Teino Evans, Staff Reporter

Junior Pinchers - Contributed

From as early as when young Kemar Thompson raced home from school in order to tag along with his father, singer Pinchers, to the studio, he always knew that he would get involved in music one day.

But his approach would not be the same as 'The Bandelero', as Pinchers is known.

Now, Kemar is more popularly known as Junior Pinchers, but the only thing he has in common with his father is his name.

"My music is heart and soul, of reggae, of R&B, because I love R&B music. It's touching. I am soft spoken and I'm the type of person who you would expect to come and calm a fight. A Rastafari mi sey, mi changeup mi whole life an livity," Junior Pinchers said.

"I feel good about trying to be myself. Pinchers is Pinchers an him bring heart to di ting, but I am not the glittery, sparkly type of person, so we take it (music) from two different angle. Me jus a keep it real an mi want di people dem fi accept me an me doing the music my way. Mi nuh want dem sey a Pinchers son an all a dat," he said.

He added that "People sey mi sound like my father, but I want to be an artiste on my own so I try to keep it original. Bandelero a mi father suh mi try to keep it real."

Junior Pinchers, however, admits that he owes most of his early musical inspiration to his father as he recalls "mi father use to tek mi pon di bike guh roun a studio all bout, Jammys, Scorpio, Digital, an him did introduce mi to everybody an him sey listen to mi because he knew that I only needed a listening ear to prove myself."

Other sources of musical inspiration, he said, came from "just about any artiste that does good music and the hills of St. Catherine where I was born. Mi nuh know if a dat mek mi have dat natural vibe, mi nuh know if a it mek mi meditate pon di levels wey mi meditate pon. Mi jus prone fi meditate pon di positive side of things. But me waan big up mi fadda Bandelero, him mek it bout 30 per cent possible an di rest of it a Jah response fi it."

Junior Pinchers admits that "It's good being the son of a superstar, but it can be bad in some ways because a lot of pressure is on me when people think that I have it already or that I'm good already because of who my father is. But it's really good when I get to perform my songs freely and producers are interested because I'm coming from a good stable, so it's up to me to let me down, which I never do."

Crowd pleaser

From as far back as Junior Pinchers could recall he has always been able to draw a crowd, hence the reason for his father taking an early interest in steering him in the right direction musically.

"Mi a perform from basic school, a sing mi father songs an lock up di place an dem time deh mi about seven. Suh a dah time deh mi father start tek mi roun wid him an a sey son mi haffi get yuh involved," Junior Pinchers said.

"I remember, as a likkle yout, mi use to have mi own bouncers, cause like mi likkle cousin dem wi collect 50 cents fi every song weh mi sing an when mi father tek mi to Kingsway Prep and High mi start clash wid Tiger son and others. When lunchtime come wi race fi guh pack up under di tree an knock riddim an clash. Sizzla use to rehearse roun di road a Caveman an mi use to guh roun deh an watch him an mi still haffi lef in time fi catch mi fadda before him guh a studio," he said.

Junior Pinchers, who recorded his first song Blaze Up Di Fire in 1997, says while his father was voicing in studio he used the opportunity to work out his own song on the rhythm "because it is very important to seize any opportunity that you get and hope that people will accept you because there are a lot of good artistes out there waiting to snatch such an opportunity."

Currently, Junior Pinchers says he has a new single out called Unfaithful Lover, which is doing well on the airwaves and local charts, and he recently came off a promotional tour in the United States where he linked up with the likes of Shabba Ranks.

Signed to Royal Concert Productions (a Jamaican/New York label) for two years now, Junior Pinchers is looking to drop his debut album, True Story. Already he has a collaboration with Lutan Fyah on Light Before You and one with his father called Be With You Always. The latter, Junior Pinchers says, "was really about my father telling me to be true to the girl that I'm with. It's like an answer to Unfaithful Lover.

"So just keep on supporting Junior Pinchers, mi bredren Maurice and Jimbo Garrison, a dem a keep di ting lock in," he says as he sings "gun ting, don't bodda wid it, how yuh woulda like if a yout shot yuh modda wid it ... don't bodda wid it."