THE MAN WITH THE FLIRTING VIBE – Aziatic
- Condensed version of an interview published in AMANDALA of Sunday, June 6, 1999
ADELE RAMOS: Tell us, how did you get started in music?
AZIATIC:
You
know, I’ve always been interested in music. When I was used to live in
Dangriga…when I used to live in Hopkins, I used to like music. My parents
bought me this record player. Before I was even five, I owned a record player,
and I owned a guitar, and all these things. I was really into music, but I
never thought about it as something I really wanted to do; it was just
something I liked. I used to form bands, you know, in Hopkins, my friends and
me. When I moved to Dangriga, I would get involved in schools plays. I believe
I would get involved in school plays in Hopkins also, but in Dangriga is what I
really remembered -- when I used to be in Christmas plays, and I used to always
end up being in the singing part… It wasn’t until I got to LA that I really
realized ... that I knew I could sing. I’m not saying I was all that, but at
least that’s when I realized that I could hold a note. When I realized that was
also when I did this play and they had me sing this song "We Three
Kings." I did that song, and when I started singing, I was like ... I stopped and I was like: “That just came outa me?” ‘Cause my voice was real high. My voice has
always been high when I sing. My voice just came out like crazy, and everybody
just started looking at me… (If I could have looked at me, I’d be looking at
myself too.) And then my teacher said, "I want you to sing that part,
blah, blah, blah... and I want you to be in charge of your three kings…"
‘Cause there was me and these other two kings. So she made me in charge of
practicing, and that’s when I really started singing, and that’s when I really
got into it.
What year was this?
This had
to be 1985.
So that’s when you got
started?
It wasn’t
when I really started singing, but it’s when I really realized I knew how to
sing. Of course, when I was in Dangriga, I always like Michael Jackson. I had a
friend of mine, Orlando, he’s the one who introduced me to Michael Jackson. We
didn’t have a TV in my house. Some people had a TV…and that’s the time when Thriller came out, and everybody was
talking about Thriller and about this
person named Michael Jackson… I didn’t know who the hell that was. At school
people talked about this movie named Thriller
(’cause, at the time, Thriller
was big -- the video), talking about how this guy turned into this monster, and
I never knew what they were talking about. One day, I was at this video store,
and they were playing Prince. So I asked them if they had this guy Michael
Jackson, and they were like, "yeah!" And, they put it on, and that
was the first time I saw Michael Jackson’s video. And, I said: "damn, that boy got talent!" And
that’s when I really started getting into my singing, I really started
imitating…
The truth
is I do get a lot of my style from him, because I grew up imitating Michael
Jackson. So a lot of the things I do in my music now are influenced by that… it
got embedded in me. But, at the same time, I've learnt how to get my own style.
But of course you can still see that Michael Jackson stuff in me when I
perform, which is all good. It’s done nothing for me but good. If it ain’t
broke, I ain’t gonna fix not a damn thing!
How would you say your music is different from other Punta Rock
artists?
I really
describe my music as Punta Pop... I try a lot of things; I try different
arrangements, I try different sounds. For example, in my latest CD, I did stuff
like 'slap bass'. When I did Prym Tym 69,
you hear a lot of orchestra…even on my first CD, I did a lot of sampling -- I
used a lot of my own voice for sounds. I’d do like a cowbell… I’d sample that
sound and compress it, or do whatever I need to do with it to make it sound
really phat, and I put in the music. A lot of people think it’s an instrument,
but it’s really me… I just experiment a lot. I like to use strings.
If you
hear that song Nümari, on my first
CD, which is also on MOST WANTED, that’s the first Garifuna song that you hear
it…when you put it on, it sounds like and R&B song. The arrangements are
like an R & B song, but the melody still flows very smoothly. It’s hard to
get Garifuna to flow smoothly like that. But I think that what I did with that
song, that just took it to another level. They never had a Garifuna song like
that before…I always try to do things that are different. For my J Cards, the
cover of my CDs, if you were to first look at them, you would never say, “oh this is a Punta CD.” Most Punta
artists, you see them on the cover with a drum…I always wanted to do something
so that when people looked at it they would say: “Damn, that’s different!” That’s what I did with MOST WANTED,
that’s what I did with THE REBIRTH, that’s what I did with JAM 96X, that’s what
I’m ah keep on doing!
What are your immediate plans in relation to your music?
Were in
the process of signing a contract right now with Jackie Jackson, he manages me
and my group, cause I do R&B. We are about to record and album this summer
to release on the Jackson 5’s new record label called “Modern Records,” run by
Randy Jackson… The papers are being drawn up while I’m here in Belize. It’s a
nice deal. Pretty soon, you’ll see Aziatic everywhere -- on BET…
NOTE: This interview was
conducted on Thursday, June 3, 1999, in Belize City.
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