YH: After listening to the group’s new album Ride With Me, I must say the vibe and lyrics are a departure from Baha Men’s work in the 2000s, like “Who Let the Dogs Out?” Could you talk about this evolution?
DK: I mean, I could be corrected by someone that is a bit more of a music connoisseur, but “Who Let the Dogs Out?” was pretty out of the box, and very identifiably original to the point where people don’t really know what the concept of the song is all about. So what we were trying to do was just to recreate the energy of the song behind just a few of the numbers, like “Off the Leash” and “Carry On” and “Tonight.” But it wasn’t our intent to recreate “Who Let the Dogs Out.” We just wanted to do music and make it sound really good, and use the fame of “Who Let the Dogs Out?” to draw some attention to the other stuff that we are capable of doing and just really hope that people will see that it is still world-class music.
YH: Yeah, I totally got that when I was listening to “Off the Leash.” Would you say that it’s fair to say that “Off the Leash” is sort of an homage to “Who Let the Dogs Out?”
DK: It’s definitely a sequel. I can go on record in every interview that I do, though yours will probably be the first—I am not a fan of the album being a sequel to “Dogs.” I think “Dogs” should just remain the song that it is, but we understand that the market that we want to venture back into is more familiar with “Who Let the Dogs Out?” So, we introduced “Off the Leash,” which is a song that wasn’t written by the band. It was written for the band, and it will be a great way to reconnect with our fans of “Who Let the Dogs Out?”
YH: Have the Baha Men considered mingling with other musical genres, perhaps EDM? After listening to “Island Girl,” I very much felt a Baha Men x Kygo remix coming along.
DK: There are members of the band who are open to making our music fit into what’s happening today. Not so much re-creating what’s happing today—I think some of the music coming out is just brainless, it’s mindless. But if you can put in different aspects of it—that stuff Diplo is doing, or Major Lazer—that is just epic. I think that’s the next wave. We are definitely interested in having some songs remixed by some of those DJs—there’s already been the dance version for “Off the Leash.” We keep thinking that it has to be positive music, and it has to be feel good music. We aren’t really interested in talking about being too fancy. We’re more like, let’s go have some fun, let’s party, let’s have some drinks, let’s go talk to some girls, you know? That’s our vibe. That’s the Baha Men: island boy fusion. That’s the thing we want to stay in lyrically and in the presence of our music. But as far as having a dope EDM beat? For sure.
YH: I apologize for the typical interview question, but where do you see the Baha Men in five years?
DK: Honestly, the band will be pretty much torn off of this music. I think they will learn their lesson as to what happens when you take too long of a break after hit songs and you don’t give the audience anything more to eat for a very long time. You kind of just fade into the darkness. So we are rebuilding, re-branding, re-doing a whole lot of things right now. It’s a lot of work. The Twitter page is starting off from zero followers. All that stuff has to be done now, but I do not think we’ll take any more breaks. I think you’re going to continue to get album after album from us. We’ll do the big shows, we’ll do the little shows, we’ll do the festivals, get back into the schools. We’ll spread messages of that brighter side of life that we feel are important in a world of so much hate. You tune on the news and everything is just war, or terrorists, or bad vibes. We want to add some good vibes into the atmosphere. But there are some members of the band who are at an age where they really shouldn’t be doing too much for too much longer. I’m already hearing them talk about it, some of the musicians in the back-line with age on them, they’re talking about producing other acts and bringing up younger musicians and teaching them. They want to bring up island boys, from the Bahamas. There have been a lot of greats that came out of this small island, and there are more who could be as big as the Baha Men. We want to produce more Bahamians on that world level.
YH: Your Twitter bio describes yourself as three quarters Bahamian and one quarter Bajan and 100 percent Dyson Knight. How has your Caribbean community been instrumental to the formation of your new sound?
DK: Well, the Bajan side of my family is my dad’s side. They were into Soca music, which is pretty much known to be party music. So I inherited strong party vibes, even beyond what is culturally normal in a Bahamian society. Bahamians are known for their hospitality and being very nice, welcoming, warm people. I add the combination of being warm and welcoming and being a crazy party animal. So, when I get on stage, it’s about having an awesome time. My team, they feed off of that. I’m the type of person to do something daring like jump into the crowd. I do stuff like that and that’s me. That’s the unexpected beauty of being part Bajan. We like to “wuk-up” as you would say, which means just dance and throw our bodies around, like Rihanna does.
YH: I know you gave Brandt Hamilton of VICE the runaround when he asked this, but I have to ask: Who let the dogs out?
DK: You know what, I’ve challenged myself to give honest answers to that question and to give a different honest answer every time. I could guess, if I were to guess, I’m pretty sure it was this guy. I think his name is Donald Trump.
YH: [Laughs].
DK: I think he did it, but I don’t know. I don’t want him to call me up and say that I said anything. He’s doing a lot of things and saying a lot of things, apparently. So maybe he did it and maybe he didn’t. I don’t know.