Ziggy Marley may resemble his father, but his music is very much his own, writes Scott Kara
KEY POINTS:
Everything he did helps us do what we do today." No prizes for guessing who Ziggy Marley is talking about.
"My father is my biggest musical influence. He's my hero," he says in his laidback and often hard to decipher Jamaican lilt.
And through songs like Keep On Dreaming, off his last album Love Is My Religion which won best reggae album at the 2007 Grammy awards, he still keeps in touch with his dad, who died of cancer on May 11, 1981, aged 36.
On the song he sings, "I see you in my visions, it's been too long now since you went away, won't you come back, so we can play."
No doubt by play he means more than just music, because like his father, Ziggy is football-mad.
"Visions and dreams are a form of communication in our culture," he says on the phone from Los Angeles (he also has houses in Jamaica and the Bahamas). "Keep On Dreaming is just acknowledging that and it's about understanding life beyond the physical train of existence."
Marley flies into New Zealand later this week to play Rotorua's Raggamuffin Festival, along with UB40's Ali Campbell, Eddy "Electric Avenue" Grant, Shaggy, Arrested Development, Inner Circle and local acts Kora, Unity Pacific and Three Houses Down, on February 7 at Rotorua International Stadium.
Along with other Raggamuffin artists Marley will be welcomed to New Zealand with a powhiri on Thursday at Auckland Museum - in much the same way his father was welcomed 30 years ago when he came for a concert at Western Springs.
He is also involved in producing a documentary film about Bob which is due out next year and says the best thing about making it is it's a "family affair".
Marley - at 40, the oldest son of Bob and Rita - made his recording debut with his dad back in 1979 on the track Children Playing In The Streets which also featured his siblings Cedella, Stephen, and Sharon. It appeared on the 1985 debut album by Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, Play The Game Right. This album set the template for the reggae-style pop he would become popular for in the 80s and early 90s, especially on 1988's Conscious Party which included worldwide hit Tomorrow People.
He's taken a different musical route from his two most musical brothers, Stephen and Damian, who are rooted in reggae but with a more righteous and confrontational approach (best heard on Damian's Welcome To Jamrock, his 2005 album produced by Stephen).
However, on Love Is My Religion the oldest Marley dabbled more in African beats and sounds.
"My mind is open to a wide variety of musical influences and not being limited by what people expect of your music. With this last record I tried to incorporate more African sounds and that's the direction I want to continue to go in in the future."
He says the reason these African influences emerged recently comes down to him feeling "a need" to do it.
"I need African music and African rhythms - Fela Kuti is one of my biggest influences and I'm drawn to it, I'm drawn to the records, and what's inside it.
"I think about [music] every day of my life, you know. But then," he reflects, "I don't really think about it because it happens naturally."
During a 2003 interview I did with Marley, he said he was concerned about the lack of knowledge young Jamaicans had about their country and its music. Sadly, he says, not much has changed.
Despite the apathy, he's dead set on convincing the younger generation to uphold the mantle left by greats like his father and the late Studio One boss Coxsone Dodd.
"We gonna try and push it on them," he laughs, "because if you don't know your past, you don't know your future."
Being a Marley is big business, but he insists he's not a businessman. "I'm not trying to cheat nobody and take advantage of anything," he chuckles. "I'm just standing up for my rights and you have to do that in life. That's why I'm making sure nobody is trying to cheat me and belittle me. That is the business side of what I do but I don't consider myself a businessman. I'm a musician first, and my wife handles most of the business side. Sometimes she'd like me to be more business-like."
He also does a lot of charity work for children with URGE (Unlimited Resources Giving Enlightenment), Marley's charity based in Jamaica, and Little Kids Rock, a non-profit organisation which gives free instruments and music lessons to children in the US.
He likens his need to do charity work with taking a toilet stop. "It's like you feel like you wanna take a piss. So you do it. You feel like it. But," he says more seriously, "the big part of it is also helping people, whether it's through music, or a contribution of food or money or whatever."
His next musical project will be for the kids, with something he calls a "family album".
"Right now I feel more like wanting to speak to children more than adults, because children have an open mind and if we really want to make a change in the world we have to speak to children."
And with this he signs off with a long and peaceful, "One love, brother."
LOWDOWN
Who: Ziggy Marley
Where and when: Raggamuffin Festival, February 7, Rotorua International Stadium, with Eddy Grant, Ali Campbell (UB40), Shaggy, Inner Circle, Arrested Development, Kora, Unity Pacific, and Three Houses Down.
Essential albums: As Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, Play the Right Game (1985), Conscious Party (1988); as a solo artist, Dragonfly (2003).
Latest album: Love Is My Religion (2006).
