He has maneuvered domestic reggae to chart dominance. Broken Norwegian lyrics with Norwegianized music have been the recipe for success for Philip Boardman and the crew behind Admiral P.
/ 28/05/2014 / codexFrom TONO-News no. 1 – 2013
He has maneuvered domestic reggae to chart dominance. Broken Norwegian lyrics with Norwegianized music have been the recipe for success for Philip Boardman and the crew behind Admiral P.
– It's amazing, says Philip Boardman (30), better known as Admiral P, behind dark sunglasses. He has driven here to Oslo from Askim, where he lives a family life between sailings. A fully booked festival summer is on the way from north to south with a band of nine. – The success has been surprising, if you know what I mean, says Boardman, straightening his dreadlocks.
With several big hits on his conscience, the always-listening manager and booking manager Daniel Langleite in Knirckefritt is busy on his smartphone at the next table. Two years have passed since the release of Admiral P's "Spinnvill", which was a hit among "the closest", and "Snakke litt", which became a nationwide hit. This summer, the songs "Skakke gi opp", "Dama mi", "Afrikansk vin" and "Sommeren" will be released. An album is also on the way. It will include last year's "Kallenavn", which, like "Snakke litt", was nominated for the Spellemann award for hit of the year.
– It started with us playing a lot around the country a few years ago with my sound system, the reggae collective Jah Ark Manifest, for an underground audience. We freestyled to come up with something new, but we still had no plans to have hits at all. It would be great if it came, but we just made the music for ourselves. Kasimba was already singing in Norwegian, I thought it sounded pretty amazing. I thought that Norwegian people might think reggae, and even with Norwegian lyrics, might be cool. The Swedes do it, the Danes do it, why not Norwegians?
Boardman was right. "Snakke litt" with its catchy chorus is said to have sold thirteen times platinum. Reviewers wrote about music that melts your heart and gives you positive vibes. Boardman appeared in an admiral's uniform at industry parties. Reggae became mainstream for the first time since Father Sjøl & The Wailers came from Jamaica to visit the rock in the 70s.
“Having grown up in Africa, I'm used to being different,” says Boardman.
– They thought maybe Admiral P was messing with the language, like Ravi did, but realized that he is not Norwegian, comes from Zambia and actually speaks like that. It may have given extra credibility to the music and lyrics, manager Langleite interjects.
– To improve fluency, I also include English in the lyrics. For me, Norwegian is a second language. As a teenager in Zambia, I used English. I didn't write then, but rapped other people's lyrics and played around. I listened to my mother's collection of reggae records. When I came to Norway in 1995, I took advantage of the offers the country had – such as a leisure club, dancing and DJing. The youth cultural festival was waiting, and Philip Boardman signed up, wrote and performed his first songs in English at the age of 16. He didn't want to learn Norwegian right away. This has led to him today having almost developed his own creole language, which he believes may be the reason why he also has a Swedish audience. (The story continues below the picture)
When "Kallenavn" was listed on Swedish P3, it was the first time for a Norwegian-language song since the 1980s, the manager interjects.
– Let it swing, let it rock'n'roll, says Langleite.
– Long time ago, then, there aren't many of us. It was pretty cool to hear that I managed to sneak in on the Swedes, says Boardman.
Could it be that Swedes have an easier time understanding a mixed language than Norwegian?
– Yes, I would think so. It might be easier because it's broken down, or simplified, instead of making it so difficult, I don't know. A friend of mine said that we understand the Swedes, but the Swedes have difficulty understanding us.
At the heart of every Admiral P text is always a concept.
– I often get inspired by hearing a rhythm and create a melody after deciding on the concept – what I'm going to sing about. Should I motivate? Should I sing about a lady – this lady, she's my lady, right? Should I sing about how hard it is? I have to feel it.
In the capital of Zambia, Lusaka, Admiral P has recently opened the studio Zedway, a combination of the words Zed from slang for Zambia and way from Norway. The artist wants to build a bond between poor Zambia, where most people live on subsistence farming, and Norway.
– I'm trying to connect the two countries. I want to get a lot of music out of there, give people a chance. I also want to bring artists from here and bring them there. There's so much talent in Zambia, right, but the opportunities are so small.
Inside a small studio collective at Sofienbergparken, Carl Hovind sits with a pair of oversized Swedish-imported Genelec monitors almost in his face. He controls the musical levers when it's time to launch a new Admiral P beat. The question always lies in the back of his mind: How to get Norwegians to love a musical culture that originated in the Caribbean?
– Admiral P is reggae with a Norwegian twist, says Hovind. – The packaging has to be adapted to what people are used to hearing here. Reggae is generally bass-based, and that is something that, for example, does not do so well on Norwegian radio. It is also important that the lyrics do not alienate, that the content does not become too unfamiliar to the audience. The language can be too distinctive, and themes such as oppression, liberation, exodus and the Rastafarian faith can be difficult to identify with because we have it pretty well in Norway. I often hear hip-hop artists who are about to tell what they did on Saturday night with their friends. That limits how many people are willing to follow what you are saying.
Admiral P is helping to meet a demand in the Norwegian music scene, believes the producer who previously worked with hip-hop. – I think there was a need for more reggae in Norway now. Hip-hop as a genre gradually split, either underground and kind of “keeping it real”, or going further and changing the sound to get it out to the masses, like Erik and Kriss and Karpe Diem. Our reggae has an urban approach, and the new generation with a multilingual background means that the need for urban music in Norway is now greater than ever. I saw that there was a kind of vacuum that arose, says Hovind.
He double-clicks the Cubase icon to give a preview of the songs he's working on. The pressure is so high that it can be physically felt, as it must be to hear if dancehall works in a club, the producer says:
– When Bob Marley was launched in Europe by Chris Blackwell, it was as a rock star. There is probably no other genre with the potential for such a broad audience – reggae can suit both grandfathers and kids.