Suckarie releases solo album, When the Trumpet Sounds

Courtesy of Suckarie.

Dailyreggae.com spoke with Suckarie to hear about his new solo album, When the Trumpet Sounds.

Tell me about your new album, When the Trumpet Sounds. When did you release the album? 

The full album came out on August 21, 2020. The single, the title track, came out on July 24th. It’s an album that I’ve been working on since the beginning of this year. I hoped to finish around mid-March and then when COVID came, it forced me to take some more time.

How does it feel to have released your first solo album after being part of New Kingston for so long?

I don’t know what the reasoning is, but for me, I felt like it was time for me to put some of my styles out there as well. When it comes to New Kingston, you have a group of individuals coming together to make music. It’s a different style, different ideas, meshing together to make, New Kingston.

When it’s me now, it’s me doing all the things I’ve studied over the years. Different techniques, different styles of music, different things I listen to daily, and that’s what you get when you listen to my music. My unique sound that’s a blend of growing up in Jamaica, growing up the rest of my life in New York, and then moving around the states, and traveling the world. So, you get a mix of different things that are not just reggae in a sense, it’s music. I can’t even put a genre on it. 

What inspired you to make the album?

Most of my music comes from my life. If it’s not direct, it’s from some kind of experience. For this album, it’s basically love. It comes in different forms. Relationships with your kids, your family, significant others to people outside, fans. It comes in different forms and different waves. This is an expression of that. The album is about love, how you use it, and how you spread it. 

Suckarie is your last name. That’s cool that you decided to honor your name for your solo project! What was the process like for coming up with your solo artist name?

It has a ring to it. It always has. I remember coming here (New York City) when I was 16 and maybe on day two there was the phone book laying around back in those times. This was 1998 we’re talking about. I opened it, I looked for my last name. There was probably one, my aunt. I said then that I’m going to make this name famous one day. I think I’ve done the name proud so far professionally. One day I was having a conversation with our keyboardist, Tahir Panton, and he was like, “You should go as Suckarie.” I was already planning to, and he nudged me in that direction as well. It stuck. Everyone loves it. It’s me (laughs). It really is.

What was the creation and recording process like? Did you split your time at home and in the studio?

Our Love is the first single that I ever released, and I did that in 2018. We have a saying as musicians and artists that no song is old. Until the world hears it, it’s brand new. If you look at music, you’ll see that there are a lot of songs that take a while to get where they are. It could be five years, it could be one year, it could be a month, it could be a day. Different things turn the wheels. For this album, I was in the studio. I was working on Jason Mraz’s album, playing guitar on his new record, and right after that using some of these musicians, I was planning to incorporate them in my album. I booked a studio in LA just before COVID, and then COVID hit and changed the way I had to approach the album. I like it. It made me dig deeper into me producing it overall.

For the album, I did at least 85 percent of the production and then collaborated with a ton of my friends and family.

Is New Kingston on a record label?

New Kingston has been fortunate as a whole to work with Easy Star Records, who we’ve had a connection with for years. They put out our record with us, it was very well received, and we’ve just kept it going with them. They are distributing and marketing, all while we are independent. We aren’t necessarily signed to them, but we work with them on our music.

The Suckarie album was independently released from my upstart label that I’ve been using for years, which is SMS Muzic. Most of my music has come out through SMS Muzic. I do plan to do some work with Easy Star in the future. It’s just about the right project and the right timing.

I wanted to put out my first Suckarie album to the world by myself and start it that way.

What was it like collaborating with Jason Mraz on his new album, Look For The Good?

Jason released his album, Look For The Good, in June. That was a very lovely experience brought on by one of the owners of Easy Star Records, Michael Goldwasser, who’s the Executive Producer of the album.

I played guitar on every song along with Jason, and one of Jason’s guitarist on the album. We spent seven days making that album at his house. It was a great experience that I hope to replicate myself one day.

How was making your album different than making an album for your band, New Kingston?

The space to have to rely on yourself. When it comes to New Kingston, it’s more of a vibe and energy. Bouncing past stories off each other, correcting each other, writing, bouncing ideas off of each other. It’s different. We all individually write our verses, but when it comes to Suckarie, if something pops into my head, it’s what I go with, my gut. And for me, like I tell most of the people I coach in writing songs, I say the easiest song or story to write is a true story.

People say, “I don’t know what to write.” I’m like, “Are you alive?” You have to draw from your own experiences first.  

Did you work with any of your New Kingston bandmates on the album?

I did. I’ve got Tahir on one particular song playing keys. Courtney Sr. played percussion and bass on a few songs. 

My kids and wife are on the album and a lot of my friends who I’ve grown up within this business. A ton of collaboration with a lot of people. One that was unexpected is, I did a song with my friend Stu Brooks, bass player from a band called Dub Trio. He made a track for me with a whole bunch of his friends and then just before the buzzer, he got some horn parts he was waiting on. The album was ready to go, and then unbeknownst to me, the lead singer of Fall Out Boy is playing horns on there, Patrick Stump. I was like, “What?”! Little nuances like that make the album great. There are some great Jamaican musicians on there. It was a great collaboration between my friends and family, and I’m very appreciative of that. COVID Works (laughs) is what we call it.

How is your vision for your solo music different than New Kingston’s sound?

For New Kingston, we are very traditionalists, when it comes to the music on many fronts whether it’s R&B, a new age sound, or whatever. It’s more rooted in roots sounds. Even in Jamaica, I used to listen to a lot of pop music, a lot of different genres of music. As most Jamaicans do, most musicians listen to everything. My mom was also very big into music, she’s a great singer, and her musical tastes were not the norm, so to speak. It was the Roberta Flack’s, Dionne Warwick’s, and I got to listen to a lot of the female singers. For me, that R&B sound is something I’ve been attached to, and I blend all of that while making sure to stay positively rooted in my Jamaican dialect and culture. Whether it’s a pop song that sounds like an Adam Levine song that has a Jamaican guy on there. I’m always going to stay true and that’s the blend I bring to it. 

Who were your inspirations for the new album?

Every day I go and make a song. That ease or that focus on not trying to be anything specific and just making some songs that I connect with is important. A lot of the songs are very organic. There is one song called Favorite Song and I literally couldn’t write a song for that track. It’s made by my boy Calvin Canha, from Hawaii. I just couldn’t find a song. I went on a jog, I sat down on a bench and I wrote the song in five minutes. A song that I couldn’t write for two weeks. That’s the type of stuff I connect with, things that are organic. I don’t like to force anything, so the inspiration is life, getting things off your chest as well.

Why did you decide the call the album When the Trumpet Sounds?

I was on Instagram previewing some of the songs I had. The album wasn’t even put together all the way yet. I just had a whole bunch of songs unfinished and I previewed a few of them. There is this one song, which is the title track When the Trumpet Sounds. Every single time I hear that song, if I need to focus, if I’m not doing what I’m supposed to be doing, I put this song on and the song just makes me focus. It makes me work out. It makes me eat properly. It makes me think about things I should be doing correctly and every time I play that song, I get the same energy and same vibe from it. I was like you know what, this is the title track, and the name of the album. When the trumpets used to sound in the old days, which is just how I asked my friend to play it, who is Glenn Holdaway, who played the horns on there, I said no man it needs to sound like when the kings used to come out, or there was an announcement about to be made, that’s what it needs to sound like.

Are you planning to release any new singles or videos?

Everything is out. Usually, we go one, then a two, then a three, and then everything. Everyone was like yo man you should drop another single, but I couldn’t even pick a single, I love every single song. It’s been lovely to see the response that I get from different people because the album was made for different types of taste buds/earbuds. Everyone has their favorite, and every single song gets love in its own right.

Videos are coming soon. We are working on that right now. I have a dope concept, which I’m hoping works itself out. It’s on the way. 

Where is the best place for people to go to support your new album and buy your new music?

The album is available on iTunes, Amazon, and other places. For sure, stream it, download it. It’s on SoundCloud and YouTube as well. You can check out my Suckarie.com website that we’re building and Suckarie on Instagram.

A few years ago, I caught your set at The Catalyst in Santa Cruz and I’ve been a huge fan of New Kingston since. I love your band’s unique sound and positive message. What is new with New Kingston? Are you working on new music?

We are. We’ve got probably some of the best music we’ve put out coming soon. I can’t wait for the world to hear it. We’ve shared some snippets of it with professional artists in our circle and the response has been amazing. We’ll have some on the Easy Star label hopefully as well as our own New Kingston Music.