The top-selling reggae artist worldwide remains Bob Marley, but Ziggy Marley, the eldest son of Bob and Rita, has been leading the family business for more than three decades. On his fifth solo outing, the recently released Fly Rasta, Ziggy Marley is both celebrating and putting out a call to action for the Rastafari community and beyond. The title, he explains, means "Go Rasta! Do it!" and the positive attitude is on display throughout the album.
While it doesn't contain much outward discussion of Rastafar, the album certainly has plenty to say about love, not only of the romantic type, but for Mother Earth. The first single, "I Don't Wanna to Live on Mars" is a statement.
"It is a way to address the global warming issue in a way that is not in a preachy way, but an entertaining way," Marley tells Exclaim! "A way that takes the Earth as if it's my girl. And I don't want to leave my girl for another girl. I love my girl. I want to take care of my girl and treat my girl good because she treat me good. This is a love song still."
Though Marley does hold the reggae vibes for the majority of the album, "Mars" is a track with a big injection of pop and rock, which makes sense given what he was listening to while recording.
"For me, for this record, I listened to everything really," Marley offers. "From the Beach Boys [to] the Grateful Dead, I listened to a lot of things. I imagined the sounds I wanted to have in my music to be out there somewhere, so I listened to a wide variety."
Acknowledging that reggae is not a Jamaican sound, but an international music, he says his aim was for his new album to be "Galactical. Not only international it is galactical! Ingredients from the whole galaxy of music."
Marley plays Toronto on June 14 and Montreal the day after. You can find all the tour dates here.
Fly Rasta is out now via Tuff Gong.
While it doesn't contain much outward discussion of Rastafar, the album certainly has plenty to say about love, not only of the romantic type, but for Mother Earth. The first single, "I Don't Wanna to Live on Mars" is a statement.
"It is a way to address the global warming issue in a way that is not in a preachy way, but an entertaining way," Marley tells Exclaim! "A way that takes the Earth as if it's my girl. And I don't want to leave my girl for another girl. I love my girl. I want to take care of my girl and treat my girl good because she treat me good. This is a love song still."
Though Marley does hold the reggae vibes for the majority of the album, "Mars" is a track with a big injection of pop and rock, which makes sense given what he was listening to while recording.
"For me, for this record, I listened to everything really," Marley offers. "From the Beach Boys [to] the Grateful Dead, I listened to a lot of things. I imagined the sounds I wanted to have in my music to be out there somewhere, so I listened to a wide variety."
Acknowledging that reggae is not a Jamaican sound, but an international music, he says his aim was for his new album to be "Galactical. Not only international it is galactical! Ingredients from the whole galaxy of music."
Marley plays Toronto on June 14 and Montreal the day after. You can find all the tour dates here.
Fly Rasta is out now via Tuff Gong.
