Answele On Being Inspired, Surviving A Rough Patch And New Music

Jamaica has a rich culture of crooners, from the late great Toots Hibbert, Dennis Brown, Beres Hammond and the list goes on. Answele is Trelawny’s latest in the long line of Jamaican singers.

With a unique voice and a penchant for easy-going lyrics, Answele is armed with all the tools, talent, and good company that make a crooner so dangerous and their music timeless. His recent single is produced by Young Pow, producer and keyboard player of the legendary Junior Gong Marley. DancehallMag has the scoop on this fresh young talent.

Was it always Answele?

No, I started out as Swele. Switched to Answele in the longer run.

What caused that?

I think the complication with Swae Lee from Rae Sremmurd. We didn’t want to be mixed up.

What’s your actual name?

Answele is my actual name. so we just decided alright we will just use the real thing.

You’ve been professionally recording for how long?

I would say, three years now.

Where do your musical inspirations come from? Other music or life experiences?

Life experiences mostly but there are times when I hear sounds and I get an inspiration to create something that I’m hearing from that sound. I have those moments sometimes. But most of it is from real experiences though.

Which emotion would you say drives your creativity the most?

That’s a very different question. Uhh, I would say sadness. Yeah.

Where did you grow up?

In Trelawny, Jackson Town.

Both Parents?

Yeah man.

Who would you say, of the people who raised you, had the most influence on you?

I think both parents have the most influence on who I am today.

What’s the number one lesson you learned from your father?

Them man deh always a teach still so it’s hard to pick just one. But one thing he always says is, “don’t trust people”. [Laugh]

When did you have that moment when you first knew you wanted to sing?

In primary school I tried singing out to a big crowd, the reaction made me think like, I could definitely do this. So moving on from there to high school, and when I left high school I went straight into recording.

What’s one vintage song that you love to sing, that when you sing it you wish you made it based on how it makes you feel?

Smokey Robinson’s The Tracks of My Tears, the feeling I get from that song I always wished I could’ve written that.

Your most recent single Jah Is In Control, how did that come about?

That was from a real life experience actually. Because you know, starting out, musically is not an easy journey because at first it won’t be up, financially.

So around 2016, I was going through a rough patch, and with all the things that were happening around me, I realized that I was still surviving. Couldn’t be anybody else really. I still survived that so, it had to be God in a sense.

Are you the type of person that has to be strategic and have a five year plan, or do you just go with the flow?

I would say both because you have to be aiming at something, and still nobody knows what tomorrow holds. If anything should happen, you have to know how to play both roles. I can say I want to this in five years time but suppose God have another plan for me? I can say anything about that.

That being said, do you have any idea what your next move is, musically or otherwise?

Musically, I’m about to finish my first short album. After this one I go right into another one. So I want to achieve two albums in two years.

Can you tell us anything about the one you’re working on now?

It has maybe seven tracks, we have a feature on it with I-Octane, and the rest of the songs are just me. We plan to remix Jah is in control with somebody else, I won’t say as yet.