INTERVIEW WITH... DUANE STEPHENSON

We would like to start by talking about patience. First, patience to release this new album which comes 6 years after the previous one "Exile to Dreadites". Why this long wait ?
I have never been one to rush the process to try and to make a deadline. I've never done that in my career. For me, it all has to make sense musically and you have to be in a proper space and time. The idea of just cranking up some music just to get an album done, to put it out there, just to say that you have numbers, has never been something that I've been entirely committed to. It's just waiting until the right time, the right set of music and the right conditions, something that I think can truly make a difference for the listening ear and just something refreshing for people at our stages. So that's basically what I do.

Still on the theme of patience, this new album produced by Penthouse had been announced for several years. The majority of recordings were made several years ago. Why did the album take so long to be realized ?
One or two of the songs actually changed face over the years in terms of my re-recorded part. It was a very busy time coming out of COVID, a lot started happening and you're trying to balance yourself in the world. Everybody was all over the place doing all such other stuff. So the time to get together to just go through the listing and just to make sure that everything was of higher quality, it took a little while to get done. And then there was also the business aspect that we were trying to sort out at the same time. So we took our time just to get it done till we thought that we had the kind of product that we wanted to get to in the end.

Your first singles for the Penthouse label date back to 2010. What was the connection like with Donovan Germain, who had already produced 2 tracks on the "Dangerously Roots: Journey from August Town" album?
The first official collaboration would have been then, but many years prior to that, I recorded with Marcia Griffiths "Knew You Were Waiting For Me" for her compilation "Marcia Griffiths & Friends". Since early days I've always been going through Penthouse Studio. I did a lot of recording there and we became friends. Me and Germain have been friends for a long stretch. It's just that the time to work together now, we discussed it for many years and then finally we decided, let's move forward with this thing now. As you suggested, we did one or two singles before that. We decided to produce a full album. The time has presented itself, we got in the studio and got that done successfully.



Your first two albums were produced by Dean Fraser. You worked with different producers for the next two albums. What led you to go back to a single producer for this new album?
Dean Fraser was very instrumental also for the third and fourth album in putting those, the music together and the kind of oversaw the whole process. As much as we had invited some young musicians to get involved and to explore new sounds and stuff, Dean was still instrumental in those albums.
For this new album, we just wanted to get the whole, what we call the Penthouse vibe. The only way to totally get that is to Donovan Germain total control. We discussed things but in terms of managing the direction of it, it was all done by Donovan Germain, in order that we could get the vision that he had for Penthouse.

Your first 3 albums were distributed by VP Records, but not the last two. Is this a desired development?
It's just business. I'm going in other directions. We will be back with VP again, we didn't have any bad blood, we just tried different avenues. The fourth album was distributed by Greensleeves, so basically it was still VP Records. So we tried different avenues this time.

You invited Mutabaruka for your last 2 albums which brought a roots touch. This time you called on Josey Wales.
I've always wanted to do some work with Josey Wales. He is a DJ that I personally have always looked up to. I think that he's grossly underrated in terms of his contribution to music over the years. I guess that's just because of how he moves as a human being. He doesn't really take himself too seriously. He likes to live amongst the people who see themselves as just another normal Jamaican. But we know he's uniquely talented and has done great things for the music. So, it was a joy for me to finally get an opportunity to link up and to bring that old school vibe that you were trying to get for this particular sound.

The other combination on the album is shared with Exco Levi, with whom you recorded the track "Don't Let Him" for Penthouse in 2013. Was it friendship that brought you together again?
Exactly. We've been friends over the years. He has always been a great artist, he has his own vibe. That's a little bit different. He also is someone who is underrated. He's an artist I've always loved working with and the energy is always good. When I have a song he could be great on, I definitely call him.



When we listen to the title "Jacqueline", we immediately recognize the riddim of the Hugh Mundell song but we quickly realize that you completely rewrote the lyrics. How did you come up with the idea for this piece?
"Jacqueline" was an amazing song by Hugh Mundell. I decided to write my own Jacqueline song. I wanted to capture the old school original dancehall style because a lot of people don't know that these tracks were actually original dancehall tracks. So I wanted to make it fun, sexy, intimate and bring that vintage feel.

The romantic register also plays an important part in your album with "Weekend Dude", "Naked" and "My Lady".
The producer demanded that. I've done so many songs addressing social commentary and world situations. Germain thought that, for the kind of vocals that I have, I don't do enough romantic songs. He wants the undertone of this particular album to be just that, something different, something that the females can gravitate to more so. That's what we attempted to do and hopefully we achieved that.

Is the song "Pull Me Down" a personal story ?
Yes it is from some aspect of personal life plus just what's the regular going on around Kingston Jamaica. As much as I've always tried to get a romantic undertone for the album. But we had to be realistic and we had to put in a touch of real roots and in terms of situation I didn't want it to be something too heavy but definitely something that can tie into the thing because even in love that can be the situation that's why we end up in so many divorces these days.

Tell us about the deep "Black As Coal".
It's something that I have experienced in terms of the struggles I'm just getting by the double standard. The fact that we're always required to be the strongest in the room in order to simply survive, which is unfortunate. But this is the story of our lives, a lot of us. Once you're in the marginalized billions, because people seem to think that marginalized people are the minority, and that is absolutely not the case. We can't pay for the promotions that the other people are paying for. But at the end of the day, the fans in most of the world are marginalized people who have been having rough times. We don't have to look far to see people who regret more strength than others just to simply survive.

How did you choose the classic Stranger In Love riddim for the track "Ital Daughter" ?
I chose this riddim. I went through a couple of tracks and I chose this one. Then I started to laugh, it's the exact one that Germain chose but he just wanted for me to have my choice and we ended up at the same place. The kind of riddim speaks to the kind of tracks that he would want to hear on something like that. I think what I wrote was actually fitting for that track to create such an energy and a vibe that it eventually did.

You wanted to talk about the trace we can leave with "Remember My Name" ?
We all want to be remembered, it's the greatness that you do that. I spoke on behalf of reggae and the music, but it has such more far-reaching implications on life and people. Do something that you think that you'll be remembered for, something that can leave a legacy, something that you are proud about, something that you can't take away from you because your achievements will never be taken away from you.

There are 4 covers of both Jamaican songs (The Uniques' "Blessed Are The Meek" and and the Wailing Souls' "Jah Jah Give Us Life") and American songs (Dolly Parton's "Last Thing On My Mind" and Ruby Winters' "Come To Me"). How did you choose these titles ?
Two covers were chosen by Donovan Germain : "Blessed Are The Meek" and "Come To Me". Two covers were chosen by me : "Last Thing On My Mind" and "Jah Jah Give Us Life".
I've always been a Delroy Wilson fan and I liked his version of "Last Thing On My Mind" so I covered this song too.
"Jah Jah Give Us Life" was also chosen by me because I was told to by Donovan Germain, come up with a song that you really love, that you would like to do. I've always done that on all my albums. It was expressed to me by, not only Germain, but Dean Fraser before. When you're doing an album, you try to do a few of the old songs just to actually get a new and younger audience exposed to these songs. A lot of young people think these are my original lot of tracks but I have to express to them these were tracks done by great artists before me. Now they have an opportunity to enjoy these songs that I breathed new life into and those artists that had already passed and had left such a great legacy for us to build upon.

Tell us about the musicians on your album.
The late Garth "Duckie" Forester was one of the major contributors to this album, he was a great friend of mine. As we say, Rest In Peace. It's very unfortunate, he had so much to offer the music and Jamaica culturally. It is very unfortunate that such a young gem was to have passed on at the early stage in which he did.
We definitely had a lot of great musicians, people like Carol "Bowie" McLaughlin, Lamont "Monty" Savory, Jason Welch, Kirk "Kirkledove" Bennett. Dean Fraser played a part also. Robbie Lyn also was there. When you read through the tracklist, you understand the caliber of musicians who played on these tracks. So we had excellence right across the board.

The production is extremely careful, as is often the case with Penthouse. It seems to me that you are interested in the production process. Did you participate in different stages of production?
I did because the producers now trust me. They see what I bring to the table, they ask me questions. So I get to have a seat at the table, so to speak. But I don't get overzealous to try and undo what the producers are trying to do . So I have limited participation in terms of making suggestions and stuff like that. But I think that I leave myself open to criticism, corrections and direction.

What are the plans for promoting the album?
I'll be on the road for the month of May along with Israel Vibrations. I'm definitely going to be doing some promotions. I also plan to do a proper album launch concert on the internet accessible to the whole world, live streaming on Facebook and Instagram and through different mediums. We will perform the songs in the manner in which the producers and the musicians and even myself envision. The music in totality because I plan to use even horn section, proper background section and a little bit of percussion. So it's going to be of top class quality.


DISCOGRAPHY FOR PENTHOUSE RECORDS :

WEEKEND DUDE ALBUM (2025)
- Weekend Dude
- Jacqueline (Jacqueline riddim)
- Come To Me
- Dancehall Broom feat. Josey Wales (Royal Night riddim)
- Blessed Are The Meek
- Jah Jah Give Us Life
- Naked
- My Lady
- Pull Me Down
- Remember My Name
- Black As Coal (New Normal riddim)
- Ital Daughter (Stranger In Love riddim)
- That's What She Loves feat. Exco Levi (Tonight riddim)
- Last Thing On My Mind

SINGLES :
- Black Beauty (2011 - Our Favorite Beres Hammond Songs compilation)
- Knew You Were Waiting For Me (2012 - Marcia Griffiths and Friends album)
- Miss Wire Waist (2015 - Miss Wire Waist riddim)
- Rasta For I (2013 - Street Of Gold riddim)
- Ready Fi Revolution (2018 - Remembering Joseph "Culture" Hill compilation)
- Ready Fi Revolution feat. Agent Sasco (2018 - Remembering Joseph "Culture" Hill compilation)
- Real Man Yuh Want / Don't Let Him feat. Exco Levi (2013 - Another Dollar riddim)
- Run For Your Life (2014 - Run For Your Life riddim)
- Saving The Best (2010 - O.M.G riddim)
- Yuh Too Bad (2010 - Go Fi Her riddim)