Posts with the: mind on the moon tag.

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Snow Storm Returns

Source: Mike Bell, jam.canoe.ca

Canadian reggae hip hop artist Snow (a.k.a. Darrin O’Brien) has battled his demons.

His ghost, on the other hand, he just hangs out with.

“He’s a wicked ghost,” the soft-spoken performer says of the spirit. “Billy would mess with us.”

Billy was a childhood friend of his who died three years ago in the house the musician bought for his own mother. According to Snow, Billy’s ghost now inhabits the attached recording studio where he cut his latest album Mind On The Moon.

Some of the shenanigans attributed to his dear departed friend include playing instruments in other rooms, moving secured microphone stands, and generally insinuating himself into the recording process.

“But now my mother’s moving and selling the house,” says Snow, who plays The Palace tonight.

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No More Melt-Downs For Snow

Source: Andrew Flynn, www.montrealgazette.com

Snow will never fall again, that much he promises.

From alcohol abuse to jail to stardom to obscurity and back again has been a mostly upward journey, the only direction to go, the singer has decided.

Born Darrin O’Brien and raised in a heavily Jamaican section of suburban North York, Snow, 31, is clearly enjoying his reincarnation from international reggae-cum-rap star – thanks to his huge hit Informer in 1992 – to pop singer. Long gone are the days when he would go on a two-day bender and wake up in a lockup – or a hospital.

“Never again. I’m never going to let my daughter see me behind bars. Never,” he says. “I learned the hard way, but at least I learned.”

Just being around Snow is like experiencing a moderate to heavy caffeine buzz: his intensity is infectious, as if he’s got a nuclear reactor in his socks that needs to be rigorously stifled just so he can sit still.

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Evil Spirits

Source: Access All Areas and Primetime

Evil Spirits photoshootDarrin O’Brien has never worked a day in his life — kind of. The Toronto-bred singer whose rapid-fire Jamaican patois helped lodge the song ‘Informer’ on top of the Billboard Singles chart for seven weeks back in 1993 admits to having never held employment outside the music business. ‘The first job I ever had was music,’ he says, ‘and it’s a hard job.

Wrapped in cigarette smoke, O’Brien, better known to the world as Snow, is sitting in a cafe kitty-corner to MuchMusic’s Toronto studios. It’s Thanksgiving, a holiday Monday, and the streets are suitably quiet. It’s also the day before Snow’s comeback record, Mind On The Moon, arrives in stores so he’s working hard to sell me — and the rest of Canada — on his continued relevance.

So far, the odds seem to be in his favour. ‘Everybody Wants To Be Like You’, Mind On The Moon’s first single, sits at Number 2 on Soundscan’s Singles chart as of this writing, and while critics have been less than enthusiastic about Snow’s return (Matt Galloway of Toronto weekly NOW refers to Moon as a ‘scrubbed-down teen-pop nightmare’), MuchMusic and mainstream radio have embraced their prodigal son.

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Snow Settles In

Source: Chris Lamb, www.teenmusic.com

In 1993 Jurassic Park was a monster movie and the Chicago Bulls NBA champions. Grunge rock was in fine form and airbags were the newest car safety devices since front-wheel drive. 1993 was also enthralled with the relatively new sound of rap and that year’s biggest rap song was undoubtedly Informer, a worldwide number one hit by Snow.

Snow recorded Informer as a troubled youth and his life instantly transformed from troublemaker into pop star. Fame and money followed in the wake of the single, taking Snow around the world to promote and perform his debut album ’12 Inches of Snow.’

Born Darrin O’Brien, Snow grew up in the Allenbury projects in North York, a subsidized neighborhood of the Greater Toronto Area. A school dropout in grade eight, Snow immersed himself in Toronto’s street culture, acquiring a criminal record and an interest in music. Reggae and hip-hop were particular favorites and Snow developed a unique rapping sound that became known in the East Coast music scene. While on vacation in New York Snow began recording ’12 Inches of Snow’ with producer MC Shan.

The album was released and the first single, Informer, found heavy rotation on radio and TV. ‘Informer’ sat at #1 on the Billboard Singles Chart for seven weeks straight in 1993 and is entered into the Guinness Book of World Records twice – as the Biggest Selling Reggae Single in U.S. History and Highest Charting Reggae Single in history.

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After The Snow Falls

Source: Wes Smiderle, www.ottawacitizen.com

After three albums, one seven-year-old hit single, a stint in jail and a new daughter, Snow is eager to embark on a comeback.

The 31-year-old singer is promoting his fourth CD, Mind on the Moon, released earlier this month. Besides being his first new album in more than three years, the disc is also Snow’s debut effort with the EMI-Virgin label.

The new material showcases a noticeably lighter style presented by what is essentially a brand new Snow.

”This is my second chance,” says the singer, who developed his brand of reggae patter while growing up in the ”projects” of North York. ”Everything’s coming together … I’m in positive mode now.”

Although he insists he never considered himself a rapper, Snow established a reputation in the early ’90s for his rapid-fire, gangster-style performance. His first and only major hit was 1993’s Informer, a rap tune delivered in a reggae- style Jamaican patois.

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