the wake of slavery and colonization. It also carries an antiwar message with "No More Weapons," activism with "Make Us A Nation" and even a call out to the environment with "Global Warning."

"George Bush and his henchman have made so much fuel for the fire," said Hinds, born in Britain to Jamaican emigrants, who spends much of his time in the United States. "Before 9/11, America was sleeping, they were living in cuckoo-land; you ask them to point to Central America, they point to Kansas City. Now the hatred in the rest of their world is on their doorstep, and now people are willing to listen and start thinking politically."

Hinds' words seem to flow like those of a preacher on Sunday. But it's not that easy, he said. And the toughest part is getting the music out to the public.

"Nothing is more difficult for me than writing a political song, because the words have got to come through first; you don't concentrate on the melody first and making it palatable," Hinds said. He added that "99.9 percent of the music today is 'let's shake our body' or 'how much I love you.' There is nothing there that is showing you the way."

Steel Pulse learned a valuable lesson about how important words can be about 10 years ago during a stop in New Caledonia, a tiny island chain in the South Pacific.

"We were basically being held at ransom to influence the natives to get on the go as far as getting rid of the French from governing them," Hinds said. "So we were there as a political tool, unaware of how potent our songs were."

The lesson helped Hinds craft his songs more precisely to his message. Today, he studies each line for its nuance and impact.

What he has found is the people he is affecting aren't the same fans from 1975.

"Most of the faces I have been staring at over the last year are a lot of youngsters, at least five to 10 years younger than me," Hind said.

"We still have the strong white public, and that's the sad part, not because they are white, but because we'd like to reach the black public as well. But in the end of the day, we just want to get the message out to whomever comes to the show."

Such is the dichotomy of reggae music: black musicians singing about the struggle to overcome the white man in concerts packed with those same white faces.

Hinds attributes the trend to several things, in his experience. He finds that the radio stations that promote their shows (and really all reggae shows) are generally rock stations with white audiences.

Secondly, when Steel Pulse first started getting gigs, it was in a post-Beatles England where a reggae group didn't quite fit in. They began opening up for the other "alternative" musicians in mid-'70s London: punk rockers.

This helped catapult Steel Pulse to stardom — and gave the band a huge, mostly white, fan base. Hinds believes this intimidated the black community, keeping them away from their music.

"There has always been a struggle with black people, the black man is struggling to find himself," Hinds said. "They fought hard to get their own radio stations, so it was hard for them to accept that there is another type of black music."

So Hinds and crew continue on their quest, spreading their message of hope and peace, regardless of skin color.