This is perhaps the busiest year in the 15-year professional career as a recording artiste for Bunji Garlin. Having won two major awards last year for his single Differentology and enjoying a bumper Carnival 2014 with his single Truck on De Road and Red Light District, the “Viking” of music is into his extended international concert and promotional tour. On Monday, Garlin revealed that his Differentology video will premiere on BET 106 & Park on April 18. The single is expected to generate widespread exposure as 106 & Park is BET's flagship show and is rated as the network's most popular music series of all time. The series is hosted by Bow Wow and Keshia Chante.
He also disclosed that his wife, Fay Ann Lyons, has just signed a three-album deal with VP Records. “We are currently touring,” said Garlin, and we just completed performances at the South by South West in Austin, Texas, and the Winter Music in Miami Conference & Festival.” Artistes sharing the stage with Garlin at the latter were Damien “Junior Gong” Marley, Stephen Marley and Lyons. Last week, Garlin was also highlighted in the UK Guardian following a phone interview with correspondent Ben Beaumont-Thomas. In the article, Ben Beaumont-Thomas credits Garlin for having put the soca into socially conscious music. Commenting on his work, described by many as “a breath of fresh air” to the local music scene, Garlin told Beaumont-Thomas: “We're in a society where if we could have things remain the same for 100 years we would prefer it that way," he says. "They would have radio station call-ins for months, saying this shouldn't be allowed to exist and that does a lot to you as a young artist. You're never prepared to hear something like that. I came on to the scene innocent, and you never think you could offend so many people, to the point where they're creating petitions to get you out of the industry."
Not to be left out in the interview, Garlin also included his wife Fay-Ann Lyons, saying, “She's a very strong individual when it comes to music, and she's very intelligent as well: she has figured out how to go on stage, work 20,000 people and she doesn't have to dress skimpily to do it. She has a masculine approach: she doesn't approach the stage pink, she approaches the stage black! This is a woman who jumps on a cooler cover and crowdsurfs while balancing on it, jumping on it with the microphone, singing and performing. She does that with such ease." About his Viking alter ego, Garlin said: "The stage is like a battlefield for me, and every show is like a new territory to conquer," he says with Norse grandeur. "I come in peace, but either way I'm going to give it to you." In other exciting new, Garlin has secured a place on the main stage of the immensely popular Summer Jam, a music festival hosted by Hot 97 FM, one of New York’s top urban stations on June 1.
To be held at MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands, New Jersey and expected to draw an audience in excess of 50,000 people, Summer Jam is one of the largest and most popular music forums in the United States. Artistes with whom Garlin will be sharing the stage are Nas, 50 Cent, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, Trey Songz and Wiz Khalifa. An April 2 promo of Summer Jam stated: “The composition of Summer Jam generally reflects the Hot 97 playlist, which means that there are always young artists rhyming alongside the veterans. “LA upstart Kid Ink, who recently hit with Show Me, a collaboration with Chris Brown, is on the bill. So is the clever, rambunctious Action Bronson, who earns a promotion to the mainstage after performing in the parking lot last year. Crown Heights hedonist Troy Ave, hip-hop soul singer Sevyn Streeter, Trinidadian soca artist Bunji Garlin, and DJ Mustard, YG, and Tye Dolla $ign, creators of rudimentary but oh-so-effective ratchet records, will also make the trip to New Jersey.” Garlin is expected to return home in October.