The LargeUp Interview: Jesse Royal

Words by Chenee Daley, Photos by Martei Korley—

Reggaedom has been buzzing lately with the name and sounds of newcomer Jesse Royal, the 24-year-old, charismatic, self proclaimed “palace pickney” currently building musical traction in Jamaica and abroad.

On a recent Saturday afternoon, I snagged a very intimate and uncut interview with Jesse. Arriving to my home earlier than scheduled, his teammates spilling in behind him, he is unassuming and pleasant, militantly clad in army green shorts and Desert Clarks.

“Any red wine or marijuana on the menu today?” the forthright singer jokes, following my offers of ackee patties and coconut water to both him and his crew. In our dialogue, the artist is light, feathery and jovial, but his intent definitely heavy. You get the feeling that realness ranks high in importance to him in the context of his relationships and interactions, even more so in his music. His fervent, on-spot rendition of Bob Marley’s “Them Belly Full”  underlines his continual emphasis on genuineness or, as he puts it, the “feel” of the music. If you’ve ever heard him perform live, you understand exactly what I mean.

Though Jesse is beginning to enjoy a wider audience these days, with popular songs from his recently-released In Comes the Small Axe mixtape such as “Light Like a Feather” and “Feel Your Pain” (not to mention a highly praised performance at Usain Bolt’s Tracks and Records in Kingston, where the photos for this story were shot), he doesn’t seem too eager about any type of impending stardom. “Our music is not no braggadocious music,” the artist says. “Is not music that make you big up your chest and talk about who is the best.”

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LargeUp:  How did you get your start in music?

Jesse Royal: Music for me has always been key. My grandmother was actually the choir director down at the church that we used to go [to] and she used to play the organ. My mother also has been singing on her church choir’s forever. But then I grew older and my bredrin named Daniel, who is like my brother from another mother, Ziggy Marley’s son, met [me] because we ended up at the same school, same class and everything, and me and him just click on a different level you know, as bredrin, and because we a play ball together. From those times, we always used to not imitate but do our version of Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, because we got a lot of the music fresh off the press. So we just set up in the background and “Everyone Wants to be the Cowboy” and “Small People Turn into Big People” and you know “Conscious Party” and “Head Top” and dem tune there.

You don’t even know that is leading to all of this, because wherever your life leads you, that’s where it’s going to lead you. Some people reach the tree, and a carpenter look at the tree and see a chair. You probably look at the tree and see a painting, I probably look at the tree and see a song, a next man look at the tree and see everything that’s wrong, a next one sees everything that’s right. So you know that every reason have a season, and that was our little nurturing season. So me and Daniel, from those days until now, most of the music that we make is living room music. We were still young cubs, so it was a privilege to go into a studio them times. We just have to make our own music while listening and still do our own thing and you young, and that’s why I tell people its good to be young because you don’t really have many hindrances. You don’t even know [to] say probably you can’t do it. You just do it, and try. The older people get, is like they’re more afraid to try. To do things, because the older you grow, you get so fit into the system that you feel like if you step out of line your going to get fine or your life a go on the line. So even today, me and Daniel we still make living room music. Where we just knock desk and make music.

LU: You’ve been doing music for what seems like most of your life, but when do you think people really started to hear Jesse Royal from a mainstream standpoint?

JR: I really even couldn’t tell you, because anybody that knows me knows that we just do what we are doing. You see the thing is that anybody who hear this ago rock to it. So that was the outlook from day one. The beautiful thing about it is [it’s] not like me deliberately go out there. Is a friend tell a friend, who tell a friend, who reach many women and men. So there so is the movement of I and I music. I and I music a people music, is not no big guy going put I and I music on top. Is not no capitalist or no guy with no great influence or money. I wish I could have a straightforward answer like yes I put ten thousand CDs there and I took it around there and I met this fellow and this fellow… No. And truly when you check a stock… what is mainstream? Cause I and I not really mainstream, there’s still so much work left to be done because when your mainstream that mean you a wonder whose team you on then, because if you main you with them. So I mean it’s tricky.

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LU: There’s an explosive live music/reggae revival happening in Jamaica right now, what are your thoughts on it?

JR: [Laughs] Well, it’s just the words you use. Cause you know, Reggae is. Reggae is. We just a come put our two cents in the jar, like the elders before us who did so much more great things than today than to just come label the thing. What have we done so far? It’s not about reviving a music, it’s about reviving a generation. Reviving a nation and bringing back the consciousness in a society, what we need to make actual changes happen. Is not about I and I, is about we. In the sense of, what will be our thing that we leave our generation? We going to leave two word? Or we going to leave works? So that is I and I whole thing. Words nice man and you realize that words nice cause, guess what? You have to put words there and then choose words very carefully.

But you know how many people a fight man. I can carry you all down a Jungle, down a Rema, and show you all some little youth man, just a try hold them community together with little or nothing. The man them a make sure that two, three pot cook a day so everybody can have a meal. These are the people who I and I applaud, who a try do something with the little that we have. They are our strength you know, is not we is them strength. We is them light you know, but is them is our strength. So our music must enlighten them and lead them. Our music is not no bragadocious music that you big up, cause that mean say if we not talking for the people then it make sense you call is some other thing because guess what now, when I check a stock and you go throughout the history of the music, is there so it come from.

You think say reggae come from no jump up and everything did nice? When you check a stock man, it is the oppression. Them don’t even have to use fancy words. You feel it in their soul. Cause who feel it, know it—you know? When you hear Bob say, “Them belly full but we hungry, A hungry mob is an angry mob, the rain a fall but the dirt it tough, pot a cook but the food no nough.” Bob never say my belly is full and my and my. We are the voice of the voiceless. The people that need to be heard but are not being heard. So that’s the word, if you ask me. So it’s nice, reggae reviving still. But foremost it’s a consciousness making sure that we, as the children of today, put our things in place for the youth of tomorrow, just like our forefathers did put certain things in place for us today.

LU: Have you been traveling this year?

JR: We did a couple [US] dates earlier this year. But you see me now, as I say, we come to do something. So is not like mi a go run down no thing, and a man going to say, here’s a little thing, and we run come. No man, because this message must be heard in the right way, and if I can’t walk with who make me, then I not walking at all. And I mean, it might [be] tricky. But them don’t worry about me, because where there’s a will there’s a way. I and I know that none of them can’t stop this train, so we just hold on to what we know, which is that we will reap what we sew. We nah gwaan like we have to chase anything. One thing I know is that perfect is my father’s timing. So all what them think them hear and say and know? The best is yet to come from I an I. There will come a day when them will see and know, “Oh a that him did a talk bout.” But true I and I know already we just easy. Cause Jah never wrong yet.

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LU: What’s the plan as it concerns new music? Is there an album in the works?

JR: We drop two mixtape deliberately to kind of introduce the works. You know, like a little flavour you know, what’s happening, what we are doing. We just wanted to give the people a taste, little by little. You don’t really want to overdose them but right now them kind of ready for the album. So we in the studio working and we probably have about four albums already. Everyday is another song. So what happen, as I say, we reach to a stage where we just fine tuning and putting together the pieces of the puzzles that we think should be this first chapter in I an I life.

LU: Do you stick to a particular routine as preparation for music creation?

JR: In our off days and on days we rise with the prayer man and a scriptures or three to kind of get in that right zone. We find a little secret too, meditating in the shower is a great thing, I realize, that makes your mind clear. Even just to feel the water, because a lot of people bathe but don’t really feel the water. Like a man go in the sun and him just say it hot him [but] don’t really feel the energy. Some people in the rain and say them getting wet but don’t really feel the rain. So I realize I have a little timeframe and it might slow me up and sometimes it make me late for where I’m going, but I say in the shower you feel the water and it make your brain feel the water and your mind is kinda clear and you give thanks.

LU: Is there someone you look up to  in the music industry for mentorship?

JR: Uncle Fattis, the great Fattis Burrell, was one of the greatest influences on me. Cause him never yet late, him early. Him definitely was the one who taught me a lot about direction, selection of words and where you aim. And then you have man like Uncle Stephen, Stephen Marley. You have man like Junior Gong, who is a mentor. You have man like Uncle Chinna [Earl “Chinna” Smith], who for me isn’t just a musical mentor he is a life guru or life czar because he’s a man with so much wisdom. Even my friends and everything inspires me, but those specific people, musically, is who I go to.

LU: Thich Nhat Hanh once said, “Our own life has to be our message”. What would you say is Jesse Royal’s message?

JR: Compassion, equality, caring, sharing, love; sometimes tough and sometimes soft. But that is my life and we live clean, let your works be seen, as Peter Tosh says. The music I sing, the food I cook, the love I make, the breath that I take, everything that I do circle around that. Is not like I sing the music, and then I going to try to be something else. No, the music comes from the heart so that means that we have to get our structure in line first. So those things are key to me, man. That’s the core of everything which is you. How you living on the earth and how you deal with people, how you handle situations, what you say when you say it, what you do when you do it. All of those things is just what we have to take heed to, and his majesty is our example. And we know that we are royalty so we have to act that way. But is not a royalty with no robe and anything. Royalty means we eat the freshest of fruits, we show the most love. We richer than even money itself. I hope I answered your question.