Dre Island — Finding his way
For all of his life, Andre Johnson, 25, has always had music on his mind.
But it wasn’t until three years ago that his voice was found in Dre Island.
Growing up in the volatile Kingston 19 community of Common Sense, Dre Island told teenAGE in our exclusive interview Flexxing With shaped his music.
“My music is an expression of how I feel, it has different types of moods. But most of it is about motivation. I am a spiritual, uplifting, motivational person. If yuh leave it up to me I would walk around and try uplift someone’s spirits, heart, mind and to be happy,” Dre Island told teenAGE.
His consciousness has come through on his most successful track so far — Rastafari Way, which released a video two weeks ago.
He told us for Press Record in the community studio dubbed Great Minds Records that his music is been greatly shaped by what he sees happening in his area.
Dre Island told teenAGE that he grew up just around the corner from Danny Browne’s studio and would interact with the artistes regularly.
But recording booth is not his first brush with music.
Dre Island, while attending Calabar High School on Red Hills Road, practised for countless hours on the piano.
“I had to do music class piano classes every Tuesday, while my friends were in Half-Way-Tree. I never liked that, but after first and second form, I realised that I wasn’t dead (from not being in Half-Way-Tree) and was up to grade five (classical piano). By the time I graduated Calabar, I had a Bachelors Degree (Grade Eight) in Classical Piano from Trinity College.”
“Music is not something that I thought to do, it was something that I couldn’t escape. I’ve been playing the piano since I was in grade three, it is just Jah manifest it that something that I love so much, can make a living.”
The young producer, engineer, instrumenatlist is definitely one to watch in 2013.
— MED
Dre Island talks about musical influences, and the advice to young people hoping to become a recording artiste. All in our EXCLUSIVE Press Record video on the Jamaica Observer website or on YouTube.com/TEENageObserver.
