Thursday, February 15, 1999
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On Tuesday, January 23, Dar- ren MacAlleer spoke to Fergus Hambelton, vocalist with the Sat- talittes. The following is an ex- cerpt from that interview:
CIMN: Let’s start off with your early years. How did you all get together?
Hambelton: Well, it started almost 10 years ago. Jo-Jo Ben- nett, the flugelhorn player in the band, and myself started a mu- sic school. I had met him doing some sessions and some live work with some other Jamaican musi- I was playing saxophone
and doing some studio work. We started this little music school, but it wasn’t a music school in the normal sense, but almost a work-. shop type of situation where peo- ple could come and play. We «ised to go play live shows and there would be a lot of different miusi- cians coming up and doing their stuff, like a recital sort of thing. It was an opportunity for a lot of local Jamaican musicians to get involved with each other and cre- ate a scene with a lot of other musicians who were just inter- ested in the music. People started to like us so we started to play more and more professional-type things and the line-up for the band gradually solidified down to the way it is now. I guess it was about seven years ago that it all came together.
CIMN: Do you think you’ve helped boost the image of Ja- maican music?
Hambelton: We’re playing an
‘aspect of Jamaican music and we try to be really positive about ev- erything, about music, about life, whatever. We’ve enjoyed doing the music and I think it’s such a creative form, so it’s really nice
cians.
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Sattalittes Interview
that people in Canada are ex- posed to it. I guess world—wide people are getting more and more exposed to it.
CIMN: Since you said world— wide, do you guys do a lot of tour- ing both nationally and interna- tionally?
Hambelton: We certainly cover this country.coast to coast, From Halifax to Vancouver, so we get right across. We’be been down to the States a little bit and to Jamaica and we’re hoping to get a European release on this new music so we’re going to try and get over there too. So we’re going to take it right around the world. ca
CIMN: When you do these tours who do you feel your core— audience is?
Hambelton: Well, it seems where ever we are in Canada there are Jamaicans there. So when they hear there’s reggae in town they come out and support it. A lot of university students
know us through carnpus radio, and our newesi album is being nationally distzibuted. So we’re getting more play on the radio stations. So there’s a diverse au- dience that comes out.
CIMN: Do you feel that your band’s philosophy is reflected in your albums?
Hambelton: Oh absolutely. I ‘think that there’s a lot of talk around the world about harmony and understanding and we’re ac- tually doing it. There’s some cul- tural differences and similarities with our mixture of Jamaicans and Canadians and we’ve man- aged to stay together and keep working and create a positive thing. Certainly people who
Re
come to see our shows will say, “Oh I didn’t think I liked reggae,
but it’s kind of nice.”
CIMN: Do you try to keep the same image today as when: you first started?
Hambelton: Definitely, We’re just trying to play reggae music all the time and we like to en- courage everyone in the band to come forward and contribute in the best way possible and take the music as far as we can. Those things: haven’t changed at all, the only thing that’s changed is we have more support, because of the WEA contract and just more general overall exposure. But our general philosophy is the same.
CIMN: What is the signifi- cance of the band’s name?
Hambelton: When I first met Jo-Jo we were doing some songs by a Jamaican group called the Scattallittes and they were a very famous Jamaican group. I’d de- scribe them as being similar to the Beatles because they crossed all barriers, people of all ages loved them, and everyone in Ja- maica knows about them. We played a lot of their instrumental songs when we first started out. So it was partially attributed to them. The word “Satta” has some spiritual overtones. It’s kind of a combination of those things. We also wanted to put ourselves into orbit too!
CIMN: What kind of a future are you planning?
Hambelton: We’re going to get our record out in Europe and hopefully in the States and just keep expanding our touring schedule to take us further and further afield. Hopefully we’ll make a good impression on peo-
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ple and get people to come to the shows and enjoy themselves. We also want to make more records now that we got a long term con- tract.
(The Sattalittes are currently touring Canada promoting their latest album, “Miracles” .) .
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