Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
Jerome 'Threestar' Young with his CD. - ANDREW SMITH/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
WARS ARE events of death and destruction, hardly a situation where creativity is expected to flow as bullets fly and bombs explode.
However, for one Jamaican who found himself in Iraq, war has become his creative crucible and the death of his friend the inspiration to keep soldiering on with his deejaying.
Jerome Young carries the memory of Andrew Chuck wherever he goes. Chuck's face is tattooed into his right forearm, just below the elbow, and his memory is permanently burnished in his mind.
A memory, because Chuck was shot in the head in Killeen, Iraq, on December 21, 2003, dying in the United States on January 3, 2004.
Their bond had gone past soldier buddies into being musical mates, Young being called 'Youngstar' and Chuck 'Chuckstar'.
SHIPPED OFF TO IRAQ
Young joined the U.S. Army in 2001, five years after Chuck, who he cites as 'a little bit of influence' to sign on. Shipped off to Iraq, he started recording songs on a laptop computer, using a headset microphone. He was encouraged by Chuck who liked Trigger Clip, the only song that Young did before his friend died.
"He always said 'do music' and after he died I decided to do it," he said.
In fact, the original title of the album that Young plans to release by February, Out of Many One People, was given to him by Chuck.
The album will, however, come out under the name 'Threestar', the change coming because 'everything comes back to three'. Among that 'everything' are Chuck's death date (January 3), three bullets were fired the night he was shot and the numbers in the date of the shooting (December 21) add up to three. Also, "Three was his favourite number," Young said.
RECORDING THE SONGS
With rhythms on the computer, Young actually started recording the songs for the album in Iraq in July 2004, recording after his missions.
"Sometimes I stayed up until 4:00 a.m., even though I had to be at work at 5:00 a.m.," the former resident of McIntyre Villa in Kingston said.
"It wasn't me only. A couple Americans were also doing it. People were doing it to keep on track, to stay focused, so you wouldn't try to go somewhere else and do something," he said.
He said that the army had no problem with the soldiers doing this.
Since returning from Iraq on March 28, 2005, Young has been to studios in New York and Texas, USA, doing over the songs he recorded on the laptop in a professional manner, and is currently in Jamaica doing the same thing.
He now has 22 songs, from which to choose 15 to go on the mainly reggae, with some hip-hop collaboration, album. Some of the songs are No Bad Man, The Truth, They Are Killers, Army Girls and Queen Love.
The deejay has some other soldiers appearing on the album and notes that they are people with "real talent, not just anybody who you pick up."
The album is slated to appear on his own Star Throne label.
