Courtney John rolls back the years to revisit the vintage reggae soundscape with his latest release Cool Me Down.<\/p>\n
The single\u2019s summery musical measure brings back memories of quiet Sunday afternoons in rural Jamaica when easy-listening selections bellowed from boomboxes, stereos and record players, while the freshly done rice and peas and fried chicken is being served with shredded vegetables on the side.<\/p>\n
The brand-new recording could easily be shelved among any collection of beloved timeless classics from the genre.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got some musician friends of mine together: Kirk Bennett on drums, Beezy and Khan on guitar, Duke Dawes on keys, and Trevor McKenzie on bass. We recorded [the song] in January or February [of this year],\u201d the artiste said, explaining that the single went through several iterations, over the better part of a decade.<\/p>\n
\u201d I wrote the song in 2016 with a songwriting bredrin based out of Paris\u2026 My last album, he produced it. So, we\u2019ve had the demo version since 2016 and I have been toying to put it out every year, every summer. It\u2019s a summer song, so it\u2019s not something you can put out in winter. But the moment has never been right,\u201d Courtney John said, adding that latest version of\u00a0Cool Me Down<\/em>\u00a0was refined through studio rerecording as well as from being workshopped during touring.<\/p>\n \u201cI was reading somewhere, in the latter part of last year, that the summer of 2025 is going to be the hottest in history,\u201d the Okapi Entertainment principal said, adding that he had to strike while the iron was hot. \u201cI had to get\u00a0Cool Me Down<\/em>\u00a0out, so I went back into the studio and rerecord the whole thing\u2026 had to get back in the groove. It took a month to mix\u2026 the end product, I\u2019m satisfied with it\u2026 people seem to love it.\u201d<\/p>\n The singer is known for songs such as\u00a0I Go Crazy, Sometimes, When You Say, Lucky Man,\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Baby Tonight.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI am doing the digital groundwork, reintroducing myself to the people\u2026 every 10 years there is a new set of people who don\u2019t know who you are\u2026 make them aware of you. So far it\u2019s being going well. People seem to be happy that I am still doing music,\u201d the songwriter, who is also a producer, said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m taking my time with it, I am not falling into trying to feed the algorithm. I am going to take my time with my songs, give it to the people bit by bit. I am of the philosophy that songs are like rivers, they eventually find the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n The artiste disclosed that he has several projects in the works; one of which is possibly releasing an album.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think the market right now is album-driven\u2026we have to adjust to the market. It is really a singles-driven marketplace now, but mi have the songs ready\u2026 Just gonna drop a couple songs and then I\u2019ll just release the bigger body of work.<\/p>\n \u201c[But] the album is written already\u2026the songs kind of capture a moment. I want to figure out the [album\u2019s] direction in terms of sound. But the good thing with technology is, it can give you a snapshot of what the people dem ah vibe to,\u201d the musician said.<\/p>\n He added that the \u201cnumbers don\u2019t lie\u201d and the statistics reflects the pulse of the musical climate and is a general guide for artistic direction.\u00a0 Also in the pipeline, disclosed Courtney John, is a collaboration with fellow singer-songwriter Tanya Stephens.<\/p>\n \u201cI am supposed to do something with Tanya Stephens, for how long now,\u201d he shared. \u201cI really ah try make it happen for this record. She\u2019s my all-time favourite. Tanya Stephens is poet.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Courtney John rolls back the years to revisit the vintage reggae soundscape with his latest release Cool Me Down. The single\u2019s summery musical measure brings back memories of quiet Sunday afternoons in rural Jamaica when easy-listening selections bellowed from boomboxes, stereos and record players, while the freshly done rice and peas and fried chicken is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":10865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[239],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10872,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10871\/revisions\/10872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}