“Show love, make peace and unify.”

While the great white north may not ring out as the Mecca of modern reggae, a driven and dedicated few have been working to change this. One such noteworthy group of mod roots rock crooners, Friendlyness and the Human Rights have risen like a phoenix from the ashes of the largely defunct Toronto reggae scene to spread the principles of Ras Tafari and their timeless messages of joy, love, and hope. Paul Waldron caught up with lead singer/chanter and D.J extraordinaire Friendlyness as the band prepares for a busy March starting with a show opening for rockers legend Gregory Isaacs at the Phoenix on March 10th and continuing with appearances at the Orbit room on March 11th and Sneaky Dee’s on the 30th. Paul got some insight on the band, reggae and the future of the two.

Really, what is the Toronto Reggae Scene? Personally the only venue I’ve come across is Thymeless in College Street.

It’s really fragmented these days since a lot of the old venues that were receptive to live reggae have closed. Back then there was Bamboo club and the Jerk Pit and promoters and sound systems like Jones and Jones and King of Kings. Nowadays the only venues are El Mocambo and Lee’s palace. Even then you only get in if your band is known, so a lot of Toronto reggae artists don’t play out that much. That being said, big up [to] Brown Eyes Entertainment. They’re promoters who are responsible for bringing a lot of the larger international acts to Toronto. They did the Capleton and Collie Buddz show and the Beres and Marcia Griffiths one as well.

What avenues are there for the artists and bands to gain some exposure?

Not many. For example there was a website devoted to Canadian reggae. It started out being free for the artists to post their concert dates but after a while the owners decided to charge for the service and so a lot of the smaller artists stopped posting.

What about corporate sponsorship for shows and events?

In the reggae world that’s nearly unheard of. With a lot of the promoters gone there isn’t really any one organizing force to approach. Businesses and the smaller independent artists tend not to do that on their own.

On a more personal note, why a career in music Friendlyness and more importantly, why reggae, why not pop or some easy sell?

Why music? No choice. Music was born in me and I truly know that music is what I was put here on this Earth to do, whether it's on the stage leading the band, playing every instrument on a track at the studio, or [getting] behind the turntables or on the mic at the club. That's just what I do.

Who are your influences, spiritual and musical?

My spiritual influences would have to include JAH the Almighty and all His prophets and prophetesses. Iyesus Christus the Nazarite, and Haile Selassie the First. I would also have to say my Mother Marjorie and my Dad John and my daughter Elizabeth and my son Daniel. Bless up Zeeny!

My musical influences include Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer and The Wailers, Dennis Brown, Garnet Silk, and Luciano although my vocal style and delivery is more like Sizzla and Gentleman (love dem!). I love some of the newer, less known artists like Chezdek and Lyricson.”

How did Friendlyness and the Human Rights come to be?

I've been a member of several Reggae bands here in Toronto: Revelation, Culture Shock with Whitey Don, The Hit Squad, and more recently Truths and Rights. I was even a member of Raggadeath with Michie Mee. This is the first time I've actually put a band together for our own project. We were even considering the name “The Friendlyness Project”, but we wanted something more serious: Human Rights. JAH works. We started playing music together in October of 2007, so it's a relatively new project, but I've been with Isax and Bernie Pitters for many years.

I was working on Queen St West one day when Eric (our drummer) came up to me and said, “Hey, I know who you are, when am I going to get a chance to see Truths and Rights perform live?” I told him that Truths and Rights had been out of commission for a while but that I was thinking of starting a new band. He told me that he jammed with a really cool bass player (Tyler) every week, that they love Reggae and they even jam out to a couple of riddim tracks from the Truths and Rights CD. I started coming out weekly and found out that Graham, who lived in the same band house as Eric would be interested in playing pick guitar for a Reggae unit after seeing the Deep Roots/Sattalites hybrid band at the Orbit Room on a Tuesday night. I was looking for that pick guitar sound. [It’s an] integral part of our sound. I've been working with Isax (sax and keyboards) and Bernie (keyboards) for years so we asked them to join and Eric said he knew a percussionist, Brandon, who was into it.

For those less than acquainted with your sound, how would you compare/contrast the band’s sound with other Toronto reggae acts, like Dubmatix?

Different. Big focus on original music and lyrical content. Dynamic peaks and valleys. Mod Roots Reggae.

What does the band hope to achieve through its music?

As we say at superheavyREGGAE, “show love, make peace and unify.” That means we take it out of the abstract and put it into some real action. I know that this music, reggae music, has the power to continue to spread these thoughts and plant these seeds all across the planet. Bob Marley said that Reggae music is going to be held in high regard as one of the vehicles that freed the people out of physical and mental slavery. We, as Friendlyness and the Human Rights, plan to move along in this tradition. I'm not saying that we necessarily are going to single-handedly solve all the world’s problems and free all people everywhere, for that is a monumental task indeed. But even if we remind people to be mindful, aware, awake, conscious of what's going on in our world around us, and some of the violations of the world's human rights, then we will be using our vehicle the right way. Worldwide Human Community. Yeah man!

By Paul Waldron