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updated Feb 2 04 :: v.04 |
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It’s
about 3:00pm on a January afternoon in suburban St. Andrew and I
am sitting with Brick and Lace in the living room of their parents’
two-storey town house discussing their upcoming album and how excited
they must feel about being signed to Jive Records,
the record company that is home to one of 2003’s most successful
and controversial artists, R. Kelly, as well as other big name artists
like Britney and Justin, who pop music fans the world over, seem
to know strictly on a first name basis.
“We
are very excited!” says
Tasha, the oldest of the three sisters. “This
achievement has been in the making for several years.”
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So
far, the story of success for Nyla,
Tasha, and Nyanda Thorbourne or Brick
and Lace, as they’ve named their group,
reads similar to the stories of many successful world famous
artists. Raised
in a Christian home, the three sisters who come from a family
of four girls were all blessed with beautiful voices. Tasha
tells the story of when they were ‘discovered’ by
a friend, Danny Yap, who happened to be a member of their congregation
one Sunday. After hearing them make a joyful noise in church,
he introduced them to leading
booking agent and Solid Agency front woman, Sharon Burke.
An impressive audition with Burke followed and she later became
responsible for helping them to score gigs as back
up singers for acts like Diana King and Beres Hammond,
to name a few.
After
years of singing back up for big name local acts, Brick
and Lace decided that they too wanted to be
headliners but school came first. All three completed college
in the US, but knew that their hearts were set on careers in
music.
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| “I
was like a zombie going through college because I knew that music was
what I wanted to do in the end,” says Nyanda. “But
we had to finish school before we could devote 100 per cent of our time
to it instead of trying to juggle classes and studio time.” |
from left: Nyla, Tasha
& Nyanda |
| Determined
to focus on launching their own careers, Brick
and Lace say they even turned down an offer
to tour as back up singers with Lauryn
Hill in 2002. This was around the time the Grammy winning
songstress gave her much talked about performance on MTV’s
Unplugged. |
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“It was a big opportunity and many people would have jumped
at it but we didn’t want to get stuck in back up mode,”
Tasha explains. “It
was time for us to concentrate on creating our own material.”
As luck
would have it, their material caught the ears of record execs from
two labels in particular. “We
used our demo to shop for a record deal and Virgin and Jive responded,”
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Tasha
remembers. In
the end it was Jive that came out on top. “Jive
was more aggressive,” Nyanda says. “They
heard our demo, they loved it, and flew us to New York- they said they
were impressed by our sound and it just felt right.”
The
rest is history in the making. Brick and
Lace is the first female Jamaican
group to be signed to Jive Records. They had just finished recording
with Big Yard producers, Christopher Birch and Deanie Cliff
when I caught up with them. “These
are two hot tracks,” says Tasha of the two songs which
will be included on their album. Producer, Tricky
Stewart, who also worked on Britney Spears’ recent
album, “In the Zone”,
will also be one of the main producers on Brick
and Lace’s upcoming album, which has a summer
2004 release date.
“We
have a lot of creative freedom with Jive and we are thankful”
she says since not many artists get the opportunity to express
themselves freely (and on their first album at that) with a sound that
the girls describe as a fusion of R&B, hip-hop,
and dancehall.
“Our sound is something you’ve
never heard before but you’ll still be able to relate to it,”
says Nyanda confidently. “It’s
new and it’s different.” “With ‘Lace’
you get beautiful harmonies and singing.” “With
‘Brick’ it’s
more street: hardcore, deejaying and dancehall.”
In
an industry obsessed with comparisons and categories, Brick
and Lace is trying to shirk similarities with more established
artists and are more interested in breaking new ground. But
“Americans love to categorise”
says Nyla, the youngest of the trio- so it may be inevitable.
“They see Jamaican girls singing R&B and they just don’t
get it so they try to box you into any category or compare you with
another group so that they can feel comfortable.”
Over the years singing
groups have become synonymous with drama. Highly visible conflicts between
group members started from something as small as who gets the hottest
outfit to more serious issues involving the unfair distribution of earnings
have caused many promising groups to call it quits before even getting
the world wide recognition their talent deserved. Unfortunately, in
recent times, more female groups seem to be the ones torn apart with
members being replaced or in some cases going their separate ways.
But Brick
and Lace vow that there will be no member replacements
here. “We’ve been through so much
together- we have our arguments and disagreements but we get over them
quickly,” says Nyla.
“With
girl groups it is hard to keep the group together but because we’re
sisters we have a special bond which makes our working relationship
easier,” says Tasha. “There
have been times when we have wanted to give up and probably even should
have but we share a passion for music and it is something that we want
to share with the world,” she says sincerely.
“It sounds cliché,”
says Nyanda, “But even though we’ve
been through some tough times…at the end of the day it just makes
the bond that much stronger.” |
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With
acts like Sean Paul and Beenie Man
bringing dancehall music to the forefront, and predecessors like
Shabba Ranks and Shaggy kicking
the door open for Jamaican music on an international level, dancehall
music is still a male dominated field. Listeners can only look
to Lady Saw, the
genre’s reigning queen, as the symbol of a female who has
enjoyed consistent success in dancehall music at home and abroad.
However, the
ladies of Brick and Lace hope
to change that with the exposure they will no doubt enjoy once
their album is released. “The
biggest thing for us is that when we think of what we can achieve
it is more than just Brick and Lace
bussin’,” says Tasha. “It
is about keeping dancehall music going and even though we are
not hardcore dancehall artists, we still feel that more women
must be representing Jamaican music.”
................................................................................
Ayanna
Kirton
aka.  Tru
Honey
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Fave
hangout spot
Tasha:
Not a club kid.
“I like spots with a kind of outdoorsy feel like
Bahama Breeze in Florida. Any kinda lounge area where
you can just chill with friends and have drinks.”
“I went to Weekenz (Kingston), recently, that
was nice too.”
Nyla:
“Sugar Night Club in Toronto.” “It’s
not too packed, lots of Jamaicans go there and they
play nice dancehall music.” “It has a great
vibe."
Nyanda: “Opium in Miami” |
What
they sing about
Nyanda: “We
sing about everything-
what we experience, relationships,
what our friends have gone through.”
“There are so many things to write about
that I don’t think female artists should feel
pressured to write about one subject.”
Fave
Car
Tasha & Nyanda:
“Mercedes Benz”
Nyla: “Hummer”
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Fave
food
Tasha: “I
like good rice and peas.”
Nyanda:
“Ribs
- my boyfriend would kill me if he heard me!”
Nyla: “Anything
with chicken- I soon start grow feathers!” |
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Fave
Designer/ Accessories
Nyla: “Baby
Phat is ill.” “The clothes are very sexy.”
“I also have a hat fetish- perfect for those bad
hair days.”
Nyanda:
“I love Bebe.
You can get addicted to that store. I love shoes too.
The shoes dem nowadays dem just drive me wild! I love
anything that you won’t see a lot of people wearing.” |
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Fave
Artists- Local and International
Tasha: “Beenie
Man…born entertainer. I have to give Shaggy his
props because even though he is not a hardcore dancehall
artist he took Jamaican music and put it out there and
was very successful at it”
Nyanda: “Elephant
Man, Sean Paul, Kartel.” “There is a lot
of talent in Jamaica.”
Nyla:
“TLC, Destiny’s Child…talented vocally…
we look up to them.” “Whitney, Mariah Carey,
the Bee Gees…
we incorporate all of those influences into our own
music.” |
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Image
and the music industry:
Tasha:
“The reality of the industry is that you always
have to look good. I have felt the pressure to lose
weight and I still have to lose a few more pounds.”
Nyanda:
“Dieting and exercising are good
for endurance on stage and also to keep up with the
competition.” “There is a lot of pressure
to look good. We women might not mind seeing a man a
little rough around the edges, that’s real.”
“But men put a lot of pressure on women to be
that object of perfection.” |
| Nyla:
“And it’s so unrealistic.
When you see Beyonce, J-Lo,
or anybody else on T.V. and in videos, they’re
all airbrushed and wearing hair extensions- It is not
real but many men (and women) are fooled into believing
that it is.” |
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