INTERVIEW : SERANI
Interview by : Cyril le Tallec
Pictures by : Marlène Boulad
on Friday, August 22nd 2008 - 11 444 views
Alongside Stephen McGregor, Don Corleon, Baby G and Shane Brown, Serani is one of the most prominent producers in Kingston. Co-founder of the Daseca label, Serani composed most of its riddims, supplying a good many hits to Busy Signal, Mavado and Bugle, a house artist… and Serani himself, who doesn't shy away from stepping up to the microphone. Although Serani has been composing since 1997, things got serious in 2001 with the creation of the Daseca label by three people: David, Serani and Craig. It is hard to see what could keep Daseca from the leading roles in the years to come.
Reggaefrance / Daseca is responsible, with other labels, for a new direction in dancehall, heavily influenced by hip hop…
Serani / With Daseca, we always try to have a certain groove. We try to make danceable music, whether for the women or for everyone else. We preserve the dancehall and reggae side of the music with an international touch. I’d say our influences go far beyond hip-hop, we just make music… Listen to What I’m Gonna Do by Bugle: you have the dancehall rhythm (he starts singing the track and tapping out the rhythm with his hands) and I play piano on the tune. When you listen to the intro, the piano doesn’t make you think of dancehall and yet there’s that reggae bass and that dancehall rhythm that make it a reggae track.
Which producers inspire you in your music?
First I want to big up all the Jamaican producers who have inspired me over all these years, even before I made music. Sly & Robbie, Steelie & Clevie, Dave Kelly because he controlled the 90s… Jeremy Harding (of 2 Hard, Sean Paul’s first producer, editor’s note), even though he arrived in 1997, inspired me a lot. Among foreign producers, it’s Timbaland and the Neptunes but the one I appreciate most is Swizz Beatz. The first time I heard Ruff Ryders’ Anthem with DMX, he wasn’t even 18 and I was 15, it impressed me… He’s the one who really made me want to get into music.
Which productions are you proudest of?
What makes me proud is the respect our label Daseca enjoys today. But one production in particular, not really. What I notice is that every time we produce a track with a new artist, he explodes before people have even heard his tune! You have this new singer called Lorraine we’re working with, and because we work together, lots of producers are contacting us to produce her. I’ve only recorded one track with her and nobody has heard it yet, not even my partners. Even she didn’t believe in it! It just shows the kind of respect we can receive and it drives me crazy.
 Quand j’enregistre Mavado, sa voix est trop belle pour que j’utilise l'autotune 
The public discovered you with Dying in combination with Mavado; had you released other tracks before?
I can’t say I started with Dying because it was just a studio vibe, I went into the booth and just sang that, the melody was good. I even wondered whether I’d been right to sing on that tune… But the feedback I got was crazy. I wasn’t used to it (laughs) because when I compose, once the instrumental is finished, I stop. Sometimes, the version isn’t even finished and I hum over it.
You had success with the single Doh (with Bugle); what can we expect from your first album?
We’ve just released an album for Japan only, I talked with my manager Julian (manager of Bounty Killer and Mavado, among others, editor’s note) and I think the worldwide release will benefit from more tracks. The first feedback is incredible, I find it hard to believe it’s me singing. I never thought of becoming an artist…
Who did you work with on this album?
I did 2 tracks for TJ Records, Money, Power, Respect and No Games, on the Unfinished Business riddim that has only just come out, I recorded When Work Is Done for Ward 21 on the Tear Up Jeans riddim (a recut of the Cordy Roy!). I worked with a producer called Casper, I don’t remember the name of his label, Shane Brown and his label Juke Boxx… The rest is Daseca, I composed practically all the riddims (laughs).
Daseca is one of the most prominent labels in Kingston, along with Stephen McGregor, Shane Brown and Baby G. Can we talk about competition or healthy emulation?
If you want to keep that term, I’d say it’s good competition between us… I congratulate Stephen because he really does good work and he’s a friend, we went to school together. You know, there’s a lot of money to be made in music and everybody has their place. Big up Stephen, Shane Brown and all the others! And besides, you know, if there were competition, they’d be K.O.! (he bursts out laughing, pleased with his joke).
You advocate non-violence, for example, in I’m Not a Badman; is it autobiographical?
I have to stay honest with myself: I don’t like negativity so I focus on the positive side of life, that’s why I sing Be Free or Too Much Gunshots… I don’t like violence and I wouldn’t like somebody to come and hurt one of my friends or one of my family members. I don’t like bad news, I don’t like dealing with negativity. I try not to record that kind of song because I think we have to be role models for the audience that listens to us, we have to be careful about the messages we convey to young people in our music because they’re the ones who listen to it the most.
And yet you released the Anger Management riddim with lyrics each more hardcore than the last…
Actually, I loved the vibe and energy of the riddim but I don’t know whether I’d release it again today… The reality is that it was our first juggling riddim. Everything that followed was very hardcore. So I tried to make softer tracks like No Games or She Loves Me, which were a great success.
What do you think of autotune? You used it yourself on Dying…
I used autotune on only one track, Dying. Artists who use it limit themselves: how will they stand out if everybody ends up sounding the same? Sometimes, I can’t even tell who is singing what. When you see me on stage, you hear the same thing as on record. And when I record Mavado, his voice is too beautiful for me to use autotune…
At the moment, Jamaica’s musical hour is dancehall; can we expect reggae releases from Daseca?
Definitely, we’ve recorded lots of reggae tracks which haven’t been released yet. Reggae is music, and nobody can stop reggae.
How do you see reggae and dancehall in the coming years?
Personally, I have lots of plans for this music, I’m trying to take it to the next level. We need investors, big labels that invest. If we take the music to a higher level, we’ll try to take the business to that same level. It can’t be the mission of a single artist or a single producer. Sean Paul and Shaggy didn’t make it all by themselves, unity is strength.
What are Daseca’s projects?
We’re working with our singer Lorraine, we’ve just recorded Christopher Martin, Voicemail, Mavado, Assassin… We’re doing lots of things.
And Bugle, the label’s first artist signing?
If he’s not the best, he’s one of the best writers at the moment. He’s crazy, I don’t know where all these ideas come from to him… He has a deep tone, his choruses are powerful, I’m sure he’s going to become important.
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