Sting talks about his collaboration with Shaggy
by Brian Oake
September 26, 2018
Sting — né Gordon Sumner, former member of the Police and a longtime solo artist as well as a frequent and willing creative collaborator — has most recently released an album together with Shaggy. Titled 44/876, the album celebrates the two artists' shared love of reggae music.
On Sept. 30, Sting and Shaggy will perform at the Armory in Minneapolis (and they'll participate in a discussion at the Electric Fetus earlier that day). In the run-up to the event, Brian Oake connection with Sting to talk about the album and its influences, and about collaborating with Shaggy on the new record.
Interview Transcript
BRIAN OAKE: Sting?
STING: Good morning, Brian. How you doing, man?
BRIAN: I'm all right today. How about you?
STING: I'm in New York. It's just stopped raining. There's a hurricane coming our way so I'm battening down the hatches as you do.
BRIAN: Yeah, it looks like the Eastern Seaboard's about to get the worst of it. You live in New York, right?
STING: Most of the time, yeah. I would say that's my home. I'm "an Englishman in New York," remember that.
BRIAN: Precisely. There's going to be a show coming up here at the Armory which is happening at the end of this month, Sept. 30. By the way — for anybody who's not paying attention at home — Sting, formerly with the Police, solo artist for many years, frequent collaborator with tons of artists. But when I heard about this collaboration, initially I sort of cocked my head to the side, and then as I let it dawn on me, you know, it sort of made more and more sense. And now as I've read interviews and listened to the record repeatedly, it makes a lot more sense. But when you first told people, "Hey, I'm going to be doing a whole album with Shaggy," was there any sort of pushback or did people cock their heads?
STING: Everybody cocked their heads and went, "What on earth is this? What the hell is this? Are you crazy?" And of course, that pleased me no end because you know, my whole thing is about surprise. And that skepticism very quickly turns to surprise and then it turns to joy when you realize that we share something, which is a love of reggae music and a love of performance that is very, very catchy. You become infected by it. It was a joyful process to make the record.
Performing with Shaggy is a joy in itself. I get to play the bass more. He takes over — neither of us leave the stage at any point. And so we're basically just geeing each other up. I've never had a hype man on stage with me before, and he is probably the best in the business. I'm usually trapped behind a microphone, playing the bass. But this has allowed me much more freedom and joy, and it's nice to share the load.
BRIAN: When you talk about that freedom and that joy, it really comes across on the record. The record is called 44/876, and it sounds like you guys — obviously, both consummate musicians — and I know that Shaggy, despite the fact that he's got a little bit of a clown edge, "Mr. Boombastic," all that stuff, but clearly a very talented performer and singer, but it sounds like on this record, that everybody's just having a good time. It feels like vacation.
STING: He brought out the mischief in me. I think people take me far too seriously anyway, so he really brought out something in me that people haven't seen before. Just a sense of joy and fun.
And on the other hand, I influenced him a great deal; he was singing about political issues, which he hadn't really touched before. And so I think it's a very good trade-off between fun and seriousness.
BRIAN: And I think that's sort of at the heart of Jamaican music and reggae specifically, is that it is very much a folk form, and it's about the everyday struggles of the people. But it's also about politics; it's about love; it's about absolute life. And I know that that's how he grew up and what he lived with. So I feel like reggae kind of already covers those areas.
When you talk about reggae influence — obviously there's a combination there; people go back to those early Police recrods, and really throughout all the Police records — reggae was absolutely a thread early on at a time — even though the 2 Tone and the ska movement were exploding in England at the time — reggae on the more punkier, New Wave end of things, wasn't a very common influence; I can think of the Clash and I can think of the Police. When did that start to become a part of you?
STING: Well, you know, in Britain, we'd had a very influential West Indian community living there since the Second World War, so we grew up with calypso, with Blue Beat, with ska. So it was part of the culture; we were very familiar with it.
As a bass player, the importance of the bass in reggae music was hugely influential with me: its spiritual message, its political message, but the joy and the revolutionary idea of changing rock and roll was very powerful. It's very hard to innovate in rock and roll, but reggae did that. And actually, the center of reggae music was London; that was the mecca for reggae artists. That's where Bob Marley began his successful career, was in London. So we were exposed to that very early.
BRIAN: Well, this record, although it's got a few elements of rock and roll, 44/876 is absolutely a reggae record.
We're talking to Sting — Sting and Shaggy at the Armory, Sunday, Sept. 30. It was less than a year ago that you and Shaggy were here in Minneapolis/St. Paul, and back in February when it was significantly colder, it was very cold, you were both in town to do some entertaining, play some parties, but also to put the finishing touches on a song right here in the Twin Cities.
STING: That's right. I have very fond memories of Minneapolis. The first time I played there was actually in the Armory, funnily enough, in 1980 with the Police. That's a long time ago. But I remember those dates like they were yesterday, much more than I do the arenas or the stadiums. I remember those clubs.
BRIAN: Well, and the Armory, it was actually a military armory, so you're not going to recognize the place. They have tricked it out. It was recently updated in the last couple of years to make it a much more proper concert venue. But yeah, I was in the Armory a few times in the '80s, and it was basically like the gymnasium the size of a football field, but there where some incredible shows that came through there.
So when you talk about this tour that you're doing right now with Shaggy in support of 44/876, again, coming up at the Armory, how does it work? Do you do some of his songs? Do you do some of your songs? Is it strictly material off the record?
STING: No, neither of us leave the stage at any point. I'm the bass player when he plays "Mr. Boombastic" and his hits, and he's my hype man when I do my songs. I get him to sing the odd verse of one of my songs; I do some rap. It's a very interactive, spontaneous, funny show. It's basically about our friendship and the joy we have in each other's company.
BRIAN: That's fantastic. We're looking forward to that show coming up in just a little bit here. And I also want to make a very quick mention that our very own Jake Rudh, who hosts Transmission every Thursday night on The Current, is going to be moderating a discussion that's happening at the Electric Fetus earlier that afternoon, and if you get your tickets in advance, you can get your album signed by Sting and Shaggy and then head down to see the show and everything. Sounds great.
One last question on the record here for you, before I let you go: So you decided to do a reggae record; Shaggy definitely comes from a more pop orientation, you have done music all over the map. So when you walk into the studio, what sort of sets the tone for what kind of reggae record you're going to do? Is it something that's a little more pop and approachable as opposed to like a deep, Lee "Scratch" Perry, dub kind of thing? How do you guys decide what you're going to do?
STING: It usually starts with a bass, you know, a bass and a beat. And then we just spontaneously make it up as we go along. He's very good at making songs up on the spot; I'm a little more private in that sense. It was made very spontaneously, and that's the feeling you get, you know? It's two guys raising the bar with each other and competing in a very good way.
BRIAN: So we look forward to having you back in town on the 30th.
STING: Thanks, Brian.
BRIAN: Yeah, we'll catch you at the Electric Fetus and we look forward to hearing some of the music. Let's hear a song off this right now. Now we could play "Don't Make Me Wait." Do you have a personal preference off this record that you'd like to hear?
STING: I love the title track, "44-876." I love that track.
BRIAN: I want to say thanks once again to Sting, and we will see you on the 30th.
STING: Thank you, sir. Nice to talk to you.
Audio produced by Anna Weggel. Transcript by Luke Taylor.
External Links
Sting - official site
Shaggy - official site
