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Ziggy Marley: Fly Rasta

Nick Colbey talks to reggae legend Ziggy Marley about his upcoming album.

In-between way to many Coronas, finding my feet amongst the boys club of the Gold Coast when the tour roles into town and everyone’s running around like a headless chook trying to hunt down pro-surfers, I squeezed in a phone interview with Ziggy Marley

Hey Ziggy how are you man?

Yeah I’ma good mun, what’s up?

Just wanted to drop a line and say I’m pretty excited for the new album. Is that something your eager to start touring with through Australia at all?

Yeah we’re going to come down to Australia at the end of the year, go through Europe, the US and then come down there.

So is this like your 10th album?

I’ve done about 12 with other artists but this is my 5th solo album.

So do you plan to travel with a big crew of musicians or will it be more solo performances?

We’ll have a full sized band with us touring with everything included so I’m looking forward to that.

With writing music where do you draw inspiration from in terms of what you want to say? Is it mostly political? Is it just out of love or just something you do while you’re on the road?

I guess it’s firstly from my own experiences and then it’s about planet earth. I sing about that because I don’t want to live on Mars. So some of it is on outlook and some from first hand experiences.

Yeah, so it just happens naturally – whatever’s on your mind…

Yeah mun! Naturally.

Do you ever get tired of touring and playing music?

You can get tired of it but it’s the best form of expression. Writing songs is the best way for me to express anything.

So you’ll be writing till you’re gone.

Yeah, mun.

Tell me about these organic food products you’ve just released? Have you always had something like this in mind?

It wasn’t something I always wanted to do but when I got the opportunity to do it I jumped in and did it. We have the Hemp Rules crunch and a Coco’mon coconut oil that are two very earthy products. Some people don’t know about how nutritional hemp seed is when it’s cultivated so I wanted to promote it and get more people in to eating hemp because of how healthy it is.

Is that something in your life you try to focus on outside of music – staying healthy and fit?

Oh yeah I mean, I’ve always been into football and in summer just going to the beach and swimming around.

Did you grow up by the beach in Jamaica?

Yeah, yeah the coast is right there so it’s always been apart of my life.

So where are you living at the moment?

In Los Angeles. Yeah it’s going good, nice weather and all that so you know…

Yeah I’m currently on the Gold Coast and it’s sunny and full of good vibes. We have a comp on at the moment (The Quik Pro). Have you ever been interested in surfing at all?

Yeah, yeah I have some friends that are trying to get me into it and get me out there on a board. At the end of the tour of this year I’m going to try and end up in Hawaii and try some surfing.

Oh yeah? Rad, you should come for a surf with the Tracks crew when you’re here too

(Laughs) Allllright mun.

– Colbey

Ziggy’s fifth studio album ‘Fly Rasta’ is available April 11th.

www.shock.com.au

Check out his organic food products at –

www.ziggymarleyorganics.com/

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