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ND: How
did you get started in music?
NJ: I was born in St. Lucia and we had a rum shop and we
had the music playing outside. I loved music. My father used to
pick me up and put me on the counter and I'd be dancing for all
the punters. When I came to England it was a big shock for me leaving
St. Lucia and coming to England as a boy. Musically, I wasn't really
focused on music, I was just wondering how I am going to survive
in this place, and how different it is. So music came out of my
mind a little bit. When I started going to the youth club, fifteen
and sixteen, I'd been downstairs in the youth club maybe a couple
of years before discovering that there was a reggae band upstairs,
and they really needed a singer. So one day somebody had a word
with them and I got recommended. So from there I started out and
my first experience, I was frightened to death, my first gig! I
got through that somehow and then I joined another band, I left
the first band and joined another band which was called Coptic Roots.
We used to do all kinds of gigs, colleges, European tours and all
that, which I really loved. Then I joined Fashion and that's where
people really started to hear about me, I think. I can't complain.
I suppose I'm doing what I always wanted to do.
ND: You've
always mixed Lover's and cultural themes...
NJ:
Well, it's a funny thing, because when I was in Coptic it was
mostly roots, I come from a roots background. When I started with
Fashion, that's when the Lover's really came into it. I kind of
rebelled a little bit but.. Even some of the album, 'Yours To Keep'
was really lover's rock, but the other ones, 'Love Has Got To Take
Its Time', though it's got that title, I think it showed a few of
my roots side, as did the rest of the albums apart from 'Yours To
Keep'. It's a funny thing, I like Lover's rock music, the revival
stuff and t'ing, and I like a good song, but really, when I turn
on my radio, what I turn on my radio for is a good message, something
to uplift me, something to make me know that the things I am thinking
about and feeling about, other people are thinking the same about
and feeling the same about too., and in a musical way. I just need
that much more scope when I am listening, so I try to add that when
I'm singing.
ND: How
do you go about writing songs?
NJ:
Well, I'm just about to leave to go to Jamaica now. Jamaica
really gives me a vibe. Fashion days, I didn't really realise it
until I went down there for the first time, I didn't really discover
how to cultivate the vibe, because the first time I went down to
Jamaica with Fashion Records, I was with Captain Sinbad, and there
was a brother named Ossie from Black Solidarity, and he pulled up
on the veranda and he said, "Nereus, don't you find the vibes
yet?" See, I'm looking for the vibe but I don't put my finger
on it yet. 'Im say, "You're sitting right where the vibes is,
man, it's everywhere" - and he kind of locked my brain on to
it, this vibes. I find the vibe, the ingredient, not just Jamaica,
St. Lucia as well, it's got a vibe. If I can explain it to you -
we make a kind of music in England because of our livity, the way
we live; make a kind of music in Jamaica because of the same thing,
so the ingredients is more of a down to earth kind of ingredients,
being down to earth all the time. England is a very sophisticated
kind of ingredients, more complicated. It's nice to listen to but
the ingredients is more of a textbook. Now the Jamaican ingredient,
it doesn't exactly have to fit, absolutely fit, but it's full of
a vibe and it's carrying the vibe, OK? So I learned that ingredient
and from the time I learn that ingredient my writing went (claps
hands) towards the ceiling, so I make sure I go back for a regular
top-up. I go back and stay for a couple of months, that will last
me for maybe about three or four years. For three, four, five albums,
I will be focused on those kind of ingredients, and that kind of
living in that way of life, because I find that that's the kind
of livity that everybody knows universally - and English vibes is
slightly different from everywhere else you go. So if you want to
deal with the whole world, you have to take the vibe from the rest
of the world, or maybe just include some of the English stuff.
ND: Can
I just ask about a couple of song covers you have done - Bunny Wailer's
'Fig Tree' and Bob Marley's 'Sun Is Shining'?
NJ:
OK. I love 'Fig Tree'. I wanted to do 'Fig Tree' a long time
ago. I wish I could have done 'Fig Tree' at Fashion days but it
didn't quite manifest. Now that I've got my own label - Sirius Records
- but even before that, working with Ruff Cut gave me the opportunity
to have my own label, and because it gave me that opportunity, it
really gave me a good chance to work on things that I really want
to work on. So 'Fig Tree' was right in line within the span of things
I wanted to do in my career. I took the opportunity. There is more
things I want to do, but I suppose nothing can happen before the
time, before the right time come. But I just love 'Fig Tree', I
love that tune. The first sound I heard playing 'Fig Tree' was Shaka
- nice tune, nice tune! 'Sun Is Shining', John at Dub Vendor, he
love that tune, man, and he kind of request, "Oh, I love that
tune, sing that!"
ND: I
was going to ask how much control you have over what you record,
but I guess it's now total...
NJ:
Total - absolute 100% total, which is a good feeling. Control
doesn't just mean what you put out but when you put it out as well.
In this reggae scene, you need a little bit more pace in releasing
than the pop scene for sure. It's unfortunate but to keep on doing
what we want to do - we have to make sure the home's looked after,
make sure the family's looked after - we have to work extra hard.
But it's nice to have the control, it's down to me whether I have
a new album this year or how much singles I have. Next year just
keep moving. Yeah, it's good. I think I have paid my dues.
ND: Finally,
what plans have you got for the future?
NJ:
I have some bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger plans! We have Sirius
Records and we have the studio which is the complete opposite to
Ruff Cutt. We started to use Ruff Cutt studio, we love the sound
so we duplicated that for ourselves, to keep that kind of sound.
Because I come from St. Lucia, I'd really love to have a base in
St. Lucia. I'd love to deal with some of the St. Lucian artists
who is very keen on reggae. I mean, I was born in St. Lucia and
the chances of me, a St. Lucian artist sitting here today, telling
you my achievements, are very slim. So, those guys down there, they
are very talented and they need to see somebody like me doing it
to say, "Well, yeah, if Nereus can do it..." and to give
them that push. So I think it is really my duty to give them that
little injection and to give them what I know. So I'd really love
to have a base down there - which is what I'm going to do, which
is my bigger plan. I will deal with all kinds of music, I will deal
with St. Lucian, Caribbean music, zouk music, reggae music. No problem!
- Norman
Darwen
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