3 months ago
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After performing at the Earth Hour acoustic concert on Saturday, Irie Souljah knew it was the right time to announce Rising Suns, the new trio he recently joined alongside reggae and roots talents Quan Dajai Henriques and Matthew Malcolm. During his performance of Helping Hand, Irie Souljah made the announcement on stage. In an interview with The Gleaner after his performance, he revealed that the group already has a tour planned for Europe.
“It’s a group dedicated to preserving the foundation of reggae music like harmony and stuff like that the real way... The thing is [that] this [is] magical because it never planned. It just happened so, me and him [Quan Dajai] a link up, dem a link up, and mi nuh know who start sing, then a man start harmonise and then someone said, ‘This sound really good!’ And then we just post a video on Instagram,” Irie Souljah said.
“We have some producers a link up. We have an EP on the works [with] some major producers from Germany, so stay tuned.”
He shared that after Grammy artiste Kabaka Pyramid, a friend of the group, commented on a second video of them performing posted on social media and asked the name of the group, they decided on the name Rising Suns.
“We deeven look for nuh name. We deeven look fi mek a group. It’s a godly thing,” Irie Souljah added.
They have already created a new Instagram account called @theoriginalrisingsuns.
For his part, Quan Dajai, who played the teenage Bob Marley character in the movie Bob Marley: One Love, told The Gleaner the story behind how the group was created.
“As one once said, it was like a mystique. We never planned for any of this, but it was from the love of music and really unity festered the group.
Malcolm added his take as well, given that he too felt the vibe and need after they recently hung out and sang together before coming to the conclusion to forming an official group.
“It was just a jam and we realise seh di music lacked unity and more than even that, the unity in a di vocals is harmony, and so we bring that forward. We realise that lacking,” Malcolm explained.
With regards to the purpose and movement of Earth Hour Jamaica, Irie Souljah said he attended the environment-based event and performed his song Helping Hand because he believes it connected best with the purpose of the event and World Water Day, which was also recognised on Saturday.
“To me, these shows are what reggae music is all about, and what my music is all about too. For me to be here and represent my music like this is an honour. It’s all about taking care of Mother Nature and without her we wouldn’t have nothing and water is the most fundamental thing to life,” Irie Souljah said.
He went on, “I’m not an environmentalist per say, but I’m glad that they called me, because I want to be a part of some more movements like this.”
He also performed his singles So Far and Give Me Reggae Music.
English (US) ·