Singer Nattali Rize says she was first introduced to reggae music while growing up in Byron Bay, a coastal town in the south-eastern Australian state of New South Wales.

“Thanks to the eclectic taste of my mother, she raised me on Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, and Judy Mowatt. She also taught me how to play the guitar and it was from that moment that I decided that this was what I wanted to do as a career,” she told the Jamaica Observer at the launch of her 11-track sophomore album Liberate on Thursday, March 6 at Pon Top Bar & Grill.

“I’ve been doing music for 20 years now and the journey has been good, and I’m very grateful for it,” said the artiste, who was a member of a reggae fusion/jazz/rock band Blue King Brown, which won several awards and released three albums in Australia.

She first visited Jamaica 12 years ago, a move she said was to connect more with the music that she loved.

“I’ve been back and forth to Jamaica. I decided to come here to be near to the heartbeat of the music. I even recorded a seven-track EP with Unga of Notice Production. But I released my début album
Rebel Frequency in 2017,” she explained.

Nattali Rize’s new album Liberate features a collaboration with singer Judy Mowatt, whom she disclosed as a favourite of hers while growing up, the late Jo Mersa Marley, Kabaka Pyramid, Mike Love, and Kumar.

“With this new album we are fulfilling our mission and purpose as musicians to bring sound, word, power, and frequencies to uplift and connect to our human family across borders and waters. We are in a time where music is a healer with the ability to unify us in the moment, sending ripples of positivity into our collective reality,” she states.

Among the producers who worked on the album are Phillip “Winta” James, Aston Barrett Jr, Stu Brooks, Unga Barunga, and France-based 4 Examples.

She explained the significance of the album’s title.

“Liberate, to me, represents the creation for me. This is something that music has the power to do to people. One of the reasons that I chose this to be the album’s title is because of the song Liberate, which features Judy Mowatt. This is really a special song for me. It’s a roots reggae track produced by Aston Barrett Jr,” she shared noting that the project took close to seven years to complete.

“Great things take time. I do a lot of live performances, and I cherish that person-to-person connection; that energy that you cannot replace with anything. I have been travelling a lot and bringing the music to people. So the album took some time. This project is really special to me; it took a lot of resources, a lot of time and energy,” the artiste said.

Some of the tracks featured on Liberate include Indestructible with Kumar, This Sound with Jo Mersa Marley, This World and Brave Heart with Kabaka Pyramid, and Believer.