In his continued bid to push soca music beyond the West Indian diaspora, Machel Montano has teamed up with two major international entities for his 2013 album.
Possessed, which Kerwin DuBois wrote, features the vocals of South African choral group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Montano flew to South Africa at the end of last year to record the song with the award-winning vocalists.
“I was a fan since they were introduced to the world on Paul Simon’s album Graceland,” said Montano.
“When Kerwin played the song, I loved it, it sounded almost African and I suggested using Ladysmith Black Mambazo on it. I always wanted to work with them.”
“It was an experience like no other,” he said of his time spent recording with the group.
He said while in South Africa, they also shot a video and introduced Africa to soca music when they walked through the streets playing the song and watching people’s reaction.
Montano said for the last two years he has been listening to African music and started work on the ground to find African producers, artistes and musicians.
He said this collaboration is just the beginning as he intends to do more work on the continent.
Another collaboration Montano is excited about is the upcoming release of a song he did with R&B group Boyz II Men.
Called The End, the song, Montano said, signifies the end of the Carnival road; the nostalgia one feels when Carnival is coming to an end and the yearning for it to last.
“We also trying to go international so it draws reference to the relationship between a man and a woman, not wanting it to end,” he explained.
Montano said the song came to him while he was on a flight to LA to perform at Alphonso Ribeiro’s wedding in October.
“I was thinking about being so tired and still wanting to go and I was starting to think about how some entertainers take it to the end, I was like wow.
I always think about going into management and helping artistes and not going down that road.
I started to relate it to mas and how some people don’t want it to be the end of the road. I remember being on pavements crying cause I don’t want Carnival to end,” he said.
He said the Boyz II Men connection was made after he performed Bottle of Rum at the former fresh Prince of Bel Air actor’s wedding.
“A man came up and introduced himself, he was the manager of Joey Fatone of N’ Sync as well as Boyz II Men, the Jacksons and En Vogue. He said he was very interested to work with me on some ideas.”
Montano said following that conversation, he went home and started putting ideas together with the Fullblown Entertainment writing team.
They flew to Barbados where the red Boyz produced it and when he arrived back in Vegas from South Africa, met with the veteran singing group.
“We spoke about the vision of the song and my life and how much song means so much to me. They said it was the same for them and they wanted to try to reach out to the Caribbean islands to work where they have so many fans. They loved the song immediately.”
Montano said he considers the song as a last lap release for after Carnival when they will decide what they want to do with it internationally.