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Stefan Dominates Virgin Islands Charts with His Debut Album, NORI

By August 20th, 2024No Comments

Virgin Islands musician, Dominic Mathavious more popularly known as Stefan, released his debut album NORI on the 16 of August which has already garnered massive attention on social media following its release.

The concept album, titled NORI, follows the love story of the protagonist Stefan, and his love interest, Nori, who the album is named after. The project is infused with dialogue boasting unapologetic Virgin Islands accents, effortless transitions between tracks and, of course, the love story which many people are now heavily invested in.

Kickin It hosted a listening party to get all the details on the public view of Stefan’s latest project. And of course, we had Stefan present to give us all the details on the artistic process involved in the making of NORI and his own journey as a musician. 

“Words can’t describe how good I feel right now,” he said as he responded to him and his project being recognized by stalwarts in the Virgin Islands music scene, “I’ve been speechless all day.”

 

“I always loved music. I went through a serious Michael Jackson phase, I had the gloves, the shoes, everything,” he joked while reminiscing on his creative journey as a musician. “When I got to high school my parents gifted me a laptop… it had on a music software program and curiosity struck me and that was it. I was totally into music, that was all I cared about.”  He explained that he started to create music which he would post to Soundcloud under the moniker Stefan to maintain his anonymity. “But years later I’m here and I’m ready to put myself out. I’m no longer anonymous.” 

Stefan then went on to do a deep dive into the album and all the world building and character development which was done to aid the creation of the concept album. Lido, for instance, the leading character in the song Lido’s Kitchen which features Jougo, TYC, Durnel Sanderson and Stello, had a backstory. “Lido’s is imagined as a beach side diner with a jukebox… that type of vintage vibe. Lido was the person who started the restaurant and his son took it over, everybody calls him Lido but that’s not his name…he carries on the tradition that his dad does which is the song, Lido’s Kitchen.” Details like these make it easy to see the type of labour that was done to create this body of work. Massive elements of story creation went into the conceptualization of NORI, speaking to Stefan’s devotion to his craft. 

Similarly, there have also been opposing views on the character Nori who some hold space for while others are more unforgiving toward. The extremely well written dialogue during the album creates this type of investment as the characters have been written with enough depth for listeners to experience connection with them. 

Stefan shared that the 13 track album was originally meant to end with track 10, ‘i love you’ which features Micah and Durnel Sanderson. “We wanted to do more so I was like ‘Let’s add on a next ending and let’s make it bad,’ so it’ll hit harder.”  Stefan shares that with the track, ‘Xeno’ which features Hancho Flippaz and Jefe Tunez, where the album takes a dramatic turn there was a lot of ‘trial and error. “Xeno was created three to four times. We have versions of Xeno with different beats, different approaches. When we carried the original version… that we have out now to those boys (Hancho Flippaz and Jefe Tunez), them boys knocked it super quick…So I have to give a huge shoutout to Hancho and Jefe Tunez.” 

Listening to Stefan speak about the creation of Nori makes it clear that there was intentionality behind the creation of each track to create a cohesive body of work. From intense character development to re-doing tracks as many times as needed to get the sound perfect, the high quality of creativity is evident upon listening to the album. Nori also boasts the features of numerous Virgin Islands creatives during the entire creative process, and is a true testament to the high level of artistic ability in the Virgin Islands. 

While at the listening party, Stefan and viewers witnessed in real time the album and its full tracklist occupy the top 13 places on Apple Music’s Virgin Islands charts. It was an experience that elicited plenty of emotions from Stefan and plenty of congratulations from those tuned in.

Kickin It was not only proud to be able to document this moment but, proud to hold space for this Virgin Islands creative we are certain will continue to push boundaries in music, locally, regionally and globally.