During his time as an apprentice engineer with producer Clive Hunt, Damion “TheRealTraxx” Nelson got to meet numerous artistes, some of whom he later worked with after starting his own label.

One of those acts is veteran singer Lymie Murray, whose latest song Make Believe Nelson produced. Released in early February, the pop-reggae track about a man being deceived by his lover came about after a brainstorming session between Nelson and Murray.

“The making of the song was just straightforward and effortless; I was going through beats one night and he said let’s do a song after hearing a melody just on acoustic guitars. So we made it pretty quickly as the first line summed up the song pretty much,” Nelson, known in music circles as TheRealTraxx, told the Observer.

The Manchester-born Murray has been recording for over 30 years. To date, he has four albums to his credit as well as countless songs for producers such as Hunt, Freddie McGregor and Bobby Digital.

Nelson wanted to make him relatable to a new audience with a fresh sound.

“With this song in particular, I felt like it could be more interesting in terms of the overall texture that could help to make Lymie’s sound more contemporary. It was purposefully done to make him sound different from every other song he’s done,” he explained.

From Linstead, Nelson lives in the United States. In addition to Hunt, he was mentored early in his career by Computer Paul and Sly Dunbar. As an engineer/producer, he has done songs by Luciano, D’Angel, Shawn Storm, Sanjay, Devonte and Jah Silent.

– Howard Campbell