An Interview with Magnet Man (1/2) By Joe Hakim Photos by Mo

(1/2), (2/2),

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Magnet Man's debut album entitled Magnificent now includes his brand new single, Wanna Flex, with a launch in the UK slated for May 2006. The following interview took at the Hull City Hall on May 27th 2006. I read that you were brought up in the Silver Hill area of Barbados...could you tell me a little about your upbringing?

Silver Hill is a project area...government houses, that kinda area. You have a lot of families living close together - it's like what you would call a council estate in this country. It was rough place, a lot of drugs and gangs, y'know? For me growing up, I saw that and I didn't want to get involved. It wasn't where I wanted to go in life. I started out in an a cappella group and we just used to stay at home and rehearse... we were heavily into American R 'n' B, and I used to listen to a lot of music growing up because of my Dad's massive record collection

You started out in a band called '4 De People' Was there any particular reason why you went solo, or was it something that you always intended to do? I'm ambitious. Each point in my life has been a stepping stone, and eventually I had to go solo. Being in a band, part of a unit, is good for a while, but I wanted really wanted to do my own thing...I wanted to be a superstar!

Your first major solo performances were on an international stadium tour with Busta Rhymes. How was that? Were you nervous? It was huge, man. My first date was at the MEN Arena in Manchester, followed by a date at Wembley Arena. It was really good for me. [I don't get nervous because] I love performing and I had toured a lot in the Caribbean with '4 De People', so I was really experienced and had already found my feet before I did those dates.

You performed at the Live 8 concert in Edinburgh with Daniel Bedingfield and wrote and recorded a track with Granada's XY called 'Make a Difference especially for the event'. What did Live 8 mean to you? Do you think it achieved what it set out to do? In a lot of ways it did, but it's an ongoing thing... the campaign needs to carry on. I still wear my Live 8 band on my wrist; I never take it off - I even shower with it on - because it's something I believe in. Everyone must unite to eradicate poverty. There are a lot of rich countries in the world - surely they can do something together. We're all human beings and we've gotta look after each other.

Continued..... Next Page (2/3).

Photographs courtsey and Copyright ©  Mo 2006

Photograph Gallery   Interview Gallery

Photograph Gallery   Elf Gallery,   Andy Whitehouse/Afterglow Gallery,   R.D. Terry / Thief Gallery,   Claudette Tiller / The Maker Gallery,   ,   Kill Surf City / Dari Gallery,   Hollywood Gallery,   D-Koy Gallery,   Da Maniacs / Georgia Taylor Gallery,   Magnet Man Gallery 1,   Gallery 2.

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