“I’ve got through all the tribulations.”
Horace Andy and Adrian Sherwood talk to Simon McEwen.
Why the nickname Sleepy?
Horace Andy: “All my life they call me Sleepy because, honestly, I’ll be talking to you and after 10 minutes I’ll fall asleep. (Laughs) It’s true!”
Better keep this brief, then. You’ve worked with many great Jamaican producers, such as Coxsone, Bunny Lee and Lloyd Barnes. Was it any different working with Adrian?
HA: “It was really wonderful working with Adrian. He’s a very smart man, y’know? He knows the music and has very good ears. Adrian chose some of my old Studio One songs, and we did some new ones too for Midnight Rocker. I’m very proud of it. Adrian is a producer, not like some [I’ve worked with] who are more like investors and hustlers and don’t pay their artists properly.”
How did your 1970 audition with Coxsone go?
HA: “It was OK. I went there with my first two songs, Got To Be Sure and Something On My Mind. But when I started singing the musicians began laughing because of the sound of my voice. They thought it sounded strange! (Laughs) They never mean anything, man. But I passed the audition. Mr Dodd was a real producer, y’know, he had a vision and made Studio One a company like Motown. I loved working there because I learnt how to play all the instruments. I played bass, guitar, piano, organ… the only one I didn’t learn to play was the drum.”
What’s your favourite track on Midnight Rocker?
HA: “I love the song Today Is Right Here (starts singing), ‘My mama told me/When I was a child…’ Everyone will love it because it’s about life’s ups and downs and they can relate. There’s only a couple of spiritual songs on Midnight Rocker but it is still, overall, very spiritual.”
What have you learnt from over 50 years in the music business? HA: “I’ve learnt to be humble and patient. I’ve got through all the tribulations you can think of: guns in my face, no money… there’s a lot of things that have happened [to me] over the years, man. I got shot at a basement party in America in 1981, caught in the crossfire, so it’s a blessing that I’m still here, y’know? So I am happy and I give thanks to the Father.”
What made you decide on such a clean, uncluttered production?
Adrian Sherwood: “Horace has got this incredible, instantly recognisable voice so I wanted his vocal to be crystal clear. I treated it a bit like the Miracle LP I made with Bim Sherman in 1996 – to leave the voice almost raw but also have really good layers behind it. It was important to have the right combination of players, too, people like Gaudi, Celloman, Crucial Tony, Skip McDonald and George Oban. These were the last sessions George ever worked on because he’d been ill for some time and sadly passed away in January. He was a dear, dear friend who played bass on the debut New Age Steppers LP in 1981. So this is an extra special record for me and we’re all very proud of it. You know, Horace is a living, vintage legend, whose voice is as good as it ever was, and I think that comes across.”