Yaadcore’s Reggaeland: On Creating Exactly What He’s Feeling (Interview)
When I meet an artist, and they tell me they were able to create exactly what they were feeling, I’m blown away. Is this a person who’s in tune with their most authentic self? It’s not all fun and games when we’re in our feelings. But if you can tap into your creativity during an emotional roller-coaster, it can be like plunging into a ball pit at the very end filled with your best and boldest ideas.
Or you could just be high on shrooms, according to Yaadcore.
We met up with Yaadcore, one of Jamaica’s most important new voices, for a psychedelic journey of our own at Diamond Supply Co. in West Hollywood, a fashion brand he’s been working with for a merch collab. Yaadcore arrived on the dot sporting impeccable street style and show-stopping dreads. We were certainly enlightened.
After introductions, we found a spot up in the store’s loft to conduct the interview, with reggae music playing over the speakers, naturally, to discuss his journey to the release of his debut album, Reggaeland.
Yaadcore emerged a decade ago as the essential DJ, or selector, of Jamaica’s reggae revival scene. After helping carry the movement worldwide, he turned his attention to making his own music, beginning with the breakthrough track, “Ready Now” in 2019, followed by “The Calling” in 2020 – spiritual manifestos which cemented his place as the leading force behind reggae’s new future roots movement.
With the release of Reggaeland, he introduces a sound that honors tradition while bringing his distinct vision of Jamaican music’s future to the forefront. Reggaeland was released through the artist’s own 12 Yaad Records and Delicious Vinyl Island, the new Caribbean music imprint from LA’s own Delicious Vinyl.
To learn more about Yaadcore, who inspires him, how he found his voice, and yes, the role of shrooms in his music-making process, peep the interview below!
Photo credit: Jay Williams
What is your why?
My why is people, spiritual connections to music, and creating inspiration for people to be enlighten, for people to really see their purpose, understand, that’s really what my words is, really, to inspire people to see themselves and bring them closer to the Creator.
Are you a spiritual person?
Yeah, yeah, definitely. I am a spiritual person, you know, always searching. To get closer to the Creator and to know myself better, you know? And that’s how I grow, like a tree, grow every day, we learn.
Was there a clear moment or experience that made you want to switch lanes from being a DJ/producer to being an artist who’s singing and performing?
There was definitely a moment when I was performing once in Italy, when I made the transition to play strictly reggae music. They have a style where they play the song and then they play the rhythm version of the same song, so it would be the instrumental coming after the song. I’d play the instrumental and like, the fans were singing, “Sing a song, sing a song!”
But you were DJ-ing, and they were asking you to sing?
Right, right.
Did they know that you could sing?
No, at the time I couldn’t.
So you have these fans and they’re really into your set and feeling your vibe and the music, and they just wanted you to sing?
Right, right. Because when you’re playing the rhythm version, normally the MC would sing their lyrics over the rhythm version of the songs, so at that time, I wasn’t able. So that was, like, one of my first inspirations that I can remember. I thought, you know, I really need to be able to do this to enhance my DJ performance.
Was singing and become a full-fledged artist something that you had always wanted to do in addition to enhancing your career?
In high school I used to try to write, but I never had the patience to complete a full song, I was always, like, coming up with two lines or three lines. Mikey Dread was also a big inspiration because he is a DJ that had the first reggae radio show in Jamaica, he’s a producer and he’s also an artist, so when I saw him doing that, you know I thought, ok, this is very possible. So yeah, this manifested slowly. It’s not something that I say I always want to do this, it’s something that I really respect, I really respect artists and the craft of being an artist. I admire artists, I admire the craft, that’s why I really took such a long time to even come out with my stuff because I had to ensure that it was of high quality.
Was it interesting finding your voice, hearing your voice? Like, did you ever think, “I wanna do this, but I haven’t really sung before, how is this gonna work?”
Well, being a DJ was a big internship, you know, for me as an artist, because I used a mic a lot as well, so I’m very familiar with a mic. When I would play these rhythm versions, I would, like, chant a few lyrics, you know, so getting warmed up and feeling the vibe and feeling people’s reaction to me singing. After I wrote the first song that I ever wrote, that was like a milestone for me, like, all right, I actually can do this!
The first song I released was actually the third song I ever wrote, which was “Ready Now.” It just came naturally to me, I wasn’t planning for my song to be on the rhythm, the song was sent to me to produce, like, probably for another artist or something. I was listening to the rhythm in the studio with my friends one day, and we were there for a while, they said, like, “Ready now?” They were saying, like, they were ready to go now because we were there for a while, and then, I started to sing, “Ready now!” and just wrote it right away, like, that was the quickest I ever created a song.
How has reggae’s sound evolved now that you’re performing and singing it?
The sound I’m bringing to the table is definitely, you know, a fresh sound, but, you know, we’re not leaving out the roots because the roots is really what defines reggae: the drum and the bass. So I tend to add a few fusions, you know, elements from, like, R&B and jazz, and I like a hip-hop here and there too.
Is there a main message you’re wanting to convey with your album?
The main message behind the whole album is really shedding light on the reggae land, which is why that’s the title track. The reggae land is Jamaica, preserve the roots of Jamaica, the roots of the reggae sound. Reggae music is still alive, still growing, not stagnant. Rastafari is always the end part of the goal of what we’re trying to bring people to, you know, we just trying to bring people closer to the Creator and to know themselves more, that is all my music is for.
Bring us back to the recording studio, what was the best memory from that experience?
In the whole creation, one experience I can remember, was how I came up with the song “Shrooms.” I was at my friend’s house in San Francisco, naturally on shrooms [laughs] I think this was actually the first time too. He’s gone to sleep by now, I’m there on the couch just kind of high, the rhythm is playing and like, that’s how I actually came up with the melody, being on shrooms, you know, feeling exactly what I’m singing about, like the lyric says, “When me collect the shrooms, mind ah go vroom vroom vroom, feel like me deh pon the moon, heart ah go boom boom boom.” So while I was on shrooms, was feeling the rhythm and everything. It was a nice chemistry with the melody I think, that was a cool experience because it wasn’t planned. This is also the first reggae song supporting shrooms as well. I really feel good that it wasn’t planned, it’s not like I sing it to get any likes or whatever, it’s just from literal personal experience, you know?
Do you create your own rhythms?
I produced “Bee with Me,” and I produced “Reggaeland,” so that was my direction and the whole orchestration of where the song goes and how everything should feel, everything was me on those two tracks.
And you wrote all the songs?
Yes, I wrote all the songs.
What’s your song-writing process like?
I listen to the beat and I talk to the beat, I talk to the rhythm.
So the rhythm comes first?
Yes, most times, 95% of the time.
Tell us what it means to “talk to the beat.”
It means I’m saying whatever the beat is saying to me, my interpretation of what the music is saying, because music speaks. Music has feeling, you have to tap into the feeling of what the beat is saying to get into the pocket. Once the beat is playing, an idea can come at the snap of the finger, you know? Naturally, if you want to complete the idea, you have to sit in and focus and vibe; ideas come around the clock.
Everything for me is melody, the melody comes first, the melody is where the pocket is. You have to find the lyrics that match the melody, because your voice is an instrument, just like a piano.
What was your creative vision for the album cover art? Can you shoutout the artist?
The artist was [Joshua Solas from] SOLASINK, and the whole vision for the cover, we wanted to do a theme park, kind of a theme park kind of a vibe, a journey to a place, understand, as we say, Jamaica is the reggae land. That is what bring the majority of the people to Jamaica.
Let’s go for a ride!
Yep, yep, yep.
What are your dreams beyond the album?
My dreams definitely are long [laughs]. As me said, we living in a spiritual world, my dream is living in love and harmony one day, understand? So that is how invest our time in, to try and manifest it, even if it’s not within this time, our seed that was sown today will still be here growing 50 years or a 100 years’ time.
We don’t live one life, you know, the spirit never dies. So even when we leave this flesh, you know, we still have a spiritual connection to Earth. The works that we left here, to grow for generations to come. It is time for people to believe in love and harmony.
The world how it is now, it’s just a test to bring us closer to the Creator, just the same. This life experience is just the Creator giving us a test to see which side we’re going to choose, everything is spiritual, everything is energy. You can never lie to a magnet, understand? You can’t lie to a magnet and put a glass to a magnet and tell the magnet that it’s iron and that it will attract it. So the energy never lies, you know?
