Reggae
singer Paul St. Hilaire (formerly ‘Tikiman’) talked
to Norman Darwen at the launch party for the Congos’ ‘Fisherman
Style’ CD (Blood & Fire BAFCD 050) in Manchester, England.
Paul
was working with Rhythm & Sound/ Basic Channel sound
system.
ND: Where and
when were you born and how did you get started in music?
PS: When I
was born? 1967 in Grand Bay, Dominica, 2nd May. My brother had
a
band named Black Machine, and then there was another popular
band, Midnight Groovers, back in my village, and I was just mad
over music. Yeah, me play a variety of instruments.
ND: Your brother
is Ras Perez?
PS: Ras Perez,
yeah, man. Blessed.
ND:
How did you get started – what
was your first band?
PS: Well, from
little boy, me always try to make band with my little partner
friend there.
Then I moved to Guadeloupe, the next island
and there we start a band named Eradication Squad with my brethren
Ras Donovan, playing reggae. My brother and them used to play other,
what we play in Dominica more, Cadence, but by the time I got into
the music and grow up, it was more reggae, yeah. So I started playing
reggae with my band in Guadeloupe, then we moved back to Dominica.
While I was in Guadeloupe I was also playing in Ras Perez’s
band, very young, maybe 17. I sometimes play bass for him in him
band, but after I move back to Dominica, we make a band Eradication
Squad, and I was guitarist, yeah, man.
ND: Who were
your influences?
PS: Many, many.
I used to be mad over guitar so you can imagine – Hendrix,
and then I listened to all the nice singers. When I grew up was
a lot of Ray Charles, but I like Bob Marley, Dennis Brown, and
Ijahman Levi, these guys are singers. I really used to like Ijahman
Levi’s songs, yeah.
ND:
So you moved back to Dominica…
PS: Yes, from
Guadeloupe, 1985. ’83 I left and went back ’85.
ND: When did
you first start recording?
PS: Oh, we
make a first record in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, but it
never
came out. We just spend the money and it was just to have
a master tape. Then I make another record in Martinique with a
record company, Hibiscus Records, and that was around the same
time I move to Germany.
ND:
How did you end up in Berlin – it seems a strange choice…
PS: Yeah, but
I had a friend staying there who invited me to be his guitarist
in his band
in Hanover. Two or three months I stayed
because I couldn’t do enough there, Ras Donovan, he was living
in Berlin so I decided to go there and check him out and check
some things, and man get connected.
ND:
You’ve
done quite a lot of recording in Berlin…
PS: Yes, yes.
ND: Not just
straight reggae things either. What about Moderat?
PS: Moderat,
yes. It’s different. Well, the guys dem know me
because we were already connected, and he always want that we make
a t’ing. Now we going on the second tune. We got two tune.
ND:
It’s
very experimental type of stuff…
PS: Yeah, yeah,
yeah, them are musicians and like I say I really like to do things,
from
it’s noises that get together to be a
music.
ND: And The
Bug?
PS: As well,
I worked with The Bug a little while. He connected me and said
we should a do something, but then he sent me the DAT
tape. Then I voice it.
ND:
And Rhythm & Sound?
PS: Rhythm & Sound
is a very special thing, because Jah bless we and put we together.
Almighty God, that’s him control
this potential and I am very thankful for that.
ND: Your own
label is called False Tuned?
PS: It all
came out of my connection with Rhythm & Sound, where
things got on so easy it was also possible to have a sub-label
from Basic Channel. So I have this and I must praise God for this.
It is a way to put out weh me think is music, or sometimes where
I can get it to a nice listening condition, yeah.
ND:
You have done ‘Carthage’ on
the ‘Fisherman Style’ CD.
What is the thinking behind that?
PS: Yeah. Is
just I want to make a statement for Black people in a way that… every
time you hear “Africa this, Africa
that”, “Africa cannot do this”, “Famine
a come”, “Rain nah fall” and in a sense of human
development, we are somehow kept out of it. It’s like we
don’t have nothing, so I only trying to say that it’s
not so. The whole thing, dem say that the Black race just like
a race that give the whole world problem of humanitarian crisis
and famine and t’ing, so it’s just, let’s massage
the human brain all together, all of us.
ND: Did you
ever run into Nasio Fontaine in Dominica?
PS: We had
a gig together in Grand Bay, but I’m not… Nasio
left Grand Bay before he was really into the ‘ting, and he
went to Saint Martin and stayed there. That’s where he maybe
g to Jamaica and get some things and come back, so he was maybe
more Saint Martin and by then I was gone. But we make a show together
in Grand Bay one time I returned. He‘s very good, because
I also produce another CD for my friend named Savage, a singer,
and Nasio was very interested, so we was thinking maybe we should
meet to produce, yeah.
ND: So is there
a big reggae scene in Berlin?
PS: Well, it’s
there somehow but I think it more buried, you know around electronic,
but there’s some very good band weh
became very popular, German artists, Gentleman and dem man, so
it make the reggae popular a little in Germany, because they keep
on with it, and I really appreciate this.
ND:
Last question – where
do you see yourself going in the future, what things do you have
in the pipeline?
PS: Yeah, my
intention is that my daughters – I have three daughters – that
I can take care for them if they need something in life, if they
need education, that me can take care of them. The main thing is
that I can establish somewhere I can rest my head home in Dominica,
and this place will be the place where we going to make somewhere
to do something with all the artists that is in the village or
in the island in general. God give man something, I think this
is the thing, if I would be into that, He would be very happy,
the Almighty, so that is what I wish for – in between my
mother, my father, my daughters, my family, everybody, but the
main focus is to have a place where we can record the artists and
maybe get it back to Basic Channel or somewhere where we can have
a thing going. Dominica have a lot of music from Day One, but it
don’t have an outlet for positive. So that’s the real
intention, because now I have a studio in Berlin and I just trying
to work a little more, then I am able to give it to Dominica. Blessing,
a pleasure. Rastafari!
Check out www.false-tuned.de
- Norman
Darwen
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