Jimmy Cliff: Rebirth

"MR: ... [F]or your new album Rebirth, you took a different approach. Can you describe it? JC: Absolutely. It's produced by Tim Armstrong, and I've written some of the songs with Tim Armstrong. That's a completely different avenue from what I've done in the past. MR: Rancid's Tim Armstrong. JC: Right, Rancid, yes. MR: Jimmy, was this album recorded as just a band playing together in the studio, everyone together? JC: Yes. Back in the day, that's the way the recording business went. You'd go into the studio with four, five or six people and you all feel each other's energy and kick it off and record it. That's the way we did it. MR: Let's talk about the players for a second. JC: Well, the players are all from L.A., and that's a departure from me recording in Jamaica. They all have knowledge of all the former instruments and studios and all of the things that we recorded former reggae music in. They wanted to capture that same sound of that period in this time period. MR: ... [Y]ou covered The Clash's 'Guns of Brixton.' JC: Yes, 'Guns of Brixton' because The Clash was another group that were inspired by Jimmy Cliff, and Joe Strummer and I had the opportunity before he went on to higher planes to record a song together, so doing 'Guns of Brixton' is like one respect to him" (Mike Ragogna, "A Conversation with Jimmy Cliff," Huffington Post, 7/16/12).

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