Songwriter's Corner: Jean Winer Pascal

Do you write with specific artist in mind?
Sometimes, yes. For instance, the pieces "Koka bò kou" and "Jwèt mab" were written based on true stories from Beethova's life. His girlfriend would tell me her side of the story and he would tell me his side of the story, now I merged the two together and came up with the lyrics for the pieces, when he read them, liked them and came up with the melodies.

The song "La vi yon flè" "La vie d'une fleur" was written especially for Emeline Michel. When I wrote those lyrics and Beethova did the melody, both of us had Emeline Michel in mind. For some reason that I do not recall, she did not sing it, so Beethova ended up putting it on his third solo album. Instead, Emeline Michel picked "Ti machann" for her album "Emeline 2" in 1988 in Haiti and her album Flanm in 1989 in France. "Ti machann" is a song, that strangely enough, you cannot find anywhere at the present moment. Maybe next "Noel" I'll be able to find it.

For the song "Citizen of the world" I had the great Jean Bélony MURAT / BélO in mind when I wrote the lyrics. The story behind the aforementioned song is amazing. I used to be an Ocean Export Specialist back in New York working for an International Freight Forwarder called "Worthmore Forwarding" in JFK New York, I was in touch with the whole world without leaving the desk of my office, but every day I would be talking to people all over the world, they would recognize me by my voice, but, never physically met me. In a way, my voice, my services and my signature would travel the world and I was learning to cope with people from different cultures and back grounds. When I was made aware of BélO's musical pilgrimage around the globe, he was at that time working on "Detripay" and "Ekoloji", I wrote him an e-mail and told him that for him to be traveling the world, crossing borders and learning new cultures, sharing Haiti with them, you are somehow becoming a "Citizen of the world" so I merged the two stories together and came up with the English lyrics for the song. But, knowing that he was taking the trips around the Earth, I knew he had a finishing touch to put on those words that were describing his own voyage. Actually, the song "Citizen of the world" is the only English song on BélO's last album "Natif Natal"

Sometimes, I do not think about a particular artist when I am writing the lyrics. But, in reality, the pieces belong to the soul of the world. Everything is given to be shared, to be passed on, to go around as a message to help humanity in their healing process. When I wrote the lyrics for "Si" nobody knew it, when Beethova did the melody for "Si", nobody knew it, but, when the song was released and almost all the Haitians that are interested in Haitian culture and songwriting somehow found themselves singing the words carved into the tunes without knowing my name nor my face; as a result of that, I came to the conclusion that things come through you, but do not belong to you. You are just a messenger. Just say thanks for being used by the Almighty. That's all there is to it.

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