BASHMENT SOCA has a new competition contender.
Samuel Bridgeman, also known as Hardware Muzyk, is no stranger to the growing art form, but he will enter the contest this Crop Over for the first time as a singer.
For many years the deejay/songwriter has co-produced many popular tunes. If you listen closely you will hear his name being mentioned in tracks such as Peter Ram’s Quicksand Upgrade, Bout Hey Heavy by Xcel featuring Bounty Killer or his own Piñata. He has also co-producer credits on Lil Rick’s Twerkin Time and the 2014 Party Monarch anthem Meh Rum by Gorg.
Hardware Muzyk said he was pleased that the genre now has a formal showcase.
“The competition opened somewhere for us to express the bashment so why not use it. Bashment has been in Barbados for a long time it’s now starting to take off overseas . . . so we pushing it even stronger now,” he said.
Speaking to WEEKEND BUZZ from Vaultclose recording studio, the 27-year-old said that he was first introduced to music at age four by his mother who bought him a keyboard.
But it was around age 13 that he knew he could make music a full-time career, He started playing with a gospel band, eventually moving to Strategy and last year he had stint at a hotel in Abu Dhabi where he was the deejay and resident pianist for seven months.
The former Combermere student told WEEKEND BUZZ that he was raised in a Christian environment and that upbringing has played a significant role in why he makes his music and video productions family friendly and not filled with half-naked women.
“I’m not bashing it because I produce the music but when I do my [visual] productions I tend to stay away from that.”
In his most recent music video Pop Down Melody featuring Jah Reddis, Trey Breezy, Biggest, Sheriann Norris and Chris RK, all of whom have songs on the track, he was able to weave comedy into the almost four-minute production.
“I want that most groups can appreciate my work so whether you’re a Christian or Muslim, you can look at it and you don’t really find it offensive which is why I go down the comedy line,” Hardware Muzyk said.
“Comedy was something that was always in me because people would always say. “Oh, you are the class clown”, so my vision was to make the scenes flow, and it flowed so good that people think this is one song,” he explained.
The video has already generated over 170 000 views and he said it even got the attention of producer Chris Allman.
“That was touching to me because he is one of the guys I look up to so for him to tell me that he liked the video because it was fully Bajan and clean, that any age group could watch, was a blessing . . . . I remembered that for about a week straight,” he added.
He said he wrote and produced each of the four songs on the track and said it took about two months to the final product. (TG)
