Bermuda Poet Stephan Johnstone has released two albums with the second ‘The Script Keeper’ taking its name from the time waiting to record his poems.
His first album ‘Broken Thoughts’ was an experimental project, and came about after his friend, Mandela Fubler had introduced him to an aspiring producer James Brookes.
“While we where all in school in Toronto we used to hang out at James’ house and mess around on the mic and recorded tracks for fun,” said Mr. Johnstone.
“One day we where all sitting around and I was telling James about my poetry, and he thought it would be a cool project to try and put together a poetry album. I thought the idea was great!” When he returned to the Island during the summer of 2006, they finished off ‘Broken Thoughts’.
“When it was released, I had already written a version of ‘The Script Keeper’ and I knew it would be a while before I could get into the studio again with James,” he said.
“So I thought that calling my second album ‘The Script Keeper’ would be appropriate, as I knew I would never stop writing and eventually have a large stock pile of poems a.k.a. scripts by time my next album was released.”
The musical selection on “The Script Keeper” ranges from Chinese Folk Music to Hip Hop beats. “Most of my pieces are written without music, because they come to me at random times. The music on the album I picked after the pieces were written, and then I tailored my voice and the rhyme scheme as best as I could to the music. “The music is only there to set the mood, to add to the overall theme of the piece and enhance the experience.”
Choosing some pieces to discuss further, the great-great nephew of the Talbot Brothers said: “With ‘Dangerous’, I wanted to write something so truly Bermudian that you had to be a Bermudian to understand it.”
On his selection, ‘High Tide’ Mr. Johnstone explained: “With this piece I just wanted to stretch my creativity and write something that gave non-living things life and to look at mankind from a different perspective. “I actually wrote this piece backwards, I started with the line ‘when the sea kiss the sky we call that high tide’ and then came up with the back story and wrote towards that ending.”
To hear this selection click here. Although “The Script Keeper” was only released last month, he has found that the response has been great. “So far it has been good, but it’s hard to say because I have only heard comments from my family and friends and I know they would think the album is great regardless.
“They are all very supportive and show so much love whenever I take on a new project. I haven’t really heard much feed back from outside of my immediate circle.”
By Rene Hill
The Royal Gazette
#BermudaPoet #BermudianPoet #BermudaSpokenWord #BermudaPoetry #BermudianSpokenWord
