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Tony Curtis: "Music has always been a part of my life."

Op vrijdag 19 maart staat hij in Geel in Den Bogaard en op dinsdag 23 maart in Gent in Decadance. De eerste keer in België volgens sommigen. Wij zagen hem aankomen op de luchthaven en voordat hij doortrok voor de rest van z'n Europese tournee spraken we nog even met hem!

Welcome to cold Belgium!
 
Yes, cold place… Bob Marley say you have to be coming in to the cold, to spread the message, so I’m there!  I’ve been to Europe before so I already know what it is.  You get used to the cold…
 
Belgium… Antwerp… I like the place.  I’ve stayed here before but was not fortunate to have a performance.  I was to be with Jigsy King and Luciano in Antwerp, but that failed thru I had a double booking and had to play in Japan.  Now I’m here to fullfill that date that didn’t go thru.  I’m really looking forward to perform in Belgium.
 
How did you get involved in the music?
 
Well music has always been a part of my life.  My father used to be a musician and play with a band called the Soul Defenders.  So I used to go with him and watch them rehearse.  Any time they take a break, I’d go and pick up the sticks and bang on the drum, go and finger on the piano…
 
But how I really get started was in 1991.  Me and my friend Jigsy King went to Ochos Rios.  That was a premiere city, we were curious to go and see.  We were already singing by then but were not recording.  We wanted to go and have fun and look for girls, you know… We wanted to see different places that were different from the place we came from….
 
I never knew I went there and I was going to meet my dream.

So there was a Talents Contest in the club we went to that night.  So they were saying “ Who want to enter?  Anyone win this contest will get a recording contract.”  So I was damn ready directly, we went to put down our names and went on stage and rip off the place.  So the promoter said “ Put down your name and number here, don’t go witout leaving your number, I need to have you guys recording !!”  And the next day we were in the studio!
 
Have you always been close to Jigsy King?
 
Me and Jigsy we’re like brothers.  Not biologically but by God we are brothers.  We grew up together, he was a friend and neighbour since we were kids.  We used to do music together.  He would sing and I would deejay then he would deejay and I would sing.  He loves music and I love music so we were very close.
 
In the next years you recorded several tunes together?
 
We did many combinations, like “Real Thing”, “My sound A Murder”, one on the Jamdown riddim (“I’m Sorry”), and another one (start singing) “…there ain’t nothing like the real thing…. “ But the first one was “Butterfly”, it was our first hit together back in 1993.  That tune took me all over the world.
 
When did you release your first album?
 
It was then in 1994 (Designing Woman) with Courtney Cole of Roof International.  Big up to him because the one who started everything for me.  Give thanks Roof for that!
 
A few years later you had a massive hit with a conscious tunes : “My God Is Real”…
 
Yes, it was my first UK number one sound.  It was a big craze in UK and it wasn’t the big one in Jamaica.  When I went there and realized how people were reacting on this song I was so shocked: I see the people reacting madly, the bar tender was standing on his bar and waving the rag, people shouting “Pull it up, Pull it up !!!”
 
So that’s when I opened my mind in music: rain doesn’t fall on only one man house top.  So there’s not only one place in the world!
 
You went regularly to UK then and recorded several times there.
 
Yes I did, a lot.  I also went nuff to US.   And Japan also.
 
How’s the vibe in Japan?
 
Oh gosh!  “High grade is going thru my head” is one of the biggest songs in Japan.  Tony Curtis is one of the biggest names in Japan.  And they love my project with the singing group LUST.
 
Tell us a bit about this concept…  Who had the idea to put it together? (LUST is a four man singing group composed of Luckie D, Thriller U, Singing Melody and  Tony Curtis)
 
Well we used to hang out at the studio.  Singers just working on their songs.  But when you do your song, still you’ll like to stay around to catch the vibe of the other singers who are there.  Sometimes a man sing something and you will harmonize something on it.  We all have something in common so it was a vibe.  LUST wasn’t put together it just fall together, found its place.  
 
It does automatically fall together.  Until a day we said why not just try a song together, why not try a group.
 
We were looking out for a name and it’s Thriller U who had the idea to put the letters together and then we played with the letters and we found LUST.
 
Is LUST more of a performing group or recording group?
 
We perform a lot together but we also do recordings.  We have two albums.  Then we have a deal in Japan to record a new album.  We’re putting the album together now and we’re supposed to go there in November for a tour.
 
When we’re on stage we can sing each of us songs but we’re also singing original LUST songs.
 
As an artist you chose to sing in a very wide range of styles: lovers, conscious, dancehall…
As a singer, I have the ability to fit in all of those riddims.  I started in the dancehall and I consider myself still as a dancehall roots singer, you know.
But I’m growing more into a roots artist because while you grow, you’re supposed to be more experienced.  So your music eventually can’t stay the same.  It has to get more solid, more positive and more rootsy.
I still sing love songs but still with some depth in it.  When I was younger, I’d just sing about a dance, with no depth in it.  Like I sing about the butterfly dance or the wave your hands dance.  But that’s just a dance.  I come and it pass.  
If you want a song that last, you do something for the soul.  You do something that the people can relate to, and twenty years from now it will still have substance.
A song like that ….(“The First Cut Is The Deepest” by Norma Fraser playing in the room)…, has some substance so it last much longer.
 
Do you have some album projects now?
 
I have two albums but they are not released yet.  Actually, I’m working more on singles now.  Because LUST is coming out with an album and we’re doing a lot of work on it.  So I want to let LUST album drop and then I’ll come with my own.
 
Some singles are out there: “Golden Eye” on the Classic riddim by No Doubt Records.  And the other one is “Jamaica” on the Ghetto Riddim by Kemar Flava Mc Gregor.   This one gets lot of airplay from Lise Kelly on Irie FM these days.
 
One of your latest singles is a cover version of Dennis Brown, How Could I Live…
 
Dennis Brown was always one of my mentors and favourite singers.  I never get to meet him in life, but I always love to see his performances.  Dennis Brown is an icon and you could play any Dennis Brown and I could sing along.  I know his songs.  
 
I love to sing love songs.  This particular track is very strong.  Anytime I sing it, people just beat down the place and go crazy.  And Dennis Brown riddims can’t die!
I did other of his songs before: I always put a Dennis Brown song in my albums.  I sing this artist music a long time, same thing with Bob Marley.  
 
Thru your travelling have you reached Africa?
 
I have wanted to go to Africa for a good while.  It never manifests inna proper way yet.  But it’s every Jamaican dream to go to Africa, to reach the Motherland.  
 
How did the people of Jamaica feel about the earthquake in Haiti?
 
Haiti is very close to Jamaica and there’s a lot of Haitians who come over to Jamaica any time there’s something wrong there.  We see them as our brothers.  Because the mirror doesn‘t lie and when you look at them, you see yourself.  In JA we always give our support.  Anything we can do, we try to do.  
 

Published on 13/03/2010 by Irie Nation