No days off for Sheldon
HE has become known as part of the dub poetry perform package Nomaddz, but with his new release No Sexy Days Off, The Don Shepherd explores a solo career.
This latest moniker is one of three in active rotation depending on what aspect of his wide-ranging career he is participating in at the time. For his acting and work as an author he chooses his given name, Sheldon Shepherd; when working as part of the No-maddz and for solo projects it’s The Don Shepherd.
“Let me just make it clear right now. I am not stepping away from The No-maddz. In fact, we jus recorded a piece, House Fi Live Inna, with Sly [Dunbar] and along with the video, we are releasing that shortly. But this is something Evie [Everaldo Creary, the other member of The No-maddz] and I have discussed many years ago .... once we had established the group, its sound and what it stands for, we would explore other individual vibrations,” he told the Jamaica Observer.
No Sexy Days Off is The Don Shepherd’s exploration of the topic of self-confidence. He shared that this is taken from the male and female perspectives.
“The idea is really to take the sex out of sexy. The primary reason is to restore the balance of power between the masculine and feminine, which give the woman the power to be her confident, sexy self with her environment which makes her feel good, and for the man to respect that energy understanding that it’s not being done for him, but rather all about her and her confidence,” he said.
The track is set to the reggae, dub, bluesy mash-up that The No-maddz have become known for. A style and genre The Don Shepherd is quite comfortable saying has no name at this time. “Everything that I do comes from the parent material of dub poetry. That was my introduction to rhythm and music and forms the base. Along the way I have added to the wheels and it has blossomed into something that has not yet been named. At some point I guess I will have that eureka moment and say that’s it. I will call you and tell you this is the name and style of what I do. At one point we called it bongo music. The truth is, most times, I just leave it to the audience to decode. The truth is once the message comes forward then we are pleased, rather than holding out for a profound name right now we just stick to the primary parent which is dub poetry,” he explained.
In the meantime, the artiste has been utilising the down time resulting from the current pandemic.
“I just completed recording the audiobook to my 2014 publication In the morning yah. That was three-and-a-half hours of recording from introduction to glossary. I believe it is the first completed dub poetry audiobook,” he said.
The Don Shepherd noted that No Sexy Days Off was released independently on October 4 and is available for download on all digital platforms.