INTERVIEW : TOK
Interview by : Alexandre Tonus & Benoit Georges
Pictures by : Benoit Collin
on Monday, July 10th 2006 - 17 389 views
After a long absence from European stages, TOK, dancehall's most effective quartet, were back in France and Germany this summer, showing us that their popularity is not waning. Quite the opposite: the four Kingston boys, more ambitious than ever, talk with us about their latest success, Footprints, now in rotation on MTV, as well as their many individual and collective projects.
Reggaefrance / How does the songwriting work?
TOK / Flexx: Most of the time, we listen to the track as a group. One of us will bring a melody and we'll build on it. Sometimes we're just in the studio and everything happens by itself, with the vibes. There's no particular method in the way we write.
Does anyone take the leader's role?
Flexx: There are four of us in the group. So we assign responsibilities to each of us, we share the work.
Bay-c: For example, one of us will take care of the business side, another the press, or the labels... So we designate roles but there are no leaders.
You're very popular in Europe but it's been a long time since we've seen you. Why?
Flexx: "My crew, my dawgs" came out in 2001 and after that we did everything to get a second album out. We made sure the album would actually come out, which took three years. During that time, we toured in Japan and all over, but we had to make sure the album came out.
Yesterday on stage, you talked about a new album in the works, still with VP Records?
Flexx: Yes, it will come out on VP. But stay alert because anything can happen this year. I'll just say that Alistaire and Craig have made a few changes so anything is possible. But for the moment, we're with VP.
Yesterday Craigy-T was singing on stage, a far cry from the deejay...
Craigy-T: People may not know it but I started out as a singer before becoming a deejay. In the group, it's all about function, and mine is to deejay. We're quite a versatile group, we're always experimenting with several things. Singing is part of that.
On the latest album, there are a lot of rather old singles...
Flexx: What can you do... In every interview, we announced that there would be lots of singles on this album, and that's what we did. But the album took so long to come out, in the meantime we had recorded new tracks and people expected to have those hits on the album. So we made the choice to release this album anyway, even if the singles are a bit old. But for the next album, we'll change policy.
On stage, you also talked about organising a big beach party this summer... Is your aim to build a big annual event along the lines of Tony Rebel's Rebel Salute?
Alex : This one will be our first of the year and afterwards, we hope to make it a regular event, two or three times a year. TOK isn't just singing and jumping about on stage, TOK is a company. It's about production, promotion, event organisation and of course making sure you get your money's worth.
Bay-C: We've travelled all over the world, played big concerts abroad. But we don't do shows of that scale in Jamaica. So we decided to have our own show where at least once a year our fans can be sure of seeing us on stage.
We often see you on MTV now, which must be another important milestone in your career.
Flexx: Yes, with Footprints.
You also recorded a new version of that video, by the way.
Flexx: Actually, it was more a decision by the label than by us. The label wanted to redo the video to release the song in another, more global market, for quality reasons or whatever. Whatever the case, we make some decisions and at other times decisions are made for us. We do the best we can.
Which version do you prefer?
Bay-C: The first video is very personal to us because we made it in Jamaica. But we're aware that the format of the second video will carry our name further than the first clip. So we like both.
Flexx: And the second one can also speak to people who aren't from Jamaican culture. So it's another level.
Like Footprints, you have a lot of new reggae tracks (Tears, Marijuana). Is that to follow the trend or does it represent a real personal change?
Alex: TOK has always been a vocal group, so there hasn't been a real change. We're showing that apart from party songs and dancehall we can also sing on reggae. It's our way of saying that whatever the musical trends, we can make them our own.
Craigy-T: You can't say we're following the trend. We're Jamaican, we're the "new roots" and reggae. So it's a natural direction.
You surely know that there were a lot of cancellations in Europe last year following complaints about homophobic lyrics. Were you affected by this situation?
Craigy-T: I don't think affected is the right word. As members of the "dancehall fraternity", we are of course affected by what happens. But TOK has never been the target of that type of attack and in the end, as we said at the concert yesterday, our message is always positive. That's why we end our shows on Footprints or on Live it up. That's what we promote.
Apart from this new album, what are your projects?
Bay-C: As Alex said, we're a company and we have our own label, the four of us with Richard "Shams" Browne. Our label is called X.C.A.R. Apart from that, we've recorded on a new riddim, Black rain, for the Bomb Rush label. We also produced the song Wandering mind on Assassin's latest album. Craigy-T also has his own label. Flexx does production with his label Xplosive and manages the young group Monster Twins. Alex did a solo song called Never satisfy and he directed the video shoot himself. We do as much as we can in music, so as to have more control, more releases. We're aware of our own potential and even if people only see us as singers, we can do much more, like what we were saying about the concerts and events. We're going to do a lot of things this year.
Can you finally give us the real meaning of TOK, from the beginning?
Flexx: From the beginning, TOK has always been "Touch Of Klass", but we often joke around with things like "Together On Key", "Taking Over Kingston"...
Craigy-T: You have to understand that TOK is a very versatile group. What matters isn't knowing what TOK means because it can have different meanings at different times. We can play the gangsters or go towards spiritual themes...
Alex: Our music doesn't really belong to one particular genre or style even though it's catalogued as dancehall: we have lots of different styles.
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