What inspired you to reimagine Whitesnake’s “Is This Love” with a Caribbean twist?
From 1987 the first time I heard Whitesnake I think it was Still of the Night & Here I Go Again. I really got into that band & I’ve got the album from a guest at the hotelI was working at back in 1987 & they gave me a cassette tape cause I was telling them about this group called Whitesnake I heard on American Top 40 Countdown & they had this song called “Here I Go Again” & “Still of The Night” which unlike anything i’ve heard before in a long time. They went to their hotel room & brought the cassette for Whitesnake & gave it to me & I started listening to that album every day going forward…The next thing I know “Is This Love” became a number one song in the country and I was just so obsessed with Whitesnake & started following them straight up until this day & I always imagined “Is This Love” being done in a Reggae Dancehall vibe with the Drums Bass & Guitars & Synths up front..
How did working with Cen’C Love shape the overall sound of this version?
Upon Meeting Cen’c Love, You Know I Wasn’t Really Sure What I Was Gonna Do With That Section For The Guitar Solo In The Song.. I Was Openminded About It. I Wasn’t Sure What I Wanted To Do. I Had An Idea Of Having A Rapper On It, But I Didn’t Think It Was Gonna Be Necessarily A Female Or Male Really, I Didn’t Have Any Idea Who It Was Gonna Be But When I Met Cen’c Love, There Was Just A Spark About Her & A Few Months Later We Were Communicating & I Sent Her The Track & Said Listen I Got 12 Bars In Here, See If You’re Feeling Anything What You Could Come Up With & She Went In The Studio that I organized For Her To Go In The Studio In New Jersey & She Got The Track & Had It For About A Week Then She Wrote Her Verese & Went In The Studio Two Days Recording Two Different Sessions Not Two Full Days & When She Sent Me What She Did The First Day We’re Kind Of Like Ok ,We Moved Around Some Stuff & Made Some Suggestions To Her, Just Minor Stuff Cause She Had Pretty Much Nailed It & I Was Happy, It Was Just Awesome & Now I Just Can’t Imagine This Song Without Her On It Because It Does Feel So Right You Know, Cen’c Love Is Bad Ass.
Your music blends reggae, rock, & soul. How do you balance honoring the original while making it your own?
Yeah, first of all, if you may not notice that the temple pretty much is the same as the original because I mapped it out but flipping it into my dance style, Jamaican cultural style. I knew I worked on the beach and tried various things, you know, and then, you know, when I got the music and we started overdubbing II, I was very meticulous with how I wanted this song to come out, the drum groove & sounds & the little guitar phrases & riffs & all effects etc., was worked on meticulously. So I’m very happy & you know Josh Gold, my friend who did the mix & master, we worked on that mix back & forth like crazy. He sent me drafts when I was on tour. I’d listen then we made corrections over & over. I just wanted it to punch the right way & I think it’s really one of my favorite productions on the whole MRRJ record because every time I listen, I’m looking for something to critique, which is what I do with me and & I listen to it. There’s just nothing that I would’ve done different when I listen to this song. So yeah, I hope people are feeling the same vibrations and get the same vibe because a lot of work was put into it & getting the groove right & the whole concept just & nailing it, you know!
You’ve been praised for crossing cultural boundaries with GrooveGalore MuziK. What do you hope listeners take away from this release?
Let me just tell you something what I hope people get from this release you’re probably gonna laugh but honestly as a kid growing up in Jamaica, I always wondered what Bob Marley meant when he said one good thing about music when it hits you feeling pain and I think it just means music will just appeal to people no matter what culture no matter what religion and the more I tour and the more I see the cross-section of the the people that we play for all over the world I know that’s what he meant so you know, I hope people will embrace this and realize that wow these rock classic songs that they couldn’t they could’ve been done this way and I just hope they like the vibe you know because I’m traditionally a reggae person obviously, I’m from Jamaica born in Jamaica and bred and Reggae in my DNA but you know over the years going up in Jamaica. We got the solid goals. We got the MTV. We got the VH1 and you and you know you we had a two radio stations playing American & British music so stuff seeps into your system & you get to like new music & start to get these influences other than your own cultural influences. I’ve just been one of those persons that took to Rock & Pop music earlier out from I was a teenager & then when MTV came about in 1983 it made it worse, so I just hope people realize that you can blend stuff & just create a new hybrid and I think and hope that this is what they get from this project, and My Reggae Rocking Journey Vol 1 and My Reggae Rocking Journey Vol 2 that comes out later next year.
The track has such a powerful energy. What was the most exciting part of bringing this vision to life?
Well, the most exciting thing about bringing this song to life reimagining this song was you know the weeks & actually the months it took for me to figure out how I really wanted to do it & when I started to scratch it out in the beginning & just trying to figure out the instrumentation you know, getting to learn the Chords of the original & figuring out if I could even sing it in the original key & starting vocals Production in Montego Bay,Jamaica, which is where I started working on it first then ending up doing the final vocals in San Diego CA with a producer friend of mine up there. It’s the traveling back-and-forth & the flights & the departure lounge in the airports all over the world and just always calculating and playing over how I think this song should sound in the finished product. It’s all an exciting process, getting the instrumentation right down to the very part to when CEN’C LOVE came onboard & me starting the lead and background vocals in Montego Bay & finishing them up in San Diego then also in Detroit & yeah everything finally finished off. I’m happy with the final product so yeah that’s what it is.