Like everyone else Fiyah Marshall has been stuck at home for the past year, limited by the challenges of the pandemic.

Gunna Get It, the single he released last month, shows what he has been doing with his time.

It’s the first song in Smoke Signals, the album the singer/songwriter plans to release “later in the summer; August, September time”.

“I hadn’t put anything out for a while,” he said. “I’ve been dealing with everything everyone else has – Covid, being at home – and I just wanted to put out something because everything’s opening back up and [it’s] music for the summer. That’s really it.”

He used an all-Bermudian crew for the video which was filmed on the island with Bermudian models.

The song itself was “a collaboration” with multi-platinum producer Duane “DaRock” Ramos who has Common, Jay-Z, Tatiyana Ali and Jadakiss on his list of high-profile clients.

“He has many multi-platinum artists that he has worked with and he was one of my coach/producers,” said Marshall, who released his debut album, Blaze, in 2017.

“He’s one of my go-to producers that I’ve been working with for a few years. This is the first of a couple new songs that we’ve done together off my upcoming album.”

The video was made soon after the Covid-19 restrictions were relaxed in June.

Said the artist: “People tend to put out stuff in the music industry around Memorial Day weekend for the summer. That’s when you release new music if you really want it to have an impact on the summer [playlists].

“We’ve done a couple of songs from the album. We haven’t done the whole album yet. I edited [Gunna Get It] myself under the banner of my company, Hot Fiyah Entertainment.”

Music isn’t the only thing that has kept him busy over the past 16 months. The musician, who usually travels back and forth between Bermuda and Los Angeles, spent much of his time here with family and working “on a new start-up that I’ve got coming out”.

“It’s a stealth start-up called Whip,” he said. “I’m keeping that under wraps at the moment.”

Marshall believes there are a lot of people like him, who used the shelter-in-place periods to explore other areas of interest.

“I think a lot of people just started doing a lot of new things,” he said. “A lot of people were trying to be creative and do different things. I had things I was working on but I also decided it was time to start making some more music.”

Despite the two-year absence it was “not at all” difficult to get back into it.

“With my music, I like to mix different genres. It’s like how in Bermuda we mix with a lot of different cultures from around the world to make our own different culture. My music is the same thing – a blend of Bermuda/Caribbean vibes with other genres at the base of it: R & B, hip hop, afro beats, dance music, EDM … it’ll be like a musical journey through different genres with all that Caribbean flavour.”

In 2017 Marshall travelled along the East Coast of the United States performing with reggae superstar Sizzla and other artists. December of 2018, the pair hit the stage here for Syzgy, a concert that also featured Bunji Garlin, Orlando Octave, Marlon Asher, Pressure Busspipe and other entertainers.

Nothing similar has been possible since the pandemic.

“It’s obviously been different,” Marshall said. “The whole industry’s kind of … not quiet, but not as active. There haven’t been tours, there haven’t been shows. But now it’s exciting that things are starting to turn around and with things like blockchain technology and the integration of NFTs – non-fungible tokens – that’s kind of changing the music industry.

“It’s a new way for artists to create revenue streams. I’m working on an NFT project right now as well. There are just a lot of new ways to try and put your music out and really I’m just using this time now that the world’s kind of opening up to put out some vibes for everyone to go and enjoy themselves.”

His hope is to return to live performing whenever “stages become a regular thing again”.

“In Bermuda I don’t see that too soon but internationally, who knows? It could be later this summer. It may just be a matter of time before we have things here too.”

He is pleased with his song’s progress. Gunna Get It is now “in rotation now in the US on ten-plus major radio stations and climbing”.

“It was great,” he said of making the song and video. “I’ve been dying to do it. I think the new music I’m starting to put out is my best music to date. It’s just the first of many coming out.”

Gunna Get It is available on all major streaming services. Follow fiyah_marshall on Instagram and Facebook