Peter G self-produces March Irie Pen single We Can after recession-era job losses

Near the close of 2007, economies everywhere began sliding toward the slump that would later be called the Great Recession. The shock started in the United States and left ordinary families wary about what came next. Peter G says trading floors rarely draw his eye, yet the wave of redundancies that followed made the human cost plain to see.

From that climate came the song We Can, issued in March under Irie Pen. He handled production, layered in acoustic guitar, and marks the track as his first time placing his own fretwork on a personal release.

“It came about out of a time when I saw people going through struggles and the world was in a recession, so it was a motivational idea to empower myself and people who were struggling,” the singer told Observer Online.

When the verses were set, he laid down an all-acoustic take inside the private facility he keeps at home.

“My guitar playing is really for writing purposes and in the studios with rehearsals. I will play a few songs in a live performance,” he said.

He singles out Hopeton Lindo—vocalist-composer and head of Irie Pen—and Cell Block Records engineer-producer Syl Gordon for steering him toward a lean guitar-and-voice frame. The pair argued the lighter dressing would mirror the dread that marked those years.

Across roughly the past decade Peter G has logged steady studio time beside Lindo and alongside Sly and Robbie’s Taxi Gang. Calling the shots at the desk himself, he says, completes a circle.

“The advantages of producing yourself are that you get to do what you want and how it feels to you. I did everything including mixing,” he disclosed.

His eponymous EP, which arrived in 2025, paired Lindo’s input with Taxi Gang muscle on the production credits.