Sharlan Bailey releases new EP

After years of delays and do-overs, Sharlan Bailey – The Dread Wizard, is ready to release his six-song EP, Planet Dread.

Three of the songs, Repartee, Different Something, and UR Love, were released in the first week of the new year because, he said, they were more suited for the Carnival season. Also on the EP is a remix of his own 2020 song, Shadow Son, Conspiracy, and Around De Corner.

All were written, produced and mixed by him, with a few of the choruses written by Selvon “Mistah Shak” Noel.

“I’ve been trying to do this album for years. Things happened, I got despondent with the work, lack of radio play, things keep changing, so I kept putting it off. Songs came and went.”

But Bailey believed the pandemic did a lot for him and, like any “real” artist, he tried to take the negativity and turn it into something beautiful. He gave the example of his father, Winston “Mighty Shadow” Bailey’s hit song, Poverty is Hell, saying although the lyrics were “very dark,” when people hear it, they smile and sing along.

In this way, he said the pandemic fed him. With the lockdowns, lives and jobs at risk, family lives affected, and the country’s uncertain recovery, there was much to say and write about. It also had him thinking about using his engineering skills. And so he completed and rejected many songs until, by the 2022 Christmas season, he was satisfied with the end result.

He said the three songs he released so far, were tied to the emotions he felt during the pandemic.

Although initially written in 2006, UR Love represented the feelings people were having during the pandemic with the need to keep their loved ones close and safe. While Different Something dealt with the anxiety and need to release their frustrations, Repartee was written spontaneously.

“I think Repartee is what I was seeing musically, with our so-called industry. We are losing something with our music. We’re in a system where it’s no longer a music industry, it’s an entertainment industry. It’s about gimmick and trending, not about musicality.”

He said artists were no longer concerned about being a good singer, writer or musician. The artist would go to someone for a riddim several other artists were using, and get a song written by someone else, who would also be writing for other artists, so the songs do not have “heart” or individuality.

“People like Black Stalin and my old man, they were writing from a place and they were the source of the energy. Each individual had their thumb print on what they were doing. Nobody sounded like the other because everybody was bringing something of themselves.”

He said when he was younger, he did not have an interest in the stage as he would sing backup and write for his other older brother, Shawn Bailey. But when he decided to start performing, he wanted to have that originality.

“I had my brother Shawn doing the calypso thing, and my father was who he was, so when I decided to become an artist, I needed my own voice. Rapso was the thing that pulled me up.

“Growing up, the heavy dance hall culture was around, but I always have this thing with being local. I needed to be true to self so rapso become that voice. But one of my biggest problems is that, because I’m a musician and a songwriter, musically I dabble in a couple different places because I don’t like to lock myself into any genre. You will hear the influences of rapso, calypso, and elements of other genres.”

Bailey told Sunday Newsday although he was not heavily influenced by Shadow’s music, he was influenced by the man himself, as well as his mindset and that of the musicians he grew up around. And they expected him to make music.

“I understand what a calypsonian is. A calypsonian is not a word to describe a man who does sing calypso. A calypsonian is a title. It’s similar to hearing the word ‘ghostwriter’ next to a rapper is an issue. Because you don’t expect a rapper to have a ghostwriter. It’s a title.

“No disrespect to those who don’t compose or who might sing other people’s work because everybody have their talents and gifts. But, if the younger generation see more artistes who could do certain things, then you will raise the bar and they would try to achieve that.”

He said people tend to call calypso “old people music” and soca “the new thing” but soca does not represent the people, or their social or political issues. Disheartened by that attitude, he said Jamaica was to reggae as calypso was to Trinidad, yet Jamaicans never took reggae for granted.

He added that it was unfortunate that Carnival was supported by soca, instead of soca being a genre of music supported by the festival, so that, when the festival was done, the music was also done. He said that was why it was so difficult to take soca beyond Carnival into the mainstream music industry.

“Alright, we have an energetic music based upon ‘wave yuh hand, jump up, wine up.’ But then when we slow it down (groovy soca), it does be about who we want to jump up with, who we want to wine on, and which party you going to do it in.”

He said he never accepted the standard of the local industry so he never “played into” it. As a result, he does not expect his work to be commercially successful and he does not want his work to be compared to that of others who were.

This year, on what would be his 20th anniversary with Kaiso House, Bailey said he would not be performing at the calypso tent. He said the Trinbago Unified Calypso Organisation and the tent had taken “a different turn” after the passing of its president, Lutalo “Brother Resistance” Masimba, in July 2021. He was not comfortable with the changes and so decided not to participate.

However, he was planning to enter the Calypso Monarch competition with a new song.

“Competition is not something I really like but I have something I’ve written that I need to say.”

He will also be performing in some shows, releasing new music, doing some covers of Shadow’s songs, and there is the possibility of him releasing one of his father’s unreleased songs. He also plans to have a concert with himself, his wife and calypsonian Tammico “SpiceY” Moore, and Mistah Shak after Carnival.