by Howard Campbell
SOUTH FLORIDA – The ATF Band, which had an encouraging start to its recording career last year, will release its first EP, Yardie, on July 10 through VPAL Music. It contains seven songs including the title track which was a hit in South Florida and New York City.
Irie High, the quartet’s third song, was released digitally on June 19 by Tune Core.
“The Yardie EP was recorded over a one-year period. We recorded a lot of tracks as demos and whenever ideas and lyrics started to flow, we would record the tracks in the studio,” said drummer Stephen Lee. “There was no rush or pressure to get the EP done in a specific time as we were also doing quite a few shows in Kingston (Jamaica) and around the country.”
Lee, keyboardist/vocalist Herbie Harris and bass player Lyndon Webb are the original members of the ATF Band. Guitarist Courtland White, who was previously with Raging Fyah, joined them last year.
During the 1980s, Lee and Harris were in Kotch, a band best known for the hit song, Jean. Harris later played with Third World for 10 years; with dancehall the sound of choice in Jamaica, he believes it is critical for bands like ATF to survive.
“We think it is very important for Jamaican music that bands like ourselves are around because when people come to see a show, they want to see musicians playing live. We as musicians back in the day would listen and learn from great bands and groups like The Skatalites, Bob Marley and The Wailers, Inner Circle, Sly and Robbie and The Taxi Gang, Third World, Black Uhuru and many more that paved the way to the level that the music has reached today.”
Yardie, the song, was a hit last year. It is a humorous take on the indignities Jamaicans face at airports, especially in North America, where Customs officials often harass them for illegal narcotics.
The EP, according to Lee, “Is a mixture of all different styles of reggae.”
Their second release was Say A Prayer, a cover of the 1970 hit by British group, Brotherhood Of Man.
