Neo-soul singer Mortimer hopes that conscious music will always have a place on the musical roster as local genres continue to take on a new form.

“I will say that my dream is that positive music sneaks under the doorways of every household, sneaks inside the heart of every man across this world; no matter the colour, no matter the status and I hope that this music will live forever,” he told the Jamaica Observer shortly after his set at the Lost In Time Festival held at Hopes Gardens in St Andrew on Saturday.

At this stage of his career, the singer is in preparation mode to release his first album.

“We just finished working on my album. That’s 15 songs. We’re trying to release [in] June,” he said, noting that the details will remain a secret for a little while longer.

Mortimer believes that he has reached a satisfactory level of his career to release this compilation.

“It’s just a feeling,” he simply responded.

His set at the festival was well received. Particularly his closing number, Lightning.

“There’s always room for improvement. But, I think my heart is out there and I think everybody received that tonight so that’s all that important to me; not the technicalities,” he said.

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, but raised in the rural district of Whitehall, St Elizabeth, like most Jamaicans he began his musical journey in the church — and for him it was the Seventh-day Adventist Church where he began singing on the choir at age eight. Mortimer had dreams of becoming a soldier or an auto engineer, but these aspirations soon took a back seat to music. Mortimer released his first EP, Message Music, in 2014. An introduction to Jamaican recording artiste Protoje resulted in the recording of the collaboration Protection, produced by Winta James.

— Kediesha Perry