After years of delays and do-overs, Sharlan Bailey – The Dread Wizard, is ready to release his six-song EP, Planet Dread.

Three of the songs, Repartee, Different Something, and UR Love, were released in the first week of the new year because, he said, they were more suited for the Carnival season. Also on the EP is a remix of his own 2020 song, Shadow Son, Conspiracy, and Around De Corner.

All written were produced and mixed by him, with a few of the choruses written by Selvon “Mistah Shak” Noel.

“I’ve been trying to do this album for years. Things happened, I got despondent with the work, lack of radio play, things keep changing, so I kept putting it off. Songs came and went.”

[caption id="attachment_995868" align="alignnone" width="747"] Sharlan Bailey was not heavily influenced by his father, Shadow’s music, but by the man himself. - SUREASH CHOLAI[/caption]

But Bailey believed the pandemic did a lot for him and, like any “real” artist, he tried to take the negativity and turn it into something beautiful. He gave the example of his father, Winston “Mighty Shadow” Bailey’s hit song, Poverty is Hell, saying although the lyrics were “very dark,” when people hear it, they smile and sing along.

In this way, he said the pandemic fed him. With the lockdowns, lives and jobs at risk, family lives affected, and the country’s uncertain recovery, there was much to say and write about. It also had him thinking about using his engineering skills. And so he completed and rejected many songs until, by the 2022 Christmas season, he was satisfied with the end result.

He said the three songs he released so far, were tied to the emotions he felt during the pandemic.

Although initially written in 2006, UR Love represented the feelings people were having during the pandemic with the need to keep their loved ones close and safe. While Different Something dealt with the anxiety and need to release their frustrations, Repartee was written spontaneously.

“I think Repartee is what I was seeing musically, with our so-called industry. We are losing something with our music. We’re in a system where it’s no longer a music industry, it’s an entertainment industry. It’s about gimmick and trending, not about musicality.”

He said artists were no longer concerned about being a good singer, writer or musician. The artist would go to someone for a riddim several other artists were using, and get a song written by someone else, who would also be writing for other artists, so the songs do not have “heart” or individuality.

[caption id="attachment_995869" align="alignnone" width="795"] Sharlan Bailey says the pandemic fed him musically. - SUREASH CHOLAI[/caption]

“People like Black Stalin and my old man, they were writing from a place and they were the source of the energy. Each individual had their thumb print on what they were doing. Nobody sounded like the other because everybody was bringing something of themselves.”

He said when he was younger, he did not have an interest in the stage as he would sing backup and write f