Chris Gayle: Want Indian artistes to explore Jamaican culture

Barely a few years into his music career Chris Gayle is eyeing the big title The cricketermusician is set to take his latest album Tropical HousemdashCruises to Jamaica to the 2024 Grammy Awards where it may compete in the World Music and Raggae categories The album features Gaylersquos Gimme your love with singer Shav A In this interview Gayle discusses his newly established career and finding collaborators in Indian artistesEdited excerpts of the interviewCan you take us through the initial moments you spent during the pandemic contemplating taking up music professionallyLike you stated it started as a joke shared with my friend about a collaboration In Jamaica people are very sceptical They donrsquot tolerate foolishness So if you do something and they donrsquot like it they will let you know what they think They are straightup and frank Imagine my surprise then when the feedback on my song was good It was only after I met one of my engineers with whom I recorded another song that I thought seriously about it We started to head to the studios and record songs And then I grew tired of going to other peoplersquos studios So I decided to invest in myself and launched my record label Triple Century Records I built a studio at my house Subsequently things started to flow pretty easily I collaborated with Emiway Bantai for Jamaica to India which has over 70 million views That opened more doors for me in the music industry My latest single released two weeks ago So music has become a business Irsquom going to get into producing music I want to record new artistesWhat did you struggle with when you ventured into this industryI should highlight that I grew up with music My brother was into production and I was behind the scenes when it came to making music But I never saw myself doing it professionallyWhat do you think is similar between Jamaican and Indian music given that yoursquove collaborated with so many Indian artistesIt needs to have a local approach When I say that I mean it must be approached from an Indianrsquos perspective Here rap music is popular And we know how big the Bollywood market is too So for me the chance to collaborate with artistes from India was fantastic Similarly I want to get Indian artistes into Jamaica I would love to have some of them visit the Caribbean and see our culture just like Irsquove been to India so many times Every year Irsquom in India So Irsquod love for them to come and see our side of the world and meet some of the entertainers thereCan you tell us about Tropical HousemdashCruises to Jamaica and how important the Grammy win is to youThe win would be great I have two songs featured on the album including Choco Loco remix and Gimme Your Love We have many big artistes arriving at the Grammys so we know itrsquos a big gala Working on this album has been an experience for me Irsquom delighted I never thought this would actually happenmdashthat Irsquod reach so far in this journey and so quicklyLooking back at your journey which part of the musicmaking process have you most enjoyedI like to rap I find that I donrsquot have a smooth voice My delivery has force But most of my top songs are the ones in which I have sung Yet I enjoy rapping which is quicker and more uptempo