Walshy Fire brushes off chatter that Major Lazer’s best years are done; says the group has a lot more in store
KINGSTON, Jamaica – International music group, Major Lazer has been making waves on the overseas entertainment circuit for decades. Constantly reinventing themselves, they have managed to stay on top despite the many changes the industry has undergone in recent years.
In an interview with OBSERVER ONLINE, Walshy Fire, a member of Major Lazer, revealed that though it may sound cliche, one of the reasons they continue to stay relevant is through hard work and an undying love for music.
“Mi can honestly say me love music and mi know Diplo love it too. That’s the main thing that has kept us going over the years. That and the number of things we’ve been able to accomplish through the music,” Walshy Fire said. “We’ve put in the work and globally people recognised it. As a youth from Molynes Road in Kingston, Jamaica, that’s huge and we just want to continue doing great things.”
Speaking of continuing to break the mould in music, Walshy Fire said despite chatter that Major Lazer has perhaps flown past their best days, he believes the group still has a lot more to offer. He expressed that rather than taking talks of them passing their prime as negative, the group views it “as a compliment as the word ‘prime’ suggests that at some point throughout their career, they hit their peak.”
“That’s a great way to say we’ve accomplished a lot actually,” he laughed. “Seriously though, I love that. You can’t change people’s opinions but the fact that they think your best days are behind you makes you realise they did recognise that you piqued. There was a time you were on top,” he said. “People don’t like growth, they don’t like change and that’s ok. I am glad I was able to give people what they did like at some point and that is one thing that I can honestly say is a compliment.”
Not subscribing to the noise, Walshy Fire said Major Lazer has a lot of music still to drop.
“We just dropped an album and we have a lot of solos but collectively we have an Amapiano album that’s out and doing extremely well,” he said. “It’s South African House Music and let me be very clear, house music is African music. It’s black people’s music. It’s our thing and is like all of us just woke up one day and say this is our thing so let’s just really grab it and profit from it finally.”
Outside of their latest album, Walshy says he’s hoping that the creative genius that Major Lazer has become known for will thrust them into the path of a few of the new-generation dancehall artistes. Highlighting how well the new acts have been able to manipulate social media to their advantage, Walshy Fire says he’s hoping to collaborate with a few of today’s hottest acts.
“I just did a show with Valiant, bad artiste, love him. I think Stalk Ashley is dope. There are so many, I can’t list all of them. I would love to work with some of them. I don’t know them personally but I would love to link up with any of them and put in some work,” he said. “To me, dancehall is very much alive. Mi just see Teejay perform Drift inna St Kitts and the place went insane. Byron Messia, the baddest thing. So big up the new artistes. Do unu thing, Walshy see unu.”