Interview done by Jakob Levi (Guidelight Movement) at Earl ”Sixteen” Daley´s hotelroom in Uppsala Sweden 2004-06-11.

The following is an interview with the legendary vocalist Earl ”Sixteen” Daley, who has given us classics like ”Freedom” and ”Peaceful Rastaman”. One cannot mistake that distinctive and wonderful voice which has put it's mark on numerous recordings throughout the last three decades.

Guidelight Movement: Greetings Earl Sixteen.

Earl Daley: Yes I. Blessed love. Greetings everytime.

GLM: Could you introduce yourself and your music for those who don't know you?

ED: My name is Earl Sixteen. I started singing reggae music since I was the age of thirteen. Which was about thirty years ago. I was born in Jamaica, Kingston and have worked with people like Dennis Brown, Winston McAnuff, Lee Perry, Mikey Dread at the controls and Augustus Pablo. I've worked with Harry J's. I've worked with the majority of the jamaican producers during the eighties when the reggae scene was culminating in Jamaica. Spreading out into the world. Late seventies, early eighties. I was glad to be apart of the transition. From the ska music to…taking the ska music to reggae, because it was originally like rocksteady and blues. So, you know, I was a part of the whole movement from the transition of the old into the new and I´m glad to be here in this new millenium.

GLM: Could you tell us a little bit about your early experiences in music?

ED: My early experiences, like I said, was with people like uhm…because I was born and growen in West Kingston and alot of people around me was involved with music people. Like Sugar Minott used to live pretty close to me. Tristan Palmer, who was very young. We started out very young. You know like everyday when I was going to school. I used to go past people like Ken Boothe. You know, walk by his house and listen to them rehearsing and stuff like that. So my early experiences was with like alot the veterans of today. Some of the real people like Roy Shirley, who alot of people really don't regonize no more. He was very big in the seventies in Jamaica, you know. Alton Ellis and people like these. I mean for me I wasn't really, I didn't get into music until I started seeing all these guys. Hearing them rehears, you know. I noticed that they had a good vibe together. Them bonded really well, you know. I remember hanging out with the African Brothers. Which was Tony Tuff, Sugar Minott and Eric Bubbles, and when them guys rehears, you know, they were really intressting. You would have lots of laughs and it would be fun, you know. And sometimes on my way back from school I would stop off at Studio One or hang out at Channel One and see all these great people like Sly and Robbie and stuff. So it was cool for me. It wasn't really difficult for me to jump in. Jump on, you know. Join the train. Getting on board the train to Zion, you know.

GLM: Ok, and when did you get involved in the recording business?

ED: Well, funny enough, I had a friend who was a school mate and he wrote a song. He wrote a song called ”Malcolm X” and he tried to record it. He went to Joe Gibbs studio and recorded the riddim and he tried to voice it but he couldn't do it. So he ask me if I were to be intressted, because I used to pratice my voice all the time, you know. I'll be listing to the radio at home and singing along with the Jackson 5 or the Marvin Gaye´s or the James Brown or what was playing. So I used to have a nice, a unique voice, you know. And in those days we all tried to sing like Dennis Brown. All the young upcoming singers or even if he wasn't a singer he wanted to sing like Dennis. Because Dennis was the most popular, you know. He was very unique at the time. Anyway my friend, Winston McAnuff, asked me to follow him to the studio. So we left school one evening and went to Joe Gibbs and I voiced a tune called ”Malcolm X” for him. So when we voiced it we didn't get any money or anything like that from Joe Gibbs. Next thing we knew he got Dennis Brown to sing it, you know. Joe Gibbs made Dennis Brown sing it and they put it on a album called ”Vision of Dennis Brown”.

GLM: And this was around –78?

ED: Yeah, -76 or something like that. So after Dennis Brown's version was released. We did not see that they were to put out ours, you know. So we thought they took the voice off because the used the same riddim track. So we went and did it for Derrick Harriot and Derrick Harriot released his right away and it was getting alot of airplay and stuff. It was building up a vibe. And then Joe Gibbs released his one as well at the same time. So it was a bit of a contravecy you know. But at least we got payed from Derrick so that was one of the good things, you know. It was always like the producers didn't pay, you know. It was rough. It was rough to be a musician or a artist in Jamaica at the time.

GLM: Like the producers were taking advantige of you?

ED: Yeah. I mean the producers didn't have copyright laws or publishing. We didn't know about publishing or anything like that. It was difficult, you know. So it was a good thing that I met people like Augustus Pablo. Who kind of teach me a little bit about publishing and actually helping me to learn about producing myself and producing artists and stuff. I spent alot of years with Pablo, you know. Me and Hugh Mundell. So I learned alot from those guys as well, you know.

GLM: And then you met up with Mikey Dread and Lee Perry through Pablo?

ED: Well, yeah. I was working with a band. Because we had a group in school, a singing group in school, but it was just like a school…you know. We all wanted to sing like the Jackson 5 or The Fourtops or something like that. So, we had our little group. We didn't do any recording or anything. So we used to do a few shows and then I met a guy called Boris Gardner, who had a band. And he invited me to sing in his band. So I left my group and started practising with him and rehearsing with Boris on a regarully basis. Because this was like a big band, you know. Big cabaree band with horns, two guitars and two keyboards, you know big band. But he was working for Lee Perry at the time. He was playing and building alot of tracks for Lee Perry. So sometimes I used to follow him to the studio. I met Mikey Dread there and thing, you know. We started reasoning and he had alot of riddim tracks who didn't have any vocalists on them. So he asked me if I would like to put some voice on it. He was like working on the radio. He was a radio deejay. So I figured this would be the best guy to sing some songs for, because atleast my songs would get played. So, yeah, I started working with Mikey and then I did a couple of tracks for Lee Perry as well. So, you know, my songs started getting played on the radio and stuff. So it was cool.

GLM: Alright and then coming up to the eighties. What were you doing around that time?

ED: Well, in the eighties now I left school. I dropped out of school because I was really busy doing my music and stuff. My parents weren't happy about it, you know, but I decided that I wanted to concentrate on doing my music. So I did an album for Studio One and he released it in 1981. And it became very succesfull in England. Mikey Dread had a few releases in England as well. So he suggested that I should come to England with him, but at the time when he suggested that I was touring with Boris. So we were in Canada for six months. Touring all over Canada and I started traveling alot. So when I come back to Jamaica now, some people invited me to come to England to perform at the festival hall, you know. The Royal Festival Hall, which is like a big big event for reggae. Because reggae hadn't been played in a place like that before. So a few of us came and stuff. I came to England and fell in love with it, you know. I fell in love with the place. The vibes were good and at the time Jamaica was getting a bit violent and there was too many artists. Not too many but lots and lots of artists coming of Jamaica at the time. Junior Reid and there was like…Hugh Mundell. So much artists, you know. So I thought to myself, no one would miss me if I would stay somewhere in England or America or whatever. So, I mean, Tenor Saw and me. We did a big tour in England. And after the tour, basically I got married and stuff and I just stayed in England. I didn't really go back to Jamaica. I mean, I do go back from time to time. I go back all the time, but I just decided to stay because it was getting really rough and plus my friends got killed. Hugh Mundell got killed. Peter Tosh got murdered and Jacob Miller, you know. Alot of people were dying that was very important to uplift reggae music, you know. And they were all dying in Jamaica. So I thought Jamaica can not be such a good place, there for all these good people dying. But I suppose it was like…you know…over the years people have to die for people to live, you know. So I didn' t want to be sacrificed for someone else to live, because I needed to live. To survive, you know. I had alot of family to take care of, you know. I had my mom. I come from a big family, so I needed to be around to support them and help them out. So the only way I could do it was live away from the country, but still keeping contact, you know. Even till this time I still release my records in Jamaica. And I can sell them, you know. I can travel all over the world. You know, like I said it's nice to be here in the twentieth century. Yes I.

GLM: You also worked with people like Roy Cousins…

ED: Yeah, Cousins was one of the guys I did a couple of tracks for and stuff.

GLM: Was that before or after you left England?

ED: Well, before I left Jamaica I worked with people like Roy Cousins. I did an album for Earl Morgan from The Heptones, you know. And that was nice because Heptones were like one of the popular groups who was like always traveling. And they were always singing for people. Working for the people. They wanted to start doing something for themselfs. So a few of us. We come together and did some songs for them. So they could build their own label and stuff. Because it reached a stage were artists started looking after themselfs, you know. So we would like…ahh…someone would do a record for me and I would sing like…

GLM: Backing vocals for them…

ED: Yeah, backing each other up and kind of helping ourselfs because it was really rough, you know.

GLM: Like I help you and you help me.

ED: Yeah, that kind of vibe. Nowadays they do it, in Jamaica. Their doing it like Tony Rebel keep a show and all the artists would come and then Capleton keep a show and all the artists would go. So it´s kind of like that we used to do in the early eighties. Because we didn't have lot of production as artists, singers and writers, you know. We didn't get involved in producing. So I used to try to help out other singers. Voice a couple of tracks for them and they voice a couple of tracks for me and stuff. And that´s how I kinda started get involved in producing my own stuff, you know.

GLM: Ok. Then leaping forward in time. You talked about yourself producing which you did on your album ”Bossman” aka ”Rootsman” in around –93. Was that your first productionwise?

ED: Well yeah. That was my first ventures into the production scene. Like before I left Jamaica I did a track called ”Man Making Plans”. Which is like a 7-inch that we started doing, did about 1974. I mean this is way back. And then I did a tune at Lee Perry´s place called ”Freedom”. Which we kind of produced for ourself but we didn't. We didn't have money to press it so Scratch pressed it for us. So you know I was always…you know…because of the kind of people I used to be around. Pablo and stuff. I learned alot from them. Boris Gardner and stuff. So I was always trying to do something. Having a little track for myself as well. But when I came to England I did an album. Me and a guy and he released it. And then I did a 12-inch. I put out a 12-inch called ”Holding Back The Years”. It was amazing. It was a cover of a Simply Red song. But then it just started sell. Loads and loads and loads. And I didn't know what to do. I was suprised and I was sad because I couldn't get it around to the shops enough, you know. It was a good thing because we sold maybe 5-6000 copies which is good. And then Jetstar started to help us distribute it and thing. Since I was in England now I started working with people like the Mad Professor. I did a couple of tracks with him and started touring Europe alot with them and Macka B.

GLM: About what time is this?

ED: This is about –92-93, you know. I started traveling alot with Macka B and the Mad Professor and I did an album with him called ”Babylon Walls”. So we were promoting that. And then some guys from England, who used to be DJ's had a track that they bought from Greensleeves called ”Trial and Crosses” and they wanted to remix it into a underground drum and bass kinda vibe. Which was very underground at the time. So they contacted Mad Professor and we meet up. And I went and did it with them. I went and put some vocals on it and changed it up a little bit. And I did a track called ”Release The Pressure” which was called ”Time To Release The Pressure”

GLM: Was this with Zion Train?

ED: Well, it was with a band called Leftfield. And that song was all over the magazines, all over the newspaper. It's was on the radio all the time. Which was amazing because alot of people were just starting to experiment with like drum and bass. Using like…Super Cat was one of the deejays that they used to use and Barrington Levy. But they used to just sample their voices. So my one was kind of the first really…you know…major. Like I came into studio and voiced the track and stuff. So alot of people said: -Ah Sixteen, he sell out and he switch. He run leave the reggae music. But I didn't. It was just something new and kind of going trough phases. Because like I said I was always there when the music change. Because the music change alot of times, you know. And it's always good to be with what's happening. You know, with the new scene.

GLM: In part of the progress.

ED: Yeah, in the process of the progress. So it was a good thing and now alot of artists even Sizzla is on drum and bass riddim now. So it's always nice to be apart of the old, you know. The changes that we go through with reggae because reggae music is a great thing, you know. It's a great vibe. It´s all about peace and love, you know. I mean nowadays the kids are talking about handle the girls, gay man, gay girls and gay boys and I don't know if they really sit down and listen to some of the old Bob Marley records, Third World and Toots & The Maytales. But it's just a phase, you know. I think it's just a phase that the music goes through because there's always a storm before the calm, you know.

GLM: You linked up with Gussie P as well.

ED: Yes, in the UK now. Because I'm based in England. When I first came to England I first worked with Mafia & Fluxy. We did that tour together with Tenor Saw. So I was always in touch with them because their really great guys. Great musicians. So when they started to build their own studio…I still haven't recorded for them but I was always with them and then they started to work with Gussie P. An engineer. So I met Gussie P through Mafia & Fluxy and he was one of the old school kind of guys who… He collected, I think, nearly all the jamaican records that came to England. Gussie P got a copy of them. He's one of the greatest collectors I ever met, you know. So he would play me some songs that I can't even remember that I sung them, you know. He would like give a cassette and said do you remember this song that you use to sing and so. So he was always a good friend and he always made me tapes of songs that I didn't have. That I did for other people and didn't have a copy. He would give me a copy and stuff. So I suggested to him that we should do something together and stuff. And he was like, yeah, intressted and we started working together. But over the years we just came really close and stuff because I'm always checking him for a old song, you know. I can always check him because he knows all the singers and stuff that come out of the sixties and seventies of Jamaica. Normally he used to be with A-Class. He used to have a label called A-Class but he kind of stepped up a gear now. He's been doing alot of work and his works are really good, you know. He's been very progressive in with what he's been doing. So it's paying off for him. So I really respect that, you know. And he's becoming one of the best producers out of the UK right now, which is really cool.

GLM: And nowadays you work with all kind of people in Europe like Cultural Warriors and Belleville Records…

ED: Yeah, well I'm telling you the music…because of the whole ragga and the dancehall phase that was happening in the late nineties the roots music kind of went down hill. Roots and culture, steppers, you know. Alot of soundsystems wasn't so popular in the UK anymore. So I mean I started working with people in Europe like I used to go to France alot to work with a sound called Raggadub Force. They were really into the roots steppers vibes. They picked up were the UK left off, you know. Were England left off of the roots and culture vibe in the mid-eighties, you know. Alot of people in Europe picked up and started recording their own kind of stuff. So when I come to Europe someone would ask me to put a vibe on a riddim that they build in a little studio and stuff. So I started working and worked with a few people in Europe like Cultural Warrior and I worked with Downbeat in Germany. I worked with a few people in France like Patate Records and stuff. So it's really cool because now the roots and culture vibe is kind of picking up again in England. But it was always somewhere in Europe. Somewhere in France, Sweden or Schwitzerland. It was always going on. So sometimes I used to be in Europe more than I be at home, you know.
But I'm used to like Studio One like Coxone Soundsystem. I'm used to listening to King Stur Gav which only plays militant music. Strictly roots and culture music. What music is all about, you know. Uplifting your spirit and stuff. Not cursing girls or cursing this and that. Talking about cars and bling bling and all that kind of stuff. So for me I can't really fight what the youths into because I was a youth before. A youth once, you know. So I support what they are doing, as long as they still remember that the music of the elders will always be around. Music of people like Yabby You & The Prophets, Vivian Jackson. People like Meditations and Culture. As long as the youths can realize that we cannot deny this music.

GLM: Coming from Jamaica and moving to the UK. What do you think the difference is musicwise with the scene here and there?

ED: Well, to me in Jamaica I think majority of the real vibrance of what was coming out of Jamaica was during the eighties. When like Bunny Wailer came with an album called ”Black Heart Man” that was like one of the epitome of reggae, you know. Because reggae music is about a message. I mean I like what Luciano and Beres Hammond are doing now, but to me I think there's not alot of creativity coming out of the Jamaican music scene. It's not the same, you know. I mean the way we used to arrange the arrangements and stuff. To have a big sound with horns, keyboards overdubs, guitars and nice solos and stuff like the way people like Bob Andy and people like that would make music. But you still have music coming out of Jamaica that is acceptable, but I don't really see a great difference. Because since I came to the UK I been working with people like Mad Professor and Gussie P and even myself I try to make certain music like when I… and we try to build that kind of standard that is missing. That was becoming missing out of the Jamaican segment of songs that where coming out of Jamaica. There's like a big, major gap. There's like a missing link between the late eighties and the nineties were the music wasn't the same quality. The arrangements wasn't there. The creativity wasn't there. So I think it's not really a great difference now. People have sampled the King Tubbys flange that he used to use in his mixer. Their using the sound that Lee Perry used to use in the Black Ark studio. Those things you can find them on like samplers and stuff. And maybe on the internet you can find a King Tubbys studio or something were you could used all of the sounds that Tubbys used to have. So it's just become a international thing now. It's not just about Jamaica or the UK or Europe. Reggae music is just a international family kind of thing, you know. I think it's better this way as well because I think that was what people like Jimmy Cliff really wanted for people worldwide to get in this jam. Get in this reggae party vibe, you know. It's just a caribean kind of thing, a tropical thing like sunshine. Reggae music suppose to bring sunshine in your life or something like that, you know.

GLM: What about you name? What does Sixteen stand for?

ED: Well, the Sixteen is just like a pseudonism. You can call it like a nickname that I got when I joined Boris Gardner because Boris Gardner was consistent of mainly grown big men. So I was the youngest one in the band. When I started working with them I was about fifteen and they were suprised how muture I was. Because I kind of adopted the life and the lifestyle of the…I suppose…drinking and smoking and stuff. I really started at a young age. Normally my name was just Earl. Earl Daley, you know. So when I did my first song with Scratch they said: - Yeah, you should change your name to Earl Sixteen or something like that. So I said yeah and then because of the song called ”Freedom” sold alot in Jamaica. It were played alot on the radio. So the name just stick. I mean almost thirty years later I´m still sixteen, you know. But it´s cool.

GLM: A young man still…haha

GLM: At what part of your life did you adopt the philosophies of Rastafari?

ED: From a very early age. Since I was about fifteen years old. Like I said I grew up in western Kingston and when I was about ten years old, King Selassie I came to Jamaica. In 1966. He came close where I was living maybe about two hundred meters or something and he gave some land to build a school. Which is the H Selassie Secondary School. So when he came to this part of Kingston I went to see him and stuff. It was good that I saw him. I got to see him. So he gave us some land to build up a school and a housing scheme. Because it was like a shanty town area. It was like really ghetto style. Ghetto living. So that was to me like God have come to save I, you know. Because we used to go there in the bushes and it was really rough in those areas. Alot of youths were just grow up and dying in the ghetto, you know. But since Rastafari came and build the school. Things has been looking more brighter. To me, it was alot of rastas that came when Selassie came and started to be friends with people like Mortimer O´Planno and trying to learn about…

GLM: Who was Mortimer O´Planno?

ED: Mortimer O´Planno, he was one of the first rastas that went to Ethiopia and invited His Majesty to Jamaica, you know. Because the goverment asked him to do it and thing. So it was from a early stage of my life that I became interested in the whole movement of Jamaicans, Africans and the whole slave thing. It was very I-lightening (enlightening) for me to see Rastafari come visit us in Jamaica. And even though I didn't attend that school, but I attended schools in the area. I would always play football in H Selassie School and stuff. I mean from when I was in school I was like really into the faith. So once I was old enough to rent my own apartment I put up my covenent. Yeah, from a very young age, you know. It was good for I. Give thanks.

GLM: Future plans?

ED: Well, it's just to continue spread the message of peace, love and unity. Equality and justice for each and every one. And I seek for repatriation, you know. I seek for redemption of the poor and needy. So I just have to keep spreading the message. Rastafari message. And at the moment I'm working on an album for myself and I just signed a deal with BMG. So we're working on a kind of crossover, you know, modern kinda reggae vibe.

GLM: In the same kind of vibe as ”Cyber Roots”?

ED: Yeah the ”Cyber Roots” kind of vibe. Something for the future and like something modern. Then I'm also doing an album with Gussie P which is going to be one of the real roots. You know the real original kind of roots thing. Heavy heavyweight stuff, you know what I mean. So I try to balance it my own future right now. By the mercy of Rastafari now, I should be here to teach the youths them and spread the message as long as it takes for us to be united in one Jah Rastafari. Yes I.

GLM: Yes, give thanks!

ED: Yes I. Give thanks and all the blessings. I wanna big up all the internet people. All the people on the cyber web. In the galaxy of the web. Just remember that we have to keep our feet on the ground even though we might be involved in the worldwide web. So don't get caught up in it. One love. Selassie I.

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