Busy year ahead for Tessellated

Having spent much of last year developing as an artiste, reggae singer and producer Tessellated is looking forward to a busy 2023.

The Pine and Ginger hitmaker said 2022 was characterised by "a lot of building", and the platform is now laid for a busy year.

"Right now I am finishing up my album, so I am going to have a bunch of new music and singles coming out ... And then a project closer to summertime with whole heap a collabs as well, and going on the road and touring. Last year, there was a lot of building going on, lots of development, and now, this year, everything is coming out," Tessellated said.

Tessellated was speaking to THE WEEKEND STAR at Tuesday's launch of Protoje's Lost in Time festival, which takes place on February 25 at Hope Botanical Gardens in St Andrew.

The singer rose to prominence on the local scene with Pine and Ginger in 2017 and has continued to make waves in the industry. In 2019, his track, I Learnt Some Jazz Today, went number one on the Billboard Jazz Chart, after being endorsed by Apple Music.

Though relatively new to the industry, Tessellated is very keen on improving his craft. Tessellated's sound is a fusion of dancehall and reggae, with hip-hop, jazz and R&B.

"For me, it has really been about perfecting the sound and fine-tuning it. Sometimes as musicians we spend so much time figuring out the' how'. How am I going to do this? How am I going to sing better? How am I going to get better instrumentals? But then it is like you figure out how, but now you have to think about why. So, I can do everything. I can spit the bars; I can make the music and make the beats, but what do I actually want to say? I feel like that has been a journey for me over the years, and I have grown into it as an artiste and a person, and that will be reflected in the music as well," Tessellated said.

The entertainer, whose given name is Joshua Meeks, said he is happy with the continuity of the reggae genre from the old generation to those who are just now tapping into the craft.

"Reggae music is like one of the biggest influences to me, actually, growing up in Jamaica, and that is going back to the old school and into the new school," he said.

"Just recently, I was up at Circle House studios and I was chatting to the man dem from Inner Circle, and I was really getting some knowledge from them. They are some of the biggest artistes from their generation and they have had such a big impact on the sound and [it] moving forward," he said.

Tessellated is also an admirer of Protoje's music. He said that the Who Knows hitmaker has been a big influence on his career.

"Even though he is a contemporary to me, I grew up listening to him as well. It's just that we are seeing the cycles repeated in such a positive way, with those who learn from the elders and are passing it down and continuing. Even younger people down to high school [students] are coming to me and saying, 'Hey, I listened to your thing and I made this song or track.' It is a family," Tessellated said.