Wayne Marshall’s Son Gio Mar Talks His First Independent Single ‘Truth’

By no means a stranger to music, Giomar ‘Gio Mar’ Mitchell, the oldest child of dancehall artist Wayne Marshall, is booming with excitement after releasing his first independent single, Truth, earlier this month and has promised to release a song every four weeks as he grows as an artist.

Audiences first heard his vocals when he was about eight years old and sang the hook on his father’s 2013 release Stupid Money from his album True Colours, which also featured Agent Sasco. Now a decade later, Mitchell, who simply goes by Giomar, is fully focused on establishing himself as an artist.

“Truth is my first independent single. In 2022, I released a 4 track EP called For Love Songs and in 2021 I released Growing Up So Fast which was produced by Agent Sasco and such. For Love Songs was independent too but that was an EP not a single,” Giomar shared about his music that preceded Truth .

The 18-year-old, who graduated from high school in the United States last June, shared that the creative process for his single was satisfying as he did all the groundwork on his own, which demonstrated his multifaceted approach to creating music.  

“What makes this single Truth so special to me was the process of it all. I remember from the first time I made the beat to the first time I got the hook out of my head to the first time I recorded it. I feel like this single was like a hint for the future because I produced the beat, I wrote it and then I mixed it and then I released it so this was like an eye opener for me,” he reasoned.

“About 3 weeks ago I started to make the beat for this song but I only came up with the first 30 seconds of it and I came up with the hook and jotted down the melody because I didn’t get the rest of the song yet but after that I left it and didn’t touch it for another two and a half weeks because what will happen I will get really excited about an idea but then I will get overwhelmed and put it down and procrastinate,” he shared.

“After that I put out snippets on tiktok to see if people liked it and to see if it had a buzz and people liked it so I said yeah, most of the reels on Instagram and Tiiktok I would say had 300k views combined so I finished the song,” he said.

At the same time, he explained that he thinks artists should not limit themselves to only recording but should learn all the aspects of music production.

“I think that one of the best things that artistes should be able to do is produce for themselves because it eliminates the middleman in a sense, for artistes who can produce hits for themselves they have to find a hit producer right and that can cost time, stress, money and all of that and you have to work percentages and splits etc. I can eliminate that and focus on the music I want to make as an artiste by focusing on that music. I have complete control over everything I do,” he said.

Despite his advocacy for independent music, he revealed that he would not be dismissive of collaborating with other musicians.

“I am definitely open to working with other professionals because I am always looking to learn and such but I think that me being an artiste who always produces for himself will also open up my career as being a producer and producing for other artistes as well,” he said.

Despite his obvious vocal talent he wasn’t quick to say what kind of music he does, for him to label it as a specific genre is difficult but for now he has settled on Afrobeats.

“I try to incorporate a bunch of genres so I would never say I’m doing reggae, nor Rand B nor Dancehall or hip hop or Afrobeats, I will always try to find that mixture so that’s why I always have a problem because distributors will ask but for this particular song I put Afrobeats because of the drum patterns that I chose,” he said.

As he focuses on building his brand, he admitted that he hasn’t done any collaborations outside of Stupid Money.

“Other than Uncle Sasco, I haven’t done any other major collaborations because I am so new, I want to get my voice out and get it respected and then we can focus on collabs,” he said.

Giomar reasoned that he does not expect to get a free pass on his musical journey because of who his dad is but admitted that there are pros and cons to being Wayne Marshall’s son.

“I see it having up sides and down sides because due to my dad already being established it means that there is a name that I will have to live up too that means that there will be added pressure on me to make sure I honour his name  but on the other hand, obviously I am going to be in a much better position than somebody who is just starting out who has no social media presence, no street cred and no links in the music industry and I acknowledge that and thank God everyday that I am in the position that I am,” he said.