Reggae In Germany? No Problem!

Brian Montopoli Reports On Berlin's Cross-Cultural Phenoms

(CBS)  “They thought of music sung in German as Schlager (a kind of kitchy, soft pop) – the music their parents listened to,” said Delle. “They didn’t want to be associated with it.” In part because German is a somewhat harsh, disjointed language, many of Seeed’s lyrics are sung in Berlin dialect. “It doesn’t sound as hard as the language does in official German,” said Delle.

We talked about the challenges of breaking Seeed in America, where it’s extremely rare for a band that sings in a language other than English to become a success. The other popular German reggae act, Gentleman, has played a few shows in America, but Seeed has yet to release an album stateside.

“The proof to me that people could deal with a Seeed song in German is that no American can understand Patois,” said Delle, referring to the Jamaican dialect in which reggae is often performed. “They love it because of the flow and the image. Quality always gets through.”

Despite its success in Europe, however, the band isn’t an easy sell to record companies based in English-speaking countries. In 2005, Seeed played at the Glastonbury festival in England, where they are relative unknowns. They attracted enthusiastic fans to their two performances. But there was no subsequent cry from the British or American recording industry to sign the band. “We’re a German reggae band – their first reaction is, ‘we don’t know who would buy it,’” said Delle. “It’s hard to convince a record company to invest in us. But I think it’s a matter of time.”

I asked if they would be willing to release a single in America that was performed entirely in German. The band recently put out a version of their last record, “Next,” in which all of the songs were performed in English, with the exception of “Dickes B.”

“I would think you have to do a chorus in English, maybe do one verse in English – start with an English verse and put the second verse in German,” said Delle. “If it sounds good and the flow is good maybe some of the people will take a dictionary and try to figure out what you’re saying.”

“You can’t take someone to Africa and go to the village straight away,” Delle continued. “You have to take them to the capital city and go to the beach, and then maybe you can go to the village.”

Delgado, the horn player, said he simply wants people to hear the band’s music with no preconceptions. “If they just hear the track without all the prejudice that it’s a German reggae band,” he said, “it could be a German track, could be an English track, doesn’t matter if it’s good.”