Peter Hunnigale: "Even though reggae will forever be my heartbeat, I love music whatever the genre, from country to r&b and pop!"

Peter, there's one name that keeps popping up throughout your career and that's Fitzroy Blake. Peter Hunnigale: "A lot of the people from the south London reggae scene in fact grew up together. Fitzroy, who we nicknamed 'The Wizzard', and Commander B are brothers. Tippa and Commander knew each other and I was close with Fitzroy, so you see how you had this whole posse growing up together and supporting one another. Fitzroy is a trained engineer, so he always used to take care of the technical side of things. He's one year older than me, so left school earlier and got a job working at De Wolfe Studio. In his spare time he continued to hang out with us though and things kind of grew from there. Eventually Fitz started his own label called Street Vibes Records and these days I really consider him my right-hand man. He's a brilliant guy and we're still collaborating to this day."

What was your philosophy behind starting your own label? Peter Hunnigale: "Well, independence really. Basically, we had a hard time getting signed. Even though the lovers rock genre was booming in the mid-eighties, it was still pretty difficult to get signed as a lovers rock artist. Notable exceptions from that era were Janet Kay, who scored a big international hit with 'Silly Games' and subsequently was offered a record deal by Sony, and Maxi Priest, who got offered a contract by Virgin Records. For the rest of us the only remaining solution was to start our own label(s). The whole manufacturing process took some getting used to, but in the end we were quite successful and put out around 35 releases in our catalogue."

Was that difficulty you experienced as a lovers rock artist also the reason for you doing the much more roots-influenced 'Mr. Government' album for Ariwa? Peter Hunnigale: "Mad Professor had made a name for himself both in roots, dub and lovers rock and it was really he who suggested I try doing a roots album. 'Mr. Government' was largely a Mad Professor production."

You already told you and Tippa go way back and one of the things you share is a love for football, both of you supporting the same team. Peter Hunnigale: "Yeah man, Arsenal! At one point we were even approached to do a song for them. That's a whole story, actually! In 1993 Tippa was asked to do a song for Arsenal as they were playing the final against Manchester United in the Coca-Cola Cup. Tippa approached me to assist him on the track. Now when we put it out we managed to have it played on a local radio station, but for some reason it was picked up by BBC Radio 1, who already had a deal with some other artists to do a similar support tune for Arsenal. Needless to say, they weren't too amused when they heard our tune, but nonetheless, a few days later we got a call from London Records and the rest is history. 'Shouting For The Gunners' eventually even landed on number 34 in the British charts."

How football-crazy are you guys really? Peter Hunnigale: "Tippa is definitely football crazy and tries to attend all matches and all that, but I content myself with the results. My life is far too busy to immerse myself further in the game. We're both faithful Arsenal fans though, going back all the way to the Ian Wright days (Ian Edward Wright, born 3 November 1963, is a former English professional footballer turned television and radio personality, who enjoyed success with London clubs Crystal Palace, 1985 - 1991, and Arsenal, 1991 - 1998, spending six years with the former and seven years with the latter, red.)."

I know you also had a stint as a teacher at one point.  Peter Hunnigale: "I volunteered for a year as a teacher for vulnerable youths and young adults, yes. The purpose of the program was to teach them alternative learning skills, away from the formality of the school system. Apart from that I also did some volunteering at Evelyn Grace Academy in Brixton, working with the local kids."

Are you still organizing the monthly Reggae In Da City Night parties? Peter Hunnigale: "We sadly stopped organizing those, but it was a very successful project actually. Reggae In Da City was the brainchild of bass player Don Chandler. I became involved when he invited me to host the nights and eventually we even put together a whole band called True Vibes. Night In The City ran for about two years and by the end was quite successful, but it was actually its success that kind of killed it, as it started growing above our heads."

Apparently you're not impartial to a bit of country music?  Peter Hunnigale: "Well, even though reggae will forever be my heartbeat, I love music whatever the genre, from country to r&b and pop. I've always loved string arrangements and the same goes for a decent horn section. What drew me to country music were the harmonies you can hear in those songs."

People will undoubtedly label you a lovers rock artist, but is that also a label you're comfortable with yourself? Peter Hunnigale: "The reason I've never made a fuss about it, is the simple fact that I feel it's almost inevitable to be pigeonholed in this industry. And admittedly there are times when it's perhaps even better or easier to be put in a certain category. My voice just lends itself perfectly to this kind of music and seeing it's kind of a UK thing, I think it was kind of inevitable I ended up with that label."