Zak Starkey is a drummer’s drummer. His father is the knighted and decorated Sir Richard Starkey, better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, the musician, singer, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Growing up in the shadows of greatness, Zak says it was his father who got him his first guitar at age 6. Ringo Starr is hailed as the most successful drummer of all time with a net-worth of $350 million, and up to 2013 was still grossing $300,000 per show according to Forbes.
Photo: David M. Benett
Among Zak’s early influences are Marc Bolan of the The T. Rex rock band, who released psychedelic folk and psychedelic rock music and was a friend of his father.
With a legacy to carry on Zak has carved a name for himself in the music indistry as a sought after drummer for several rock bands. His latest transition takes him to Jamaica where he is developing the less economically viable reggae genre with vintage roots artists. A move he says would not have happened had it not been for the influence of his wife Sshh who is a singer.
Together they set up a studio in Ocho Rios, funded by his wages from the The Who.
They started out with three records which they shopped for a label deal with BMG Rights Management Group. With that deal came a licensing agreement to call themselves Trojan Jamaica, not to be confused with Trojan Records UK.
BMG owns the catalogue for the original Trojan Records UK which has a roster of Jamaican artists who ruled U.K. music in the 60s but were deprived of their fair share of royalties.
“I can’t say if everyone got paid or not, but we have no connection with Trojan UK except the word ‘Trojan’,” Zak says.
The story of how BMG came into possession of the original Trojan catalogue is simply artists’ exploitation while their music filled the bottom line of several record companies.
Trojan Records went into liquidation in 1975, without paying royalties to its artists. In the same year it became Trojan Recordings, which was then purchased 10 years later by Colin Newman, an accountant and businessman.
In 2001, Newman sold the Trojan catalogue to the London label Sanctuary Records for £10.25m; six years later, Sanctuary itself was purchased by Universal Music Group, which in turn sold Sanctuary’s catalogue, including Trojan’s songs, to the Berlin-based record label BMG in 2013.
With over 10,000 songs including early cuts from Jimmy Cliff, Bob Marley, and Desmond Decker, Trojan, previously a division of Chris Blackwell’s Island Records, made profits of £1.1m on £3.1m sales for the year to December 2000.
“It took 2 years to convince Jimmy Cliff that we weren’t those guys,” Zak says of the skepticism he nd his wife experienced in Jamaica at first.
His deal with BMG spawned 4 albums and it came to an end partly due to the pandemic affecting tours and sales he says. The Starkeys are now rebranding with a new production company “Jamaica Sound System.”
“Because of the Trojan stigma and the license came through BMG, so we change the name and now we are kinda free and that feels good,” he said with much contentment.
“I haven’t got anything bad to say about BMG,” he clarifies.
With a commitment to reggae music, a new label name and an arsenal of music with Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, U-Roy and Toots Hibbert, with whom he co-produced the 2021 Grammy Award winning Best Reggae album Got To Be Tough, Zak has his eyes set on making more music with legendary reggae artists.
“I was asked by Jimmy(Cliff) to do the same job I did for Toots, which is to make Jimmy the producer and I co-producer, he had a great vibe, I really like that man. At the last minute he got a better offer from Universal,” he says.
Being the son of a musician who started playing at age six, Zak empathizes with the skepticism Jimmy Cliff may have had working for another label named Trojan after the difficulty with collecting payments from the original Trojan Records UK.
“Jimmy never liked the name but he liked us,” he says emphatically.
He is particularly proud of an invitation for him and his partner Shhh to the Peter Tosh Museum in Kingston, Jamaica, where they performed their version of Get Up, Stand Up (featuring Soul Syndicate and Eddie Vedder).
About his next moves, the 56 year old says, “We still got plenty music and we are making more music so basically we are talking to distributors now.”
Watch the conversation on YouTube With Zak Starkey below.
