Andru Branch’s New Album,The Only Constant

Kingston, Jamaica, can be a rough place, and the music industry there is no exception. It is, after all, where Peter Tosh once attempted to appropriate Keith Richard’s house in his absence, with the reggae legend phoning the rock legend to tell him, as the story goes: “Don’t come here, mon, I got my machine gun.” (Richards’ response: “You’re gonna need more than a fucking machine gun.”)

When Haligonian artist Andru Branch travelled to Kingston to record the follow-up to his 1999 Juno-nominated album, What If I Told You, he got a reminder of just how differently things can work on the island.

“The actual tapes that the album was on were stolen not once, but twice,” says Branch.

Fortunately for reggae lovers, the tapes eventually made it out of Jamaica to become The Only Constant, a classic roots LP that has the potential to put Halifax on the international reggae radar.

For his sophomore album, Branch—who moved to Halifax from Toronto in 2000 to care for his dying mother—returned to Kingston Muzik, where he assembled a group of some of the island’s finest session players, including drummer Squidley Cole and bassist Chris Meredith, who’ve backed artists like Ziggy Marley. It was a scene he found both stimulating and overwhelming.

“Any recording studio in Jamaica is a really vibrant place, as you might imagine. It’s full of all kinds of characters and they’re all super-egos,” laughs Branch. “I would primarily try to work at night when most people weren’t around.”

The recording process went smoothly, but once the bed tracks were laid down, the trouble began. The tapes were first nabbed by two of the session players, who hadn’t been yet paid by the studio. That was resolved, but upon arriving in Canada, Branch found that the tapes had mysteriously disappeared from his baggage. He was forced to fly back and negotiate with Kingston Muzik’s president to obtain the back-up copy of the tapes.

“I kind of showed up at his door and demanded the tapes,” says Branch, who had to sign an agreement on the spot. “I think he just wanted to make sure that his investment was covered.”

Finally back in Halifax, Branch put the finishing touches on the album and assembled the six members that form Halfway Tree’s current lineup—including, by a stroke of fate, Brian “Bassie” Atkinson, a legendary Kingstonian who helped lay down some of reggae’s seminal tracks during its evolution from rocksteady and ska in the mid-’60s.

Branch had heard rumours about an original Studio One bassist (Studio One is to reggae as Motown Records is to R&B) who had emigrated to Canada, fallen in love with a Nova Scotian girl and moved out east. A classic kung-fu plotline ensued: Branch searched out Atkinson, the old master, found him working as a bus driver in East Preston, and coaxed him into quitting his job and taking up music again.

“He showed up at my door one day with a smirk on his face and said, ‘I retired—let’s go put the band together,'” says Branch.

The group now has their sights set on an international distribution deal. The reggae scene in Canada, says Branch, is not particularly lucrative. “But internationally, it’s one of the biggest forms of music there is,” he says. “The response to my first record was much more so in Europe and the States, than here.”

The Only Constant is straight-up roots-reggae, brimming with lush horns, placid backbeats and spiritual proclamations. It’s a reaction against the current proliferation of dance-hall and reggaeton artists like Elephant Man and Daddy Yankee, whose violent materialism and synthesized beats clash with the original reggae spirit, Branch finds.

“With the metamorphosis of dance-hall, it became much more material and much less spiritual,” he says. While he doesn’t expect to change the pop scene, Branch feels there’s a genuine need out there for the “one love” message. “There will always be a niche for loving, spiritual teachings, and one of the greatest mediums for that is original roots-reggae.”

This article appears in Jan 24-30, 2008.