Deyah Magazine Jan 2020

DEYAH MAGAZINE
What do you think can be done to improve the soca
industry in the Uk and why?
Same thing I’ve been saying for years, more unity
and less competition, don’t get me wrong, it’s got
a lot better, but still not where it should be, look
at the UK Afrobeat scene, just as an example, their
DJ’s support their artists, they all support each
others events, their artists are doing collabs with the
Afrobeat artists from Africa and the scene blew up,
if one of our artists drops a song or an album, the
whole scene should at least post it on social media
a few times, look when Stormzy dropped his album,
every artist, producer, blogger site and fan in the
scene posted it up, I couldn’t scroll down without
seeing it, this would also help in terms of people hearing and getting used to the
songs and DJ’s would play them in the fetes, we need to try and stop holding
events on the same night as each other too, granted, that’s not always easy, there
are only 52 weekends within the year, but we all know each other, it’s not hard to
find out who’s doing what and when, why have 4 or 3 small fetes in a night, when
we can have 1 big 1, promoters can collab too, this is done in other scenes all the
time, but like I said, I’ve seen small improvements and it can only get better.
You are also a designer, producer and father how do you find time to undertake
all this?
....and I promote and play pan and just finished a UNI degree and more, but multitasking
and time management is key, sometimes I work into the early hours of the
morning on a project or might design a flyer when I’m on a plane, I’ve left the studio
and gone straight to a booking, you get used to minimal sleep, but when I’m gone,
I’m GONE, nothings waking me.
What was the hi-light of carnival 2019 for you and why?
Panorama was definitely one for me, don’t ask me how I managed to fit playing
pan into my busy schedule too, but I managed to do it and it was an amazing night
with my band (Metronomes), the tune was sweet too, we played So Long by Nadia
Baston, we came 2nd, top spot next year, go Metro.
Also, the success of our carnival band Island Mas, no mas band is perfect and trying
to satisfy every masquerader is practically impossible, but the team worked hard
and the feedback has been positive, the feeling you get when you’re on top the
truck DJing and you look down and see a sea of happy faces is priceless, still get
the same buzz I got all those years ago when I first started.
14.