INTERVIEW : ROMAIN VIRGO
Interview by : Benoit Georges
Pictures by : DR
on Monday, September 05th 2011 - 8 364 views
Met during his first visit to France, Romain Virgo, the young sensation from Jamaica's 2007 equivalent of Pop Idol, already has everything of a pro: in less than three years, he has managed to show that he was far more than a shooting star. His artistic maturity is astonishing in a 20-year-old. With hit singles, a first album on VP and first tours, this lover of old-school music has built his career on solid foundations… while continuing his studies.
Reggaefrance / Welcome to France, since this is your first visit.
Romain Virgo / Indeed, I came to Europe last year for the Rototom festival in Spain, but this is my first time in France. It's also my first tour on my own in Europe, and it's going very well so far. I'm surprised because everywhere I play, I get a very warm welcome from the audience.
Let's talk a little about your origins... You grew up in the countryside, in the parish of St Ann.
Yes, I grew up in Stepney, a small community a mile from Nine Miles, where Bob Marley was born. I grew up in a "struggling family", a family that fought to get by. It's like a ghetto in the city, except that people don't wage war on each other, in the literal sense, with guns... Nothing like that out there. Still, there were battles too, because I come from a very poor family. I mostly grew up with my mother, who supported us alone, the one I spent 90% of my life with, the one who is always around and tries to make everyone in the family smile. Sometimes I wonder how she does it, because she never had a regular job; she gets by running a little stall. It was a hard childhood. I still remember when I had only one pair of shoes that I wore to school, to church, always and everywhere. It was hard, but Jah was there and he is still there.
Who feels it knows it, which for me is one of your finest achievements, is a rather classic "sufferer tune"; do you consider yourself a "sufferer"?
Yes, of course, we went through that. Now that I've become a professional artist and can make a living from concerts, quite a few things have been made easier for my family. But I went through it, with my family: I know what it is not to know when the next meal will come, I know what it is on a Sunday to make do with a small meal that isn't as nourishing as most people's in Jamaica. But we never felt sorry for ourselves: we always believed the best was yet to come, that we just had to work hard and believe that the best would come no matter what. That's a bit the spirit of this family. My mother always encouraged me to work hard. When I wrote Who feels it knows it, I didn't have to think that much: when you know that situation, you put pen to paper and write without thinking.
 Quand on parle de Kingston, on te raconte tellement d’histoires, c’est vraiment flippant. 
Do you sleep well in Stepney, better than in Kingston? You complain about it in the track Can't sleep.
(laughs) Yes, much better! I live in Kingston now, but it's always a pleasure to go back to my little community. Because that's where you share the best vibrations, the most love. My family and everybody around are all excited when I come back. It's a very peaceful community, people are polite, every morning they stop in front of your house to say hello, they are full of love.
You often mention gunshots in your songs; did it frighten you when you arrived in Kingston?
Yes, of course. You come from the countryside, and you might hear once or twice a year that somebody got killed, but when it comes to Kingston, they tell you so many stories, it's really scary. But that's life, and you have to stay careful. I think it was part of my duty, as an artist, to talk about it and condemn this violence: a gun is not the solution, there are other paths in life. And at the same time, I wanted to tell people to be careful, to watch their backs.
You started out singing backing vocals...
Even before the church, we had a one-room house for five of us, and a table. Every evening my brother would drum the rhythm on the table (that was his thing), and my mother and I would sing and record it on cassette. Then every Sunday morning we would play the cassette before going to church. That was my first studio, in a way. But that's really how it all began. It was a neighbour we knew who first told me I could sing outside my family. He was walking past our house, heard me singing and told my mother. I was rather shy, and at church I didn't want anyone to hear me sing, so I would wait until the end of the service, when everyone had left, to stand behind the microphone. I loved that echo in the church. One morning I did just that, and people realised I could sing. So they put me in the youth choir and I sang every Sunday. I must have been 10 or 11. I carried on singing with the church, everywhere, inside and outside the community, until I started high school, where I became the soloist of the school choir. In 2006 we entered a choir competition called "All Together Sing", a televised competition across the whole island. We came second, and I was the solo singer. From then on, everyone told me I should try the "Digicel Rising Stars" competition, the TV show that exists in almost every country. That's what I did, and in 2007 I became the youngest winner of that show.
You won a million Jamaican dollars as a prize and since then you've released two singles on the theme of money, No money and As the money done. Is the money already gone?
(laughs) I already wanted to go to a school, The Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts; that's what I said everywhere in interviews. And I told myself that this money could make it possible, knowing I couldn't have paid for more than two or three years of study at that school. I'm in my third year now, if you count the preparatory year to get into the school. So most of that money went on my studies, and today I think it was a very wise choice, because it helped me improve my stage performance. I was shy and lacked confidence at the start, and I think the teachers helped me gain that confidence in myself.
Isn't it too hard to combine your music career and your studies?
Yes, it's hard, I won't pretend otherwise. Since the start of this semester, which began in September, I went on tour in the United States with Capleton and didn't go to class for over a month, then with this little European tour, that's another month without classes. So out of a four-month semester, I've already missed almost three. I have exams scheduled for me in January and February, instead of December. I'm going to miss the December session, so I have to sit a resit. It's tough and I lack the time to work on aspects that interest me. But the teachers are very understanding, because most of them have had the chance to build careers themselves. They try to work with me as best they can and I do my best to get through this course. Everybody expects me to succeed, so I work hard. I truly believe that by working hard I'll get there, while also finding success in music.
There is clearly a lover side to your style. It's interesting, by the way, to compare you with artists like Sanchez on the Penthouse riddims.
As for the riddims, first of all, that's thanks to Donovan Germain, my first producer, who bets everything on musical quality. It's a real pleasure for me to work with him; he's both a father and a mentor. He's always ready to record.
Sometimes he gives us a riddim and we already know it will be perfect for a love song: sometimes the riddim speaks to you so much that it influences the writing of the song. And it's rewarding to be on the same riddim as great artists like Beres Hammond, Sanchez or even Busy Signal, Etana, Queen Ifrica...
Among your love songs there is Taking you home, with a progressive message that made me think of Tarrus Riley's Start a new. Where did the idea of talking about domestic violence come from?
It's one of the two songs on the album that I didn't write. It's credited to Black Pearl. I fell in love with that song from the first listen. I said to myself: this song is so realistic! So many women have lived through this and rarely does anyone sing about it. I thought it was right for me to release this song and be the spokesperson for women who have experienced this situation or a similar one. It turns out to be a beautiful song, everyone likes it and it's one of my songs that gets played most on the radio, in Jamaica at least. We shot a video that we're finishing so that it comes out before the end of the year.
You can also link it to the track Love doctor: saving a woman, then comforting her by being the "love doctor".
Yes, that's true. In fact, all these songs made me think of a story: for example, I meet a Dark skin girl, the rain suddenly starts falling (Rain is falling), I take her home in the evening (Taking you home) and I become her Love doctor. It's as if my catalogue of love songs formed a story, it's funny.
What's remarkable about you is that despite your young age, you're really good at the vintage style. For example, you have your Alton Medley, the Toots cover, and even in dancehall you tend to use vintage riddims like the Boops or the Duck... Why?
It comes down to the way I grew up. I lived in a household where my mother chose the music, she's the boss! She'd put on Beres Hammond, Alton Ellis, Dennis Brown... These are artists I listened to growing up. In my view that's one of the reasons I particularly like singing this vintage music. That feeling probably influences me when I write my songs. That's where all of today's music comes from and it's especially flattering to follow in the footsteps of those great artists. But it's true that people are surprised by my "old soul" side.
But if you were offered it, would you record dancehall tracks?
Yes, why not, I've already done it. But I see myself doing roots and lovers rock, essentially. I'd certainly do two or three dancehall tracks, but it's not really what I feel deep in my heart. I like doing different styles of music, dancehall or R&B, but I do it mainly to show that I appreciate music as a whole, or to be able to sing for everyone. But what I love most is the music that has been in me for a long time: I listened to lovers rock, I listened to roots, so it's natural that they figure among my major influences. It lets me push myself further and I want to do it full time.
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