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THE MAN WITH THE FLIRTING VIBE
- 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 outta 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 ....................
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