Interview: Vision Alexander Talks Writing With Julian Marley For Grammy-Nominated ‘Colors Of Royal’ Album

Vision Alexander, the man with credits for five out of the seven songs on Colors Of Royal by Julian Marley and Antaeus, says he was hopeful that the album would be nominated while the project was being completed.

“Theres a saying, ‘when you play with skills good luck is bond to happen sometimes.’ I believe in all the songs we’ve worked on as a team,” he told DancehallMag in a recent interview. “We took our time and created a great body of work. And we had a well-experienced Captain in Julian at the helm guiding the project through ruff seas, along with Alex Antaeus who is the executive producer on the album Colours of Royal. Attitude reflects leadership. So, with that confidence, I felt very positive about our changes of getting nominated.”

The 66th annual Grammy Awards, set for February 4, 2024, has four other albums competing in the Best Reggae Album category: Beenie Man‘s Simma, Buju Banton‘s Born For Greatness, Burning Spear‘s No Destroyer, and Collie Buddz‘s Cali Roots Riddim 2023.

Julian was nominated twice for Best Reggae Album with his albums As I Am and Awake.

Alexander has credits on the following songs: Made for your Love (produced by Alex Antaeus), Jah Sees Them (produced by Sean Alaric), Inna Mood (produced by Prince Productions), Roll (produced by Alex Antaeus) and Rodando ft Bahiano (produced by Alex Antaeus and Mr Sonic).

This wasn’t his first rodeo with Julian—who is the son of Bob Marley—Vision told DancehallMag. 

“We had worked together previouly on a song called Don’t Ruin My World along with John Barrett. The song was for a campaign in Europe to bring awareness to protecting the environment. The song did very well in Europe and started to get heavy rotation in Brazil. Not long after the success of the song, Julian and John invited me to be apart of his new body of work which is now the Grammy nominated album Colors of Royal,” he shared.

The St. George’s College past student was the recipient of a football scholarship to Post University in Waterbury, Connecticut. However, he has been putting pen to paper where music is concerned for a decade.

“I started my music career as a recording artsit before that. But, due to unfortunate circumstances earlier in my life which prohibited me from traveling,” he said.

“[That] really hindered my opportunities to maximize my full potential as a recording artist. So I turn my creative energy into becoming a ghost writer. I figured since I cant see the world physically at the time. The world would  hear  my melodies and lyrics as a song writer. And I would still able to provide for my family by using the talent that God gave me. I still record my own music time and time again but mostly in a synce license capacity. For example, the music that I’ve recorded has been placed in motion picture films, comercials I’m enjoying the best of both worlds creatively,” Alexander continued.

While he acknowledges how impactful the competitive albums are in the Best Reggae Album category, Alexander noted that simply collaborating with Julian has been the pinnacle of his career. He hopes that they maintain a long-lasting working relationship.

“We all manifest for our work to reach the highest level of achievement in our fields. With this years nominees in the Best Reggae catagory for the grammys. It’s not going to be easy to win when you have the likes of Buju Banton, Beenie Man, Burning Spear and Collie Buddz all up for the same prize. But, growing up playing football all of my life competitively. Ive learnt to treat my lifes challenges just like a football match. The ball is round and it can be anybodies match to win on any given day,” he said.

“I’ve grown as I’ve gotten older to more enjoy the process more than the results to be honest. A win would be amazing, but I believe I’ve already won by getting the opportunity to work with Julian. I’ve learnt so much from Julian in short the time we’ve worked together. Working with Julian has been the highlight of my song writer career thus far. I would trade all the Grammys just to work with Julian, experience thats brings knowledge for me is worth more than a trophy in my life at this point.”