LA: How would you define your music right now?
LI: Right now, I would define my music as healing, evolving, and experimental.
LA: It sounds like, based on what you’ve been saying, that it feels important to make more than any global fans, people in Jamaica proud and be somewhat of a role model or an ambassador for Jamaica.
LI: Yeah, definitely. That’s definitely my goal as well. There is a way to meet in the middle, like a Jamaican girl making music that’s rooted and grounded in Jamaican roots, but still have influences from other songs. It’s like a melting pot situation, and that’s what happened back in the day as well. A lot of the artists, Bob Marley, all of them, you listen to their music, you can hear the rock influence, the pop, all that was going on back in the day.
LA: You’ve said that music has a message in the past. What’s your message?
LI: My message is essentially love. I like to preach positivity, and even if I highlight a negative situation in my music, there’s always some solution-based messaging there as well. It’s about peace, it’s about self, it’s about truth, and it’s about just unapologetically experimenting yourself, learning yourself, treasuring yourself, and just express how you’re able to express. That’s what I think it is.
LA: To wrap things up. For anyone who’s traveling to Jamaica or is listening to this episode and thinking, “I need to book a flight and get myself to Kingston,” where would you send them to hear some music, both your own and other musicians that you think are exciting and important to Jamaica right now?
LI: Okay. So if you’re traveling to Jamaica, I would say definitely check out Dub Squad Live. That’s the newest live music venue right now. It happens every Tuesday night, but what makes it special is that all of the greatest musicians in Jamaica hang out there and just string up their instruments and play all night, live music, beautiful renditions of any song in particular. And you’ll find one or two artists passing through to sing and perform there as well. And a lot of young artists coming up is going there as well. So what it looks like to me is it’s about to be like the new Jamnesia. So what I had when I was coming up to just go and have real live music professional experience, what’s going on there right now. The Dubwise Cafe is also another really lovely venue. The food is great, and there’s always reggae music playing there as well.
LA: Perfect. Thank you so much.
LI: Thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure speaking with you. From the very first time I spoke you, I really do enjoy more conversations. I learned a lot about myself in these settings as well.
LA: It was such a joy and congratulations on everything that you have going on right now and your upcoming album.
LI: Thank you so much. Yes. I can’t wait to share it with everybody.
LA: I can’t wait to hear it.
LI: Thank you. Blessings.
LA: Next week we begin a three-part solo travel series that we’re all super excited about here in the studio. So first up, what it’s like to go alone to a conference where you don’t know anyone, but it’s also a corporate meeting with a bit of a difference. It’s on a beach at Cannes.
Thank you for listening to Women Who Travel. I’m Lale Arikoglu and you can find me on Instagram @lalehannah. Our engineers are Jake Lummus, James Yost, Vince Fairchild, and Pran Bandi. The show is mixed by Amar Lal at Macrosound. Jude Kampfner of Corporation for Independent Media is our producer. Stephanie Kariuki is our executive producer, and Chris Bannon is Condé Nast head of Global Audio.
