Yannick Hooper has decided that 2018 will be his year. After being in the entertainment industry for about six years, the 26-year-old singer/songwriter has been doing some serious introspection about his future.
He said that by reading books such as Black Privilege by American radio presenter and author Charlamagne Tha God and the compilation Speeches That Changed the World, his ambition has kicked into high gear.
Yannick said he came across a quote by late United States President John F., Kennedy which resonated with him.
“We choose to go to the Moon! We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organise and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept . . . ,” he said, quoting Kennedy’s famous statement verbatim.
“That really stuck with me,” he said.
“I think every year artistes are put in a situation where because of time and certain limitations they aren’t always able to put their best foot forward. But I’ve made up my mind that this is the year I will do all I can do,” he continued.
He told the WEEKEND BUZZ that not only will he be releasing original music, with the intention of entering competitions, but he will be writing for other artistes as well.
“I’m working on a catalogue of music, and pushing who Yannick Hooper is by paying greater attention to my image. But songwriting has always been something I wanted to do, and it was this year I decided to push all the boundaries by not only writing male songs but for female songs as well,” he said.
Since 2012 he has released a number of soca tracks, including They Don’t Want Us To Fete, Double Up and Undecided, and this year he said there will be two projects with De Men Production. Additionally, he teamed up with his long-time friend and 2016 Red Bull 3Style Champion DJ Puffy for the soon-to-be-released Wine Down Low.
He said this was the first time a chorus came to him in a dream, and also the first time the two teamed up in this way.
He briefly shared the recording experience.
“We met unrelated to business and he played an instrumental that he had and I just started to sing a song that I had. It was such a coincidence that the instrumental was exactly what I was looking for in a production. So when that happened we said, ‘Yes, this is a project we have to do’, because it’s not very often that you play an instrumental and the song just blends.” (TG)
