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She is one of the few Women who "made it in the Biz.
After Lady Saw and Tanya Stephens she 's the third female
who holds the top spot of the Germaican Observer. Ce'cile,
who is not only a singer that bust in the Dancehall but a
respected producer. With hit riddims like Double Jeopardy
and Martial Arts she's creating waves all over the Reggae
world. Nadine talked with the girl from kool Mandeville about
her childhood, her way into the business and slack lyrics…
Germaican Observer: You have been singing
since you were 16 yrs. old, what are the changes that you
have seen in yourself over the years?
Ce'cile: Well, I see myself as a growing person... musically
I am still growing, this is just the initial stages... I am
glad for whatever achievements I have had so far and I am
in the working stages. What I think about Ce'cile?
Ce'cile is still growing, Ce'cile don't reach
no where yet.
G.O: What was your childhood like?
C.: My childhood, I never really had a childhood…
all I did sit down and write songs, initially it was writing
poetry… I wanted to be an author or an english teacher
so I wrote poems and short stories. I wasn't the kind of child
who was always out playing and I am still not that kind of
person, I would rather stay home and write and that's what
my childhood was all about, writing. I never played with other
kids and stuff like that.
G.O: So that would mean that you don't
really have a lot of friends?
C.: No, I don't… I have like a very very small circle
of friends, like about four and I still maintain my friendships
from high school and I have not made any new friends and don't
want to meet them… anybody else are just acqaintances.
G.O: School, how was that?
C.: School was great, I loved Typing because I could type
out my songs in my Typing classes… I loved English, I
was the bomb in English and English Literature… I wanted
to do English Literature and American Literature but out in
Jamaica we did what the guys did in England .
School for me was fun because of my English and Typing classes…
I was not good in the others subjects.
G.O: Are you from a poor family?
C.: My mother had to struggle, we weren't hungry or anything
but she had to struggle to find some extra stuff… until
was thirteen I didn't have the new dolls that came out, but
I had everything else, but my mother was smart she had me
for a very rich man. The family by my father's side they were
very rich… my grandfather was the Mayor of where I am
from, Mandeville and when I was thirteen I went to live with
my dad… I am from the best of both worlds, money isn't
everything.
G.O: When you said you wanted to become
a singer, were they o.k. with that?
C.: Oh no, they didn't even think that I would go anywhere,
they didn't even know what I was talking about, cause none
of my family really listen to Dancehall or even liked it…
but now they are kinda like slowing believing that something
can come from doing Dancehall or maybe I can evolve into a
real singer... I hope to prove them right.
G.O: Would you call yourself a singer
or a deejay?
C.: I am a singer who tries to deejay to spice up my Dancehall
stuff, cause I know the singing can be a little bit boring…
the singing that I wanna do is not gonna really happen in
the Dancehall stages, in this stage… I would have to
like deal with a big company so they can promote it…
you know certain things no matter how good it is, if the majority
of the people don't hear it , or if it's no push into the
people's eyesight, then no body not going to know it.
G.O: Was it difficult to get a break,
any prejudices because you are a woman or did you have the
contacts?
C.: It wasn't hard to get in because I just thought of
it from a business and logical point of view… if you
want to be a lawyer you know that after high school you have
to go to law school, so I figured that I wanted to sing and
I didn't really know many of the people that were in music
and I didn't want to go hang around the studios, so what I
did I was go to work in a recording studio as a secretary
and then I worked my way up to managing the studio… then
I started doing backing vocals for people and people started
saying "oh, she sounds good" and that's basically
just a smart way of getting yourself in. Many of these records
execs were interns at the record companies… I think that
you have to think about it logically and work it out like
science.
G.O: That was at Celestial Studio with
Stephen Ventura, but you don't record with him any more, why
is that?
C.: Stephen doesn't really do hardcore Dancehall stuff
and so right now that is what I am doing… plus I am also
in charge of most of the stuff that I do and Stephen
is kinda like a producer and has to be in charge of everything
and is very good at what he does… but I believe in what
I know and I believe that I wanna be in charge of my shit,
so I just do my own stuff.
G.O: So one day you sat down and said
I wanna sing, and I think this is the way that I should go
about it and you followed that path… but was it really
that easy, as you make it sound?
C.: Well, initially what happened, let me start from the
beginning… my father was a friend of Ibo Cooper
a member of Third World and I did my first song at Ibo's
Studio, but I realised that what Ibo wanted me to do was some
Reggae thing that I knew wouldn't work for me as a young girl
in Jamaica… it would put me in some form of code that
I wasn't ready to be, I would have to dress a certain way,
I couldn't be myself and I didn't want to do that… so
I figured that to get things the way I wanted I would have
to be my own boss and I said what's the closest way to get
into the business but to learn it.
Learn it so you know what you're supposed to do, what you
can do… cause anything that he could do, I could do it
too. So I went to work at a recording studio and even if I
was a mere secretary at the time I had ulterior motives, maybe
nobody knew but I did. I have always known that knowledge
is power and believe me it is, it has worked for me.
G.O: You have done slack songs, do you
think that is something that you have to do in order to be
accepted in Dancehall?
C.: Not in order to be accepted , but I am trying to build
my name now and I am doing Dancehall… I am also doing
singles that are only put out on 45s and the soundmen want
those kind of songs to play in the clubs and in the Dancehall…
the song that I did with Elephant Man, Bad Man,
Bad Gal I felt that wasn't suitable for teenagers,
so what I did was do two songs on it, because I know I am
adored by the teenagers in Jamaica….so it is not everytime
that might have the opportunity or the money to do two songs
on a riddim, so sometimes if I am gonna do a hardcore thing
I know what market I am doing it for… but I might not
necessarily do an album and put that song on it.
G.O: You write and also produce, did you
get the experience of the producing side from working at the
recording studio and how has that been going?
C.: I choose to produce because the producers make
the money and they dictated to you what you get and most of
them didn't have any talent… I realised that most of
the artistes went into the studio and they wrote their own
songs and the producers sat in the studios and did nothing
and they were labeled as being producers and I thought that
is not right… if I am in the studio the few times that
I have let other persons produce me, I am the one who has
to say "that was off key and I need to do that over"…
except for persons like Jeremy Harding and Stephen
Ventura who are real producers.
G.O: You mentioned an album, are you currently
working on your album and do you have a record deal?
C.: Not a record deal, I am actually working on my
own stuff independently spending my own money that I make….
when I do it I am gonna shop around, because I don't wanna
go with the regulars. I would like to do something else and
prove to some people that it can be done.
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G.O: How do you feel about companies like
VP and Greensleeves?
C.: I think companies like VP and Greensleeves
are distribution companies, I don't see them as record companies
and that's all I have to say. So if you're a distribution
company give me a distribution contract, don't give me a record
contract… you're not promoting me, you're putting the
album for it to sell a few thousand so you to make back your
money… what I would like to do is go inside and speak
with them and say well, I think that we have something here
and if you are willing to work with me, let us do something
like a real record something, because I think that they could
do better, but they just spend enough just to make back their
own money just for themselves and it is really ridiculous…
they have learn't now and they have made a lot of money doing
that, I think they should go out on the limb now.
G.O: But can you really put all the blame
on those companies, because if the artistes themselves put
pressure on these companies…
C.: They don't know any better and that is why I am
my own producer… because the producer is the one who
goes to these companies and makes the deals, just because
they are getting 20%… as I am saying knowledge is power,
I don't know how we are gonna educate these people and I am
not gonna try and educate them.
G.O: Do you sometimes get frustrated,
or not treated the same as the men…
C.: No sah…
G.O: So you are like totally respected.
C.: Well, I command it… so they might talk behind
my back, but that's not my problem… I really don't care
I'm not trying to be friends with anybody, I'm not an industry
person… I don't go where they all go, I stay at my home
with my real friends, apart from when I have a show and that's
it. So I am not trying to be friends with nobody, I am just
doing my thing so I don't need them to tell me that they respect
me, I respect myself and I know what I can do.
G.O: You say that you produce your own
stuff, so would it be possible for another producer to work
with you?
C.: Oh no, I would love to work with Dave Kelly
I think he is a genius and I am trying to work with him…
but if somebody came to me and asked me and they had the vibe
I would readilly do it, I just don't find the right people
to work with… they don't have the same level of intelligence
that I have.
G.O: I really have to ask you this question,
do you sometimes get called a 'bitch'?
C.: Not to my face, but my close friends and my familly
call me that.
G.O: Do you have a boyfriend?
C.: Yeah…
G.O: Does he have a problem with the kind
of lyrics that you sing or the way that you perform on stage?
C.: No, he is kool and he knows that I am kool like
that.
G.O: Before you perform, do you rehearse
or something like that?
C.: I don't do a thing…
G.O: You just go on stage and perform.
C.: As long as I look good, I'm kool.
G.O: You have received awards in Jamaica,
how does that make you feel?
C.: It make me feel alright for the time being, me
will settle with that for the time being.
G.O: So what is it that you wanna do,
what do you want from the business, where do you want to go?
C.: I want to be like Junior Gong that just
won the Grammy.
G.O: What is or has been the most challenging
thing for you as an artiste?
C.: Most challenging is that I can't get to do the
sh.. that I wanna do yet… I can't get to do the kind
of music that I wanna do because Dancehall is very limited…
G.O: What is that kind of music that you
want to do?
C.: Like some real music even if it's Dancehall, but
I don't wanna have to be singing about sex all the time…
you want to be able to sing about the mountains and the stars,
but certain times you can't really get to express yourself
the way you want to in Dancehall, because it nah go play inna
the dance.
G.O: Are you appoached by men, saying
that they want you or things like that?
C.: Oh yeah, I just laugh it off because yuh know yuh
have to show people respect… you are a public figure
and yuh just mek dem know that yuh kool wid dem and yuh feel
dem too and it's nice when people approach you and say they
like you, so I don't mind it.
G.O: I heard that you were coming here
to do some shows, but that is now off, why is that?
C.: I was coming to do some club shows, because I should
have been in Sweden but some stuff came up and I had to cancel
it… but nothing was really confirmed.
G.O: Dancehall and Reggae are mainly male
dominated, why do you think that more women aren't up there?
C.: They wait on men to do things for them… they
don't do anything for themselves and they are not as strong
as women like Lady Saw, she has been through a lot,
but perseverence and things like that.
G.O: That's it girl, thanks a lot and
keep on doing it.
Ce'cile: Thank you. And keep promoting the Dancehall
music…
Image source: www.cecileflava.com
Nadine Reid
G.O. Crew Leipzig/SN., Germany
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