The top three winners of the CellularOne Mobile Movement Tour now have their music listed on several online music sites, including iTunes.com.

CellularOne CEO Michael Leverock, Zenji Ingham a.k.a. Zenjisan and Giles Spurling a.k.a. Mr. Dudley spoke to The Royal Gazette about the exciting new development.

Mr. Leverock explained that he decided to expand the ringtones to music downloads, as he wanted to keep the momentum of the Tour on a high.

"We were going along with the project and things weren't going quite as quickly as we wanted them to, so we began to explore other possibilities and we found a distributor who was willing to work with us," he said.

"We put that in place and we found that they had distribution to some of the major online music downloadable sites. And so we just pursued it and we just put the first volume of the CellularOne Mobile Movement Tour online."

He explained that they had received confirmation that the music was now available on some of the major sites.

"Right now they are available on Beatport.com, which is a pretty popular download site, we've got Napster.com, we've got listen.com, we've also got Ruckus, and it is now on iTunes," he said.

"We will soon be up on running on the likes of Rhapsody's and the emusic's and musicnet — there is a whole list of the companies that are going to be distributing this music."

He explained that this step was the first phase of an ongoing process to make sure the artists get the exposure that they want and to make it available for locals to download as well.

"The next stage is moving it to the ringtone aspect, because there is apparently a process of getting things properly configured and available for download on the proper platform for cell phones," he added.

Mr. Leverock wanted to ensure artists that they were keeping the ball rolling.

"To let the artists know that we are serious about this, and it is going to be an ongoing thing," he added. "It is definitely going to be an expansion of our ongoing product, as was the intention initially."

When asked whether CellularOne was still working with Swagger Wireless, Mr. Leverock said that they were, but it was a matter of continuing to move at a steady gait.

"We still have a relationship going there, but again, for us it is a matter of timing, it is a matter of being sure we do things in a fashion that keeps the reputation of the whole project, because it is going to be an ongoing thing."

At the moment, Mr. Leverock added the organisers were in the process of thinking about how they would be doing the next round. "We are going to have something done around the top 15 from last year and this year, we are probably going to have another competition."

Also with www.beatport.com, it accepts local credit cards. "So anyone in the world can now go on and download the music," he added.

"What we can work out ourselves is to get Bermuda credit cards to validate on those networks, because if you are going to have global distribution, then you have got to be serious about it.

"We think it may be the way that the banks operate here, but we are going to see what we can work out."

CellularOne Mobile Movement Tour runners up Giles Spurling a.k.a. Mr. Dudley and Zenjisan, who only uses his first name as his stage name, are looking forward to locals and international parties downloading their tunes. When they spoke to The Royal Gazette about their music, they both admitted to feeling like being somewhat on the brink of a bright future.

Mr. Dudley's musical career began after he began collecting session tapes and mixed CDs.

"After school everyday at Saltus, I would go home and listen and sing along with it," he explained, "So, that is how I started getting into it.

"Then I'd go to school the next day and get into trouble for singing in class. I got thrown out twice, but it was a passion — I just loved to do it."

When he was 16-years-old he began writing his own lyrics.

"My first song was a play on a 1980s hit — Always and Forever — and I just kind of changed up the lyrics to make it a reggae song," he said. "Then I got more creative and started making up my own melodies and my own songs, but I was writing all of those songs a cappella."

He admitted that his passion lessened while he was a college student, but that would not last for long. "When I graduated and came back here, I began working on it more," he said. "I now have six songs that I have done in about a year."

Both artists either write their lyrics and have someone build the rhythm around it or have 'rhyddms' or instrumentals.

Of his first song "Bermudian Gal," Mr. Dudley explained that he had written the lyrics and Shondell Easton (Just Platinum Studio) built the rhythms around his sound.

Saltus graduate Zenji says that he was inspired by a few of his contemporaries.

"Basically in high school there were some guys above me Squinty and Junior Stephen and these guys were always into reggae and bringing back session tapes," he said.

"So we'd always hang out in the music room during recess. So they were there playing their tapes and that got me into the music and I just wanted to do the same thing. But in college is when I really got into it, as I was singing in a five part harmony group and we toured all over South Florida. We sang the National Anthem for Pauly Shore and David Alan Grier and we would do a lot of cover tunes beside that.

"Then on our original and more upbeat tunes, I would put the reggae rap into it and that's basically how I got started."

Since leaving university, he has continued making music on his own, recording and performing at parties.

"It has just kept me going," explained Zenji.

Both are in their positions by default, as the initial second place winners, did not take the deal. So when asked how it felt to win, Mr. Dudley explained: "So I didn't selected at first, but then Home Grown Band decided not to take the deal, for some reason, so I was fourth bumped up to third," explained Mr. Dudley.

"So it was a surprise, because ten days after they announced the winners, they called me and said, 'actually, you're third!'"

With regards to the same question, Zenji said: "Even though I was initially selected for third place, I didn't mind — you get a better prize.

"It was a great feeling, because I felt now, my songs will be on iTunes and stuff like that."

Asked whether they had received any feedback as yet, Zenji replied, not yet, although he did add: "It is just great to finally have your music available internationally, really that is all I ever wanted — it is just to be out there and to be heard.

"I'm just happy."

On the same note, Mr. Dudley said: "When you asked us, is it going to take off, it would be cool if it took off like Collie Buddz or something. I don't know if our talent is at his level or what, but obviously getting the music out to an international crowd is huge — somebody in Japan might say, 'I really like that.'"

When it was pointed out that Japanese were great reggae lovers, Mr. Leverock added that the genre was beginning to take off in China as well.

"I can't remember which site it was, but they liked the album because they didn't have any albums of that kind of genre on there."