Norman Grindley /Deputy chief Photographer
Mark Stevenson, one of Jamaica's top violinsts, says though he plays classical and jazz, he specialises in a style he has dubbed 'reggae violin'.
Kavelle Anglin-Christie, Staff Reporter
Mark Stevenson says he started playing the violin when he was younger because he wasn't good at sports.
Then again, he says he wasn't good at playing the violin either. But now he is one of the top violinists in Jamaica.
"I was excited about doing it. I said, 'okay, I can't play football, basketball and I can't run, so I may as well play the violin'. At the time when I started playing the violin, I really wasn't that good, so I had to work at it," he said.
Stevenson says his passion for music is not hereditary, because he and his cousin Ce'Cile, a deejay, are the only two in his family who are pursuing music as a career.
Stevenson, 28, attended the Belair Prep School in Manchester and that was where he decided to start playing the violin. That was 20 years ago. However, Mark has only been a professional violinist for five years.
"That's because I took 10 years to study and I had to get in a lot of the basics and I had to do a lot of exams. Simply because you play the violin doesn't make you a professional," he said.
exposure on Traxx
He admits that going professional wouldn't have been as easy if he had not entered Traxx. This is a local show which showcases various musical acts.
Stevenson says his sound is called reggae violin, because he mostly plays reggae. This must have been a difficult feat because there were not a lot of violinists in the industry while Stevenson was growing up, so he had to look up to vocalists instead.
"It's only now that I'm seeing a lot of violinists coming out of the woodwork, so they will have people to look up to now," he said.
And in the few years he has been in the music industry, he has been faced with many difficulties, although there have been sprinklings of rewards.
"Because there are not a lot of reggae violinists in the industry, at times it is very difficult. The engineers don't know how to mic a violin, because they are accustomed to violins being played in large halls and having natural acoustics. Even abroad, it is the same thing. When you mic a violin, they say it is too loud, so they try to tone it down a lot," he said.
violin cost
Apart from that, Stevenson says another strike against him is the cost to record a violin. He says this is one of the reasons he hasn't been included on recent dancehall or reggae rhythms.
"The violin is usually the more expensive thing to record and it uses more studio time. Overseas it could go up to US$2,000 per hour, but most of those companies can afford to pay for it. But out here they prefer to just go on the computer and get the sounds there and that's why many of them end up with this off-key sounding thing," he said.
However, because some record companies overseas are able to pay for a violinist, Stevenson has worked on a number of artistes' albums, some of which he can't remember. "They usually send the contracts and tell me what they want. I record it and as soon as I'm done, I send back the recording," he said.
As far as Jamaica goes, Stevenson says he has worked with Beenie Man, Beres Hammond and a number of other artistes and says he would love to work with more.
Still, Stevenson says, to his surprise, his music has been accepted wherever he plays. "About six years ago, I was at a Silver Cat show and he asked me to do a performance. They didn't have a stage or anything, so I went behind the turntables and listened to the music for a while and then I started to play back the songs. The people started saying things like 'pull up' and they wanted me to play more. I was really surprised," he said.
Though Stevenson is known for reggae, he is also plays classical music, salsa, jazz you name it. He says this is a advantage when he tours.
"I have toured in Europe and over there they love reggae violin. And when I'm over there I also play a lot of reggae/Celtic music. Over there it's easier, because the violin is mainstream," he said.
Still, with so many pluses, Stevenson is not signed to a recording company. "If a violinist is signed to a label they will most likely want to use them as backing artistes and if you sign to somewhere like Disney, all they will want you to play is classical. So the best deal to me is no deal right now," he said
Irrespective of that, Stevenson is working on an album, though he does not know when it will be completed.
