International act Qwes has teamed up with Bermudians to produce his new album.

Singles from the album will be released in the spring and many are from tracks composed by I-Vibes producers Craig Simons and John Amaral.

Qwes a.k.a. Brian Wakefield was in Bermuda last summer and through photographer Glenn Tucker, he was introduced to both the I-Vibes team and Devra Noel-Simmons? company Four Kings Management.

Since which, Qwes has been on a tour on both the East and West coasts of the US.

?Oakley Sunglasses sponsored my tour,? he said, ?And what was also cool was that I had sponsors from Bermuda for my international tour.

?It is always a blessing working with them and we were promoting an energy drink called Krunk and they also sponsored me. It is a great situation.

?I went into all the stores and we had major autograph signings and the whole idea was to put Bermuda on the map. It was an American tour, but putting Bermuda on it made it international.

?This was my first tour, so going to all the cities was just really cool. The guy who signed me at Oakley Sunglasses is Jerry McCassy and Michelle Weeks. They played a major part in launching off the whole tour to do the campaign.

?It took about six months for me to get it and it was a continuous effort because politically they were putting funding elsewhere, and then one day they said, ?let?s make it happen? and that was a major blessing.

?Oakley has a different market and they want to get into the urban world and people of all backgrounds love Pop music or maybe it was me being a new artist, but they just took to the music and they just loved it.

?On tour, I met people from London, Brazil and Africa, and they just loved the product. For instance Hip Hop is world wide and that is what made me think we have to do this international thing, rather than just doing it in the States.?

The tour was mainly comprised of store signings, CD give-a-ways, Oakley Sunglasses, raffles, and high energy Krunk was in the building. ?We kept the people supplied and that is what really, really made it exciting,? he said.

?Everything was set up for it to win. I?d come in the store and there was Krunk for days, CDs and posters. It is what I call internal marketing were I didn?t have to be out on the streets, I was in the malls and the stores.?

The first stops on the tour was Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Charlotte, North Carolina, onto Orlando, then up to Manhattan.

?Then we went to the west coast to Hollywood, from there to Irvine, California and Sacramento.

?That was my first tour, but it was a unique situation. Sometimes it does get a little tiring, but it was fun to be doing what I wanted to do.

?People think that you are out there selling it, but at the end of the day it can get kind of lonely. It is fun, but when all the hype dies down you are the only one there and you are on the low with everything. I think that is where people get the misconception, but you?ll be by yourself!?

The artist plays from a mixture of genres and his styles include some of the more popular sounds of today?s music scene.

?Everything is more universal,? said Qwes.

?I give the people what they want, like if they want reggae, I got that, or bounce, I have every thing, so that everybody is satisfied.?

Qwes has been signed with Universal Music for a couple of years, but it is only now that there are more marketing opportunities.

?So now it is on to bigger and better things,? he said.

In three to four weeks he will be back in Bermuda to discuss combining the talents of local and international producers.

?Craig Simons is a hot producer coming out of Bermuda,? he said. ?What we are doing is to combine a production team of international (Bermudian) and US producers. This will involve Hush and the Heat Misers along with the I-Vibes team. Hush is my main producer and we plan to bring the producers from Bermuda and combine a big production unit ? you know ? incredible and real ? and the Heat Miser production team.

?If they want Salsa, we?ve got that, Hip Hop, got that, Krunk, got that ? we are just locking it down.?

The people who played a major part in Bermuda were Four Kings Devra Noel-Simmons, Kevin Busby and Mark Tell, said Qwes. ?Glenn also played a big part in helping us all out too,? he said. ?The whole idea of coming back is that we are going to get some things set up, get some concerts going, and I also want to shoot my first video in your country ? I think that would be real hot.

?The first one that is going out is with Bobby Valentino or Sailing would be the one we will shoot. So, it is just a beautiful thing right now. That?s the whole idea of keeping it hot and really showing people what time it is. I also like Bermuda because there is a lot of talent there and I want to put it on the map.?

I-Vibes producer Craig Simons said working with Qwes was pretty good. ?He came down and Glenn introduced him to me and he told me that he was shopping for tracks for his album,? said Mr. Simons.

?He came over to my little humble studio, we talked for a bit and I showed him a few of the tracks that I had composed. I showed him about 15 and he picked ten off the bat. It was definitely something good and from there he has been away touring and we are just waiting for the stuff to drop. He?s a real cool guy and down to earth. I haven?t had much time in the studio with him, or recording, but to hear what he has done on the tracks has pleased me very much.?

I-Vibe Audio studios is a situated in a little cottage in Devonshire, although it is not really open to the general public.

?But it is a nice little place where I do all the compositional work and a lot of radio ads.

?We also do web design, digital photography with video taping ? so we do a bunch of different things, but with the Qwes stuff pulled in all the production side.?

Mr. Simons runs the company with another production engineer, who shares the same passion. ?It is me and my partner in crime John Amaral, we went to school together at Full Sail (Real World Education) and we did the Recording Arts programme.

?We have just been shooting for our goal of making an impact on this industry. It is kind of tough being in Bermuda, as you know there really isn?t a music industry. But a lot of doors have opened since going to school and honing our craft, and with the Qwes stuff things have opened up even more.?

Along with Qwes they are about to release a demo on white label for two local artists.

?We are about to drop a demo of Khari Thornhill?s work with major labels in the next few months,? Mr. Simons said.

?Another artist that we are producing is Joshua Simons. We are trying to get Bermuda out there on an international scale.

?Qwes is about to drop his album and what I have been told that the beats that he took from me are definitely single material, which if it hopefully goes well, we will hear it on radio stations across the country.?

On music engineering, he said: ?It is a whole new art form and I encourage people to check it out. There are so many jobs in the art field, and especially music. Just about everyone really loves music and to be able to do it as a job and to do what you love. It?s your passion at first ? but to be able to do it as a living it cool.?

His love for music was not through a traditional route, instead he said: ?When I was 13 years old, I begged and begged my mom to get me my first set of turntables and a mixer, because I really wanted to be a deejay.

?I did it every single day up until today. I don?t DJ out, but I started off trying to do it, but it turned into this turntable-ism, by actually taking them and looking at them as instruments instead of just devices that play records.

?In ?99 a good friend of mine bought a guitar and I taught myself. Since then, I have taught myself the bass and keyboards. The next steps is that I will look into lessons, but I am very proficient and I definitely understand music. I also do all the drum programming and it is a full composition once it is done.?

He has been listening to Krunk music for a while, but although he composes it, he prefers a deeper meaning in the lyrics. ?I had been listening to it with a few groups from Texas and Mississippi before it made it to the mainstream,? he said.

?I enjoy the composition work in as far as the music goes, but I can?t say that I favour the whole commercial radio tone of it ? all the money, the cars, the girls, and stuff like that. It is definitely not my forte.

?For me it is all about the music, I love the hear the drums and the strings ? the different elements that compose the beats.

?With the Krunk stuff it definitely gets you moving and it is a hyper type of music, that I do dabble in myself. But as far as the lyrics are concerned, I am definitely one to shy away from it because I am into the real emotional deep sort of sound.

?I like tracks that have meaning to them, just not rapping or singing about anything. I like people to test themselves and see what they can come up with.?

On working with the international producers, Mr. Simons said: ?I definitely am, Qwes has introduced me to one of his main producers Hush and his production team The Heat Misers.

?He?s got a lot of great things happening and is definitely interested in all the stuff that I have been doing. Since New Year?s I have been talking with Hush almost every other day.

?I think it is going to be a really big thing. Hush is in the industry door and he has done a lot of good things with other artists on other labels and I am interested in taking it to another level with everyone that is involved.

?It has been one of our goals to get out there and outlet Bermuda. There is a lot of talent here and there aren?t any doors and no ways to get out, so it is definitely a blessing to hook up with someone like Qwes, Hush and the Heat Misers. I think 2006 is going to be a big year.?