Mosaic Riddim sends a message of inclusive love. | Photo courtesy of Marrett Green and Mosaic Riddim
Mosaic Riddim, a Vancouver-based reggae band – with its band members coming from all different parts of the globe – resembles a microcosm of the world.
“The motto in Jamaica is ‘out of many, one people’ – the same with music: out of many diverse cultures, comes one band, one message and one sound,” says lead singer/songwriter Marrett Green, who started the band in 2016 and hails from Jamaica, the home of reggae music.
The band – backup singer Natalia Ramirez is from Peru; guitarists Daichi Araki and Rudolph Bonn Deita are from Japan and the Philippines, respectively; keyboardist Mani AD is from Iran; and drummer Jean Thomas is from Mauritius – has been performing in the city regularly and will have its next show at the Princeton Pub on Jan. 3, 2020.
Mosaic Riddim is also in the process of launching an EP in the coming months.
From hardship comes the music of love
“Our concerts are more inclusive,” says Green. “What we are trying to achieve is the message of love, as corny as it sounds. For what we can see, life is of love; what does that say about music? It is not the notes that we are connecting to; it is the place where the shamans and gurus are attempting to get to – that place of silence. The notes pull us out of our place of complacency, and it is the silence between the notes that our souls are drawn to, and in roots reggae, you have a lot of spaces in that.”
Music came to Green when he was at a low point in his life. Following an eviction, he found himself homeless for eight months. He was working and sleeping in Tim Hortons and experienced vastly different treatments from people.
“In that experience I learned so much. When you are desperate, and you see how other people see you when you are desperate, you really see the fragilities and the shortcomings of human beings,” says Green. “I also learned about myself, that’s when the music started coming, and that is what people are gravitating towards now and are enjoying.”
Green wrote more than 20 songs during the period he was homeless.
A communicator at heart
As a man who wears many hats, Green had taken on many roles in his career: a TV anchor, an actor, an educator, a published author, a charity founder, an inventor and now a musician. He says ultimately his passion lies in teaching and music.
“I am a communicator − everything I have done up to now, and there are still so much more I want to do. I love communicating, not just sharing as a teacher, but also seeing the rewards in students when they grow,” he says.
Green also conducts a seminar called the Original Message that focuses on spirituality.
“My father was a pastor. I don’t subscribe to the same bible that he does, but it is the same conduit to love,” says Green. “The journey that I have taken so far shows that the greater you are connecting to the source energy and the more you understand that, as much as you want to plan, if you truly want to be part of that spirituality then you have to go with that flow.”
Like the lyrics he wrote, “There is a light inside of you, let it shine true,” Green says ultimately he is just looking to be happy, and with the solid people he has met, music is doing just that for him.
For more information, please visit www.theprincetonpub.ca
