tamarisk
May 19th, 2004, 12:20 AM
http://www.soundgenerator.com/village/features.cfm?articleid=3620
In a rare online interview, we spoke to rising dancehall/soca star Kevin Lyttle about his burgeoning global status, tropical battle raps and the after shock of his debut single 'Turn Me On'.
We caught up with Kevin relaxing at Kensington Royal Garden Hotel prior to his Top Of The Pops (Live) performance; he looks relaxed and focused, until I reveal to him he's staying in the same hotel once often frequented by childhood hero Michael Jackson:
Oh man...REALLY? Here? Well y'know - progress!
How'd you like it over here?
I like London, it's such a vibey place. London is a lot like a major city but its still very spread out and not too clustered like in America.
So you're still living in St. Vincent?
Yeah, I still live in St. Vincent, but I'm basically based in Miami most of the time because I have to travel to this part of the world.
Has it been a long road, from your early beginnings?
It's definitely been a long journey, but its been a journey of progression, I've learnt a lot, gone to different places in the world, experienced so many things in life. Because where I'm coming from its not in the international market - its underground.
To come from underground and hit the surface you have to go through a lot of things. Where the music industry is concerned, I've come from 0% to 100%, I've seen it all the way through.
You started in music at a young age.
I started when I was about 14, for the first time on stage. That was my first performance, it was at a Tea Party, where my group, Young Turks, at the time they were having a Tea Party and they asked who could sing in the group. I opted, they heard my voice and they were impressed and ever since then that's all I've been doing,
I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm not fully up to speed with the variances between Dancehall and Soca, can you give me a brief crash course?
Well... Dancehall is more from the reggae - dancehall is music that has come out of the reggae music of Bob Marley and all of that - its very hardcore and raw. It's full of a lot of beats, a lot of rhythms and chanting and not so much based on songs. They chant about different things that go on in the community, and what the government if doing to them and so on. It's defiantly a ghetto music.
The Soca music now comes more from calypso, which was music from Trinidad. They go and talk about all the things that are happening and make up songs about them and then have a calypso competition. Calypso has a lot music in it, all the harmonies and keyboard and strings and, everything is in calypso music. But what has happened; the tempo in calypso was more for you to listen to. It has a general tempo that is ex-tempo, which was a tempo that was consistently used in shows for them to have a competition amongst each other, where the tempo was done to a particular melody. The melody was kind of like (Kevin hums a rhythmic melody to me) - and they would repeat that melody over and change the lyrics every time. So it would be kind of like a lyrical competition using this melody all the time, and the champion would be whoever outstayed the other.
Like a loved-up version of the battle rap?
Yeah, a serious competition - a battle.
The Soca was developed by adding soul music to calypso, developed by the younger generation, like the way the dancehall came out of the reggae. It was to party and to have fun, and jump around the streets during carnival in your costume!
So your new album, 'Turn Me On'. Does it come as much from the Soca scene you've described as from you?
Well it comes a lot from me and my personality, and Soca music has always been a happy music. So yeah, it comes a lot from the attitude of the music.
Up to now people will obviously associate you with 'Turn Me On'. With such as huge hit, do you feel a lot of pressure, personally, or commercially, to repeat that?
Well yeah, because 'Turn Me On' is a huge song. It's a song that I've grown with from the beginning, it's not a song I'm gonna get rid of anytime soon - I'm always gonna be hearing about it, everybody wants to hear about the next 'Turn Me On', ha-ha.
Y'know, I'm working on it. My album is finished, but I've got a lot of new material to come, I'm writing a lot all the time - you've gotta look out for some more surprises from Kevin Lyttle! I'm just trying to be consistent, putting out hits, I really don't want to be no one-hit-wonder, cause I just love music so much. I'm not here for fame or any of that, I just love doing music.
What was the year like for you leading up to it's release, did you know deep down the impact the track would have on your career?
Yeah! 'Turn Me On' is just a blessing from God. I believe he's given it to me to give myself a break, so it's up to me now and I really intend to use it as a tool to take me forward in life.
Where were you in your musical career when Sean Paul made his breakthrough on such a global basis? It must have been a revelation for the whole scene?
His thing didn't do much for me. The dancehall scene maybe benefited but, where I'm concerned I really had to work and perform in all the clubs that would call me.
I've performed in so many places you wouldn't believe it - all the Caribbean venues in these parts of the world. I worked to become a major star in Canada before I even had a record deal. I just came back from Romania, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark - that part of the world is more the fact that the music is not exposed to them. When they get to hear it they seem to latch on to it. The European audiences are not as hard to reach as in England or America, where there are a lot of other things to go through to get your songs played on the radio. Those other countries, anything they hear and they like, they just play it.
Do you think dancehall and reggae will one day climb to heights hip-hop has reached?
Well, you know its already been happening. My form of music is actually called reggae-soca, a mix of dancehall and soca. But what I've basically done is to put more mixtures into it, so it wasn't just ragga and soca - I kept the foundation of soca in it so you would hear the tempo and the speed. So you would hear soca, you would hear tones of dancehall and you'd also hear pop and the R&B vibe in my singing. I try to make it as multi-cultural as possible.
You seem very down to earth, you obviously don't feel the need to adopt any sort of gangster image and lifestyle which seems to be so MTV friendly these days?
Yeah man, I'm not following up on the gangster life, I'm just basically a poor ute who's been successful. I'm from the ghetto and from all of that kind of background and way of life too but you don't really necessarily have to portray that kind of image. I just try to be myself, keep it real, and keep the music as real as possible too, because that's what makes music special, when people can really relate to what you're saying.
And your forthcoming album - was it recorded in St. Vincent the same way as 'Turn Me On'?
The album was recorded in Miami. The single was recorded in St. Vincent, yeah - that was the only thing that was recorded there, ha-ha. 'Last Drop', my new single, was done in New York originally, and we remastered and re-did it in Miami.
A lot of the other tracks were recorded to Miami. We didn't have a lot of time to move around. We had about two and a half months to finish the album so I had to really hustle and get it done. Sometimes I was doing 24 hours in the studio, y'know.
And what was the recording schedule like, you were involved in the production as well?
Yeah, I did everything really. It was crazy, a lot of work. Better than sitting around though!
Kevin's second single 'Last Drop' is out this week (May 17th) in Europe, followed by debut album 'Turn Me On' on May 24th. Check back later this week on soundgenerator to see the video for 'Last Drop' in full.
In a rare online interview, we spoke to rising dancehall/soca star Kevin Lyttle about his burgeoning global status, tropical battle raps and the after shock of his debut single 'Turn Me On'.
We caught up with Kevin relaxing at Kensington Royal Garden Hotel prior to his Top Of The Pops (Live) performance; he looks relaxed and focused, until I reveal to him he's staying in the same hotel once often frequented by childhood hero Michael Jackson:
Oh man...REALLY? Here? Well y'know - progress!
How'd you like it over here?
I like London, it's such a vibey place. London is a lot like a major city but its still very spread out and not too clustered like in America.
So you're still living in St. Vincent?
Yeah, I still live in St. Vincent, but I'm basically based in Miami most of the time because I have to travel to this part of the world.
Has it been a long road, from your early beginnings?
It's definitely been a long journey, but its been a journey of progression, I've learnt a lot, gone to different places in the world, experienced so many things in life. Because where I'm coming from its not in the international market - its underground.
To come from underground and hit the surface you have to go through a lot of things. Where the music industry is concerned, I've come from 0% to 100%, I've seen it all the way through.
You started in music at a young age.
I started when I was about 14, for the first time on stage. That was my first performance, it was at a Tea Party, where my group, Young Turks, at the time they were having a Tea Party and they asked who could sing in the group. I opted, they heard my voice and they were impressed and ever since then that's all I've been doing,
I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm not fully up to speed with the variances between Dancehall and Soca, can you give me a brief crash course?
Well... Dancehall is more from the reggae - dancehall is music that has come out of the reggae music of Bob Marley and all of that - its very hardcore and raw. It's full of a lot of beats, a lot of rhythms and chanting and not so much based on songs. They chant about different things that go on in the community, and what the government if doing to them and so on. It's defiantly a ghetto music.
The Soca music now comes more from calypso, which was music from Trinidad. They go and talk about all the things that are happening and make up songs about them and then have a calypso competition. Calypso has a lot music in it, all the harmonies and keyboard and strings and, everything is in calypso music. But what has happened; the tempo in calypso was more for you to listen to. It has a general tempo that is ex-tempo, which was a tempo that was consistently used in shows for them to have a competition amongst each other, where the tempo was done to a particular melody. The melody was kind of like (Kevin hums a rhythmic melody to me) - and they would repeat that melody over and change the lyrics every time. So it would be kind of like a lyrical competition using this melody all the time, and the champion would be whoever outstayed the other.
Like a loved-up version of the battle rap?
Yeah, a serious competition - a battle.
The Soca was developed by adding soul music to calypso, developed by the younger generation, like the way the dancehall came out of the reggae. It was to party and to have fun, and jump around the streets during carnival in your costume!
So your new album, 'Turn Me On'. Does it come as much from the Soca scene you've described as from you?
Well it comes a lot from me and my personality, and Soca music has always been a happy music. So yeah, it comes a lot from the attitude of the music.
Up to now people will obviously associate you with 'Turn Me On'. With such as huge hit, do you feel a lot of pressure, personally, or commercially, to repeat that?
Well yeah, because 'Turn Me On' is a huge song. It's a song that I've grown with from the beginning, it's not a song I'm gonna get rid of anytime soon - I'm always gonna be hearing about it, everybody wants to hear about the next 'Turn Me On', ha-ha.
Y'know, I'm working on it. My album is finished, but I've got a lot of new material to come, I'm writing a lot all the time - you've gotta look out for some more surprises from Kevin Lyttle! I'm just trying to be consistent, putting out hits, I really don't want to be no one-hit-wonder, cause I just love music so much. I'm not here for fame or any of that, I just love doing music.
What was the year like for you leading up to it's release, did you know deep down the impact the track would have on your career?
Yeah! 'Turn Me On' is just a blessing from God. I believe he's given it to me to give myself a break, so it's up to me now and I really intend to use it as a tool to take me forward in life.
Where were you in your musical career when Sean Paul made his breakthrough on such a global basis? It must have been a revelation for the whole scene?
His thing didn't do much for me. The dancehall scene maybe benefited but, where I'm concerned I really had to work and perform in all the clubs that would call me.
I've performed in so many places you wouldn't believe it - all the Caribbean venues in these parts of the world. I worked to become a major star in Canada before I even had a record deal. I just came back from Romania, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark - that part of the world is more the fact that the music is not exposed to them. When they get to hear it they seem to latch on to it. The European audiences are not as hard to reach as in England or America, where there are a lot of other things to go through to get your songs played on the radio. Those other countries, anything they hear and they like, they just play it.
Do you think dancehall and reggae will one day climb to heights hip-hop has reached?
Well, you know its already been happening. My form of music is actually called reggae-soca, a mix of dancehall and soca. But what I've basically done is to put more mixtures into it, so it wasn't just ragga and soca - I kept the foundation of soca in it so you would hear the tempo and the speed. So you would hear soca, you would hear tones of dancehall and you'd also hear pop and the R&B vibe in my singing. I try to make it as multi-cultural as possible.
You seem very down to earth, you obviously don't feel the need to adopt any sort of gangster image and lifestyle which seems to be so MTV friendly these days?
Yeah man, I'm not following up on the gangster life, I'm just basically a poor ute who's been successful. I'm from the ghetto and from all of that kind of background and way of life too but you don't really necessarily have to portray that kind of image. I just try to be myself, keep it real, and keep the music as real as possible too, because that's what makes music special, when people can really relate to what you're saying.
And your forthcoming album - was it recorded in St. Vincent the same way as 'Turn Me On'?
The album was recorded in Miami. The single was recorded in St. Vincent, yeah - that was the only thing that was recorded there, ha-ha. 'Last Drop', my new single, was done in New York originally, and we remastered and re-did it in Miami.
A lot of the other tracks were recorded to Miami. We didn't have a lot of time to move around. We had about two and a half months to finish the album so I had to really hustle and get it done. Sometimes I was doing 24 hours in the studio, y'know.
And what was the recording schedule like, you were involved in the production as well?
Yeah, I did everything really. It was crazy, a lot of work. Better than sitting around though!
Kevin's second single 'Last Drop' is out this week (May 17th) in Europe, followed by debut album 'Turn Me On' on May 24th. Check back later this week on soundgenerator to see the video for 'Last Drop' in full.