Interview: A Dose of MediSun
Grammy Award-winning songwriter and musician MediSun’s latest song, Hands Off , was inspired by a 100-day trip to Africa in 2019. Released on July 23, Hands Off is the second track off the Mash Down Riddim via Zion I Kings.
Boston raised and now LA-based, MediSun has worked with the likes of Chronixx and Lucky Daye (Roll Some Mo). As an epilepsy survivor, he believes in the healing power of music and has dedicated his life to providing soulful, chantlike Reggae for his listeners to tap into their own spiritual healing.
DancehallMag caught up with MediSun for an interview. Here is your dose…
At what age did you first become interested in Music? What piqued your interest?
As long as I can remember, I come from a family of musicians so making music was just me tapping into my creativity.
You were formerly known as King Mas, so I must ask what inspired the name change to MediSun?
At the end of 2019, I took a long journey through Africa. The day I was preparing to leave Cape Town, I was in a deep meds, sorta just quiet and I was just looking towards the sun. I heard a voice saying after this trip, things will never be the same, your mission is gonna change and with that will come a new title. I didn’t receive the title at that time, but I knew that it was coming. This was the end of 2019, and we all know what 2020 was and so if there is ever a time that the world needed healing, I know it’s now.
How would you describe your musical style?
I don’t know if I really deal with a style, but my process creatively is very intuitive. This realm is made up of various elements and different types of textures and colours and all sorts of things. I feel like every rhythm has its own properties, so I just pull the message out of what the rhythm is saying to me. Vice versa when I am creating music on my own as I play the guitar, it’s really the emotion and energy that I want to bring forward that I used to make music so that it has that desired effect on the persons receiving it.
As an Epilepsy survivor, how do you feel this has impacted your music and its message?
I think when from such a young age you’re aware of umm your mortality, you’re kinda a bit more sensitive to certain matters, it gives you a very unique perspective. My parents did a great job in keeping me amongst a good community and other children, so things were more or less still normal to a certain extent but having that slight difference gives you a different sorta perspective that allowed me to be very fearless in what I do and the topics I address and how I address them… I make it a point in my music to be very straightforward.
You are a Grammy award-winning songwriter for your writing contribution on Morgan Heritage’s album Strictly Roots on the song, Perform and Done, what was it like working on that project?
It was cool, it was a great experience, especially being here, stateside and umm with Morgan Heritage being one of the collectives on this side of the planet and making a huge impact on the music and I have been blessed to continue to expand that skillset since that time.
You have worked with many Reggae heavy hitters and international talent, but do you feel like you have yet to secure a solid Jamaican fanbase?
Weh yuh call solid? There’s like the mainstream and then there’s the grassroot. I will tell you when I’m in Jamaica I feel that sense that I am very much embraced by the Rasta community but there’s probably more waves to breakthrough in pop culture.
Your recent release, Hands Off was inspired by the 100-day journey in Africa, what led you to take on such a journey and how has that journey impacted who you are today?
Interesting thing about the journey is I was supposed to go for a short time, and I had a 9-5 work at the time to balance off the music and I told them I wanted to go for a few weeks, and they gave me a fight and mi a rebel so I said ok 3 weeks ahh 100 days.
When I decided to take that one hundred days, I said alright I am going to really immerse, because I wanted the real experience. Moving through Kenya, I was hosted by a brethren who was a part of the Kenyan Organization for Environmental Education. One of the communities they brought me to is known as Machakos and I connected with the people there especially the women who kept the ground running. So, I continued to keep abreast with what was going on there and that’s how I saw the story about the young girls being impregnated at such a high rate during the lockdown. And I feel like someone needed to speak on this because its sumn that goes on all over the planet. And many times, I feel as if we look at the girls in the situation and ask why are they doing that. But as a man I feel like its my responsibility to address other men and say yo… I’m not advocating for violence but these things need to be dealt with very severely. We need to be prepared to really really protect our daughters.
Is this something we can expect for your music, to continue to speak out against societal ills?
It’s not even so much about speaking against. I like to speak love, I like to speak life, speak truth, and just bring to the forefront whatever I deem to be relevant that needs to be addressed. Just like the medicinal therapeutic um aspect of any artistic endeavour you want to really speak to the times that we’re in.
Your song Rest is a blend of R&B and Reggae drops, a sweet soulful invite to your empress that you will give her rest and love beyond the flesh. While your focus is on musical healing, is it safe to say MediSun is also a lover boy?
First of all, not a boy of any kind, very grown (laughs). Yeh love is important, love is divine love is life. Where there is life there is love. I love to see people, in that dynamic and especially in our community where sometimes the dynamic between genders can be so strained to really express those kind of sentiments as a man towards a woman. There’s this whole thing about don’t be a ‘simp’ don’t be too giving but nah I think once its mutual we should want to pamper each other and make each other comfortable in all sense.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CPD19NwBGbH/
Which songs are you currently vibing to?
I’m vibing to a lot, I love what’s going on in the Afro world. There’s a lot of great music coming out of Jamaica. I listen to a lot of unreleased music so ahh I am blessed to have a lot of brethrens that are musicians you know.
What next can we expect from MediSun, can we get our healing through an EP?
I have multiple projects on the way but there’s definitely an EP forwarding. Also, a really big compilation, an album by the name of Friends Only that I want to put people on the alert about.
Hands Off from the Mash Down Riddim project is available on all streaming platforms. The project includes tracks from Akae Beka, Lutan Fyah, Clatta Bumboo, Pressure Busspipe, The Movement and Blakkamoore, whose track Mash Down Georgetown is an ode to his homeland of Guyana and serves as the title track.