Julian Marley In Goa This Week

Julian Marley

Will Julian Marley perform “Sun Is Shining” in Goa this weekend? The London-born Miami resident won’t tell, but promises to bring the “fyah” to the stage during his festival closing set that spans just a little over an hour at the two-day of Live From The Console to be held in South Goa.

Julian will perform with his band Julian Marley & the Uprising, with whom he first hooked up in 1993. “We had some revolving members here and there, but my keyboardist and bassist have been with me since the beginning. They will of course be with me in India, where we will bring the Fyah to the stage (laughing), good fire of course, as in energy, spirit and light,” he says. The 37-year-old got a Grammy nomination for his 2009 release Awake and hopes to play songs from the album in Goa this year. He is also aware that the audience is likely to request for songs from his father’s repertoire. “The greatest thing about my father is that he has such a large catalogue of music, that sometimes you can listen to something recorded in the Sixties and not realize it was Bob Marley, but it is the perfect song that needs to be heard in that moment,” he says. 

For Julian, who claims to have recorded his first demo at the age of five and found collaborators in half-brothers Stefan and Damian [both multi-Grammy winning artists], music was never a choice. “Rastafarianism and reggae is a natural thing,” he says. In 2002, the Marley brothers [Ziggy, Julian, Stephen, Damian and Kymani] got together to form their own record label, Ghetto Youths Crew. “We are part of a music making machine, and we make music every day, our family is factory of music makers, and so we just naturally allow the process to come together, and then collectively we assist each other in projects as they come to fruition,” he says. Their collective plans for 2013 include releasing a compilation CD featuring artists such as Christopher Ellis [son of Alton Ellis], Wayne Marshall and Black Am I, besides music by the brothers as well as Jo Mersa [Stephen’s son]. 

Julian Marley performs on December 30th at Live From The Console, Goa. For tickets, go here