The Playground Meets: Tessellated
Written & Interview By: Disney Molina
Jamaican-born artist Tessellated (or Tess as he likes to call himself) is one of the newest voices contributing to an international explosion in music, introducing the world to a flavor that has long been overlooked on a commercial level.
Fresh off the stage of a virtual performance for the widely acclaimed SXSW festival, Tess joined The Playground for an interview via Instagram live where he shared his SXSW experience, his influences, his views on Afrobeats versus Dancehall, and more.
The 23-year-old grew up in Kingston Jamaica, and he recalls the legendary Motown being a part of his earliest musical memories. Tessellated is a product of a myriad of musical influences, from classic R&B to Jazz. He also acknowledges Sean Paul as one of his biggest influences in reggae, revealing that he would run his albums on repeat. His Jamaican roots are heavily ingrained in his sound, he explained: “it’s impossible to escape from it even if you want to – all the songs, blends, and styles I create are tied to that foundation and it's easy to hear when you listen to my music.”
Tessellated does not limit himself musically, when asked who he would like to collaborate with in the future – he looked to the African music scene praising Nigerian-born artists Rema and Tobi Lou as artists on his Wishlist. On the US front, he says that he would love to work with rapper Smino and Kota The Friend.
Do not put any labels on Tessellated, he made sure to point out that he does not consider himself a dancehall artist.“I don’t consider myself dancehall – I think my sound is dancehall and reggae influences – but when you listen to it compared to my sound, it’s like two completely different sounds. They are like cousins”.
Tessellated says his sound would identify more with the reggae genre, due to its expanding nature, sonically. He enjoys the fact that the genre is opening and exploring a new sound instead of utilizing a repetitive approach. His first major hit was “Pine & Ginger” – a record he performed with Amindi and Valleyz. The song has amassed over 6.2 Million streams on YouTube alone.
“We made that track for fun – It was something we made for the love of music. We weren’t making any money off music, and that song took it to a level where we were actually providing for ourselves off the music, at 19-years old.”
For the track “I Learnt Some Jazz Today” Tessellated collaborated with Apple to create a song that would be featured in one of their ads for the AirPods. He praised the company for allowing him to be himself and not being a restrictor to the creative process.
When asked if he believes Afrobeats has overshadowed reggae and dancehall – he disagrees. He acknowledges the commercial success of Afrobeat, due to its production and packaging as an overall product. However, he feels as though we should not overlook the work that is being done by up-and-coming Jamaican artists to keep reggae afloat.“The Jamaican scene is coming back with a force; you have people like me and artists like Koffee (who is doing huge things on the world stage) – you have a bunch of people who are coming up and bringing music at the highest level of quality – things are changing.”
His debut EP Tropics is a 7-track project – a 17-minute, “short and sweet” listen, as he explained. “If you’ve heard something from me this would elaborate on that -- if you haven’t heard from me this explains who I am.
What can fans expect next from Tessellated? He is going into video mode, working on several visuals to accompany the songs on his EP. He revealed that he had the opportunity to direct much of the visuals for this project – the visual for “Rendezvous’’ being one of his first ventures into directing.
He also says that he will be working on a merchandise drop soon, some of which has already been shown off in the Tropics music video. Check out the video for “Tropics” below as well as Tessellated’s virtual appearance at this year’s SXSW Island Stage in Kingston, Jamaica.