Interview with... Andi Green





Andi was actively involved in the advent of Penthouse in the late 80s and early 90s.
Singer, secretary, studio manager, general manager, managing director... She witnessed the creative emulation inside the Penthouse studio, including brothers Dave and Tony Kelly, the emergence of Buju Banton and also the foundation of the identity that Donovan German wanted to bring to his label.
Let's go back to the roots of Penthouse Records history.


(September 2020 - penthouserecords.free.fr)



Tell us more about your early years.
My early years were so full of things. When I was in High School, I was mad for The Jackson 5. I had a few friends of mine who used to get together and do The Jackson 5 songs. That was my 1st class. I had a wonderful High School life. My friends and I were called the Fidelitas, we did some gigs. Every summer we went to work with the Ministry of Youth. When I was 16 or 17, I spearheaded the biggest show held in the National Stadium. We put on a show called Super Reggae Rock and with the assistance of many veterans in the music industry including Hortense Ellis and her brother. It was the 1st show that I ever put on and it was a success with the crew being my sister and my friends from High School. After spending most of our summers at the Ministry of Youth, Mr Kingsley Sangster had a band in Portmore, he invited me to be a lead singer for his band. My name then was Georgia.
After High School, I started at the University, but I had to drop off because my family could not afford it. My drama school teacher contacted me, she wanted me to go to Jamaica School of Drama. So I went there to do acting. While I was there doing acting, my lecturers invited me to consider directing, because they always came at the end of the day for my opinion on everything that happened in the class. Yes I was a bit of an actor, doing commercials, children’s voices, I also did radio ads. But I dropped off Drama School because I was pregnant.
During high school, I met Earl 'Chinna' Smith, he had a band High Times and he became like a great uncle father who looked over us. He taught us music, and we had a great relationship. At the same time, my group Orpheus decided to do cabaret. Orpheus was managed by my sister Karen. But because of my pregnancy, I was just doing background vocals. After having my daughter, Alexandria Love, I met Michael Rose. He asked me to design his banner and be part of his tour team that was going to Reggae Sunsplash.


How did you start your musical career ?
I met the producer Handel Tucker in 1986. I did backing vocals for Junior Tucker on his album "Don’t Test" released in 1990. I was also rapping, my form of rap was different from the american rap, it was in patois and I was encouraged by Handel Tucker. Handel was a very supportive of my strange rapping. I was a member of the Jamaican Federation of Musicians. My sister and I were always called to do background vocals. We were entertainers. We were touring with JC Lodge at the time.
Castro Brown (RIP) was setting up a digital studio and invited me to manage his studio, New Name Music, to be an administrator, part time engineer. I can say my musical career started as about going vocalist for everybody. Dean Fraser was very much of a mentor. We used to sing with Rudy Thomas, Dean Fraser, U-Roy, Bongo Herman Lloyd Parks, of course Earl 'Chinna' Smith… everybody who wanted a nice back vocalist group, but there were cases where they would occasionally perform on their own. We were doing the show and we were doing them well, and I did not still really yet see a female group do it, how they used to do it back in the day.
In 1989, the song "Stop & Go" was the winner of the Jamaica Festival Song Competition. It was performed by Micheal Forbes & Duo (with my sister Sophie and I). That was the first time a group involving females had ever won this competition (renamed Popular Song Contest).



About your vocal style of rapping, you used it on your first song for Penthouse "Who's Sad, Happy Or Gay" on the Taxi riddim.
The vocal style was similar to what Andi took on, had encouraged where guess I am spontaneous writer and I guess I am still a spontaneous writer. Just give me a situation or rhythm or psalms and I totally. I feel like I am fused with music. I don't think I am the best singer I ever heard, certainly not but I think I am a great writer. Actually, I remember Dave telling me "You sound like a puss" (laughs).
I also did some rapping on 809 Band album (a band with Dean Fraser, Nambo Robinson, Chico Chin, Desi Roots…) as well as Mystic Revealers first albums.


Taxi riddim compilation


You did backing vocals for many other artists.
Yes, I did backing vocals on many tracks and recorded a few when new rhythms were being made. I was also doing the high harmony whenever the high harmony was needed. I am that extremely high harmony in Beres Hammond's "Love within the music". I was very popular in the studio for that. I did backing vocals on many albums : Nadine Sutherland "Until", Peter Broggs "Cease The War", Gregory Isaacs "Cooyah"… I also did backing vocals for Lieutenant Stitchie, Judy Mowatt, Junior Miller...


Kim Yamagucci & Beres Hammond & Andi (1994)


How did you get connected with Donovan Germain ?
While I was recording at Mixing Lab, I wanted to change. Dave Kelly had heard of me through an engineer of Mixing Lab and he was curious to know more about me. Dave Kelly invited me to come and work at Penthouse. I wasn’t sure. Then he told Germain about me, and we met.


You occupied various roles at Penthouse.
When I started working at Penthouse after a brief interview, Donovan found out he could let me know what he wanted to be done and he was done. He gave me the kind of confidence that bosses need to invest in young people. I was about to celebrate my 23rd birthday at Penthouse record. At Penthouse I didn’t just work in the studio, Donovan would call me and say "Andi come and help me find the land to finish the song there… Andi come here to find some irregularities…" I’ve eventually accepted the job at Penthouse as a secretary. Shortly after, I became the studio manager then I became the general manager then I became the managing director. Donovan Germain was a great boss to have because he totally invested confidence in me. When I came to work there, I was the first person to work in the capacity of an administrative person.
I was the presenter of the Penthouse showcase on IRIE FM, road manager for Buju Banton, Tony Rebel, Wayne Wonder, as well as on occasion Cutty Ranks, General Degree and Apachie Scratchie. I was also the founder of the Buju Banton's Fan Club !


Andi & Cynthia Schloss
(1993 - Jamaica Federation of Musicians Awards)


Your second song, "Fuego Quemando", was recorded in spanish.
I just thought that was that spanish spin to a song spanish song, that song meant a lot to me. I had a spanish teacher in the studio with me while I voiced this song.
I remember whenever songs was mixed by Stevens Stanley at the weekend I'll be the one who was there. He was completely burnt out. He is so committed and dedicated to what he is doing. But he is a kind of engineer when he hear a thing, he is not satisfied even if everybody is satisfied. I remember being there when Stephen Stanley said : "Oh me know what me are going to do now". You leave for a minute and come back, he was going. And that was fire burning. He'd done mix. The original riddim, Fire Burning of Bob Andy, was done in ages past but Germain revamp of it with his new approach. It just takes off like a Bajie Kite. And it was such a hit. Everything was on that riddim. I think it did result in they were back in vocal. Stephen Stewart did the overdub backing vocals which are like the signature sound on the mixing of Fire Burning. It's just that punch line which becomes like an instrument Stephen Stanley mixed on to it. Yah and that was the beginning, well Donovan Germain was throwing out hits. He had a different approach to the music business than I'd seen.



Buju Banton was the icon of Penthouse Records. What is your first memory of him?
Donovan Germain decided to expend the artist team. We did auditions. So, there was a big, one of the biggest auditions that Penthouse put on round about the very early 90s and from that audition came some of the people who know right now are very successful performers on the Penthouse label and in their own right. While I was there, auditions were run by Donovan Germain, Dave Kelly and myself. We had auditioned all day long. Donovan Germain through this big audition only wanted 3 new acts because we needed to not take on more than we could manage in order for the studio to be running effectively. Buju Banton was in that audition. We were actually looking for singers but it never went that way. I was not in the room when Buju Banton auditioned but when we were going through the process of elimination Dave Kelly said when we were finished, I think there is one more person we should have taken though and I did not know who that person was. History was proving itself than the singers were lasting longer than the DJs. I don't know if it something with attitude and altitude but, Dave Kelly had some confidence in Buju.
Germain was impressed by what he heard and what Dave had recorded, he agreed with Dave that the young man had potential. Germain said that they will take on that one other person if we can tell him if the person can write. But we didn't know the person. So, Dave said that he had a song for him. I was not in the studio when he recorded "Browning", which was not a pleasure for me.


Tell us about Buju Banton’s "Browning".
David used to provoke me by calling me "browning" every time I was getting miserable and I think he was totally (laugh). He was just rolling over in laughter when him see how it offended me when he called me "browning". I never really understand it because at that time, as far as me concerned, browning was something like you put in Christmas cake to make it have a dark color. So, I thought he must be calling me dark. Dark meaning in a Jamaican that mean short temper, hot headed. It just got me more and more angry, the angrier I got the more him laugh. So, when he said that, he had a song for him. Buju said: "there's no way in the world, I never even heard the song browning". You know and him said : "Him a sing a song name Browning, him will write for him if he can't write". And he recorded "Browning". When I heard "Browning", as much as I was relieved, I was also very offended. So, I said: "I am a noun, I am a carry-a-bag and what you mean a noun". I carry a bag of money and things and of course, after that hotted moment. Guess what? Don't ask if "Browning" never take off though you know nothing couldn't hold it back. That song did its own in route and made its own waves. Dave is a great writer. He wrote quite a few songs on Buju Banton's "Voice of Jamaica" album.



Tell us about Buju Banton’s earlier years in Penthouse
After "Browning", the question was : would this new DJ stay true to what him just found interesting and to show that he was able to execute. That one would have only been told by the future. Penthouse took on some other avenues. It wasn't just Penthouse Record or Penthouse Studios. It was Penthouse Publishing, Penthouse Production, Penthouse International. Penthouse was just happening. Believe or not, Buju Banton wasn't an easy sell. Everybody wanted Wayne Wonder. All this time, all they wanted was Wayne Wonder. And in booking Wayne Wonder, the only way I could get Buju on a show is to say : "If you want Wayne, you have to take Buju". And the Caribbean Tour started with the understanding that if you take Buju this year, I would consider you next year. And those who really wanted Wayne, they call back and say : "We'll take Buju". There was no regret. And guess what? I stood true to my words. Germain actually gave me the authority to make some firms decisions on the running of that particular of Penthouse Jamaica.


Buju Banton & Wayne Wonder
Penthouse studio (early 90s)


You inspired another song which became a hit.
Yes, Beres Hammond wrote a song about me "Tempted to touch". Of course, I didn't know that until Janet Davidson, who was Maxi Priest Manager at the time, told me that she had heard it on a BBC 4 interview. I was the "little girl" who Beres Hammond wrote about in this song : "Hey little girl each time you passed my way I'm tempted to touch. The dress you wear, your perfume, keeps me wanting you so much". Don’t worry, Beres is gifted writer and as decent as decent gets.



Kelly brothers Dave and Tony, were producing most of Penthouse songs. Can you tell us a little bit more about them ?
I have known Tony Kelly from recording sessions I had done, but I had never really known that Tony and Dave were brothers. They were so different and yet so similar, they liked the same thing, if one got something the other will get something very similar. They share the same father but had different mothers. I think Tony was involved with music before Dave and he invited him to Tuff Gong, at that time Tony was more affiliated to the Melody Makers and he was also touring.
Dave and Tony loved each other. Tony wanted his brother to work into music and not in the position where he was and they were very dangerous, nobody would never know how talented they were. There was nothing more wonderful to Tony than the relationship that he had with his brother. He cherishes his baby brother and will do everything to protect him and it was the nicest thing when the two of them decide to get creatives together in the studio with everybody. Dave and Tony were the coarse engineers of Penthouse. But Dave was the Penthouse and Tony was the Shocking Vibes. They both started creating their own beats, rhythms.
By the time I met Tony he had already made his first hit, mixed his first hit. Tony Kelly was a writer, everything him writes even not fit for air play or just so full of gimmicks, it was listened. I think he was running them by day for Little Lenny because long before the things had to be called "For Adult Air Only" or "Not Fit For Air Play" got terms. Well got descriptive words put to them. He was writing these things and having a good laugh and he knew how to make raunchy funny.
The first song that Dave mixed became a hit. It was a song of Major Mackerel, I don’t remember its name but it was around 1988. Dave was brought to Penthouse by Tony. Dave did eventually start touring like Tony was. But for the most part, he was more than a mixing engineer. Tony Kelly was very protective of me when he realized how his brother felt about me. We were engaged for a moment and all our free weekends which were rare were spent at his parents house in Saint Thomas, we worked quite up here because he was always writing, Dave got wind of a broken heart I’d had and that was his first inspiration to get me into performing. He was a different kind of writer. He never wrote to the rhythm, it was very much in his head but he was full of lyrics. Dave wrote me a few songs, I love them. He was a writer but at that time he didn’t realize he was a writer. Dave loved the stage but I think he was shy. I remember he did a recording with Professor Grizzly and not very much became of that song because I think that Dave was too shy to do it in public at all. He was an on the spot creator and Tony absolutely enjoyed that. Dave is very private. Even though he always had such a serious face he was always looking for something to laugh about. Dave seems to have a natural knock for not just studio engendering but he was very a technical guy and I think him and Germain bonded. I think he was like a son for Germain.
The manager Janet Davidson was very influential to all of their lives. She was very closed to Donovan Germain, to me she was such a dear friend, to Dave they were very closed and to Tony he would call her Aunty Janet but she was such a fabulous lady from Day 1. After leaving Penthouse in 1994, I was approached by Grizzlies Entertainment but I eventually took an offering by Janet to work for Maxi Priest Ink at the time.


Tony & Dave Kelly
Penthouse studio (1991 © Reggae Magazine)


Around this time, Shocking Vibes label was also recording at Penthouse ?
Yes, Patrick Roberts, owner of Shocking Vibes, who was also an aspiring producer spent most of his days at Penthouse as well, his main engineer at this time was Tony Kelly It seems Sly had suggested at the time that I should start teaching people how to run a studio. Patrick Roberts invested a lot of confidence in me in starting his paperwork for Shocking Vibes.
Beenie Man was a little boy who gives himself a lot of problems. But he gonna be a big DJ one day and I say: "Don't you trouble that little boy when he comes in here". Beenie had a memorable moment at the National Stadium when Nelson Mandella visited Jamaica, he had his first run in with a vex audience. That never cramped his detemination to make himself known in the future. To that I can safely say his mission is accomplished. He's been living his dream. It really happened for him after Tony Kelly was his main engineer, chucking vibes of confidence in him and now he is totally rolling his own.
Everyone was at Penthouse studio so we had to have restrictions on entry. It was like a Jamaican Mowtown. Audition lines went all the way to Cross Roads. So it was important that these youngsters were allowed free access. Chevelle Franklyn was also a teen with great promise. She was so shy but her voice was amazing. She was welcome anytime.



What about the other engineers working at Penthouse studio ?
There are recording engineers and there are mixing engineers and depending on whatever the song is he would call in the applicable engineers, it was like a harvesting place. Many of wonderful engineers came to work at Penthouse. There was a mentorship going on there, but it was not called a mentorship at that time or apprentice. I know for each young one that came here, there were basically accepted on their characters not on their aptitudes, because Germain was always looking for characters and whoever came in gave so much respect to what was there before them. There were some many ardent students doing the things. I remember Andre "Rookie" Tyrell, Stumpy, Andrew Thomas, Donovan "Snakie" Simmonds… There were so many young people that came to Penthouse because Germain was always nurturing them.



Andi & Tony Kelly - Penthouse studio (early 90s)


How singular was Donovan Germain ?
Marcia Griffiths in a very appreciative and applauding mood once said to me in the lobby of Penthouse, with the endorsement of Beres Hammond and Sly Dunbar, that it was the first place in Jamaica that they ever collected a Royalty Cheque. I remember when Marcia was saying "that's the first time I ever collect a royalty check in Jamaica don't it true!". And that's because Germain wanted to do something different. He wanted to pay probe his accountancy was being done. He wanted to give back. He entrusted that to me. Germain was a great boss. I mean to this day he still the most love and respected boss that I ever had. Donovan Germain allowed me to apply what you could have called, corporates ways, among the thing that people really appreciate it. And he actually improved on it and I'm not sure what's going on around the world. But royalties were not being paid in Jamaica. Everybody was just taking a lot of things for granted. They were some people offering some people deals. You know like to give you a money for something or advance towards something, but... Our advance towards royalties at Penthouse was really in advance to whatever was to come. I recall Sly Dunbar suggesting that I go around to other studios and show them how to do it right.
Germain insisted that his artistes should have bank accounts, look out for their children and secure homes of their own.
Germain was so particular, he was fun washing him listen. I enjoyed the fact that he could identify talents at any age group, he could tell you long before the fruit is ready to be picked as a talent to go out.


Buju Banton, Donovan Germain, Marcia Griffiths, Tony Rebel


You also had experience with the Japanese market.
During my time at Penthouse I met Nahki, a japanese artist, and Tachyon Records through Trevor Lyn "Chineyman". I started doing trips to Japan. The first Japanese tour I did was the Lover Boy Tour with Nakhi. That was followed short after that by a tour with JaJaJah All Stars with Twiggi, Tristan Palmer, Lady Patra, Harada Davis, Brian & Tony Gold...
I recorded the album "Half Covered Love" produced by Sheldon Bernard for 24x7 Records, a japanese reggae label. It sold 100 copies in the first two days of relief. Half of the album songs are covers, Japanese folk songs in reggae, so I named the album "Half Covered Love". This was followed by "Reggae Princesses" which was made up mainly of females who were touring backing vocalists. It was also produced by Sheldon Bernard, under the Whyte Rod Productions label. I was the Managing Director at Penthouse and stepping away would not be easy.



What memories do you keep on your collaboration with Donovan Germain?
Germain invested complete confidence in his team. I felt very good about the relationship that I had with Germain. When he had something that crossed his mind, Germain never stop to wander rather or not I could do the task. He just voiced it: "Andi you know what I want you to do? Andi, I was thinking…". You know that's all he had to do. I understood enough, that once he had done that. "Yeah, yeah, nice you know, good idea", I said "but you know what else I would do". And he would make a suggestion and I would argue, and he would make another suggestion and then when I heard his suggestion was much improved. I think I had a bit of arrogance. But to the people I was around at that time, that arrogance was nothing but humor to them. He laughed but he listened. We compromised but all in all, it was good. What I was going through there, it was actually building me, it was improving me. It was the correction that was given to me were in proof to cause me to always want to be better next time and I did enjoy the benefit of a boss who invested. Donovan Germain became a big brother, I’ve never had a brother and I went to all girls schools but at Penthouse I was a female in a stable of men. Donovan Germain treated me with a lot of love, with a lot of respect. He boosted me, he encouraged me, he motivated me. He empowered me, he believed in my way of doing things, he invested, he could just tell me what he wanted to be done and it was done. He could go away from Penthouse and abroad and I was right there and he would come back without having anything to say about it and that was very encouraging.



SINGLES FOR PENTHOUSE RECORDS :

- Who's Sad, Happy Or Gay (1989 - Taxi riddim)
- Fuego Quemando (1991 - Feeling Soul riddim)
- Thinking About You (1992 - Falling In Love riddim)