RM: Who is Nasio?

Nasio: Well Nasio is a youth born on the eastern coast of Dominica, you know. Grow up like every other child. Grow up in a wooden house with no electricity, no running water, and don’t really have nothing than what we have around us. Grow, learn to plant, learn to farm, learn to survive off of the land, y’know? Seven brothers… mother and father. Is a simple youth, a simple youth. But basically, we feel inspired from early, we just feel like there is work that we must do, and we must use Reggae music as the vehicle to get it out to the people. Rasta man, revolutionary.

RM: You said you want to use Reggae as the vehicle. How does somebody from a Dominica – How did you decide to use Reggae, coming from an island that give us people like Scrunter and Hurricane and calypsonians like that. How did you chose Reggae with those kinds of influences around you?

Nasio: [laughs]. When we were in Jamaica we had to answer that question over and over! Every radio, every TV station, y’know? You see mi brethren, that is why I know Jah is great and mighty. His Majesty called I and I from early. The question has been popping up regularly: Dominica… calypso. But it’s not really where you born, you know, it’s where you really come from inna your head. It’s like, Jah will take his people from the basest places on the earth. From any part of the earth Jah desire to bring unto the people. So it’s not really a thing where me choose and say, “well, it’s got to be Reggae music.” All I know, there was a force within I and I, talking to I and I all through, y’know? And then, growing up, I never grow up with much Reggae. It was while growing up, I start picking up some Reggae, listening to it, and we realize “oh! This is the ideal vehicle.” So it’s not really a choosing thing. Because IF mi was able to chose certain things, huh! I would chose not to really be in the West, y’know?

RM: As you were being introduced to Reggae, and developing your style as a singer, who were your musical influences?

Nasio: Well, the influences were a group of different artists. I listened to a whole heap of Culture, listened to a lot of Burning Spear. And it is not basically only Reggae, because I used to listen to a lot of different kinds of music. Because, you know, radio waves down there, you listen to anything you can pick up on your little Phillips radio, anything that comes through. But Reggae music: Burning Spear, Jacob Miller is a big big influence. Bob Marley is my greatest influence, y’know? There are other Reggae artists who have been great influences. So it’s a combination of these greater, older artists, y’know, who have set a great, great foundation for I and I.

RM: You talk about the older artists. Of your contemporaries, which modern-day artists do you listen to and rate as a good artist?

Nasio: I listen to a group called Midnite, y’know? I man love Midnite. I man love Buju. I man love Morgan Heritage. There are a few, quite a few of them. My vibe is: it must be conscious, y’know? Any artists who come out with something positive, it always influences me, and I man always look towards it as good, y’know? So there are a few artists. Maybe right now I and I can’t really come to it, but there are a few brothers out there who are doing some serious work.

RM: Take me through the voyage: Dominica to St. Maarten, and how you end up in New York.

Nasio: In the earlies, my biggest brothers and sisters used to live in St. Maarten. And being the last child of the family, I was always offered tickets to come through. You know how it is in the Caribbean when you have people overseas – “one of these days they’re gonna send me a ticket and I’m gonna move on” y’know? But I man never really want to leave Dominica. Because from early I was always inspired. Dominica had my soul. Trees and rivers and I man love that natural life as the life! And then, um, 1981 my mother tell me that it would be good if I go. Every year they send you tickets and you refuse it. You should grab one of them and see what life have to offer.

So I take the trip to St. Maarten, and influence myself upon little groups, y’know? Go ‘round to band halls and start beg to sing one song. Then I start my own little group and start to play with other musicians, older musicians than myself. And then from there we start to grow. I start writing my songs. I learn to play the guitar. ‘Cause we didn’t have no aunt or no godfather or no great grandfather, so everything we just have to keep pushing through, y’know? And from that we do two recordings. We do “Babylon Is Falling” in 1986, and “Born To Be Free.” Then mi realize, bwoy, mi need to do some stronger works, y’know? Look for some greater musicians, and just keep on moving, ‘cause I don’t like to be stagnant y’know? Then, start head out to Jamaica in the ‘90s. And then we do Reggae Power, and from that we went back to St. Maarten and spend a little time there, still. And then decided, well, bwoy, the place start to get limited, y’know? So we start to move out to a greener pasture, or a greater pasture… a place where the voice can be heard on a larger ground, y’know. So then, um, ’95 we head up to America. And that is where we’re at. Still going back and forth.

RM: So you’re currently living in New York?

Nasio: Well yeah. Well “live” is a hard word, y’know, because every year we go back to Dominica and spend three months, some years we spend six months, go twice, y’know? Because I man love to farm, and love the environment, so that is where my soul is. But I mean living is like… living for me is not really a physical place, it is like a different vibe. But inna New York we work and we do some works, so it’s good for the work.

RM: You mentioned the process, and how you went to Jamaica and recorded Reggae Power over there. I read that even after you recorded Reggae Power, you sat on it for a couple years before you actually released it to the public. Why did it take you a couple years after recording such a great album to release it?

Nasio: Well you see Milo, the whole thing is that the road has been a rough and tough and rugged road, you know? So when we go [to Jamaica] to do the music and we get back, we have the master tape, but we don’t have no money, y’know? We barely surviving, barely eating and drinking. So we just hold on to the masters and say when Jah time is right, he will take it to the people. And then one time, a year, two years after, we bring some brothers home, smoke some herb, and we play a tape, y’know? And dem say “who dat?” and mi say “well, is some music mi do.” And dem say “bwoy, u mussi mad. Rasta, this tape have to be released to the people.” And then everybody start to talk about it, talk about it. And we star make an effort, and have it manufactured two years after it was recorded. So that is how we got to Reggae Power. You see, everything happen mystically, a force, like, say this is not the time to release this, you wait for the right time. It wasn’t even off of my powers y’know? If you ask me why all these things happen, I don’t know why.

RM: When did you make the decision as a youth to grow your natty and become a Rasta?

Nasio: Well. Decision… decision. Mi don’t even think it’s a decision, y’know. Because, when we used to be at home, as youth, mi mother and father used to say, to be a Rasta Man in Dominica during that time, you asking to get shot y’know? Because the Dread Act was alive. I don’t know if you know, there was a Dread Act in Dominica. There was a death squad of people, calling themselves soldiers. They used to go around and shoot the Rastaman on sight. There was a law saying you can shoot the Rastaman on sight wherever you can see him! So for anyone to have dreadlocks at that time, you must hide. You have to be in the mountains, and they would still go get you! So my mother would always say “not in my house,” y’know? “no dreadlocks in my house.” Because to say Rasta, it’s like you saying disgrace. And the people don’t overstand, so you really can’t blame them. But still, yet, this deep conviction is within you and its growing every day, and you can’t resist it. So, really, we never grow dreads in Dominica. But when we went to St. Maarten, the spirit rise. The spirit say “this is it. Must bear the fruit.” And then, we knot up and dread. Yeah, and just denounce and renounce all the things that we were taught that we know were like. . . indoctrinations. Rastafari tek over. Spiritually. Physically. The whole works. So Basically it’s in St. Maarten we grow, y’know?

RM: How does Rasta, as a way of living and as a philosophy, how does Rasta influence the sort of music that you make and the message in your music.

Nasio: Well Rasta is the whole influence. There is no two influence and three influence. Rasta itself is the influence. Rasta is what teach you to live. And show you how to go bout life. And show you how to get that spiritual vibration link-up. To write. To live. To grow. To do and not to do, y’know? Rasta is the whole. Rasta is the livity. Rasta is the way of life. Rasta is the reality. The only way of life for I an I.

RM: Well, I don’t know how much you follow Dancehall music. But they have a lot of artists who claim say dem a Rasta, but they put out music with a more harsh vibe, a more negative vibe. What do you think about these people now, who also have natty and also claim Rastafari?

Nasio: Well you see Milo, from Rastafari point of view, I’m not in a position to judge no one. But I man say “woe unto them who say that they are, and they are not,” y’know? Let all judgment be unto Jah. Jah is the only one who can judge. Because even if we judge, and we judge right. . . But I’m saying, Rasta is a thing you don’t pretend to be, Rasta is a thing that you are. What you are, that’s what you are, y’know? So, I mean, Every man must know himself. Ad every man must know what he’s getting into. Bust for I an I see, Rasta is the livity. Rasta is the only way of life for I an I.

RM: Let’s talk a little about your most recent album, Living In The Positive. Wicked album.

Nasio: Thank you, my brethren.

RM: How is it doing out there in the marketplace, and how are you satisfied with the response that it’s been getting in the marketplace?

Nasio: Well yeah. Living In The Positive is doing great, because Living In The Positive was not released on any major label. So Nasio built a little machinery as best as he could to get the music circulating. Well, we have, right now. . . we just picked up very good management. And the music is being sold in France and England in major mega stores. And it’s doing good. But other than that, Living In The Positive is doing very good, as a matter of fact. And we have just got news that. . . we have just got signed to a label, y’know?

RM: Oh, really?

Nasio: Yeah, the media hasn’t gotten the full vibe yet, but, from a personal point of view, we just got signed to Sanctuary [home of Trojan Records] and for worldwide distribution, y’know? Distribution by BMG. But even presently, and the couple months that Living In The Positive has been out there, it has been really, really positive. The reaction and the feedback is very positive. And we’re really glad that the people who support the music, which are the people who are really responsible for making the music what it is – we can record it and play it, but the people are the ones who love it, and decide, and vote it and say what it is, y’know? So we wanna thank all those people, they have played a major part in making everything what it is. [Continue]