Weh Dem Up To: No 'holiday' for Chevaughn

Many dancehall and reggae music lovers know Chevaughn's voice. Almost nine summers ago, Chevaughn could be heard on every radio station, over every party speaker box melodically belting out, "it's a holidaaaaay!"

Alongside Ding Dong and Notis Records (Notice Productions), he ruled the airwaves with the infectious summer hit song Holiday. But neither the deejay nor the singer is taking much time off these days.

While Ding Dong travels the world as the leader of the sensational Ravers Clavers, Chevaughn is toiling away in the studio, building a grand catalogue of music.

"I've been recording more than I've been performing. What we're doing is finishing the catalogue, all the songs we had. Ultimately, I'm trying to do an album, but for now, it's recording." Chevaughn told THE WEEKEND STAR.

Before he is ready to complete an album, the singer is putting significant energy behind releasing and promoting singles.

"Having an album is important. But singles are more effective in introducing an unknown artiste to the world," he reasoned.

His effort shows.

Two months ago, the velvet-voiced singer played to his strength, releasing Kisses In The Moonlight, a reggae-style cover of the George Benson classic. Last week, Notis Records and Chevaughn released their latest collaboration called I Promise. Today, he is one of 18 featured guests (including Elephant Man, Raging Fyah, Jemere Morgan, and BLVK H3RO) on Nebilus Records 'Love Train' rhythm with a song called Distance.

Earlier this week, he filmed a music video for a collaboration with D'Voyce called Shine On.

Focused on catalogue development, Chevaughn believes that releasing a number of singles rather than a full body of work will help modern artistes build a fan base.

"We're in a culture where some people like singles more than an album. We're just making sure we have some hit singles before the album," he said.

But what is a hit single? For Chevaughn, there are two sides to that coin.

"There is the connectivity - how much the audience can relate to the music and creativity, the standard of the track. Then, there is the marketing. Artistes, we're talented, but we're not always business people. Sometimes, we don't have the capital to do what it takes on a promotional run for an album, so we just do it song by song," he said.

With attention split between connection through creativity and marketing, Chevaughn does not readily ascribe to social media currency. For him, the number of views a song/video gets is merely part of the bigger picture.

"Social media is nice, but it's not the gospel. I have so many hit songs in the streets and not on the Internet. Sometimes a song hits on the Internet, but people in the street don't love it," he said.