Duane Stephenson - photo by Leighton Levy

It's been a little over two years since Duane Stephenson parted company with the sextet To-Isis. But in that time he has already managed to carve a niche as a soul/roots singer whose stocks are rapidly on the rise.

Already he has toured the United States and the Caribbean, has a European tour lined up for this summer and an album due out later this year to follow up on the success of his first, the critically acclaimed August Town that was released in late 2007.

Stephenson had been with To-Isis for about a decade and as a group they established a reputation as one of Jamaica's top performing groups. But as they grew as a group, Stephenson was growing as an individual and soon his interests and that of the group were poles apart. "I thought it was time," he said of his departure. "Anything that I could have done, I did so there was nothing more I could have done beyond that. And six different people have different minds and everybody has their own interpretations of what music means to them. So it was always a pull in different directions because of, I guess, the diverse personalities in the group."

More than entertainment

To him music is more than just entertainment. It is a vessel, a representation of the fabric of his inner self as he grows and evolves. "The group wanted to appeal to the teenagers and I just grew up. My personality is a little more than that. Most of the stuff I sing is a little over their (teenagers) heads. It's a little harder to digest," he said, adding that there was no animosity as by then the inevitability of his departure was clear for all to see. "People knew at some point that it would have happened because even when I was with the group I was doing so many things outside the group," Stephenson said.

Those things he was doing included writing for Luciano and Jah Cure. After he departed To-Isis he was also extensively involved in working on an album for Tarrus Riley, his friend who has been around since, "I went out to St Thomas and heard them with two chords and a guitar with five strings". He was also working on his own single.

Before long Stephenson was diving headlong into producing his own album, August Town, his first for VP Records.

"After leaving the group, I recorded a single, Mr B. We were doing the last recording to put it out as a single when (VP head) Chris Chin walked into the studio. I was doing what I was doing. At the time we were pretty much full speed ahead working with Tarrus Riley's album. Next morning, Dean Fraser called and said Chin was quite impressed and said we should go full steam ahead with an album. So I jumped in head first," he recalled.

It didn't take him long to get rolling. He had developed a lot of ideas from during his time with the group. He dusted those ideas off and before long he had 14 songs ready for the album. The album, he said, was personal. "There were things about my experiences. Things that I saw because of where I am from to the places I had been."

The title track was not among the original 14 songs. It came later, inspired by a personal experience. "Dean did the Jah Live track and said he was going to send it off to Guyana to be used for some project with Vision Sound."

"I took the track and at the time I was mourning the loss of a good friend of mine. He was in all sorts of foolishness. He was not an angel but is mi bredren. Two weeks before he died we spoke and I went up to him and said to him 'you naw stop shoot people boss'. And him a say 'mi is a God fearing man and you know and ray ray'. Two weeks later he was shot in reprisal for some shooting that he apparently was involved in, hence, the song August Town."

The new album, which is about halfway done and is due out in May, will be a departure from August Town.

Growth

"Life is a journey and you have to carry people on that journey," he said. "I am trying to live life and I hope to achieve growth in that album because how I viewed things three years ago and how I view things now would have changed because of my experiences."

Stephenson revealed that there will be some music that will appeal to teens on the album, the title of which he is keeping close to his chest.

None of his success so far, would have been possible without the help of legendary saxophonist, musician and producer Dean Fraser.

Stephenson says Fraser helped shape the artiste he is today. "The first recording we did, even as To-Isis, was done by Dean Fraser and that's Ghetto Pain. Dean actually gave it some structure," he said.

From the outset, he said, Fraser got him to see that he needed to improve by knocking him off his high horse. Stephenson was a member of a performance group started by former beauty queen Cathy Levy. The Cathy Levy Players wowed many audiences all across Jamaica. During that time he had managed to convince himself that as a singer he was the real deal. Fraser, he said, made him see otherwise. He would invite the young singer to visit the studio to sing background. The sessions, he said, were living nightmares.

"I remember in the first instances you hope that he's calling you for a session but you're hoping its not a session because you're going to go in there and you will be the one messing up and everybody turn to you and say 'what you doing Duane, listen man this is not the way' Dean would say 'come on Duane, come on man, you a sing like you deaf!' Sometimes when you're done with a session you have a headache how hard you're thinking, but eventually (getting it right) was like second nature."

Opportunities

Fraser also encouraged and gave him opportunities to further develop his songwriting skills and was responsible for him writing songs for Luciano and Jah Cure for whom he wrote Reflections.

Since that time he has worked and continues to work with Jah Cure, whom he met while Cure was still in prison on a rape conviction. He said Cure may have gone to prison as a boy but was a man by the time they met.

Stephenson had a successful tour in the United States in the last quarter of last year and has been booked for all the major European music festivals for the summer, just reward for his hard work and the quality of his music.

But he refuses to let it go to his head.

"When you go and you see the response and someone comes up to you and say 'boy the other day tings did rough and mi listen you CD and it mek me feel so much better', you can't imagine how that feels. It's easy to understand why a lot of people start behaving larger than life because of all of this, but I am not that type of person. Life to me is in black and white and boy mi so busy a feel grateful and thankful mi no have time for all dem suppen deh," he said.