A health scare in 2022 propelled Norman Gentles to become a singer of gospel music.

Roughly four years later, he has written over 100 songs, with the track His name is Jesus being his latest recording.

Gentles, who goes by the stage name ‘Norman Bindy G’ told the Jamaica Observer that by all indications, gospel fans have been more and more receptive to his music and said that the ever-increasing number of views and streams on the various music streaming platforms including YouTube and Spotify, is testament to that.

“The melodies have just kept coming. I have written over 100 songs. That’s a lot of gospel songs. The latest track I have is called His name is Jesus. I had the pleasure of performing the song in Portmore recently. Gospel JA invited me down from London and I even ended up being a judge for a contest they had. I was well received. His name is Jesus is still being championed by Gospel JA,” Gentles, who reside in the United Kingdom, shared with the Observer.

Though he decided to become a gospel singer just under five years ago, he has been involved with the music business as a journalist and in various other capacities for many decades.

As the founder of the Musical Heatwave Brand, which encompasses a record label, music publishing and a radio station, his main genre of focus was Reggae, but according to him, he was moved by the spirit of God to become a gospel singer and has no regrets.

Finding for himself a highly devoted Christian wife, he has also garnered a lot of inspiration for his music from her.

“Having been brought up in a Christian family, my grandmother was a Christian, my father and mother were staunch Christians. They lived a very gospel-led life but from time- to-time I ventured into reporting on secular music. In my older days now, I just felt a calling to do gospel. I taught myself to play the guitar and I just felt the inspiration coming to me in the form of songs and melodies.

“I met a now good friend, a musician who has a studio in Santa Cruz. I took an idea to him, what I was hearing and feeling and I started writing some lyrics. I then recorded my first song, ‘Your mercy is what I need’. We got it together and put it out there. It has now got over 385,000 views on YouTube. That really told me that there was something in it and my faith got stronger. I got married to a woman of God who helped me, as well as the church I was attending. Over 385, 000 views, it’s doing quite well on Spotify and YouTube. People are actually enjoying the message,” he said.

Other than promoting his latest song, Gentles shared that another major focus of his is the upkeep of his radio station as well as his music publishing initiatives.

He said he is on a constant mission to guide musicians on how to properly register their songs and have them copyrighted.

“It goes for gospel music as well as secular music. The business is the business, no matter the genre. The business side of music is very important because a lot of our singers, songwriters, even now when I come across many of our artistes, they have not got the first idea about how to copyright their music. That is one of my goals at the moment, to actually educate many of our young artistes as well as those who are mature and still struggling to understand the business,” Gentles told the Observer.

“I have produced quite a few songs on the Musical Heatwave Label for like Dr Marsha Thomas who did a song called Let the Lower Lights be Burning. We’ve got Dudley Eulitts with Bulls Eye and we got the singer Winston Roach. He has got the song Red Sea,” he noted.

Getting compensation for artistes who have been denied or robbed of royalties derived from their musical works is another mission that Gentles is on and it is one that is dear to his heart. According to him, it means so much to him, he has written a book on the topic.

“I have an e-book showing beginners how to copyright their music. It is called Copyright for Beginners. We have seen many of our artistes die in poverty and it is sad to see that many died without receiving a penny and their songs made a lot of money. There are some unscrupulous producers out there, sadly. That’s another side of the story. We are still trying to find the royalties for some of the artistes who have not been paid for many, many years,” said Gentles.

“You had Max Romeo, who sadly passed. Before he passed, we were able to get some funds for him. He got some reward for some of the works he had not been paid for since the 1976. We were trying to secure the royalties for one of the biggest albums in Reggae business, Black Heartman by Bunny Wailer who sadly passed.”