As someone who cut his teeth in reggae’s digital age, Steven “Lenky” Marsden believes musicians should always evolve. The veteran keyboardist and creator of one of dancehall’s biggest ‘riddims’ looks for more success with the aptly-titled ‘Can’t Give Up’, a song he produced by singer Hopeton Lindo.

The single was released in May and hears Lindo, himself a seasoned artiste, rocking to a contemporary beat. Marsden says the idea for ‘Can’t Give Up’ came while brainstorming with his greatest mentor.

“I’m motivated by my genuine love for music and just having conversations with Sly Dunbar daily about music creativity, and I am always open to experimenting with different sounds. ‘Can’t Give Up’ was a result of that exploration, as I was thinking, ‘what would Sly do’. So, that track is actually inspired by Sly Dunbar,” he explained.

It is the first collaboration between Marsden and Lindo, who has been singing since the late 1970s on sound systems in Jamaica. For most of the 1990s, however, he focused on composing, writing or co-writing songs such as ‘Telephone Love’ by J C Lodge, ‘Red Rose For Gregory’ by Gregory Isaacs and ‘Temptress’ by Maxi Priest.

Dunbar, the master drummer who was part of the legendary Sly and Robbie, was also responsible for Marsden and Lindo getting together.

“It came about through our mutual connections with Sly. We started discussing working together and finally made it happen in 2024,” said Marsden.

The wiry musician is from east Kingston. His career got going during the 1980s when he joined the Bloodfire Posse, led by Danny Browne, a guitarist/producer who embraced the digital sound which emerged that decade on the strength of Wayne Smith’s keyboard-driven song, ‘Under Mi Sleng Teng’.

In the 1990s, he was a key member of Sly and Robbie’s Taxi Gang, but in 2002 Marsden struck it big with a beat as infectious as the ‘Sleng Teng’. That was the exotic ‘Diwali’ riddim which yielded massive hits such as Sean Paul’s ‘Get Busy’, ‘No Letting Go’ by Wayne Wonder and ‘Sufferer’ by Bounty Killer.

In recent times, Marsden has been musical director of the Shiloh Band, which backed Buju Banton on his Long Road to Freedom shows in the Caribbean and Europe.

(Photo contributed)