London-based Bermudian artist Clinark Dill’s CD “The Reggae Torch” has just been released.

It is a debut album, which features the artist live in Holland with Poor Man Friend Band, at the Groene-Engel, on May 5 of this year.

Clinark is a singer, writer and producer, who says he has re-ignited his Reggae torch as an international artist.

Due to the overwhelming response he received in Bermuda during the summer, he said: “I had no choice but to bring forward the official international release of the “Live in Holland CD”.

“Thanks to an article in The Royal Gazette and air play from radio stations in Bermuda, I have had to make the CD available worldwide.

“So the CD will be in circulation by early December to allow for shipping. I have received so many messages from the promo release and from most of the Reggae fraternity via myspace.”

The artist has been delightfully surprised by response to the project.

“Actually, when I started to sell the CDs in the summer I only thought that a handful of my old customers and friends would buy it, as I am being constantly told that live albums don’t sell very well especially in Reggae,” he said.

“How wrong that has proven to be already. The members of Poor Man Friend Band are also delighted, as they had seen the potential of this work all along. It’s a great reward for all their efforts and teamwork that went into it.”

All of the tracks that are on the CD have a special significance for the artist.

“We would like to think that these songs form part of a social commentary,” Clinark said.

“For instance ‘Colonised’ is about the legacy some of us still hold in our minds from slavery to colonisation. In this song, which I co-wrote with Juliet Edwards, we focused on the mind of a young man, say in England or anywhere in the post-colonial world. The words sprang out after we created a few chords on the keyboard.

“It was Christmas 2004 and the beginning of the project. We came up with the words colonised and despair, and just expanded on the message. But we knew that we wanted to talk to the disaffected youth, particularly as I was witnessing in England.

“Our aim was to let people know our parents struggled for the freedom we have today and we must still find energy to continue to recover ourselves. Whilst some media would like to label all our youths as thieves, we are trying to say that we need to understand ourselves and our past leaves the residue of slavery and colonisation that turns us on ourselves, coveting things that will not let us reach our spiritual goals and enlightenment.

“In the UK it’s so difficult for a black male to be successful in business or commerce and what you find is that, I would describe, we are still experiencing the ‘aftershock’ of slavery and the erosion of the leadership role that the black male is allowed to play in our society today.

“Juliet’s parents are Jamaican, a former colony, and it is evident that there was a catastrophic lack of opportunity in Jamaica that led to massive migration from the early 50s.”

His track ‘Beautiful Island’ is about being torn between a love affair with Bermuda and making a decision to leave the Island for a new relationship.

“This song is also about taking chances with your life and hoping to be able to return successful and fulfilled,” he said, adding that ‘Life in the Ghetto’ was one of his favourites.

“We were on a bus in London one day, stuck in the rain and we saw a guy hanging out sheltering from the rain and he was always selling something.

“He is there most days and we thought ‘this is so sad’. When we got home, we had the line ‘Life in the Ghetto’ and it sprang from there. It was about imaginings of who this guy was as a child and what led him to be living a dangerous life on the streets.

“So we thought what sort of letter would he be writing to those that love him.

“Unconsciously, we come back to a prominent theme for the album. Again to the man in the street would say, ‘why is this person choosing this lifestyle? After all he’s not enslaved’. But then you realise that it is his mind that is still holding him captive as he has adopted a new way of oppression in a civilised society in a fatalistic way.

“The song talks of the period of innocence and freedom of childhood, but as a man he is almost paranoid about his survival. In the final lines he feels that he is helpless to change his situation and leaves it up to angels to rescue him.”

The tune ‘Runaway’ is just about love in simple terms, and is about a modern man who asks why loving someone is not enough.

“The guy in this song asks why his girl had left him for the glamour of the city,” he explained.

“Because he thought she just loved him for who he was, but it would seem that his girl has been seduced by the lights of the city so to speak.

“We (Juliet and Clinark) really enjoyed writing this song and this is very popular with the crowds. Surprisingly, the women love singing along to it in some kind of twisted way.”

The only tune on the album that has not been written by the pair was ‘Heathen’ by Bob Marley.

“It is one of my favourite Bob Marley songs, so I chose open the show with it,” said the artist.

‘Inspiration Prayer’ is a song that deals with his personal challenges.

“It is about my struggles with my illness and the fact that the Father was there for me when times were really bad,” he said.

“I just wanted to send that simple message out in a song and, as I got more and feedback, people said I should call it a prayer in its own right.”

Of the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ he said: “I was working on this Reggae version of the Lord’s Prayer on and off for a couple of years.

“I got a great response when the team heard it, so we added it to the song list.”

Mr. Dill has become an independent artist and has created his own record label, distribution and publishing house under Nurture Projects. The CD priced at $15, is available from www.rivierarootswear.com, www.cdbaby.com and www.ebreggae.com. Or in Bermuda at Music World, Dub City, Sound Stage and Music Box.