Tessanne Chin Quotes

I grew up with reggae music.

I know that people think of me in terms of Latin music and that's wonderful, that's my heritage, that's who I am, but there's so much more to me and my music.

I've never hidden the fact that I'm Jamaican; I will never disown my roots or influences.

I listen to a lot of reggae.

My parents are from Jamaica, and I love reggae music.

Country's more than about what the music sounds like. It's what you're saying and who you are as a person.

If you listen to all my earlier stuff, it wasn't 'authentic reggae,' so to speak.

Funk is part of who I am.

It's not that I don't like American pop; I'm a huge admirer of it, but I think my roots came from a very English and Irish base. Is it all sort of totally non-American sounding, do you think?

While growing up in Birmingham around a lot of West Indian people, reggae and calypso were big influences early on but Otis Redding was the one person who made me wanna sing myself.

I really hold on to my culture because it is what made me.

I say I have Spanish in me, but I'm not just Spanish. I'm proud of my ethnicities, and I will always be proud of being a Filipino.

People say my music is English. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's not me writing English music, but that English music is becoming more like me.

Music was always heavily involved with my spirit. My entire family is Jamaican. It's nothing but reggae music and those kinds of vibes.

I think it is important to maintain your personality, your roots, very important.

Jamaican reggae is the style of music I always reach for when ranting to friends about how you could listen to one style of music exclusively for the rest of your life - and it would all be great and varied and worth hearing.

One of the first places where I started to respond to song lyrics was in reggae music. A lot of what I was responding to were references to the Old Testament. It was not that I had to adapt the lyrics to the sound. Reggae and the Old Testament are bound up together. There wasn't anything that I had to do.

My African heritage is a part of reggae music roots, and the concept is that the album, 'Revelation Part 1: The Root of Life' is a tribute to roots reggae music. The fruit is what blossoms into different colors and shades, but the root has to stand predominant.

I go back five generations in Jamaica. My dad grew up in Port Royal, and my mom grew up in Kingston. My family is from the country like West Moreland and also in Manchester. I've been there countless times. As far as cuisine, there's not really much that comes out of Jamaica that's on a plate that I don't like.

I'm a mash-up of everyone. My influences would be Michael Jackson, Brandy, Aaliyah - those types of people. So if you can imagine them - and with me taking them, and then putting my own twist and the influence on it - that's musically what I would sound like.

It's important that people understand who I am and where I come from and not just have it shaped by purely political discourse.

Reggae is my heart since I was a kid. I love Reggae music.

My father is from Jamaica, and as a child I spent many holidays there. I remember the weight and drenching wetness of that hot rain, as I experienced it in my childhood, not only for itself, but for what it represented for me.

From a purely ethnological point of view, I was not a period-born Dada.

From the beginning, I've always had a knack for catchy melodies. But I went through a period when I was trying to be rock n' roll and have a rock n' roll attitude. I was fighting my nature by trying to play really hard and sing really hard. But at a certain point, I realized that I loved syrupy pop music with tons of harmony.