Driving St Bess music

New producer tries to excavate St Elizabeth talent with studio

Andre Gordon, Gleaner Writer

The first decade of the new millennium has delivered some of the great wonders of the modern world.

Developments such as Facebook, Twitter and BlackBerry messenger have revolutionised marketing and the general way people communicate.

The charge internationally has been led to a great degree by young entrepreneurs such as Mark Elliot Zuckerberg of Facebook and many like him who have sought to use that which was available to them, in this case, the Internet to create great wealth.

Here in Jamaica, one member of this rare breed who has this same zeal to succeed is Andy Holness.

Holness at 28 has already achieved a lot in business and is charting a course which will undoubtedly lead to great wealth and prosperity in the near future.

Music has been his lifelong passion and he has taken a round-a-bout route towards a career in the field. But he is there now.

A graduate of Munro college, Holness studied engineering at Knox College before moving on to college in London where he majored in sound and electronic engineering.

fearless nature

His fearless nature then led him to enlist in the army in Britain where he spent a brief stint before injury halted his meteoric rise in that particular field.

While injured, he visited Jamaica with the intention of returning to Britain to continue his service to the crown but coincidence led to the start of a new chapter in his life.

It is said that necessity is the mother of invention and so it was for Andy Holness and the birth of his cellphone sale and repair service aptly named "Phone Doctor".

"when I came to Jamaica I had two phones that needed to be unlocked and quickly found out that that service was not available in my home town Black River. In fact, the closest one was miles away in Santa Cruz so I decided to set up shop and offer the service," he told The Gleaner recently.

In the first two years business grew at an exponential level leading to him expanding to white house in Westmorland with a second store.

Having established his phone business as a bench mark provider in the Black River and Whitehouse business districts Holness turned to his passion.

"My true passion is music and entertainment. I grew up listening to the likes of Usher, R Kelly, Biggy, Tupac, DMX, JZ and Linkin Park. I have decided to turn my passion into business," Holness said, speaking of his new recording studio and label dubbed "St Bess Recording Studio".

According to Holness, the Studio is to bring the talent of people from St Elizabeth to the fore.

The studio now employs one full-time producer in the person of Damion "Keezy" Hewitt, who possess more than five years experience in the industry and is better known for his exploits as a musician. Another top producer is also on the cards but his identity is being withheld for the moment as talks have not yet been concluded.

The future of recordings coming out of the studio has been secured through a global digital distribution deal which Holness has Inked with a Global leader in digital distribution based in the United States and the United Kingdom.

The deal will ensure that music is available for download from sites such as iTunes and all other Internet download hubs.

While not divulging the name of the distribution company Holness has indicated an announcement to the press early this year.

When asked what was to be expected from St Bess studios, he indicated that he personally wanted to see other genres outside of reggae and dancehall coming out of Jamaica.

"I would like to see R&B, Hip Hop and alternative with a distinct Jamaica flavour coming out of Jamaica," he said.

Holness' foray into music hasn't stopped with his studio either.

The soldier-turned-phone engineer-turned-producer has joined forces with his friend Fitzroy to create stbesslinkup.com

The site, with is dedicated to events promotion classifieds and social interaction for parishioners of St Elizabeth and the Diaspora already has over 800 members.

Music and videos can also be downloaded at the site. Holness said the long-term objective for the site is for more people from the parish and around the world to use it as a hub to meet and do business.

The future business mogul has as part of his long-term vision for St Elizabeth a rebirth of the bread basket parish through further development in education and solid development in the entertainment sector.