Four years of tenacity and dedication in London has led to Clinark Dill releasing his first album.

The launch, which takes place on Saturday, will feature the likes of Reggae greats Gramps and Peter Morgan, of Morgan Heritage. The event is set to take place at Devonshire Recreation Club.

For this album, 'Journey to Foreign', Clinark worked not only with celebrities Morgan Heritage, but also with Luciano, Troy Anthony, Richie Spice, Irie Love, Maxi Priest and Fantan Mojah.

Bermudians will remember Clinark's early affiliations with bands such as Youth Creation, Studio Six Band and Jahstice.

The singer left the Island for London in December 2004 to go work on a few singles, but later emigrated in May of 2005, as he felt the opportunities were better for a budding performer.

His new album was released internationally on September 30, but will be officially released on-Island on Saturday.

Speaking to The Royal Gazette from his North London home, Clinark talked about his excitement and fulfilment of his newly completed album, his music videos and his collaborations with some of Reggae's greats.

The launch party will take place at Devonshire Recreation Club on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., but performances will begin at 1 p.m..

"It will feature Peter and Gramps Morgan, of Morgan Heritage, and Irie Love," he said.

The collaboration with Morgan Heritage came about because of his love of Irie Love's style.

"So I said to them that I'd like to do a collaboration with her through her MySpace account and she said, she would definitely do it," he said.

"And then she told me that Morgan Heritage was her manager and that is how the collaboration came about.

"One thing just led to another and they were one of the last collaborations. They told me to just send them the song, because they are at a very high standard and they said if they liked it they would do it. They loved the song and in a couple of weeks it was all done."

The famed group also took part in the music video.

"I shot the music video the early part of August and the part with Peter and Gramps about two weeks ago," he said. "That was the only time that they could do it. We did it just outside of the studio, it was really good vibes and we shot the video for Irie Love at the same time, as she is part of their camp.

"She opens for them, so we were able to kill two birds with one stone.

"The tunes I did with Peter and Gramps were 'Life in the Ghetto', and with Irie 'Love, It's True'."

Explaining the inspiration behind 'Life in the Ghetto', he said: "It is about life in the ghetto over here and one day I was travelling on the bus and I saw this guy on the street and he was hustling and surviving on the street.

"So it was about how they survived and I put that into a song about people selling drugs to survive. One of the lines in the song is 'on the corner, trying to sell a ware'.

"The song was written about two years ago and it was a remix with them and they added their flavour to it."

There are several more collaborations on the CD, he explained. It is a massive album," he said.

"With Fantan Mojah, I have a song called 'Nowhere TV' and he is a big artist. With Richie Spice we have 'Living in a Concrete Jungle', and with Maxi Preist there is 'As a Man I Weep'.

"Brinsley Forde, who was the lead singer for Aswad and who is now a solo artist, collaborated on 'Inspiration Prayer' with me.

"There is one with Luciano, which is called 'Glorified'. There is a female artist over here called Kofi and we did 'Brown Eyes'. Then there is my mate and fellow Bermudian Troy Anthony and we did a tune called 'Sign of the Times'."

Of this 20 track album, he said: "Songs like 'Choices' are more up tempo, it is sort of like Dance Hall.

"Everyone that has heard it has said it could be a hit – it is attempting to cross over.

"Another is 'Angel Eyes', 'Vision', 'Oh What a Blessing', 'Runaway', which is a remix, 'Dem Com' and another remix called 'Coloinse', 'Journey to Foreign', which it the album's title, and 'Ain't that Something'.

"And that is pretty much the whole album."

Of the album's title, Clinark said: "It is really about my experience of leaving Bermuda and of coming to England to live four years ago.

"It is about the whole journey, because the making of this album has been four years in the making.

"It is about the struggle, because it is self-funded on an independent label, so everything has had to be a step at a time, because there was a certain standard that I wanted.

'I could have did it before, but it would have been of an inferior quality, so I figured when it did come out, it would make an impact.

"Everytime I come back to Bermuda, everyone says, 'when is the album coming out'?

"But they don't realise that the music business is very difficult and if you are not on a major label then you have to self-fund it. And even the guys that are on big labels, they are owned by the label, for me being independent is the best way, because you are in control of everything.

"It is a bit difficult because the big companies have the big money and they can expose you, but on the other hand being independent means that you control your destiny."

The album has been produced by two of Britian's finest, Mafia and Fluffy.

"Also Dillie Stingray is one of the top producers in England and when the big Jamaican artists come over they always go to Stingray Studios. I linked up with him and that is where I finished the album. The album was mastered in the US by Lion Fox Studio.

"Mastering is tweaking all the levels, the fine tuning of everything, it was really a great experience."

He added that with the backing vocalists and all the planning that went into his album, people will hear quality at the end of the day.

"I hope that it makes an impact on the world," he said. It feels great to have finally completed it. I was praying for someway to complete this album. It is finally a great, great feeling. So I give thanks to everyone for supporting me."

He thanked a few local radio presenters from Power 95 and 98.1 Jazz FM's radio show.

He added that the launch party will be great with Morgan Heritage and Irie Love and although it is on Saturday, it is during the day, so people will still have time to take in the Alicia Keys concert in the evening.

The event takes place from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. with performances beginning at 1 p.m.