JuaKali has been performing since he was 14. First, in the Caribbean as a member of the dance group Spoil Brattz. They performed for visiting artists such as MC Hammer, Boyz II Men and Queen Latifah. Then in 1993, JuaKali left Trinidad and Tobago for New York City where, while studying architecture at the Pratt Institute, he performed at his first ever open-mic event. In 1996 he became a member and manager for the spoken word group Second2Last. With Second2Last, JuaKali headlined prominent venues such as BAM Café, Joe’s Pub, SOBs etc. and produced a music documentary Urban Rhapsody which continues to be screened at domestic and international film festivals. (You can check it out at the MoMA’s Reel New York Series between October 18th – October 26th.)

Since 2005, JuaKali has moved on to a promising solo career. He has collaborated with producers, DJs and performers from the West Coast to Switzerland to the Czech Republic. (For a sampling of his sound, check out his soaring track Run Babylon on his website www.foreignfamiliar.com)

EGO columnist Azra Dawood recently sat down with this very charming and talented artist in New York to talk about everything from music, poetry and architecture to finding your voice again in a foreign land. They kicked off the interview with a viewing of Urban Rhapsody.

How did this video come about?
JK: The group I was in before [Second2Last], was hired to do a trailer for an African relief organization. They were doing an AIDS awareness program. Some kids that graduated from Princeton went to Ghana and came back and started an organization and did a little trailer [for raising funds] and they just liked our style. It was called the Ghana Education Project. The person who filmed the trailer also directed the video.

And you helped produce it?
JK: Yeah.

Where did you guys film it?
JK: Throughout Brooklyn. Everyone’s been to Brooklyn. But we went everywhere. Coney Island, Williamsburg, Bushwick, Bed-Stuy, East New York. That’s everywhere! Saw a lot of shady things. Very interesting. We were looking to capture images that represent…the world or the planet. Because Brooklyn can be…you know…one of the largest cities in America, so it really has that feel to it. Which is probably why even though it was shot in 2004, the video is still being screened. It’s still relevant.

All the shots in the video except where we are performing are found footage. Random shots while we were driving around. We shot everything from inside the car. A lot of the times the car starts and the car stops and you can see that in the video. It was just so… guerilla! The wealth of the shots we got is amazing.

The whole video is shot as if we’re just going to rehearse like any other day. It starts with us in our rehearsal space and kinda works backwards. We get back to the basement at the end, basically driving through Brooklyn and picking everyone up but you get to see a lot of Brooklyn.

Now you’re not longer with this group. You went solo.
JK: Yeah. We have two albums. This video. We have a manuscript. I used to manage the group.

In your solo career you describe yourself as a reggae-world-dread-bass artist. Can you explain that term?
JK: I was talking to one of my friends who is a publicist for a book company and she was saying to me that if someone asks what type of music it is, you have to be able to say it. But I was so adamant about, ‘I’m just in the music, I’m just in the music...’

You didn’t want to qualify yourself…
JK: Yeah, I didn’t want to trap myself; I just wanted to be in the music. But then I actually started performing a little bit and when I went on my first tour people asked, ‘Oh what is it? What’s that? I want to know what it is.’ So in speaking [to them] I was like, well, the vocals are definitely reggae. The music – it’s a little bit of reggae and a little bit of Dub going on.

Dub [Dubstep] is an offshoot of reggae. Probably started in London. Reggae is more or less dictated by the singer. Dub came about from just the reggae music. Just the syncopation of it. ‘Dubbing’, as a word, refers to the echo chambers of the music itself. So when a vocal goes ‘Ai, ai, ai,’ you call that ‘Dubbing’. So that’s where you get Dub from. It has a kinda jazzy feel to it in terms of instruments speaking to each other. There is a call and response. The singer will say two or three words. And those words will be dubbed and then there will be another response from the drums or the guitars or whatever. So it’s close to jazz. And then when you think of jazz, jazz came from Caribbean influence in the first place. Jungle music to jazz and so on.

It’s all related. On my myspace.com page I have my short bio up. And on there I say, ‘I’m about everything that begins with the drums and ends with bass.’ The music I would like to perform is very… physical. It’s music that either affects you physically, or you dance to it. It’s really because of the drums and bass in the music. So that’s reggae and base.

‘World’ music is very percussion based. A lot of organic instruments. I am from Trinidad. So of course Calypso, Soca… And finally ‘dread base’ is more or less me getting mixed into it.

Does ‘dread’ have anything to do with dread locks?
JK: Dread has everything to do with dreadlocks! ‘Dread bass’ is a little bit of Bhangra, a little of me - JuaKali.

I was looking up the term ‘JuaKali’ on the Internet because I was curious about it, and I found out that there are these artisans in Africa who work with metal and they are called JuaKali.
JK: My wife, who was then my girlfriend, her pet name for me was Jua, which means sun. We met while I was performing. My locks were way shorter back then. Maybe about 3 inches off my head. She said, ‘You look like the sun with the lights on behind you.’ Jua means sun in Swahili. Years later I was speaking to a friend who is from Kenya. I told her I was going to call myself Jua. She’s like, ‘Oh, like JuaKali?’ And I was like, ‘Juawhat?’ And then she told me they’re a group of artisans who work with scrap metal. They either make use of it, or they turn it into art. So that’s who the JuaKali are. They make something out of nothing. But the word itself literally means ‘hot sun’ or ‘rising sun’. It kinda goes with not only me as a personality but also with the music that I am doing. It’s a new sound. Especially being involved with the Dubstep community in the world and in New York. I am the MC for the only Dubstep party - DUB WAR - in New York City.

Where does that take place?
JK: We kind of bounce around. Next one is in September/October. Dubstep as a music genre is rising. My career in terms of me being a solo artist is rising. Sometimes you think about things, like this name, and you think, ‘Oh, it’s just a coincidence.’ But maybe it’s supposed to happen this way.’

When did you come here from the Caribbean?
JK: 1993.

And then you joined Pratt?
JK: Yeah.

And you studied architecture, right?
JK: Yeah.

Have you worked as an architect?
JK: Freelanced for two years. It was cool. But I have always performed.

Even when you were free-lancing as an architect?
JK: Yeah…like a lot of people who get an opportunity to go to college, I took that opportunity too. In general people always say, ‘Go to school, get a degree, have something to fall back on.’ So I did. I chose the right profession. I swear to God I can get a freelance job next week. The field is crazy.

When did you stop freelancing and performing at the same time?
JK: Last year. I switched to music entirely.

Was it because your solo career was taking off?
JK: You know what’s funny? I didn’t stop working fulltime because my career was taking off. I stopped working fulltime because I wanted to dedicate a hundred percent of my time to the pursuit of it. I knew in January that I wanted to do it. And then I had to figure out how. How am I going to do it? How does the music industry work? How am I going to support myself?

After I stopped working at my old firm, I think for about a month I couldn’t even sleep because I would just wake up and I would be on the computer emailing somebody or looking at something because look, this is it, this is all I’m doing now. In that respect it’s like when you’re working in an office on a design project. You get an idea and you crank it out. You sketch it. You do it. If there’s something that stumps you, you go home, you eat, you come back, you work it out. It’s the same thing. So the discipline was already there. A lot of people say to me, ‘Wow, you’re doing a lot. A lot is happening for you.’ And really, its just discipline. I mean I go out, I have fun, but if I have an interview the next day, I make sure I get up. I am really on it. I am always writing a new song. At the DUB WAR series a lot of times I’ll be on the mike and I’ll be DJing or free styling or whatever. And I will sing a line and it will get a good audience response and I will just write it down and then I’ll come back to it days later when I have some free time and flush a song out of it.

You’ve been performing since you were 14, right? First, as a dancer for visiting artists in the Caribbean…
JK: Yeah… The first concert I did in Trinidad was for MC Hammer and Boyz II Men together. We opened for them. I was in a dance group called Spoil Brattz. There was a nation-wide contest in Trinidad with lip-synching, dancing and singing routines. We were in the dance category. I was 14 or 15 at the time and we entered the competition and we won.

This was a competition to be the dancers for the MC Hammer concert?
JK: No, this was a national annual competition. And then we as a group performed for all these other artists. My older brother and I were in that group together for two years. And then we left for the US. I remember speaking to my best friends at home and I had a choice actually. I could have stayed in Trinidad and they were like, ‘Are you crazy man? Go!’

Do you think you made the right decision – to leave Trinidad?
JK: I ask myself that question. I think I asked myself more when I was in college. Dealing with college alone is a big deal, but dealing with college and coming from another country and being in New York, having a very serious accent… My accent was so thick, it wasn’t even funny! I didn’t know the colloquial language of America. It’s a different language and I didn’t know it. I remember it probably took about two years before I was comfortable. Before I didn’t have to think about what I was going to say or have to say the same thing 3 times. Something like that… it took a lot!

I grew up in Pakistan and came here when I was 19. I grew up speaking English as well and I came here and I thought I was speaking perfect English but people would just be like, ‘What did you say?’
JK: Exactly! Were you homesick?

My first semester in college, I would actually wake up every morning with a sense of panic, which is a really bad way of waking up! I would wake up and panic and wonder, ‘Why am I here?’
JK: I think I remember the panic. Wow. I have long since forgot about that. You just reminded me. I remember being very… scared!

Let me tell you, that’s how I got into poetry. I have always been writing. I won short story competitions when I was in Trinidad. I got into poetry in New York, but I didn’t write. I just performed. It was the only time I was speaking in my accent for 5 minutes. Just… speaking. And it wasn’t with my parents or my brother or relatives or whatever. At that time I didn’t know anyone else from the Caribbean who was in New York. So, I didn’t really have anyone to talk to who would understand my accent. The English spoken in the Caribbean is very rhythmical and so I had the sense of rhythm already. So it came across like that [like poetry]. But the first few times I was just talking out loud. About how … cold New York was.

I talked about seeing snow for the first time. Snow is a beautiful thing, seeing it for the first time. I think I was coming home from church with my parents I think it was Christmas day. And I looked up and it was falling and it was light and magical. And then it kept falling. And I was like, ‘Enough of this!’ It got cold. It’s on the sidewalk. It’s all dirty and grey. I was done! I was really done.

So when you were talking about snow – that was your first spoken word performance, right?
JK: Yeah.

And this was an open-mic event. You just sort of signed up for it.
JK: Yeah.

No confidence issues. You know, people watching, listening?
JK: No, I mean you know I was nervous. You’re always nervous. But no, I didn’t have any real issues especially after dancing and stuff. The thing about dancing and being in a successful group back, is that we really practiced. You don’t even understand how well we knew our routines. It was a rehearsed routine. We had this thing where if you made a mistake we’d start the whole thing over. The point was to focus. So yeah, I didn’t have any fear of performing at all. I think even more now than ever. And it’s the first time I have been solo.

When you’re performing solo, do you have musicians in the background?
JK: Sometimes. But it’s still very different. Performing solo now is akin to when I first started doing poetry. Talking about snow - it was just me. In my voice. It’s a very different thing when you’re speaking from you. And there’s not a break. In a group there’s a break. The performers change. The focus of the audience changes. Your focus changes. Everyone’s focus shifts to the next person or the next sound or whatever. Solo performance is just you. People are watching only you.

How long do your solo performances last?
JK: Usually people ask me to do 3 songs. That’s the minimum request. But I’ve performed for two hours at a time. I can do that. No problem. But in a group you have a moment to collect yourself whereas if you’re onstage for two hours it’s just you. If you drink a glass of water, people are looking at you. Drinking that glass of water! So you’re really conscious of not just the audience but of yourself. Your senses are heightened. And you have to get used to that.

I did open-mic solo for maybe a year. It happened once every two weeks during the school semester. Did that for a year and the following year we had the group [Second2Last] and then with the group you were still a solo voice, so it was like it’s your turn to go now. Then the following year after that is when we started performing together. That changed a lot of things because you have to… allow for the next person in your work. The way I was doing poetry I was speaking. With the reggae stuff, I was singing. So I had to find my voice again.

You did poetry and also reggae with Second2Last?
JK: In the first years of being part of the group, you know it was the group performing, but there would be maybe one poem that had everyone in it together. Each of us would get a chance on the microphone alone. So usually when I would get a chance at the microphone I would do a song, or a poem, with a moment of song in it. As the group got bigger poetry became the main focus…and it wasn’t because singing wasn’t nice. We really just wanted to establish the sound of what we wanted to portray. You don’t have to sing. It could just be poetry, it could just be words and the value of that. So singing took a backseat.

When you’re part of the group you do what the group’s doing. So I didn’t write songs much at the time. So I remember getting in the studio when I was recording solo and a lot of control issues came up. When you’re performing live it’s different. When you’re recording in the studio it’s different. Practicing at home, everything’s fine. But when you get to the studio you think, ‘Oh you have to hold that note longer.’ I have recorded two albums before so it wasn’t as if I didn’t know what to do. But it’s like ‘I hear how it can be better. Now I have to do it.’ And the doing part was what I had to learn.

The sense that I get is that when you’re in the studio that’s where you’re hearing that it can be better. Is that just because of better acoustics in the studio essentially?
JK: The microphone in the studio picks everything up. Even a speech impediment. Like I have a lot of S’s when I speak. It picks up on the microphone. So when I’m singing or speaking on the microphone, I open my mouth up wider. So that I can avoid the hissing. If you’ve never been in a studio before and the sound engineer says, ‘Open your mouth wider when you speak,’ you’re going to be like,
‘What? Why?’
‘There a lot of S’s.’
‘No there aren’t! That’s how I speak, that’s how I want it. I want it to be me. I want…’
I didn’t have those issues which is why the sound engineer was like, ‘Hey you’re great to work with’. Hey, you do your job, I’ll do mine.

I read somewhere that you performed at the FIFA World Cup in Germany. Where exactly?
JK: Dortmund and Gelsenkirchen. I was part of the FIFA Fan Fest, which is the concert series that’s aligned to the world cup. A lot of people performed in the different aspects of the whole world cup that lasted about a month. The Fan Fest was taped in of the stadiums. The stadium held 100,000 but at the time there were only 5000 so it felt like you were in a club that holds 100 people but there were only 5 there! But still, when you’re on a stage that’s half a football field you’re like…Wow!

How did you get the gig?
JK: [Laughs] I got that in the same magical way that I have been handling my career so far! I have two agents now, but I don’t have a manager. I don’t have a publicist. I just have a few good friends.

Basically when Trinidad and Tobago qualified for the World Cup back in October I started thinking about it. And then in December I emailed - at that time I had already done my first tour - so I emailed the agent who organized that one and I said, ‘Hey what about the World Cup?’ And I knew people in Trinidad and in New York. I had been to Europe. In fact I was performing in the Czech Republic next door only a few months before all this. I had already been on my first tour so I had some clout. It wasn’t as if I didn’t know what I was doing. I was like, ‘I am pretty sure I can get to perform. Trinidad’s got in for the first time. I am from Trinidad. You know I performed with a Czech band there recently.’ So I sent the emails out in December. And at the same time my first single came out – Run Babylon.

Run Babylon was released by a Czech record label. So I am sending the emails around. I said, ‘This record’s just come out. This is what it sounds like. I am from Trinidad…’ I am milking it, milking it.

One of the guys that reviewed my single is German. He lives in the town in which Trinidad and Tobago played their first game against Sweden. So he goes ‘Let me ask the town what they’re doing.’ And he finds out that they are planning something and he says to them, ‘Oh I know this guy…blah blah blah.’ Boom! Booked for Dortmund. Then, since all the major cities with the stadiums are collaborating with each other, Gelsenkirchen followed. Before I performed at Gelsenkirchen, there was a dance group from Korea and a band from Mexico. So you know it was very international but with a local aspect to it, because these were local singers from their countries. I remember being on the plane and being amazed. I just sent some emails out, you know?

You just really have to put yourself out there.
JK: Yeah and I really thought about it. If I were someone booking me, what would I want to see in myself? Well the guy has already played in Europe. He has a single out. The thing is, I didn’t have any releases when I had my first tour. I toured without a release. That doesn’t happen anywhere.

I had songs, but I had no commercially released material. That in itself was a feat. So the fact that the Fan Fest thing happened surprised me, and it didn’t. Because I am from an island and that’s how things happen there. Everything is a phone call away and someone says yes or no and everyone is reachable. The most famous artists are reachable. It’s very friendly, it’s very warm. It’s like an island thing I guess. I think the music industry right now is very cliquish…but it’s supposed to be about the music and it’s struggling right now to get back to that. That’s why a lot of the major labels aren’t doing well but a lot of the independent labels are doing well.

Do you have a label or are you looking to get one?
JK: A lot of people have recently asked me about an LP (full-length album) and I told them ‘I’m so not interested in doing one unless I have a label.’

Because you need sponsorship?
JK: it has less to do with that. Can you do an album? Yes. Can you have an album made without being with a label? Yes. But for my sanity I would rather not even do it. I rather just get the support and get the backing.

So having a label helps you helps with the management aspect?
JK: A label usually does everything or they tell me what to do. The difference between a single and an album is that to promote one song is very easy. To promote an album is a whole other kettle of fish. A lot more money and time involved. And because it’s more money and more time, there’s a bigger expected turnaround. Singles - singles are more like…

Singles can have a life of their own.
JK: Yeah, it’s like dessert. It’s like, ‘Here are some strawberries. Tomorrow we’re serving ice cream.’ Vs. an album is like ‘Here’s a restaurant, and the track listing is the menu. And I hope you like something on the menu and if you don’t the restaurant’s going to close down!’ That’s really what it is.

Does the island comparison work with Manhattan or is Manhattan a different kind of island?
JK: Manhattan is a beast! It works and it doesn’t. It’s isolated. An island, on the island on Manhattan, is someone’s apartment. And in that apartment, the ‘island’ works fine. You meet people. You’re eating, you’re drinking. You know, that’s an island. On the street or a bar or a club - it just doesn’t happen. People will give you cards all the time. And you call them the next day and they're like, ‘Wow! I’m surprised you called’ and you’re like, ‘You’re supposed to!’ People are jaded. They want things to happen but then they don’t expect anything to happen. It’s a type of duality I am not interested in being around. I need to be around people who believe that things will happen.

Do you see yourself staying in NY? Is it pretty much home in the US at least?
JK: In the US yes. I know New York really well.

What’s the next thing you’re doing in terms of your music?
JK: After Labor Day, I am going to a record manufacturer to submit my first music for a 12” vinyl. 2 songs. One called 2-Finger. The other is called Until Then. It was just reviewed in this month’s issue of XLR8R Magazine. It’s an international magazine that focuses on underground music. The stuff that’s bubbling but you don’t know about it. It’s my first mention.

And then I am going to the West Coast to tour for the first time in October with a DJ / producer out there. Kush Arora is his name. He did a remix of 2-Finger that is going to be released, and that’s how we met. And with him, aside from the remix, I did three or four other songs. Through him I met some New York producers and DJs called Sub-Swara and with them I have done about 4 songs as well. Kush Arora is Punjabi. He does mostly dance hall, dubstep, bhangra dub. Sub-Swara is more electronica. Very tribal rhythms. And I am also working with the producer who released my single in the Czech Republic.

So can all these different songs come together in an album?
JK: No. These are all different things that will be released independently and this is the reason why. Right now for me, not being attached to a label, it works in my best interest to have different releases in different parts of the world simultaneously because one of them could bubble. My chances are greater than if I put everything on one album. That’s a gamble.

I just had an on-line release with one of the guys from the Czech Republic. I did a Dubstep tune with him called Sultan Dub. I am going to see if I can get someone to release it on vinyl.

I did a track with some bhangra rhythms for a belly dance instructional video soundtrack that’s supposed to be coming out this fall. This is with one of the guys from Sub-Swara. The song is called The Balance. And then I did tracks with a guy in LA called Process Label. He’s from San Francisco.

That’s a lot of stuff bubbling!
JK: Yeah! The next release that I am going to do myself is a Dubstep track. I want to push the fact that I am one of the only MCs doing Dubstep in New York or in America. Doing it free-style and writing it. So I want to release another Dubstep tune. I want to make a video. I want to make it a little more prominent. I have completed two new Dubstep that are very forward and that are very interesting in terms of having a visual aspect to them. It’ll be so easy to shoot a video for these.

And of course, looming in the back is the fact that I have to seriously approach some labels and feed them some music. Even if they don’t bite now, I want to get on their radar so when the time comes to make that transition, I want it to be smooth in terms of that relationship being built. I want it to be like a friendship. Not just business. I want to talk about trends. Because I am out there. That’s the advantage of touring before you have a release, not touring for promotional purposes after you have a release. I am out there being influenced by the music that’s out there. Underground and over ground.

I am also responding to the trends I am seeing, the music I am hearing. I am thinking about how to respond to an audience that doesn’t know English. I mean, how do you speak in my accent? It’s a big deal already. People who speak English don’t understand what I am saying. So those are the issues that I have to be aware of. And how do you write a song that’s you think is good, but also realizing that you’re singing something that most of the world would not even get in the first listen. It’s not like hip-hop or rock or anything else. It’s more reggae or soul. Unless you're from the Caribbean, or you really listen to reggae a lot, you don’t get it at the first listen. So as a writer, what do you write in the song that’s going to catch people and get them to listen? Even if they don’t get a 100 percent what you’re saying.

What do you think that thing is that can draw someone into a song?
JK: I don’t think it’s any one thing. I think you have to have that sensitivity. You have to be aware of that connection that has to be made. And I know that artists may say that ‘I am just doing my music and if people get it they get it’, but art is to connect. You want to connect. When I go to a club, I think about it. Who’s in this club? Is it people who work in music everyday? Different audience. Some of the people I performed for in the Czech republic…they don’t have reggae bands coming to the Czech Republic. It’s a whole different energy. It’s different than performing in London for a bunch of guys who work for labels and who have listened to reggae, punk, rock, everything under the sun. It’s a different audience. Everything I did in the Czech Republic - probably 10 percent of it I can do for them. They are not going to buy any of the antics. They want to see something else. It is harder to perform for people in the business. They are numb! For lack of a better word.

It has to be exceptional to startle them out of their numbness…
JK: Yeah, and exceptional doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be a great singer or that the music has to be great. It just has to be different and it has to connect. It is that human element. It is, when sunlight comes through a window. You can’t explain how it feels, but 9 people out of 10, when that sunlight comes through a window an emotional response is generated. They can’t explain it but they feel it. So that’s what you want to be. You want to be able to be that sunlight. Not the sunshine, not the window, but the whole thing. The whole scene has to happen. That’s how it is with people in the business. That’s what I have been working on and trying to figure out. People on the street who don’t listen to Dubstep or reggae are an easier audience. It’s very difficult with people who listen. However, if you can make that connection with the guy who goes to work and watches 20 videos everyday, you’re going to change someone’s life who’s walking down the street. You’re going to blow their mind!

Artist website: http://www.foreignfamiliar.com and http://www.myspace.com/juakali

You can catch JuaKali live at Sub Swara’s 1-yr anniversary on Friday, October 6th. Venue: The Element.

For further event information, please check out Sub Swara’s website at http://www.subswara.com/

Next Appearances:

10/06/2006 10:00 PM
Sub Swara @ Element
225 East Houston St. Corner of Essex, New York City $10/15/20
www.subswara.com for more info

10/07/2006 10:00 PM
Pioneers of DUBSTEP @ The Darkroom ( Club Six )
Sixty 6th Street , San Francisco , CA $10
www.sfdubstep.com for more info

10/08/2006 10:00 PM
DUB MISSION @ Elbow Room
18th and Valencia , San Francisco , CA $7
www.dubmissionsf.com for more info

10/12/2006 10:00 PM
Afro Funke @ Zanzibar
1301 5th Street @ Arizona , Santa Monica , CA $7
www.afrofunke.com for more info

10/28/2006 12:00 AM
Halloween Death Boat Bash! :: Paddle Wheel Queen
E 23rd St @ FDR Drive , New York City $25 in Advance
www.directdrive.net for more info

Limited Edition Vinyl (mentioned in Aug'06 XLR8R)
Available NOW A. 2 FINGA :: AA. UNTIL THEN
featuring production by
DjRXM, Kush Arora, g_mateus, Drop The Lime, Alpha and Omega
info@foreignfamiliar.com to place your order