- 8 minutes ago
Ziggy Marley sits down with us at his favorite vegan spot, Crossroads Kitchen in LA, for a real conversation about his new album ‘BrightSide.’ He got into the making of the album, why he recorded entirely in 432 hertz, and how a song about his legendary father Bob Marley found its way onto the project. Ziggy opens up about navigating a heavy world while choosing to stay on the bright side, his thoughts on racism, leadership, and why he thinks women should run every country on earth.
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MusicTranscript
00:00Turn the world over to women.
00:02Let women take leadership.
00:03Let women be the leader of every country on earth.
00:06I don't say any other way.
00:08But you're so right.
00:10But the truth is right there.
00:12We have some serious things to talk about still,
00:14but it doesn't matter. We're still living on the bright side.
00:19Ziggy, my friend.
00:21It is so good to see you again.
00:23Thank you. So where have you been brought me to?
00:25Crossroads. Vegan. Vegan food.
00:27Let's eat this. Let's do it.
00:34All right. Well, Ziggy, thanks for bringing me here
00:36because I've heard this is your spot.
00:37So tell me, like, why Crossroads?
00:39What do you love about this place?
00:40When you feel in a vegan mood, like, you know,
00:42you want some real food, good food, live food,
00:45this is where I would come, you know?
00:47This is the only place I know.
00:48How long have you been vegan? Has this been, like, a long time?
00:50No, I'm a vegan part-time.
00:52A part-time?
00:53And when you think about it, when you want to be healthy.
00:57No, I'm healthy all the time.
00:58Okay.
00:58But I'm vegan part-time.
01:00Sometimes, because sometimes you really have to change up
01:03what's going on inside of your body.
01:05And vegan is the most natural way to really do it.
01:09We're really meant to eat vegetarian diet.
01:13So I've got to take that from you now.
01:14I'm going to be like, I'm part-time vegan.
01:16Yeah, you've got to be.
01:17That's a nice way to put it.
01:18You've got to be.
01:18And let's talk about this new music, man, Brightside.
01:21Racism is a killer.
01:24I love that you're putting the album out, obviously, on Record Store Day
01:28and performing and then also then doing the digital release later.
01:31Why was that important to you?
01:32Well, my affinity to, like, how I saw music being made when I was younger, you know?
01:36From my father's days and his generation.
01:39I grew up around that.
01:40I grew up around seeing records being manufactured, vinyl, from the conception to the final product.
01:46That process and the quality and the discipline that is behind it.
01:51So I wanted to kind of approach this record in that way.
01:53I wanted to make it for vinyl.
01:56I wanted to approach it how we used to make vinyl.
01:59It's slightly different than how people approach music today, you know?
02:01It's a much more expensive process.
02:03Today, more cheaper if you don't do all of that stuff that makes it what it's supposed to be.
02:08It's easier and cheaper and faster.
02:10But we do it the slow way.
02:12You know, we take a time when I can cook some food, you know, the slow cooking food.
02:17It tastes better.
02:18It does taste better when you slow cook.
02:19You're right about that, my friend.
02:21And I have to ask you, even before we jump into Brightside,
02:23now you got me thinking about vinyls.
02:25Like, what's the most important vinyl in your collection?
02:28Like, I can imagine you've got a sick collection.
02:30No, listen, the most important vinyl is the first vinyl I bought.
02:34What was that?
02:34Thriller.
02:39Oh, yes.
02:40Thriller, bro.
02:41You have the original Thriller?
02:42Yeah, Thriller, yeah, from when I was a teenager.
02:45Wow.
02:45From when I was a teenager.
02:46So that is etched into me,
02:48because the first time I had my own money,
02:50I went to the record store and bought a record.
02:52And I bought a record player, too, and it was a big day.
02:56That's insane, man.
02:56I'm sure that's like a thousand dollars on eBay or something right now.
02:59You've said about this record, though,
03:01that this is one of the first times that you've explored like a lot of ups and downs emotionally.
03:04Yeah, true, true.
03:05Like, I am being personal on this.
03:06So what was like the catalyst in your life that you felt like,
03:08I really want to be extremely honest on this project?
03:11Well, over time, it happened.
03:13It wasn't like a moment of, oh, yeah, I really want to be honest.
03:16It's just I was writing songs, expressing myself.
03:19You know, I was, you know, within a few years, been through some stuff, you know, family stuff.
03:24And just I was on the set of my father's movie and, you know, understanding some of the deeper things
03:29and also getting some creativity, some sparks of creativity being on a movie set, too.
03:35So it's over time.
03:37But then one day, because I didn't know why I was writing those songs.
03:41I didn't have like a definition for the songs I'd written.
03:43But one day, one day I was really feeling like shit, you know, and I was like, I was like,
03:48why let the world trouble me?
03:49Because the world, the world really, the world is oppressive.
03:53The world, how the state of the world is oppressive.
03:56Very much so.
03:56You understand me?
03:57So, and that is the battle, really.
03:59The battle is how we're free, we're mine from that oppression.
04:03Because that is the real battle is when them get we're so down that we can't find, see a way
04:08out.
04:09That is where them, that is where that battle is being fought.
04:12And I was feeling down, you know, because of what was going on in the world and everything else.
04:16And I was like, why let the world trouble me, man, shit, come on, bro.
04:21Like, take a break, you know, free, you know, you have to, you got to party sometime and just forget
04:26what's going on.
04:27You know, you have to have a good time sometime.
04:29So when I wrote that song, it really actually helped me come out of that funk I was in.
04:35It really, and every time I, when I was writing it, every time I would start like, you know, making
04:39lyrics and going through it, it just lifted me.
04:41And every time I listen it, it lifted me, even now it lifted me.
04:44When I wrote that song, I was like, oh, this album is steering me in that direction of like, it's
04:50my emotional, mental state.
04:52I'm expressing and trying to find a way out of this funk, you know what I mean?
04:56So that song kind of pointed like, oh, this is what it's about.
05:02I mean, I love that you say like, you know, all this going on in the world and you were
05:06able to like go and write that music.
05:08And I'm like, whole time I'm like, I wish I was talented enough to write myself out of this world.
05:13And I mean, when you go and put these tracks together, you're going through this personal emotion.
05:16Like, which song do you feel like on this project kind of encapsulated all of that the most?
05:20Well, let me say this. So that's why you're not writing those songs. I am, right? But I'm sharing them
05:25with you.
05:26So that is what we are. We are family. So that you don't have to write them. You know, you're
05:30doing something else.
05:31You find another, but we all have our purpose in life. We all have a purpose in life.
05:36Just to find it, I know. So this is my purpose. You know, I tell someone, it marks me like,
05:41you know, if I have like, you know, the shadow of my father, I feel competitive or whatever.
05:46And I tell them, I say, well, listen, the ear is not meant to do what the tongue does, but
05:50it's still, everything play a part.
05:52We're not supposed to be doing the same thing, but the heart play a part, the lungs, the ears, the
05:56eyes, the nose.
05:57You know what I say? So just play your part. Do your part and we'll be fine, you know?
06:01But for this album, the song really bright side, the title track, bright side, because I'm proud. I'm happy.
06:08And I'm boastful that I live on the bright side. Like, you can't try and make me feel bad because
06:13I live on the bright side.
06:14Yes. I love that energy though, man. I love it.
06:18You can't try and be like, yo, look, he's living on the bright side.
06:21And I mean, you got to carry that energy with you these days, man. A hundred percent.
06:25True, true.
06:25And I love that you talked about the movie a little bit because that's the last time we chatted.
06:29Yeah. And I want to know, like, since then and after, like, the dust has settled from that experience,
06:33like, what do you feel like you learned the most that you kind of brought into this recording process?
06:37For me, the music, we have a visual. At least for me. It's not just, you know, aura, it's visual
06:44too.
06:44It's feeling, and it's feeling too. You know, being on the movie set, I mean, as a creative person,
06:49there wasn't any specific, like, oh yeah, that, that, that. But I think the whole experience, it just, it feeds
06:55my consciousness
06:56and gives me ideas and it gives me new ways to feel things and to understand things.
07:00Cause it's the art, same way. And, and it's my first experience of it. So overall, it just give me
07:05a different perspective.
07:06And I went into this album using all of that experience for, for, for making the music.
07:12And it, it happens very naturally too. Cause you don't feel like, think about it too much, you know?
07:16Do you find that it's more fun or different to think about visuals in that kind of part of your
07:22life than the music part?
07:23You know, I feel like it does fulfill the, the whole emotional journey.
07:28And what the music supposed to feel like and what you're, what you're saying in the song, you know?
07:31You can feel when I sing these songs, it's emotional, you know? It have, I still feel emotion singing them.
07:36This is one of the only album of mine that I play and listen to, not as the person that
07:42made it.
07:43Ah, you can feel it as the listener.
07:45Yeah, yeah, it's the message here.
07:46All this is dope.
07:47So man, let me like it.
07:49I kind of like, this is a good artist right here. I need to go check out one of his
07:53shows.
07:54It looks like we got some food that just got here as well though.
07:57Hey.
07:58Oh man.
08:01So you got to tell me a little bit about what did you order here?
08:04Well, my days I like a bowl, you know, with some tofu and cauliflower and some rice and some raw
08:10vegetables, you know?
08:11Some beans and brown rice.
08:13Yeah, but this is a part-time vegan meal.
08:15This is my regular meal though.
08:16Okay, this is, you would do this anyway.
08:17Yeah, this is my regular thing.
08:18Okay.
08:18Because we eat vegetables and things like this, you know, every time.
08:22Yeah.
08:23A regular meal.
08:24Well, definitely dig in, take your time.
08:26I have heard great things about these impossible, like cigars.
08:29I'm excited to try the food.
08:31But as we normally get the food, I like to say the next part of the conversation is,
08:34we'll go back to the music, but we'll have a little discourse over the food.
08:37Just to talk about some random stuff.
08:39And one of the things I want to first talk to you about is definitely the F1 situation.
08:43So are you a F1 fan?
08:45Oh, F1?
08:45Yeah.
08:46Yeah, I became one.
08:47When I met this youth, when I met Daniel.
08:50This young rider came to one of the shows in North Carolina.
08:53We're going to do a concert.
08:55And then said, this kid out there, he wants to meet you.
08:59I mean, I'm a sports guy.
09:01I like sports.
09:02I used to watch some of them.
09:03The F1, but the NASCAR stuff.
09:05I love sports.
09:06I'm going to watch all type of sports.
09:08But when I met Daniel, like I met an actual young youth that was like driving.
09:13And we talk about, you know, the car and the engine and the thing and how fast you go.
09:17And all them type of things that interest me.
09:19So I kind of get more interested now, you know.
09:22So I'm deeper in it now, you know.
09:23And what about the World Cup?
09:25You talked about sports.
09:26Yes.
09:26So who are you rooting for?
09:28Are you going to be at the World Cup?
09:29I feel like you're the kind of guy that can probably get like, you know, sideline seats
09:32to watch the game.
09:33So are you planning to go?
09:34Yeah, we have some dreams, you know.
09:37A dream to go.
09:38Yes, a dream too.
09:39And we can fulfill our dreams.
09:41Are you going to be rooting for Jamaica?
09:43Yeah, man.
09:43If Jamaica, of course.
09:44If Jamaica isn't it.
09:45Yeah, man.
09:46We're trying to make it right now.
09:47Hopefully we can make it.
09:48But we have an under-17 team too.
09:51A younger team that's in the Youth World Cup.
09:53Them bad.
09:54Them badder than the adult team.
09:57So watch out for the next generation, you know.
09:59Gotta try, try, try.
10:01Maybe find a different way.
10:03But you gotta try.
10:05And I want to talk to you about Yo Gabba Gabba Land.
10:07What's your favorite part of like that whole filming experience?
10:09And how was it like behind the scenes?
10:11My favorite part is just I can be a child.
10:13I can be like, wow.
10:14And this is how it's made too.
10:15Seeing how things are made fascinate me.
10:17You know what I'm saying?
10:18Really and truly, I'm a playful youth.
10:21I'm a kid.
10:22You said video games.
10:23So now you talk to me about your nine-year-old.
10:25Like, what games are you guys playing?
10:27Oh, yo.
10:27Him love A.
10:29Be very competitive on the FIFA.
10:31Him beat me.
10:31Him beat me.
10:32It's hard to beat him.
10:34This little nine-year-old kid, he'll beat me.
10:37I love that y'all connect on the whole, like, World Cup and soccer and everything.
10:40Him love soccer, man.
10:41Him love it.
10:42That's a good way.
10:43And you talk about you like sports.
10:44You also like riding a motorcycle.
10:46Which, dude, that scares me so much.
10:47I can't even imagine what that's like.
10:50But how often do you ride the motorcycle?
10:51Like, how freeing is that for you?
10:52Well, less now still.
10:53But, you know, as I said, I love sports.
10:56And, you know, as young kids, you want to try every little thing.
11:00Sporting and try everything.
11:01Bikes, it takes focus.
11:04It really is a thing where I feel like, again, it's an experience.
11:07Just like being on a movie set.
11:09Riding a bike gives me another experience that I can use within my life.
11:14Because you really have to focus and you have to look ahead.
11:16You have to see what's happening before it happens.
11:18When you ride.
11:19You can't wait until it happens.
11:20So those things are life lessons.
11:22So that's why I really like riding a bike.
11:24Because, really, it's training my mind.
11:27It's training my mental, you know.
11:31Electricity, however you want to call it.
11:32The city experience is, like, constantly learning.
11:34I feel like I'm going to walk away from this meal.
11:36Not only full, but knowledgeable as well.
11:39So I'm going to take all of this to myself.
11:40But, I mean, you talked about, like, looking ahead.
11:42And how you have to kind of, like, judge when you're riding a motorcycle.
11:45How would you apply that musically?
11:46Like, when you're looking ahead, you're recording your project.
11:49Like, what do you see?
11:50And how do you carry yourself?
11:51Well, how we do this, like, for this album example.
11:53I do demos first, right?
11:55And I'm doing everything.
11:57I'm playing bass.
11:57I'm not great at everything.
11:59But the idea and the feel of what I'm putting down.
12:03But I'm also looking forward to what it's supposed to be eventually.
12:07Because I know in my mind what I want it to be.
12:08But it's not there yet.
12:10You understand?
12:11So that is how they're looking forward.
12:12Come because the vision to see where you want to be.
12:15But where you are, you're not there yet.
12:17But you know, say, eventually you're going to get there.
12:20And you're not going to compromise what the vision is.
12:23Because when you do a demo, when you write a song for the first time,
12:26I put down, it really have a feeling where you wish one day that I might release those.
12:31Because those are the original.
12:34When I go in the studio with the musicians now, we use the demos.
12:39But we're trying to move forward still.
12:41We're not trying to just recreate what I did.
12:43Because that's not where it's supposed to be, you know?
12:46So it's still a creative process.
12:47And we try, you know, get inspired and just build on that.
12:51But that's how we look forward when we're doing the music.
12:54From the demo to where we want it to be.
12:56And not only where we want it to be, but how we want it to make us,
13:00what we feel from it.
13:01How do I want it to make me feel?
13:03That's a very important part of this record,
13:05where I focus on how the music makes me feel.
13:09All the experience from the past, I'm kind of putting on this record
13:11where I am today with all the knowledge.
13:13You talk about how it makes you feel.
13:15Like you also recorded this in like 440 hertz.
13:18Am I saying that right?
13:19No, 432.
13:21432 hertz is what you're recording, but it's normally 440.
13:24Yes.
13:24Craig, so explain that to me what that means
13:26and how it changed the feel of your recording process.
13:29Like standard tuning is 440 hertz.
13:31Like when you listen to music, everybody's like at 440 hertz.
13:33That's everybody.
13:34Most music here is tuned to that.
13:36But I was always searching for something.
13:38During that search, I come upon the idea of 432 hertz.
13:42I read something about it.
13:43And it's been years.
13:45I've been like...
13:46This is not just like something that's happened now.
13:47I've been like...
13:48It's in my consciousness for years.
13:50You talk about looking forward.
13:52It's always been there.
13:53And now it eventually come true.
13:55Where, you know, my research is...
13:56I like what I read about it, Google said about it, you know.
14:00I love that you're like, wait, Google, what's going on?
14:03Tell me about this.
14:03I like what Google said.
14:04Google said, you know, it's a...
14:07It's more to our human frequency.
14:09Because we're all vibrating on frequencies.
14:11So 432 is closer to the human frequency.
14:14So I said, all right.
14:15Let me try this out.
14:16But first, I want to try it out live.
14:18So one day the band came into the rehearsal.
14:20I was like, yo.
14:22Everybody tuned to 432.
14:24We're like, what?
14:26Everybody like, oh, my tuner don't do that.
14:28My disc don't do that.
14:28Let me say, yeah.
14:29Y'all are figuring it out.
14:30Let's make it happen, yeah.
14:31So I'm going to start to show them in 432.
14:34You know, for like a year now.
14:35And I really...
14:36For me, I like how it feel.
14:37For me, personally.
14:39I don't know how everybody else feel about it.
14:40But I know how I feel about it.
14:42And I like it, you know.
14:44Sometime when you create for so long.
14:46It's always good to try something new.
14:48Because it sparks different...
14:51Different things in you.
14:52You know, like being on the movie sets is new.
14:54It sparks something.
14:55Trying a new frequency.
14:56You're hearing things differently.
14:57It sparks another.
14:58Like, it brings things out of you that you wouldn't be doing if it's used to what you normally do.
15:03The musical exploration, I think from now on, I'm only doing music in 432.
15:08Nice.
15:08It changed you that much.
15:09Yes, I'm never doing 432.
15:10The human frequency.
15:12Now I'm going to be asking people that too.
15:13I'm like, hey, excuse me, you got 432?
15:15Not messing with it.
15:16Don't want it.
15:17Don't want it.
15:18And then also with this project, I feel like recently, it's been one of the first times you've
15:21like done songs about your dad as well.
15:23Yeah, yeah.
15:25Oh, the good Lord bless his soul.
15:28Talk to me about Morn for Bob and what it is to write songs when you have him in mind.
15:32Yeah, that song, interesting song.
15:35I don't know why I wrote that song.
15:38I really, I don't understand.
15:40I don't understand where that song came from.
15:41Honestly, I don't.
15:43I think I was trying to tell a story.
15:44I don't know what sparked me to even go there.
15:49Because I don't think it was like, oh yeah, let me write a song for my father or something like
15:55that.
15:55But what I can tell you is, when I was doing this, when I was in the studio doing my
16:00demos by myself, and I do this song, and I said to myself, it feel like in some way to
16:05me, and this is a part of me trying to be open and truthful.
16:09You know?
16:10Because not everything I like, something I like to hide.
16:13You know?
16:14But some, like right now in time, let me tell people, let me see how you feel about this.
16:18So when, during this song, I actually felt like, I said to myself, yeah, my father could be singing this
16:24song.
16:25Like it's, this could be coming from him.
16:27This could be him singing this song.
16:30This could be his.
16:32That's crazy to even process that.
16:34Yeah, I feel like myself.
16:35No, because when I sing it, sometimes I feel like it's his, or it's his voice coming into this.
16:41He's a part of that song.
16:42It's not just me singing about him.
16:44It's his spirit.
16:45Yeah, there's something that's going on in that song.
16:47And my brother Steve come on and help me produce the whole record too.
16:50So, so we have that connection, you know?
16:53Yeah.
16:53That's so incredible.
16:54And I mean, like, do you share this stuff with your family, like during the recording process, or do they
16:59hear it with the rest of us?
17:00Yeah, let me hear it just for you.
17:04That's crazy, because I was wondering if they were opinionated.
17:06I don't really share that stuff.
17:07I don't, because, I don't know, you know?
17:10I don't really like it.
17:11I don't really.
17:11Even the kids?
17:13Family?
17:13Nobody?
17:14No, no, no, no.
17:15Usually nobody.
17:17Yeah.
17:17That's, that's really cool.
17:19And I mean, also I feel like with this process of this album, you talked about the vinyl pressing and
17:23that part of it.
17:24So from beginning, from concept to the end, do you feel like that's the, the goal is just to like
17:29create this, like, experience,
17:30that people can listen to and get on the, like, same hers, the same vinyl, like all this stuff.
17:34Yeah, yeah, yeah.
17:35It's something new, in terms of even the hers, in terms of like marketing or putting out there that this
17:42is this hers, we're in this hers, people.
17:44It's a different hers than what you're used to.
17:46What you're listening out there is a, this is a different frequency.
17:49So I'm like the idea that them can, you know, people can start to check out that frequency.
17:52Cause it matters.
17:53The frequency matters.
17:55Frequency affects us.
17:57Frequency is a weapon.
17:58Frequency is a tool.
18:00So the frequency matters.
18:01So wouldn't mind like a lot of artists check out that and maybe, maybe the whole music world.
18:07Say, you know, we're about to four turns the earth from now on.
18:10Change something in the world.
18:11You know what I mean?
18:12Like make a change, man.
18:13Come on.
18:13We've been at this frequency for too long and what's happening, you know?
18:17And I mean, let's talk about how long we've been at this.
18:19You talk about your legacy 20 years ago.
18:22Love is my religion.
18:23Love is my religion.
18:2720 years.
18:28That's an incredible career since that project.
18:31What do you feel like you've learned and has changed as much from that then to now?
18:33I keep learning more patience and more patience and having faith in that patience.
18:39Because even though I've been through it before, like every time it happened to me, I like,
18:44I might free cut for a second.
18:46Like, shit, I can't, wait, I can't find out.
18:49You know?
18:50Like, wait.
18:51And then remember, bro, come on, bro.
18:53You've been here before and you know what, you know what, it comes, it comes.
18:57You can't force it.
18:58You can't chase it.
18:59And it comes and it actually, I've experienced it.
19:01And this record is a testament to something that, you know, maybe you can't say you can't explain it,
19:08but something else.
19:09Because I don't understand it.
19:10I really don't understand how it works.
19:12I don't understand how my mind works and how it happens.
19:17I don't know.
19:17I mean, some things we have to work at, but some, I don't know, bro.
19:22Like, everything, like, you know?
19:25You just be on the bright side and it just happens, you know?
19:28It's not for all of us.
19:29Open mind, open mind.
19:30Like you said, different people have different skills.
19:32Open mind, yes.
19:33You happen to just be able to create.
19:35Open mind.
19:36I think open-mindedness is a key to it.
19:38And love and heart.
19:39I think if you have an open mind and a loving heart, stuff kind of fall into place and the
19:45world operates different with people who have open mind and a loving heart.
19:47Those for people who have closed mind and a heart that is, you know, not in the right
19:53place, you know?
19:53May I say in terms of humanity and love.
19:56It's a different frequency that we operate upon again.
19:59So, yeah.
20:01I think that affects everything, you know?
20:05Your mind and your heart, you know?
20:07Yeah.
20:07And I mean, obviously that's positive.
20:09You talk about the bright side.
20:10You talk about open mind, open heart.
20:12But then, as you've said, the world is not in a great place right now.
20:16You have a song on the project, Racism is a Killer.
20:17Yeah.
20:18The doctor's diagnosis.
20:21Everything's gonna be alright.
20:22Talk about creating that song and how was it to navigate kind of this, like, social
20:26climate of what we're going through musically.
20:28Yeah, Racism is a Killer.
20:31Tell you the truth, when the George Floyd thing happened, right?
20:34Like, at the first I really see it, like, sit, sit for myself, live with my eye.
20:39Like, what?
20:40Like, look on that.
20:41I've never seen that before.
20:44Like, look on that.
20:44All of us.
20:46What?
20:47Come on, bro.
20:49There's no reason for that.
20:50So, it kind of sparked that song, the inner me.
20:54You know what I mean?
20:54I said, it started that spark of that song.
20:56But the song evolved throughout time, you know?
20:58It really evolved.
20:59I like where it's at now because it's a metaphoric song.
21:03If you listen to the words, and I'm trying to put the words out on Instagram so that people
21:07understand the words.
21:08Because it's important.
21:10It's not just about, hey, you put out a record.
21:11I want people to know the words.
21:13The words are very important.
21:15If you have a song and people don't know the words, then they're like, oh, I'm going
21:17to sing more of the concert.
21:18Well, yeah, it's reggae music.
21:20It's never fun.
21:20Yeah, yeah, yeah.
21:22The words, they're important.
21:23So I'm trying to focus on the words.
21:24Yeah, that song, it has great meaning, but it's done in a very happy way.
21:30You know, which I like.
21:32Because I'm a happy person, I'm really not a negative or a down person or a sad person,
21:38really.
21:40So that song reflects that.
21:42But it's really dealing with something serious where we need to not encourage that or condone
21:50it or turn a blind eye to it or rewrite the history of it or think it don't exist or
21:57that
21:57type of stupidness.
21:59It's real.
22:00I mean, it's a killer.
22:01Yeah.
22:01You understand?
22:03I mean, man, aren't you preaching?
22:05But I feel like, do you ever think about the way other people process your songs completely
22:10different to maybe what your intention was?
22:12Because I feel like a lot of times I'm talking to artists and they'll be like, I was writing
22:15this song about this, but my audience took it and ran with it for what it meant to them.
22:20Do you think about that when you're creating?
22:22No, I don't think about it, but it happened.
22:24It's good.
22:25That's where it's supposed to be.
22:27That's exactly how it's supposed to be.
22:28I've become the audience music and their experience and what them can get out of it.
22:33Because I write from my heart, my mind, my soul, my spirit.
22:38The spirit is connected to everything and everyone still.
22:41Your experience will tell you what the song means to you.
22:45That's why when people ask me, sometimes the question, what does this song mean?
22:50I'm very reluctant to tell you what the song means.
22:52Because I don't want the song to mean what it means to me to you.
22:56I want it mean to you what it means to you.
22:59It don't matter what it means to me.
23:00Just figure out what it means to you.
23:02So those are the things I like to hide.
23:04Like, I'm not telling you what the song is about or what it means to me.
23:08You tell me what it means to you or how you hear it.
23:11And then maybe later on down the road I'll tell you what it means to you.
23:14But initially I want people just, what it means to them.
23:17But yeah, I still have answers sometimes though.
23:21I mean listen, I love how that you're also seeding out the lyrics and stuff.
23:24Because that's important I think a lot of times for people to take in the meaning of songs like that.
23:28But you already said you don't play your song for your family.
23:31So when the fans are kind of downloading all this for the first time processing it,
23:35is there anything you're nervous that they're going to hear or nervous about that was really personal to you?
23:40Like I don't know how they're going to feel about this part of this song.
23:43I've done that before but like my writing kind of, you see people they don't expect certain things of you.
23:50So they don't expect to see me at a, I don't know, a heavy metal concert.
23:54So they're not even looking to say oh that, because they don't expect.
23:58So there's things in songs that people don't expect to come from me or to have meaning.
24:03That they're not picking up on because of the idea they have of me or of anyone else.
24:10So they're blind to certain things.
24:12And it's done very, it's done very sneakily too.
24:15When I was in school that's what I like about English, writing.
24:19Telling stories, metaphors and doing things that is not, it's not just in your face but you have to kind
24:23of like,
24:24there's deeper things to, you know there's always layers.
24:29I like that idea from just an educational perspective where I come from of writing.
24:34I like layers, I like metaphors, I like poetry, I like things that have meaning.
24:39It's not, you're saying something but you're not saying it.
24:42But it means that, you know what I'm saying?
24:45So I do a lot of that in the songs then, you know.
24:48What's an artist when you're talking about metaphors that you admire their metaphors and their writing style?
24:52Well I tell you some artists for me like, like Marvin Gaye.
24:57My father do a lot of that.
24:58But sometimes it's not called like, I'm an artist like Miles Davis.
25:01I remember when I was doing an album, because I'm always, as I said my story, I was going to
25:06do an album.
25:07But I was like, I was like, yo I want to do something different, I don't want the same thing.
25:11Then one of my friends said, alright, yo check out Miles Davis' Bitches Brew.
25:21Sometimes it's not just about the metaphors within the words, but there's metaphors within the instrumentation too.
25:27So, you know, I listen to music as a whole.
25:30And I'm not very specific on people and names and all that.
25:34I don't, I'm not, I'm just not like that.
25:36The classic guys I'm on my night, Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder and my father.
25:41That I know.
25:42But in terms of like specific, I say this guy over here, I don't listen to music like that.
25:46I just suck everything up like this.
25:51You're just absorbing it all.
25:52See, I'm just like, it's like, it's just, like I'm not paying attention to what you look like or what
25:56your name is.
25:57I'm just hearing that and it's just soaking into my consciousness, you know.
26:01And then you talked about your live shows too.
26:03So, I want to know like, what is the vibe coming to see you and what may change now that
26:07Bright Side is out?
26:08The vibe I ain't, we just do a show in Ireland, I was listening back to the recording of the
26:12show.
26:13Because I'm going to see how it's sound and how it feels, but it feels like a party.
26:16Thank you to everyone who came out to see us on tour.
26:19We had a great time.
26:21It feels like a party, but the words then, oi, you understand me, sir?
26:26That's the thing.
26:27I want to push some temples up a little bit and, you know, fix a few things, but it feels
26:31like a party.
26:32But the words then, and I think, I think that captures people's attention really a lot.
26:37Now, because I think people are listening more now to the words.
26:41When them come to my show, them I listen to them.
26:43We can't see them and listen.
26:44Because they're not, they're not used to that.
26:47They're not used to listening to the, they're used to just, you know, on the phone.
26:51But I think the words are getting true.
26:54And I think 432 hertz have something with it too.
26:56The frequency that will play into them.
26:59There's a difference that I see in that in the audience since we started 432 hertz.
27:04It's just me, but, you know, I notice certain things, you know.
27:08That scares me so much when you say you look at the audience and you notice something different.
27:13Because I feel like that's something that we in the audience don't think about a lot of times that you
27:18guys are watching us.
27:19You know, like we're watching you.
27:21Yeah, man, I watch you.
27:22What do you notice about the audience?
27:24Like, do you watch to see how people are reacting to things?
27:27Yeah, man, sometimes.
27:27If they leave and come back during the song, you know, that kind of stuff.
27:30Yeah, every now and again.
27:31Yeah, every now and again, you have to keep your eye open, you know, see what's going on out there.
27:35Yeah, man, just when people feel it.
27:37And then sometimes you can't tell, because they're like this.
27:39Are they listening or what?
27:40You know, something you don't know.
27:41You know, some people dance, some people are crazy.
27:44Maybe one drunk guy are stupid or whatever.
27:46You know, but you notice the people, man.
27:49You kind of pick up on some of them vibes too, you know, and try to share some vibe with
27:53them visually, you know.
27:56Because most of the time, really, I don't know.
28:00I like when I sing with my eyes open.
28:02But most of the time, I close my eyes.
28:04Oh, really?
28:04Yeah, most of the time, I close my eyes.
28:06Because, like, sometimes you don't want to get distracted.
28:09You know, you don't want other distractions, you know, that will go on and that stuff.
28:14I'm sure you've been asked this question before, but I feel like I have to ask you.
28:18Like, what's the coolest person or one of the best memories you've had of, like, sharing a smoke or a
28:23spliff with somebody?
28:24I'm a brother, man.
28:25Really?
28:26I'm a brother.
28:26I'm a brother.
28:26I'm a brother.
28:27I'm a brother.
28:27I'm a brother.
28:27I'm a brother.
28:27I'm a brother.
28:29I'm a brother.
28:40I'm a brother.
28:43What's your dream story?
28:44Everybody smokes with this guy.
28:45You're like, not me.
28:46No, no, no.
28:47It's a different, different, welcome from a different place with it, you know?
28:51And that discipline I've had from ever since then I just keep that discipline.
28:55It mean more to me.
28:56It mean more to me.
28:57And I grow up seeing it mean it more on a spiritual level.
29:02Because we used to say, when we go to the ceremonies, Rasta ceremonies, then with the drum beating and the
29:08spiritual songs, and then the herb smoking, you know, it's really, it's an ancient thing.
29:15It's an ancient thing, you know.
29:17So I respect that, and I try to keep that in that way, you know, as much as I can.
29:23And then, of course, outside of the music, let's talk a little bit about what else you got going on.
29:26Your foundation in Hurricane Relief, how important is that to you?
29:29Yeah, it's a part of who we are.
29:30It's not, that is important to me, that is who I am, just like anything else.
29:34It's all a manifestation of how I was brought up by my parents, and where I was brought up in
29:40Jamaica, and how I grew up, you know, and what I saw while I was growing up, coming from.
29:46You know, when I was growing up, we saw so much different, like we went through, we started poor, then
29:52went to middle class, then we had a big house on the hill.
29:56You've had the whole experience.
29:57Some of us, we went through all of that phases, but we never lose, we never lose sight of where
30:02we're coming from, and that we must always give back to help people who we need.
30:07And we've been doing that before we have an organization.
30:09But URGE is a foundation that we set up officially, and we focus on kids, children, education, you know, health
30:16care, because, you know, back in the day, we used to just give people money sometimes.
30:20Hey, Ziggy, we need something, you know, all right, yeah, a couple, you know, a bill of things, you know.
30:25But after a while, I didn't see any progress in that.
30:29So we have to kind of like think and say, what am I really going to do, or how am
30:32I going to do this thing the right way?
30:33So we say, you know, the best thing is, let us, still do some of that, because that is just
30:39a street, but let's focus on children.
30:42The hope of everything is within the children.
30:44The hope of everything upon earth is within the children.
30:48So what kind of children are we bringing into the world in the next 20 years or whatever?
30:53This is where, this is where we have to influence.
30:56We want a better world.
30:58We don't want a world like what we're living in today.
31:00War and all of the stupidest going on.
31:02We don't want what, no.
31:04So we have to try and speak to children and give them the right foundation, education, health care, the right
31:11treatment, treat children the right way.
31:13The forward-looking thing, yeah.
31:15You know what I'm saying?
31:16They've got the children.
31:16Yeah.
31:17That's what we're looking forward to, you know.
31:18Is that what advice you would give to other people that are trying to navigate this extremely difficult time in
31:24the world,
31:24as far as, like, what they can do to center themselves, but also feel like they're contributing?
31:28The most, the greatest thing you can do is love one another.
31:32That is the greatest thing you can do.
31:34If you can't love one another, you have, like, 99% of the world about to finish.
31:40I mean, it's so funny that you say that, though, but, like, it's so simple, but can you imagine, like,
31:45how many people don't love?
31:47Like, I think what bothers me the most about, like, looking at the climate right now, right?
31:51Let's be real.
31:52Like, I look at things and I go, the killing, the murdering, all this stuff.
31:57Like, can you just imagine if you thought about it on a human level?
32:00We're humans.
32:00Think about the life that is lost, like, over fighting for what?
32:04Like, money, power.
32:05Like, all these things don't exist, but love is real.
32:09And if you just thought about loving these families, these people, I feel like everything would stop.
32:13Yeah, man, listen, we have, you know, it's a politics still, but I've said it before, I'm going to say
32:18it again.
32:19Leadership.
32:20And this is not just here in America or anywhere.
32:23It's the world.
32:24The whole world is, like, the whole world.
32:27The other night, I'll tell you a joke.
32:29The other night I was just saying to me, I was saying, like, even if somebody asks my question, how
32:32to make the world better, you know what I'm going to say?
32:34Turn the world over to women.
32:36Let women take leadership.
32:38Let women be the leader of every country on earth.
32:42Let women take over every leadership.
32:48Honestly, that's the only thing I can think of right now.
32:51I don't say it any other way.
32:53But you're so right.
32:55But the truth is right there.
32:57Yo, honestly, bro, come on.
32:59Come on, man.
33:01Oh, man.
33:02Gosh.
33:02I don't say, honestly, that is the realest solution I can't say right now.
33:06Ziggy, you just spoke the truth.
33:08Yeah, I understand.
33:09That's the real right there, my man.
33:11Let's go.
33:11And then, I mean, lastly, like, so with the project, you know, is there anything else you want to say
33:16about it or what you want people to take away from this, you going back into music right now?
33:25It's emotional and mental relief, you know, and try to give.
33:29Like, I try to give myself, I want people to use the bright side as that, too.
33:34Again, but there's also consciousness in it.
33:37So, yeah, you know, it's the bright side, you know.
33:41There's so much.
33:41All we hear about now is negativity.
33:45Negativity, negativity, negativity.
33:47Everything on the news, everything is bad, you know.
33:50But we're making, you know, say, make sure you keep your mind free so that that energy don't keep you
33:59oppressed that you can't free yourself to have joy and have love and have a bright side.
34:05Because there's never one side to a thing.
34:09There's never one side.
34:10There's never just war and evil and things.
34:12There's always two sides to the story.
34:14There's a bright side of the story, too.
34:17So, we could try to put some energy into making sure my mind stay on a bright side of the
34:22thing, you know.
34:23And so, that me really feel like.
34:25We have some serious things to talk about still, but it doesn't matter.
34:28We're still living on the bright side, you know.
34:30Oh, thanks for bringing me to the bright side.
34:32It's always an honor to hang out with you.
34:34Thank you so much.
34:35It's big.
34:35Yeah, man.
34:36Of course.
34:36Yeah, man.
34:39Of course.
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