Island Reggae, ragga and dancehall band DMP (Doorman’s Project) is preparing to tour the United States for the first time, after a year that has seen it release a new album and receive international recognition.
With millions of streams and numerous awards, the Solomon Islands band are the talk of the Pacific. DMP have also signed up with global reggae label, Ineffable Records.
Victor Edgardo Lopez, DPM’s band manager, promoter, DJ and producer says the band was formed by a brothers Arak and rapper, Evin Rush, and their friends Mossa and Blad P2A.
“Arak had written a song when he was still pretty young. His nickname back then was Doorman. The older guys would make him go out for cigarettes, go get me this and get me a drink. It was respect for the elders. He wrote a song at the studio at the time, he didn’t have an artist name and the engineer had written on the computer Doorman’s Project, they were his files, his session on the computer. It was where the name DMP came from.”
That song was ‘Signal De Ples’, which Lopez says did well in the Solomons. “It showed that there’s this ambitious kid who wanted to make music and had done it and for it to get the reaction that it got, and it gave them (DMP) the confidence to do more songs.”
Long Way Home
DPM released its fifth album, ‘Long Way Home’ last year.
“We wanted to do something different,” says Lopez. “The boys hadn’t released an album for seven years. We had started this project back in 2019 just before COVID hit. We had written the two songs with (‘lover’s rock’ superstar) Da Ville from Jamaica first. He had come to the Solomon Islands to perform for New Year’s Eve. We had a few days with him really. We had shown him a few of our songs and what we had been working on. We had recorded those songs in a matter of three or four hours in a hotel room. He was leaving the next day. That was the start of the album.”
The album features other collaborations with British Virgin Islands singer/songwriter Iyaz and Jamaica’s Anthony B during their short stopovers in Solomon Islands, just before COVID closed borders.
“We were still working on that album when COVID hit and I was stuck in Australia, the boys were here so we went back and forth on the internet sending files (music files),” says Lopez.
2022 was good in other ways for DMP. “We recently came second in a DJ song competition,” says Lopez. “That was early last year. That was out of 7000 artists… Before that we had won the Djookey music awards which was the world’s largest online music awards at that time.
“In January, Arak and Evin Rush then won the number one song with the single ‘Body Shape’,” says Lopez. “I’m a dance producer and I had a dance song in, and I came second. Three months after that in March and April DMP won it, and we have won it three times in a row now.”
Dancing to the DMP beat
“The meaning from a lot of the songs is mostly from a male perspective as it’s a boy band,” says Lopez. “A lot of the songs are about relationships and a lot of our fans can relate to this. We have up-tempo songs like ‘Wine Up’ that’s set for a party atmosphere and the song works well on stage. We will sing a part and the crowd will sing back.”
For Lopez, making music is not about making money, it’s a passion. “For the guys to be together for 10 years and still being united and being together and not broken up and be able to still make music – that’s a blessing. Only God knows where this will take us.
“Moneywise, it’s difficult for every artist as you can’t really rely on streams. We’re touring now that everything is back opened.”
DPM has 18 shows booked in America in February. It will be their first time in the United States.
“In the last Australian tour, we did 40 shows in three months, which is quite a feat for any Pacific artist,” says Lopez. “We sold out probably 90% of those shows. We went out to the outback of Australia. We have a huge fan base with the indigenous community there which is a big deal for us. They don’t usually gravitate to too many artists as they have their own taste. But they loved DMP. They knew the words by heart. It was a blessing to be able to tour those places and those communities.”
Cairns-based Lopez says he is on a mission to promote Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinean artists. “It still amazes me even with our label when we first linked up with them, they didn’t even know where the Solomon Islands was – they had to look it up. Since I’ve come on board, I really wanted to change that narrative and create awareness.”
Lopez has also set up his own distribution company, Distro Pacific. “Basically what I wanted to do is offer a free service for artists instead of them having to pay the usual yearly fee. For artists that stop paying yearly all their music get taken down and the streams get erased, and I didn’t really like that pressure on a struggling or up and coming artist. So I decided to create a model where we can offer it for free with no obligations. For instance, if one of the major companies like Sony want to release that song it will just be having me pass it over to them and for them to keep the streams and nothing to lock someone down. I really wanted to build a platform where they get their exposure and not have to pay. These other distribution companies have extras, and the artists have to pay for the extras, and I don’t really see a struggling artist or an up-and-coming artist afford this.”
DPM’s music is available on Spotify, Apple Music and some other 250 digital platforms.
“We hopefully will come to NZ soon; we haven’t been there. On our Spotify and Apple music show that our number one listeners are in NZ. Hopefully this year we will make it happen. We don’t want to just go in and out, we want to do three or four shows around the country. We’ll make it happen.”
