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BARRINGTON LEVY: INTERVIEW - MAKING MUSIC WITH STAYING POWER, TRUE REGGAE SOUL, AND FINDING FREEDOM
BARRINGTON LEVY: INTERVIEW - MAKING MUSIC WITH STAYING POWER, TRUE REGGAE SOUL, AND FINDING FREEDOM
From sound system culture in Kingston to festival stages across the world, the reggae and dancehall pioneer Barrington Levy maintains an approach to music guided less by what the industry wants and more by a deep, unshakeable love for freedom and tangibility.
Barrington Levy has been one of reggae and dancehall’s most distinctive voices since the late 1970s, coming up through Jamaica’s sound system culture before his records became the DNA of UK jungle and drum and bass without him ever designing it that way. Now 62, he is still touring the world and making music purely out of love for it.
At WOMAD Festival this summer, Levy had a lot to say about an industry that keeps taking, a Jamaica that keeps being extracted from, and why artists need to stop making bamboo fire music with no staying power.
The interview has since been picked up by outlets across Jamaica, the US, Italy and beyond, which tells you everything about how widely these frustrations are felt.
The obsession with views, streaming numbers, and music as money is not just an irritation to Levy, it represents a fundamental misunderstanding of what music is for:
‘It is so ironic and ridiculous that people are gonna say, pull up my song, I’ve got 20 billion views. How can you view audio? Tell me, how do you view audio? Do you listen to audio or do you view it?'
Levy goes on to to say that 'the music business has lost the authenticity of the music, really. I’m used to record sales, not views and likes. I wish music goes back to vinyl, because it’s much better and more tangible.’
This is the quote that has been picked up and shared widely across the reggae community since we published the interview, from Kingston to Italy, and the response has been overwhelming. But the conversation goes further.
When Levy talks about the industry extracting value from artists, he draws a direct line to what he sees happening to Jamaica itself.
‘They’re charging you for water that you don’t make. Next thing they will want to charge you for the air that you breathe, even though it’s choking me. Because they are putting so much into the environment right now. How can you come to someone’s country and tell them you can’t utilise their own land?’
‘The music business wants people to love it, not just to use it for financial gain only, but really, genuinely love it. Don’t make bamboo fire music, make log wood fire music. Bamboo just blazes up and goes 'wuuuf', like gas. But with the log wood, it slowly burns. So you make songs with 'umph', you make songs with staying power. Don’t be a trend setter, and not a follower.’
‘The music business wants people to love it, not just to use it for financial gain only, but really, genuinely love it. Don’t make bamboo fire music, make log wood fire music. Bamboo just blazes up and goes 'wuuuf', like gas. But with the log wood, it slowly burns. So you make songs with 'umph', you make songs with staying power. Don’t be a trend setter, and not a follower.’
It connects to stories we have heard elsewhere in the reggae community, not least from legendary dub pioneer Scientist, who also mixed some of Levy’s most celebrated early recordings including Collie Weed and the albums Englishman and Robin Hood, making the parallel between their views no coincidence.
Scientist fought a legal battle after Greensleeves Records licensed his music to Rockstar Games for the GTA III soundtrack without consent or royalties, losing on a work for hire technicality while the label later reissued his albums with his name removed from the cover entirely. These are not isolated incidents, and Levy very clearly affirms proper usage and licencing of his own music in the interview.
Levy also came up through the vinyl era, living in England between 1980 and 1992, during a period when getting reggae onto BBC Radio 1 felt like a genuine battle. ‘In the beginning it was very hard to get recognised, because you’re talking about vinyl days, when radio stations were stingy to play your music so people can hear it. I’ve continued with it, writing songs that people can relate to and rock to and understand. It pays off, up until now.’
When we asked whether he ever imagined, back when he was first developing his signature scatting style, that he would become what he has become, he was characteristically straightforward. ‘No. Because I never thought I was going to do anything other than knowing that I love music. I spent all my youth days in music. Never done a nine to five in my life. I’m in the music business not for the money. I want to get paid, but the love for the music is very important to me. And that is why I’m blessed by the almighty God, and still carrying on.’
On being considered old, he is also equally unbothered. ‘People call me old or whatever. And yes, I’m proud to be old. When a person has lived to see a certain age, it’s blessings, not a curse.’
Check out Barrington Levy's upcoming shows here!
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