There's so much inspiration for my music in Trinidad. The toils of the people, the excessive lifestlyes, the jaded artists, the loss of identity and the gaining of a new.  I wonder if its wrong sometimes, but I love to tap into the tension. 

It's interesting how Soca music makes it's way into popular music all over the world, yet, the proprietors of the genre itself have nothing to do with it. I walked into a club called tube at around 2am last night, and the dancefloor was ram with people, jumping crazily to a DNB remix of Machel Montano's "higher than high" and i was like, huh?
We, in Trinidad, the land of Soca, don't really do much to sell our music. Thats just a plain fact. An unfortunate one, but a fact nonetheless. Some would argue that as an "industry," our artists travel the world, make lots of money, and perform a lot. But the fact remains that we don't have anything closely resembling an industry.
I believe that in order for us to even start to make the kind of moves that we really want to, and to be able to reach outside of the Caribbean diaspora we MUST start at the roots, the grass roots, if you will. We need a movement, an attitude and a strong voice. True, there is an amazing abundance of talent in Trinidad (and the other small islands that produce good Soca) that is fully capable of making dance music that can play on radio stations and in clubs accross the world on a weekly basis, but the only reason that it doesn't, is that we sabotage our own success by coddling to the comforts of our wayward standardization of method.
We need to stop this thing, of making music for carnival alone. period. We need to stop letting these backward, snivelling promoters grab us by the nuts and make us feel like its them "who is boss." What we need to do instead, is make good music, pertinent music, that isn't contrived, or dated, but rather done with the integrity of our sound. what is our sound...

All of this, mind you, is in reference to the movement of Trinidadian music, which I must say is a tragedy so far, because it isn't treated as the Gold Mine that it is.

The quicker we start to create a musical climate conducive to real creation, not cookie cutter carnival stuff, then we'll be taken seriously, because to be honest, people out here love soca, and it influences everyone, from the producers to the DJ's and more importantly, the sound of NOW.

wake up.

I've been asked to start writing in this thing.. and I guess i should, it does seem like a good idea. Why allyuh macocious so? (means nosy in Trinidad speak)... Well, where should I start.. umm... Well I'm in Bristol right now, England, UK.. the land of pints, of rosy cheeks, football, , cockney, cold springs and summers, a myriad of similar sounding but completely different accents.. strangely enough, north indian curry.. but among most of the interesting things Great Britain is known for, Drum & Bass is what interests me the most.

Bristol is the home of Drum & Bass, not to mention other great and amazing sounding things like Trip Hop, Dub Step and a surprisingly large section of the population with West Indian ancestry (which makes me feel quite at home here). The language of the youth is coloured with west indian slangs such as "ting" and "nuff" and .. "gyal dem/man dem" ..and believe it or not my fellow Trinis, I haven't met a soul who doesnt know where Trinidad is. The sound of bristol is unmistakable and has influenced and touched styles of music across the world, both indirectly and directly for quite some time.

Having said that, every time I'm here (which is happens to be the third time in 2 years), I feel like a child in a candy store and a bull in a china shop, at the same time. It is a good feeling. since the day I arrived, I seem to be meeting all the right people. For instance, DJ Bunjy; a producer/dj, radio show host and cultural figurehead in electronic music from bristol... TC, arguably drum & bass's biggest name right now...MC jakes, one of the wickedest MCs in the world from long time...Clipz, mad ass new school heavy hitters... Peter D from More Rockers who feels like a bredrin now...and a whole heap more. What is refreshing to me, is the level of passion and professionalism exhibited by those who are successful in this particular field, and it inspires me to continue in my drive with confidence and purpose.

I'm here, by the way, to release some of my tracks, get on compilations and forge as many alliances as I can with people who are serious about making the type of music that I do. So...so far I've remixed a track by a UK pop singer named Rosie Ribbons called "Carry your Heart", which I will get out as soon as possible. I've gotten a radio interview to talk about LAZA beam on DJ Bunjy's popular weekly program, and I have a couple of gigs lined up. If the past week was any indication of what is to come, the rest of the trip should be quite interesting.

I'm prepared.