Interview: Joey Fever

Vor wenigen Tagen bot sich die Gelegenheit Joey Fever – einem schwedischen Dancehall-, Reggae-, Soul- und RnB-Sänger – ein paar Fragen zu stellen. Im Mai 2011 hat Joey Fever sein Debütalbum “In A Fever” via LockDown Productions veröffentlicht. Etwas weiter unten findet Ihr das Video zum Song “Good Looks” aus seinem Debütalbum.

ARTIST-VILLAGE.com hat mit Joey Fever über seinen Weg zur Musik, die Produktion von “In A Fever”, den Wünsche für die Zukunft und vieles mehr gesprochen. Viel Spaß beim lesen!

Please discribe yourself in 5 words!

Oh this is a though one…. ”Openminded”, ”Positive”, ”Scatter-brain”(too many thoughts in my head at the same time…. hehehe), ”beliver-in-love”, ”living-and-learning”.

How did you get into music?

Well, music has always been very close to me since my mother comes from a family of musicians and singers, so singing came very naturally to me. Most of my uncles and aunts were mostly into jazz and some soul and gospel but two of my uncles were in different reggae bands working with some West indian artists who came to sweden in the 70s and early 80s and through them I got introduced to reggae music and calypso. When artists like Shabba and Chaka Demus and Pliers broke into the main stream channels like MTV I got really hooked on the dancehall vibe aswell in the early nineties.

During my high school years I got to know alot people who were playing records in clubs and into the whole sound system thing and so I started grabbing the mic at parties and clubs mc:ing and singing over versions. Round 2002 me and brother put together an 8 piece band called Collision. We toured around Sweden a bit and recorded some demos but nothing was released. Around 2006 I decided to go solo and started voicing riddims from different Swedish reggae producers and since then that is the way I’ve been working.

With which producers you worked for your LP “in a fever”?

Most of the productions on the album is by Mastah-L, one of the veteran dancehall and reggae producers from Sweden, he was the one who built the riddim for Million Stylez’s ”Miss Fatty” among other things. Furthermore the UK flu riddim as you know, is produced by Lockdown and there are also a couple of riddims by a next Swedish producer named Viktorious. The album also features a couple of dancehall riddims, one made by Swiss crew Weedy G Soundforce and one by Fresharda from London.

How did you come to LockDown Productions?

Growing up I have always been a big fan of Tippa Irie and the style of the Saxon deejays. Like two and a half years ago Tippa Irie and his management linked me and told me they were diggin my style so we kept in contact and then I got the oppertunity to voice the wicked UK Flu riddim and because Lockdown really liked my cut on it they decided they wanted to release my album which I was working on at the time.

Are you planning a tour in Germany?

No actual ”tour” is planned… I do a lot shows in Scandinavia and been around a bit over Germany and Switzerland, but right now bookings are coming in so this fall I will definitely be passing through a bunch of clubs in Germany and other areas of Europe.

Where does your inspiration for the songs is coming from?

Life is my inspiration. What I see around me, the experiences from my own life as well as things happening to friends, family and people around me….

What are your wishes for the future?

My main wishes for my music is to have it spread to as many people as possible touching all corners of the world and being able to travel with it doing shows, meeting people, inspiring them and being inspired by them…. That is ”being rich” to me …

Vielen Dank an Joey Fever und LockDown Productions