Latest / Corie Sheppard Podcast / Helon Francis Breaks His Silence on the Calypso Monarch Mic Controversy

Transcript

Helon Francis Breaks His Silence on the Calypso Monarch Mic Controversy · Corie Sheppard Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_04: As a former independent senator, I have to defend the independent senators.
• 0:03
  Corie: So you, as an independent senator, you felt independent or you're feeling the pressure from the party.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_04: Of course, you're independent.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_04: Just imagine this.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_04: You're on right after all of us and and you see things pelting through the air.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_04: I see a rooty fly pass.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_04: It seemed a bit unfair with some of the Kaisonians.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_04: Because even though I was defending, I I like a good fight.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_04: I'm I am here for the sport.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_02: If they try to ban the words in the calypso, you could try to stop social media.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: You could rewrite a bit like this also.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: It was just overly poetic for them to cut the mic as soon as you mentioned this also will.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: That is the worst thing happened for Kaito.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't have the white mic in it around.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: I am of the ones of me, I don't have the boy microphone.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't know what happened until I keep walking off the stage.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_04: When I walked off the stage, someone told me immediately.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_04: No, I didn't get any apology.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_04: One called have some respect for the code comic stuff.
• 1:20
  Corie: That was deliberate.
• 1:44
  Corie: The notion that I was doing in the beginning where I asked to like and subscribe, and it looked like that.
• 1:49
  Corie: So I just want to do that over, please.
• 1:51
  Corie: Like, share, subscribe, comment, and tell us how you feel about the episodes.
• 1:55
  Corie: We're always looking forward to your feedback.
• 1:56
  Corie: And you would not believe how much it helps when you actually subscribe and you're not just watch your favorite person and then cut.
• 2:03
  Corie: Subscribe to the channel, help we grow.
• 2:05
  Corie: Bang.
• 2:06
  Corie: Welcome to the Cory Shepherd Podcast.
• 2:08
  Corie: Welcome back to everybody who's been listening.
• 2:09
  Corie: Thanks for all the new people who tune in in.
• 2:11
  Corie: Short introduction because we have no time to waste today.
• 2:14
  Corie: I have a gentleman here who is a two-time calypso monarch, young king, former independent senator.
• 2:19
  Corie: That's a world you can't say too much these days, but former independent senator, the great Helan Francis.
• 2:26
  Corie: Blessing you, brother, bless you.
• 2:27
  Corie: Welcome to the show, man.
• 2:28
  Corie: Thank you, thank you.
• 2:28
  Corie: Nice to have you here.
• 2:29
  Corie: Nice to have you here.
• 2:30
  Corie: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:31
  Corie: Let me start with first things first now.
• 2:33
  Corie: Uh, before we talk a couple times and we say we're going to do this, I want to tell you that after the Calypso Monarch, the last Calypso Monarch competition, I've never had so much requests to bring a guest on as I had from that Monday morning.
• 2:47
  Corie: Carnival Monday, people say, Hilan Francis, you have to get Helon here, you have to get Helon here.
• 2:51
  Corie: So we're here, right?
• 2:52
  Corie: He reached.
• 2:52
  Corie: But I want to start by talking about the other concert coming up.
• 2:55
  Corie: Is the 8th of November?
• 2:56
  Corie: Yeah, the 8th of November.
• 2:57
  Corie: Reconnection.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, the reconnection.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_04: Reconnection.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_04: Well, it well, you know what we do.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_04: Obviously, there's a play, there's a play with what happened.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_04: Um But yeah, it's my first my first concert.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_04: This I think like it's about time I I give back to some of my supporters, people who support me over the years, people who show me so much love.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_04: Um for you from a long time now, they've been telling me, hey, Elon, why don't give us a compilation of all that you're done?
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_04: Give us a concert.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_04: So for so many years hearing that, I figured I think it's about time I do give back some of that.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_04: And it's not and when I decide that it becomes more than it becomes more than finances.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_04: It becomes It becomes a moment where I decide now is the best time to give back.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_04: Regardless of what happens.
• 3:50
  Corie: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_04: You know, whether it makes or it doesn't make, you know, so you're gonna do it.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_04: It does I don't ma I don't it doesn't matter to me.
• 3:56
  Corie: So as uh it was is something that's been on your mind because you've been on you're wrong.
• 3:59
  Corie: You're you're a catalogue, you could do it.
• 4:01
  Corie: Yeah.
• 4:01
  Corie: It's been on your mind to do the idea of doing that show.
• 4:04
  Corie: For for a while.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_04: For a while it's been on my mind, but you know, you're waiting for the moment to to execute and to do that.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_04: And I feel like if now is the best time, uh I don't see a better time to just to do it, yeah.
• 4:16
  Corie: Well, congrats on it in advance.
• 4:17
  Corie: You know, I mean I'm looking forward to it.
• 4:19
  Corie: We will be there.
• 4:19
  Corie: We will all be there.
• 4:20
  Corie: We want to see what is what is sugar.
• 4:22
  Corie: 100%, 100%.
• 4:24
  Corie: And I think it's one of those things where like I was talking to John Gill, I was telling you that before we started.
• 4:28
  Corie: So Elon is a man, when he disappears, he's gone and he's not so well, only people telling me you never get Elon on that.
• 4:32
  Corie: I say, he's easy to get it all.
• 4:34
  Corie: You know, man, when you disappear, when you're off the ground.
• 4:36
  Corie: No lies, I'm slippery.
• 4:38
  Corie: I slippery, I'm slippery.
• 4:39
  Corie: But that's an important thing to say again, you're downtime, you're a long time.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_04: I need that, bro.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_04: I need that, I need that.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_04: I um you see because of my creative nature, I can't really I can't really keep up with the the constant phone calls and the constant appearances.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you know?
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_04: Because I need to lock in.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_04: I need to lock in, I need to feel, I need to be able to be able to understand the environment around me.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_04: You know?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_04: If I keep coming out of myself to to feel what other people are feeling on the outside here, then it will affect the creativity.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_04: Well, most definitely for me.
• 5:14
  Corie: Yeah, I'd tell people that when you see an outsider on stage, I only see it twice in real life.
• 5:18
  Corie: Once is in the grocery, I suppose you had to go there, right?
• 5:21
  Corie: You had to go in the grocery at some point.
• 5:22
  Corie: No matter how you want to hide in the bush, you had to go in the grocery.
• 5:25
  Corie: And I think the other one was a comedy show, if I'm not mistaken.
• 5:28
  Corie: It could have been a semi-show.
• 5:29
  Corie: Comedy is a thing you're coming out for that.
• 5:32
  Corie: I mean, why not?
• 5:33
  Corie: Everybody loves to laugh.
• 5:35
  Corie: 100%.
• 5:35
  Corie: Yeah, that sometimes you had a laugh at them.
• 5:38
  Corie: If you take things too serious here, it could, it could, it could take a toll.
• 5:42
  Corie: And one of one of the people who I see speak about that creatively, and he talks about it on stage too, is Dave Chappelle.
• 5:50
  Corie: And I hear him talking a lot about even in comedy specials, I would hear him say, Well, you ain't going to see me for a while after this, and also enjoy this.
• 5:56
  Corie: And he said almost exactly what you say in terms of he has to disconnect to reconnect.
• 6:02
  Corie: Yeah.
• 6:02
  Corie: So so it comes in in the same form when you're doing a show like this.
• 6:06
  Corie: I guess the name reconnection.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_04: Reconnection.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_04: Well, it's really, you see, the even though I made a play on that, it's more than more than that.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_04: It's more like a reconnection to the people themselves.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_04: Because from what I see, at least right now these days, look, it seems like we are a bit disconnected.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_04: You know?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_04: I feel disconnection.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_04: I feel disconnection all around us.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_04: So when I look around, I see the amount of disconnection.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_04: I feel as though I had to find a way to now bring some unity to it.
• 6:34
  Corie: You taking it on yourself?
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_04: I tried.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 6:37
  Corie: Well, one of the things about Chappelle and why I will spend the money to go and see him.
• 6:41
  Corie: I see recently he stopped doing the Yankee tour, used to be all over America, so I could go to Miami quick and get to see him, but now he's doing it home by him in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
• 6:50
  Corie: But one of the things that happens with people like yourself who choose not to can't ever see you go live on social media and cuss people when you lose the competition.
• 6:57
  Corie: You don't hear much from you.
• 6:58
  Corie: Right.
• 6:59
  Corie: But I feel like it makes instances where you have something like a concert even more important for people to go because I guess that is when we get to hear who you are and so on.
• 7:07
  Corie: True.
• 7:07
  Corie: Yeah, true the music.
• 7:08
  Corie: True.
• 7:09
  Corie: How are you gonna do it?
• 7:10
  Corie: You have friends and incoming true, you have support and the cast, is you alone with what kind of show it is.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_04: So uh I'm trying to incorporate incorporate a mixture of theatre with with Calypso, poetry, um, uh extempo.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_04: You know I wanna I wanna bring together uh a certain amount of of styles of the art form and see if we can blend them and make them feel as one.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, the right try to get the right personalities in the right place.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I'm yeah, I'm very critical with these things.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_04: So these things take time.
• 7:46
  Corie: And is it the first time producing your a show as well or your producers?
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_04: No, this is the first time.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_04: It's the first time I'm I'm making this attempt, you know, I'm being supported by my family members, you know, people who who've always shown support to me.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_04: Um and yeah, this this is this is this is a very different experience compared to just going and clip someone on stage or just creating music.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_04: Um you could tell that you could tell that it takes much more effort and detail, especially when you're doing all the only mental heavy lifting, you know.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_03: So how much of a burdness is it stressful?
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_03: You're managing through it?
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_03: Uh even if it's stressful, it's probably just a period.
• 8:31
  Corie: Yeah.
• 8:32
  Corie: So we can handle it.
• 8:33
  Corie: We had to get into your mind, you know.
• 8:34
  Corie: You have a way of talking about these things, we had to get into your mind a little bit.
• 8:37
  Corie: But before we go down, go down the rule of who you are and your accomplishments and so on.
• 8:41
  Corie: Yeah.
• 8:42
  Corie: Uh you know a fella named Western Rollins, you know, you know the guy.
• 8:45
  Corie: Of course.
• 8:45
  Corie: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 8:46
  Corie: Popular fella, right?
• 8:47
  Corie: We love him around here, you know.
• 8:48
  Corie: You can't say nothing bad about him in these streets here.
• 8:50
  Corie: But I hear him say a lot, and it's something that every time when he hears or when I when I talk to him, he talks about Calypso dead and Calypso Gone and so on.
• 8:57
  Corie: And um, as somebody who and and and one of the things that he says a lot is that you're not seeing young people coming in to Calypso.
• 9:05
  Corie: Yeah.
• 9:05
  Corie: But I feel like I remember the first time I see you on a stage.
• 9:08
  Corie: You would be young, you're still young now.
• 9:11
  Corie: But what what when you started singing Calypso?
• 9:13
  Corie: What was your earliest memory of singing guys?
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_04: Uh from the junior stage.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_04: From the junior stage?
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, junior calypso.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_04: From junior calyp.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_04: In fact, no.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_04: This is earlier than that.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_04: From from primary school.
• 9:23
  Corie: Yeah.
• 9:24
  Corie: Was it competitive, the junior stages?
• 9:27
  Corie: Uh or you're just beating people?
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_04: No, that's not how it works.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_04: You had to get your tail cut.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_04: It's worse.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I guess I'm like the truth is the the lex is condition, yeah.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_04: You know, with anything and any any any discipline that you decide to go into.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_04: Losing is character building.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_04: You need to lose.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_04: Most people when they just start off winning, they take longer to catch who they are, what they are.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_04: You know?
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_04: Um so because you because you condition from losing and from having mishaps with your with your art, you start to perfect who you are, what you are, why you do what you do.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_04: So, yeah, over the years, I've done that.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you take them licks.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I take I take my licks, and I cool at it, man.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's funny enough.
• 10:24
  Corie: Like when you it's you talk, they come across you anywhere, you talk to your hair or in public, you have a cool, calm persona.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 10:30
  Corie: And you know you have episodes like this, you look forward to it.
• 10:33
  Corie: But it turns out that you are more back in hell than any other guest.
• 10:36
  Corie: And it's supposed to be one of the coolest, calmest, simplest interviews.
• 10:40
  Corie: But boy, the more I look into it, I say, but what is going on here?
• 10:43
  Corie: No wonder you had a disconnect.
• 10:45
  Corie: And one of these things Krocru said, almost the first thing you say in the interview, he said the worst thing they could ever do.
• 10:49
  Corie: They turn off the boy Mike in the Savannah.
• 10:51
  Corie: I say, Well, I want to know how you know that.
• 10:54
  Corie: You have evidence of this, you know what I mean?
• 10:55
  Corie: But when he said that, I think it's important for me to get from you.
• 11:00
  Corie: Let me take this step by step, right?
• 11:02
  Corie: First and foremost, congratulations, you're won in 2025.
• 11:05
  Corie: Bad, bad song, we could talk about that, right?
• 11:07
  Corie: So he's a defending monarch.
• 11:09
  Corie: Right.
• 11:09
  Corie: Reigning monarch.
• 11:10
  Corie: Right.
• 11:11
  Corie: You're not in the bullpen, you're not in the.
• 11:13
  Corie: You were in the tent doing the song?
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_04: Nope.
• 11:16
  Corie: No.
• 11:17
  Corie: You're not in the semis.
• 11:19
  Corie: So the first time everybody's gonna hear the song is on the final night?
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_03: Correct.
• 11:22
  Corie: You get a rehearse of the band?
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, the reason.
• 11:25
  Corie: So the band know the song.
• 11:26
  Corie: The band knows the song.
• 11:27
  Corie: Okay.
• 11:27
  Corie: So the public don't know the song.
• 11:29
  Corie: I guess the the the the paying public who come in to see it.
• 11:32
  Corie: The people like me watching this on TV on social media don't know where you're going to sing.
• 11:36
  Corie: No.
• 11:36
  Corie: But the little the people like me, so who know Kaiso and know your career, we feel like we kind of know where you're gonna sing, you know.
• 11:42
  Corie: We know something will come.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, right, yeah.
• 11:44
  Corie: So let me ask you this: leading up to the to the prelims and the semis, you were paying attention to, because it's my belief that there was a distilling.
• 11:52
  Corie: Because I see political commentary kaisos and kaisonians who could perform them get left out of the well, the semis at first, and then the final, the the the names that keep coming up is people like Chucky, Queen Victoria, Mr.
• 12:06
  Corie: Shaq.
• 12:07
  Corie: Just how they're not there, I don't know.
• 12:09
  Corie: I don't understand.
• 12:10
  Corie: I can't judge Kaiso, I only judge Kaiso by how it makes me feel, I suppose.
• 12:14
  Corie: You were paying attention to that leading up to the competition.
• 12:16
  Corie: Of course.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_04: Of course.
• 12:18
  Corie: What was your thoughts?
• 12:18
  Corie: You're thinking of that.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I pay attention.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_04: I saw I saw everything that happened.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_04: Uh it seemed to me it seemed a bit unfair with some of the Kaisonians.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_04: Because even though I was defending, I I like a good fight.
• 12:37
  Corie: You want the best?
• 12:39
  Corie: You want to fight against the best.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I like a good fight.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_04: I like, I like, I'm I am here for the sport.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_04: Let's put it that way.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_04: I'm here for the sport of it.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_04: I I I love it that much.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_04: You know, it's not about just winning.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_04: Winning is nice, but it's that's not the nitty of it.
• 12:56
  Corie: Well, you say losing is built character, you know, so we're looking forward to losing.
• 13:00
  Corie: I know that is a stretch, you know.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_04: I'll never say I never said looking forward to losing.
• 13:06
  Corie: Don't say that.
• 13:07
  Corie: Once you're in a competition, you're looking to win.
• 13:09
  Corie: Well, everybody.
• 13:10
  Corie: You want to fight the best fight.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_04: Everybody, everybody.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_04: You want to fight, you want to fight with the best.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 13:14
  Corie: You want to fight with the best.
• 13:15
  Corie: You write your songs, you're your writer as well, yes?
• 13:17
  Corie: Uh so I would assume that between the semis night, by the time you see what happened and the final night, if you're wanting to write a song, change your mind about where you're using to defend.
• 13:27
  Corie: I've seen monarchs many, many times.
• 13:29
  Corie: They had a time I remember a man, I I want to say his duke, but I can't remember.
• 13:33
  Corie: Walk up on the Savannah stage with the list of everybody's song with he two songs.
• 13:36
  Corie: Then he pull out his song and fling with that and slide in a new song.
• 13:39
  Corie: Men used to do that, men used to change the song.
• 13:41
  Corie: So you're not under on any obligation to sing the same song in the final night.
• 13:46
  Corie: You could change it, yes?
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_04: Nope, you can't.
• 13:48
  Corie: You can't?
• 13:48
  Corie: No, you can't.
• 13:49
  Corie: That's not how that works.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_04: From when it's submitted?
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_04: From the moment you submit your song, that's the song you have to sing.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_04: And but there's a rule change that come over the years.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_04: You could.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_04: Men used to change a song all the time.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_04: Men used to change the song all the time.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_04: You could what you can do, you could uh change a couple lines.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_04: So you can move a couple lines, probably I think about four or five lines or something like that.
• 14:08
  Corie: Also, there's a stipulated amount that you could change the song a percentage or something.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_04: You could change that amount of lines.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_04: You can't change the the song.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_04: Really?
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_04: That is that is um that is choke, that's on them.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that is their thing.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_04: They was allowed to do those type of things.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_04: We're not allowed to do that.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_04: This rule is from Tuco?
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 14:26
  Corie: So your song is already submitted.
• 14:29
  Corie: You know that is where you're gonna do the final.
• 14:31
  Corie: At that point, you're accepting that you're lost because they're clearly you know, what's your thing?
• 14:35
  Corie: You're getting some character building when you're winning Sorrando.
• 14:38
  Corie: What is your thing going into?
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I get so much character building.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_04: But look, the the the thinking for me when you go into that is you you understand that things don't always go the way you uh intended.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_04: You understand that when you look at the competition, like for me, when I looked at the competition, it didn't look fair enough.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_04: Some of it didn't really look fair enough.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_04: Because I felt as though a lot of those artists were good enough to get into the semi-final.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_04: You know, that didn't make to me that didn't make sense.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_04: When I when I saw all of them being left out.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_04: It also made me know that anything could happen in the final.
• 15:22
  Corie: You had this thing in your back pocket to come and sing.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_04: I already know what's going on.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_04: Can I see that?
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_04: You could see that from a mile off.
• 15:30
  Corie: I know you're a private person.
• 15:32
  Corie: No point between that semis and the final, you feel like making a statement or saying anything.
• 15:36
  Corie: But the Katrina Radkiller would have gone live at them.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 15:38
  Corie: Before this thing.
• 15:39
  Corie: No point in feeling like saying anything.
• 15:40
  Corie: No, it's not necessary, man.
• 15:42
  Corie: You reach out to people within the fraternity to talk about it or you just observe and you say when you say reach out to people.
• 15:47
  Corie: In other words, you're the competitors finding out people who didn't make it while you were discussing this.
• 15:51
  Corie: Of course.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_04: But when I but when I, you know, you reach out to some of them, the people who who didn't get opportunity, you know, you you talk to them and you try to encourage them because it hurts to them.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_04: You know, as a as a Calypsonian, it hurts.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_04: When you when you work so hard on your craft and get to this chance, we say, okay, now I have something, something worth the the the the the the opportunity to prove myself.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_04: No, it it hurts terribly, it could discourage you.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_04: So you have to get some encouragement.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_04: And I know, because I've been on that side too.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_04: I know it feels.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_04: Especially when you're a writer.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_04: Especially when you're a writer.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_04: When you're a calypso writer, it feels totally different to when you have accepted a song.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_04: Totally different because you pour your whole soul into where you just write.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_04: Every bit of yourself.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_04: So it feels like a rejection of self.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_04: A rejection of self?
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_04: Man, what do I feel?
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_04: You even have a clue what I feel.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_04: I wish I could explain that to you.
• 16:48
  Corie: If you don't go in in a hole already, I can't imagine what it's like if you had to take the take recovery from that.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it it's it's it's rough.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_04: It's rough.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_04: It's rough for writers to feel that.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_04: I feel like it it even it's rough for people who don't write, much more for a writer.
• 17:03
  Corie: Yeah, two-time monarch at this point defending Monarch, the night of it, assuming I heard it from many people before talk about what happens before you go on stage.
• 17:11
  Corie: Before you go on stage, you had to clear your head, right?
• 17:13
  Corie: You want to go and perform, so none of this can be on your mind before you take the stage.
• 17:17
  Corie: Yeah.
• 17:18
  Corie: Now you can't be thinking about that.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_04: That's not the time.
• 17:20
  Corie: When it's when it's time to go out and deliver, you you you you're feeling like you have a chance to win this again.
• 17:25
  Corie: Because a few people reach three.
• 17:27
  Corie: You know, I mean, if I mean few people reach two, you know, in good, good, good class already.
• 17:32
  Corie: So you're feeling like you have a chance to win this.
• 17:34
  Corie: Of course.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_04: You always have a chance.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_04: I suppose, I suppose.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_04: I suppose.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you always have a chance.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_04: Um I I always take the take that take that mindset.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_04: I don't I don't appro I don't approach it from the negative point of view.
• 17:47
  Corie: Yeah.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_04: I always approach it from the positive mindset.
• 17:50
  Corie: You're going in.
• 17:50
  Corie: At all times.
• 17:51
  Corie: Yeah, and I suppose you have your team, I have a family behind you, and that's it.
• 17:53
  Corie: Yeah, man.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 17:54
  Corie: How the Savannah, because when we're watching from home, you can't see what the audience looking like and how they're receiving it.
• 18:00
  Corie: How they receive any song at it at the point.
• 18:02
  Corie: Yeah.
• 18:03
  Corie: Well, yeah.
• 18:03
  Corie: Yeah.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_04: Well, it goes on.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_04: At least this year it went on pretty well.
• 18:08
  Corie: Yeah.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_04: I I didn't know what happened on well.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't know what happened until I came off the stage.
• 18:14
  Corie: Hey, quick one before we get back into the conversation.
• 18:16
  Corie: You're always in the comments asking about part two, right?
• 18:19
  Corie: Guess where part two is now?
• 18:20
  Corie: It's on Patreon.
• 18:22
  Corie: Join us on the Patreon, subscribe so you could get extended versions of the conversation.
• 18:26
  Corie: And not just this episode, but all the episodes in the back catalogue.
• 18:30
  Corie: So when you're done taking the first hour here, go and subscribe, files.
• 18:33
  Corie: And you'll take in two plus hours of the best conversation you'll ever see.
• 18:38
  Corie: Bang.
• 18:38
  Corie: So Don't Forget is his song, right?
• 18:41
  Corie: And I boy, let me tell you something about that song, right?
• 18:43
  Corie: As you're talking about writer, there's an infectious nature to that song that the name is Don't Forget, but like you can't forget.
• 18:50
  Corie: You know what I mean?
• 18:50
  Corie: Because I waiting to see where you come with, right?
• 18:53
  Corie: Because I, as a fan of this thing, I say, right, they go have a problem with Helan.
• 18:57
  Corie: You could cleanse where you want to cleanse, but you can't cleanse the man who went the year before, right?
• 19:00
  Corie: I mean, what you gonna do?
• 19:01
  Corie: The man had to sing.
• 19:02
  Corie: So I say, well, I know how he's writing his song.
• 19:05
  Corie: You're smooth with the writing.
• 19:06
  Corie: You tend to have a diction and delivery that everybody's understanding every word Healon Francis say.
• 19:13
  Corie: And then he's sing at a temple, even if you didn't understand, you're going to hear it.
• 19:17
  Corie: So when I hear the new government of an assignment.
• 19:22
  Corie: Let me not try and sing when I sing.
• 19:23
  Corie: I say I'm embarrassed myself.
• 19:24
  Corie: Nah man, you got you, man.
• 19:26
  Corie: But to put the country in alignment, I say, Jesus Christ.
• 19:31
  Corie: Because it's so simple.
• 19:33
  Corie: It's so simple but profound.
• 19:35
  Corie: Every word, every verse, every verse.
• 19:36
  Corie: And then the and and to finish it off with, don't forget this is Trinbago.
• 19:40
  Corie: Before I get into the mic cutting off, I want to ask what you meant when you say, as a writer, don't forget this is Trinbago.
• 19:46
  Corie: What's the message?
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_04: Don't forget the culture of the people.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_04: Don't forget where we are.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_04: Sometimes people they try to implement implement solutions to a nation without understanding the characteristics of the nation.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_04: You have to understand the characteristics of the nation correctly and then implement.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_04: You understand what I'm saying?
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_04: So I feel as though we we we many times we try to follow other other patterns from other nations, which sometimes sometimes are good.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_04: You know?
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_04: Not saying that you can't create something out of something.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_04: But when you when you try to follow a pattern, if you don't shape this for your country in particular, what you're gonna do is you're gonna you're kind of setting something up to field.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_04: So it was a reminder.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_04: It was a reminder, a reminder to let you know where we are, what's happening.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_04: And uh to make it clear that this is a place that has been through so much.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_04: You know, we've been through so much.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_04: We have we have we literally have memory within our DNA.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_04: There's a line within there.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_04: There's memory within our DNA from things we've been through.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_04: You had to take these things into consideration.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_04: You know, you just you don't just do things because you feel like.
• 20:59
  Corie: Yeah.
• 21:00
  Corie: So you could see what when when we were talking the other day, I was telling you that um in my mind when I watch any competition, to whom it may concern was a letter to Rowley at the time.
• 21:08
  Corie: And you tell me, no, it's a letter to the next prime minister.
• 21:10
  Corie: Maybe that's my bias thinking Rowley to be the next prime minister.
• 21:13
  Corie: But and you're talking about how people interpret songs.
• 21:15
  Corie: You could see where in hindsight, don't forget in now things song, like if you're talking to people who are trying to stop Kaiso from coming in the finals.
• 21:23
  Corie: It absolutely sung like that on the night.
• 21:26
  Corie: Because when you sing all the way you sing and sing, and linebody's also so put I mean putting on today.
• 21:31
  Corie: Today.
• 21:32
  Corie: Yeah.
• 21:32
  Corie: But when you when you say it and you uh you have a way of putting things together, it's a pap, don't forget this.
• 21:39
  Corie: It felt like if you're talking to judges or anybody who would see political or social commentary as having an issue, uh or or not wanting to hear it or wanting to stop it, which I guess the sentence is.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_04: No, well, that that that's in there too.
• 21:51
  Corie: Yes.
• 21:51
  Corie: That's in there too.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you see many things in that.
• 21:53
  Corie: And you writ it before all this happening.
• 21:55
  Corie: So you see it coming out.
• 21:57
  Corie: Listen, I yeah, you gotta use your foresight.
• 21:59
  Corie: So you see what?
• 22:00
  Corie: I'm a stale mother.
• 22:00
  Corie: I outside too much.
• 22:02
  Corie: I don't put on my phone disconnect.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_03: You gotta use your foresight.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_04: To me, there's a purpose of you being a Calypsonian.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_04: You have to have foresight.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_04: You know, you can't have, you can't just there be there any moment.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_04: I think you can't you can't do that too.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_04: You can write any moment as well.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_04: But having foresight is what kind of sets you apart from other artists.
• 22:22
  Corie: Understand.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_04: It sets you apart from other writers.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_04: You have the the the foresight to see where this is going, what's going to happen, how it's going to fall apart, how it's going to come come together, you know, if it's going to succeed, if it's going to if it's going to work out, yeah.
• 22:36
  Corie: Okay.
• 22:36
  Corie: Okay.
• 22:37
  Corie: So in the moment, the crow the song going on good, you're executing at the highest level, the audience receiving us and everything.
• 22:43
  Corie: You have no idea that this might cut off or nothing like that.
• 22:45
  Corie: You when you're walking off the stage, you're feeling like you had a good performance, you're good, you're you I I felt satisfied.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_04: I felt satisfied.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_04: Satisfied with with what happened.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_04: Listen, I don't ever get exactly what I want.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, okay.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_04: Self-critical.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_04: No, I'm telling you, I don't ever get exactly what I want.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_04: But I think that's probably what it helps with my consistency.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, okay.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_04: It helps with the consistency.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm I'm always critical with everything that that's happening.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_04: You know, very dung to the dung to the word, every single word, what it means, where it's going, what how it's interpreted.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_04: I'm very critical with it.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_04: So so with with that now, like I've been honest.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_04: I just focus, you know?
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you feel satisfied, you become off there and you go.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_04: Just focus and be calm and satisfied with it.
• 23:36
  Corie: So when you walk off, when exactly you found out that you wasn't broadcasted or some part of the song wasn't broadcasted.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_04: I found out when I walked off the stage, someone told me immediately.
• 23:52
  Corie: Was this in your team?
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_04: Someone told me immediately.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_04: And I was I was a bit shocked, but you know, you you didn't I didn't see it yet.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_04: So only when I saw it, I was like, oh.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_04: Where do you get to see it?
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_04: On your phone on the night, or yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, oh, this is what happened.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_04: It's like wow.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_04: And but when I saw it, I moved on.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_04: Moved on, went to bed.
• 24:13
  Corie: You went in your bed.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_04: You know how long we up arguing this.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_04: It's no, it's no.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_04: I went to bed.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_04: I went home.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_04: I saw it, felt aware about it, and I went to bed.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_04: I went home.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_04: When I woke up in the morning, I came up in the morning and it's like, let me scroll a little bit.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_03: I scroll, I see my face movie about 15 times straight.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_03: On the timeline.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_04: I see my face about 15 times straight.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_04: And when I realized that, I was like, oh my God.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_04: It's like this is what happened.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_04: It's like no, I was, I was, I was disappointed that it happened, but I was I appreciated that the the the people and the nation gave that much support and love to the culture and to Calypso.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_04: Because it it it said exactly what I was already saying.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_04: You know, you can't forget who we are.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_04: That's how we felt.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_04: That's how everyone felt about the incident.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_04: And whether whether whether it happened purposefully or it was just a an a natural accident, it it showed exactly what I was saying.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 25:23
  Corie: Yeah.
• 25:23
  Corie: Yeah.
• 25:24
  Corie: When you look at the response to it, the response to it was to make it the most popular calypso in modern times, immediately, the same day.
• 25:31
  Corie: And which goes to the point, don't forget this is this turnbago.
• 25:34
  Corie: I don't know that you can silence it.
• 25:36
  Corie: You said it before, you can't silence nothing.
• 25:37
  Corie: Yeah.
• 25:38
  Corie: So between sleep and wake, and when you're wake and then you're in your contemplating about it, is your belief that it was deliberate or is that a technical issue?
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, it doesn't really matter what I believe.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_03: Doesn't matter.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_03: It matters more to me than anybody else.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_03: I waited.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_04: No, it doesn't matter what they believe.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's to me is what you can prove, what you can prove in the court of law.
• 25:58
  Corie: So we go into the court of law about.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_04: Oh no, well, I'm just saying.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_04: Everything is alleged until you can prove it.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_04: So whether I believe it was it was sabotage or if I believe it was it was um a natural occurrence, it doesn't matter.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_04: Can I prove it?
• 26:15
  Corie: So once you can't prove it is inconsequential?
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_04: No.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_04: Once once you can't prove it, you just have to leave it where it is.
• 26:21
  Corie: You have no choice.
• 26:22
  Corie: So you didn't go through the few days that we were going through back and forth on social media saying that TTT is supposed to have some kind of black box, we're supposed to go and see if they pull this and all that.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_04: I felt I felt as though that should have been easy.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_04: I felt that they should have just explained that correctly, bring it out.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_04: But I felt like if they they they they they kind of did it with minimal effort.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_04: So it didn't even look convincing.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 26:45
  Corie: A few a few people involved in this because I suppose to call is responsible for the competition.
• 26:49
  Corie: They reach out to you to talk to you about it at the time.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_04: No, never.
• 26:52
  Corie: Nobody?
• 26:52
  Corie: No, no, no.
• 26:53
  Corie: So they never like say apologize or No, I didn't get any apology.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_04: No one called.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_04: That was that was disappointing too.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_04: Because you'll expect people to call.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_04: You expect people to at least have some respect for the Calypso Monarch Kong itself, especially being a defending Calypso Monarch.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_04: As defending Calypso Monarch, you should give that much respect to whoever he or she is.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_04: Because it's a moment where it's very important to your livelihood.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_04: You know?
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_04: That's your moment of exposure, that's your moment.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_04: You don't get back these moments.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_04: You know, and we don't have a lot of avenues as Calypsoans to to create our finances or to even get a flow or to even get a moment to say, well, I I'm getting some some exposure.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_04: So when you do that, you should at least be able to understand what happened.
• 27:46
  Corie: User man is disconnecting.
• 27:48
  Corie: You sure if it was not they tried to call you and they can say you're sure it was one of them things?
• 27:51
  Corie: I didn't get no calls, not even a message.
• 27:53
  Corie: TTT.
• 27:54
  Corie: Anybody there reach out to you?
• 27:55
  Corie: The broadcasters?
• 27:56
  Corie: No, no one no one reached out.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_04: Nobody from TTT, nobody from WAC, nobody from No one reached out on their behalf.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_04: Someone, people who who would reach out, people who would reach out is the people who I'd meet.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_04: So I'd meet someone, someone said they would say, I'm sorry, or what happened.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_04: Only if you happen to meet in the grocery store.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_04: If you meet someone go and meet you in the grocery, it's like, it's like, hey, um they would they'd stop you any moment and say, I'm I'm sorry.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_04: They would apologize for what happened, you know?
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_04: And then they would proceed to defend it.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_03: Oh God.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_03: Really?
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_03: What's the best defense in here, boy?
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_03: I hear all kinds of defences.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_03: Nah, man.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_03: I hear all kinds of defense.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_03: I hear all kinds of things.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_03: But it's it's cool.
• 28:36
  Corie: It's cool, it's cool, it's cool.
• 28:38
  Corie: Any part of you feel like it affects your chances to win the competition?
• 28:41
  Corie: Because Terry was strong.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, Terry was Terry was fantastic.
• 28:44
  Corie: In a sense, it's a pity that the discussion in the next few days after the monarch was not about the new monarch and was about the incident.
• 28:55
  Corie: It's a pity because Terry was in ripping form.
• 28:57
  Corie: She was great.
• 28:58
  Corie: When Terry holds them kind of song, everybody in trouble, you know.
• 29:00
  Corie: I mean, character building go up in Savannah that night, you know what I mean?
• 29:04
  Corie: When she holds something like that.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_04: I would like she ring the savannah that night.
• 29:08
  Corie: Well, let me tell you something.
• 29:09
  Corie: Just coincidentally, I went this show recently with um Temperature the Band, salute to them, Fahrenheit, and salute to Jaigo.
• 29:14
  Corie: Yeah.
• 29:15
  Corie: And yeah, let me tell you the lineup in the show, right?
• 29:17
  Corie: The lineup is full blown on them, Anika Berry, I see Kotain and Isasha and them and a whole reggae kind of soaker segment and things.
• 29:27
  Corie: So you're talking about the performance down the line, plenty so and temperature playing up tempo.
• 29:32
  Corie: And in the middle of that, Terry Lyons.
• 29:34
  Corie: And boy, Terry Lyons rocked the hot shots.
• 29:37
  Corie: I mean, I was like not supposed to be up that hour the night for no good reason, but brother, she wakes up everybody in that place with that song she went with uh and Calypso.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_04: Hey, Terry's a fantastic artist.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_04: Terry's and Terry was always a fantastic artist.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_04: I think Terry, once Terry has the right song, Terry rock in it.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_04: It's inter DNA, like you say the song, yeah.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_04: Once Terry had the right song, Terry rock in it.
• 30:01
  Corie: Trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble.
• 30:02
  Corie: So at no point you're thinking that this thing affects your your ability to win the competition.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_04: I don't feel it affected.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um not in that way.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_04: Now with the no not now with the ability to win the competition or to compete.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_04: Because you you compete on your night.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_04: The judges say the song.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, the judges heard the song correctly.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_04: It's just it's just that it's just that your your your livelihood outside will be affected.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_04: People in people don't get the the the the clear flow of how it goes.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_04: You know, something has to if something is interrupted, if something is interrupted, or you don't get exactly what the impact is supposed to be.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I would assume, yeah.
• 30:32
  Corie: Even if you're watching it recorded.
• 30:34
  Corie: Yeah, because I see it the night night before at the night after also.
• 30:38
  Corie: Yeah.
• 30:38
  Corie: Now it's viral, it's everywhere.
• 30:40
  Corie: It's everywhere.
• 30:40
  Corie: How are you feeling about that at that point?
• 30:41
  Corie: That is the most popular song.
• 30:43
  Corie: When they say, just before we were talking about this idea that Calypso died, I see it alive and well.
• 30:47
  Corie: Yeah within the next few years.
• 30:48
  Corie: How are you feeling so much people?
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_03: Grateful.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_04: Grateful that um that the people hold on to it and they get the chance to hear the message.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_04: Because that's the whole point of it.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_04: That's why we're doing this.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_04: So they could hear it and they could they could realize the things that I've been trying to explain.
• 31:03
  Corie: Yeah, how about you?
• 31:04
  Corie: How about you?
• 31:05
  Corie: Now, last question on this, eh?
• 31:07
  Corie: Right.
• 31:07
  Corie: But as a writer and performer and the way the the types of songs you have sung, which we'll get into some of them, this is I you've never shied away from speaking on political issues, social issues, things to do with Kaiso.
• 31:19
  Corie: You have you have a broad among the topics that you will sing on.
• 31:23
  Corie: Right.
• 31:23
  Corie: And um now that you see where we're going with the competition, or where I assume that the competition is going, you have second thoughts about how you write songs and the topics you choose now?
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_04: No.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_04: No.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_04: I don't have second thoughts at all.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_04: The way that I write songs and the way that I choose is based on what I think God wants me to say.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_04: I I run by my integrity.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_04: That's how I live.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm always satisfied with my results because I know I live by my integrity.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_04: What I think God wants me to say, I say.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_04: That's the that's your purpose.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_04: That's the reason you're doing this.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 32:02
  Corie: I want to get to life for you and where that starts.
• 32:04
  Corie: Because it seems like, I mean, the way you deliver your songs, the way you sing them, but also in talking to you, you get a very, very strong sense of purpose.
• 32:12
  Corie: Was that always the case for you growing up and then?
• 32:14
  Corie: Yeah, ma'am.
• 32:14
  Corie: Where were you growing up?
• 32:15
  Corie: Cascade.
• 32:16
  Corie: But it's cascade itself.
• 32:17
  Corie: How do you grow someone?
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_04: Not the cascade that you know.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_03: I just wait to know.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_03: This man just called me up-tongue.
• 32:27
  Corie: You gotta be careful of the writers, you know.
• 32:28
  Corie: You gotta listen to the words carefully.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_03: Not the cascade we know.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_03: Explain that to me now.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_03: Let me hear what you say.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_03: I grew up in the grassroots are cascade, man.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_03: Grassroots are cascade.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_03: What was life like then?
• 32:42
  Corie: Grassroots are cascade.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_04: You you you see the you see the the people they would they would consider to be upper class or the more the the wealthier people.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_04: You see them.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_04: And you would more interact with the the people on the ground, people who walk in through cascades.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_04: I grew up Cascade Sentence.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_04: Right, right.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_04: That's where I grew up.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_04: And uh being in Cascade Science, you're going in just like every other young boy, every other young man, you're walking through the tracks in between, talking about being a grassroots person who's walking in the grassroots.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_04: You walk through the tracks to get from one place to another place.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_04: You you you you know all the people on the ground.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_04: Of course.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_04: Because you live in there.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_04: You understand them, they understand you.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_04: You know, they know it, they might know your career, they might know what you're doing.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_04: They might know probably even a couple secrets about you.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_04: Because they've seen you growing up.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_04: Of course.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_04: So growing up there, it was it was a great experience for me because I got the opportunity to see many versions of how life can be.
• 33:47
  Corie: Yeah, I guess Cascade in particular, because Cascade are two stories, you know.
• 33:51
  Corie: It's two stories to Cascade, you know.
• 33:53
  Corie: And I suppose as you would have seen the changes come over the years, too, where more and more developments come and Cascade is a whole new place now.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_04: So seeing seeing it that way, it gives you perspective.
• 34:04
  Corie: You grew up with your grandparents and things, oh you have a whole soul or no?
• 34:07
  Corie: You find so?
• 34:07
  Corie: Yeah.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_04: I know this soul when we come out all.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_04: I can help that.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_04: Where am I to do?
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um, man, I grew up with my parents, man.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_03: Home and mommy and daddy.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_04: And there was an owl.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_04: So it's just you that's you know, you just grew up with a certain level of wisdom.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_04: So, you know, man.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_04: I think my dad, my dad and my mom very influential and that.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_04: Because especially like Saint Caleb so early.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_04: Saint Caleb so early gives you a little bit more wisdom than most.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_04: Because you're you're you're exposed to messages constantly.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_04: It's constant, constant messages.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_04: So much that you you will eventually suck them up.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_04: More more so for when you start writing it.
• 34:53
  Corie: Gotcha.
• 34:53
  Corie: Oh, I suppose, yeah.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_04: Oh god, come on.
• 34:56
  Corie: So the musical influence comes from your parents?
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_04: It it listen, it to me it comes from a lineage.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_04: From from a lineage.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_04: Because I'm not the first Calypsonian.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I've I have I guess like generations of Calypsoon, I could say.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_04: Um my auntie is singing Sonia.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, Sonia.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_04: Sonia Francis, you know, uh singing Sonia.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_04: Cousin is Devon, Devon Seal.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm like the probably the third generation of Calypso.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_04: And so when I when I when I fell in line, it didn't feel foreign.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_04: Wasn't foreign to me.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_04: Something I already knew, understood to a point.
• 35:43
  Corie: Yeah, internal internalized that.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you already grew up around it.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_04: So it it it it made me a little bit more multi-dimensional when it came to my perspectives.
• 35:54
  Corie: Gotcha, gotcha.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_03: And what premise play what?
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_03: New tongue boys.
• 35:57
  Corie: New tongue boys are seeing.
• 36:00
  Corie: Why that's so fine.
• 36:01
  Corie: Think a sec now.
• 36:02
  Corie: Cheers.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah.
• 36:04
  Corie: I got new tongue, is that listen?
• 36:06
  Corie: New tongue boys, man.
• 36:07
  Corie: If we do this thing as new tongue alone, we have a whole show, you know.
• 36:09
  Corie: Every week we could get new tongue man.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_04: Nah, man, great school.
• 36:18
  Corie: Great school.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it was good for me.
• 36:21
  Corie: Like you, home was where Kaiso started to become important for me.
• 36:25
  Corie: Yeah.
• 36:25
  Corie: My father was playing in kitchen tent.
• 36:27
  Corie: My mother don't miss her tent.
• 36:28
  Corie: She was outside, she was looking to go where there's fed thing, tent, the band scene.
• 36:32
  Corie: She she she understands it.
• 36:33
  Corie: And I just it's so funny to hear how you describe it because maybe there's a better way to describe it.
• 36:40
  Corie: It makes me feel like that is that is what happened.
• 36:42
  Corie: I tell her all the time, like, like she played Radha and Tamboo a year so much that I don't know that I know the songs that I know.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 36:49
  Corie: Every morning going to school, every evening, coming back home.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 36:52
  Corie: And then somewhere along the line, as I start getting older, I start to hear meaning in this song.
• 36:59
  Corie: The first song I'll tell you, right?
• 37:00
  Corie: Was that I hear the meaning of this song was when Gypsy had sing, sing Ram Bam, Brim Bam Badam.
• 37:06
  Corie: That's when I realized I said, What the hell is this?
• 37:08
  Corie: You can sing about a man's song.
• 37:11
  Corie: And my grandmother was mad, you know.
• 37:13
  Corie: She didn't like Bahia Girl at all.
• 37:15
  Corie: Too much of a bam bam, and all this sort of bam bam and thing, the bastard Isenic I so you know.
• 37:19
  Corie: You know, he's good through this every generation.
• 37:21
  Corie: They was vexed.
• 37:22
  Corie: Yeah.
• 37:22
  Corie: Say with David Roder singing ballad.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 37:24
  Corie: So when Gypsy came back the next year and say, Boy, I can't, I can't win, not singing too much serious song, sing Rambam, and them kind of things, is where I get.
• 37:31
  Corie: But Newton was another place like that.
• 37:34
  Corie: I remember one time with Newtong, I was in New Tong Druniku, and the Fusto had sing a song named Batman the year before.
• 37:42
  Corie: And he came with Newton in a Batman suit.
• 37:44
  Corie: That is when I realized I had to be a Kaisonian, but soon realized after that I can't sing to save my life.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_03: So I had to become a student.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_03: So what is Newton like for you?
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_03: You singing on singing, Newton?
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I sing, I sing um sing calypsos, I sing all kind of things.
• 37:59
  Corie: But Dueno Connor, no, he was in my time, so he had to be before you.
• 38:03
  Corie: You was that one?
• 38:04
  Corie: Yeah, he was in the song.
• 38:05
  Corie: Beat me like a beaten stick every calypso competition and have Duane.
• 38:08
  Corie: Duane, if you could have got suspended from primary school, yeah, he would have got suspended.
• 38:12
  Corie: Because at some point, Duane O'Connor going on whine, he's going to be whole back.
• 38:17
  Corie: Waste on that stage.
• 38:18
  Corie: He had catching a son, Christian.
• 38:20
  Corie: Uncle Christopher, I was always called it wrong.
• 38:22
  Corie: But two of them go and whine and them going get licked.
• 38:24
  Corie: So I say if I could come to, they go to squalify two of them.
• 38:27
  Corie: Yeah.
• 38:27
  Corie: Yeah, but I go for fifth every single time.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_03: So New Tong any competitions, don't they?
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, New Tong.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_04: Was a great space for development for me, man.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_04: I sang, sang in the choir.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_04: Sang in the choir, play sports.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_04: You know.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_04: What sport you was playing?
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_04: What do you mean?
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_04: Football, cricket, everything.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_03: What do you mean?
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_04: If I go.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_03: What do you mean?
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_03: I want to know you know everybody just say they're good when they come here, you know.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody just said they're good, huh?
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_04: I I mean it.
• 39:01
  Corie: So he was playing like footy school and thing, he was going.
• 39:03
  Corie: Yeah, yeah.
• 39:04
  Corie: Serious?
• 39:04
  Corie: Yeah, yeah, sure.
• 39:05
  Corie: You're plenty in common, boy.
• 39:08
  Corie: And you at that point in time, how are you getting songs to sing?
• 39:11
  Corie: True singing Sonia and Devon and them was writing.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_04: This is how it look.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_04: I had a writer by the name of George Martin.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_04: George Martin wrote for all three generations of California.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_04: George Martin was a fantastic writer.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_04: That's also the man that I learned to write from.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_04: So George Martin, God rest his soul, he passed this year.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_04: And that hurt.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, God rest his soul, he passed this year.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_04: George.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_04: George was so giving, you know, so so loving.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_04: George will come to your house with his song.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_04: He'd come to the house, and this is my memory of George.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_04: George would come to the house, sit with my dad, probably have a drink, pull out the guitar and start teaching me these songs.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_04: Teaching me these songs.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, given we having discussions, George and I.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_04: And sometimes a lot of times I change things in his song, and George likes going back and forth.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_04: No, I don't like this.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_04: Move this and put that this way, and he's and he correl with me.
• 40:12
  Corie: This is you in primary school, then?
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean we haven't arguments, but me and this man having having arguments being this big man.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_04: But but but yeah, George, I learned to write from George Martin in them days.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_04: Those were the days that that to me develop who I am now.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_04: Because you learn at a at a young age what it means truly to be to be a writer or to be ingrained in the art.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_04: You know?
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_04: So I was learning from George and I was at time taking my licks too.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_04: Going out there, taking my tail cut, come back, go again, take my tail cut.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_04: And I remember there was a year I lost.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_04: And I felt to myself, I ain't losing no more.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_04: Ah enough.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_04: I started writing a bit more CST, taking my time, you know, piecing together.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_04: And as I said, um character building.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_04: That's what it goes back to.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_04: Character building.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_04: That's what I mean.
• 41:17
  Corie: Yeah.
• 41:18
  Corie: I suppose, in a sense, if you if you're arguing with it about changing line, it's done a writer already.
• 41:24
  Corie: Yeah.
• 41:24
  Corie: You know what I mean?
• 41:25
  Corie: When you're in a writing room now, people doing writing.
• 41:27
  Corie: If me and you boy, both of you is co-writers of that song.
• 41:30
  Corie: So I suppose it was always that way.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_04: Ah, it wasn't always that way.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_04: But it became that.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_04: I got you.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_04: It became that.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_04: It became that.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_04: A healthy debate.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_04: That's your call that.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 41:41
  Corie: So eventually in primary school, you went on and sing your own song?
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_04: Eventually I started writing.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_04: Well, well, in primary school, in primary school, I would say I started writing totally.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_04: My writing, my writing ability began really at in secondary school.
• 41:56
  Corie: What secondary school?
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_04: Secondary school.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_04: It was Woodbrook Secondary.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, Woodbrook.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_04: So I started writing.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_04: I had a group with about three of us.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_04: Mm-hmm.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_04: We used to call ourselves DHT.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_04: I can't remember.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_04: Something.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_04: But the point is it was three of us writing together and singing and beating this.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I was I was more of a writer than they were, but they would freestyle and you'd you know singing.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_04: And from there, I started taking my craft much more serious.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, started developing it, developing who I was.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_04: And that came from Calypso.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_04: That came from Calypso.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_04: I could have sung other things too.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I had the opportunity to sing other things, but Calypso felt so at home I didn't really feel like I wanted to move.
• 42:39
  Corie: From secondary school?
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it felt at home.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I I remember going to school and went in the Calypso when I got school in in secondary school five years straight.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_04: So I went in five years straight.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_04: I remember on the fourth year, somebody say, This man again.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_04: On the trophy again.
• 43:03
  Corie: But secondary school have five years, you know.
• 43:06
  Corie: You say five years straight, so it's been your whole time.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, five years straight, but five years straight.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_04: But that is the all lies development of the craft.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_04: Development of the craft.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_04: That is where people eventually people started saying, well, boy, at this rate you're going.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_04: You have a chance of becoming a calypso monarch one day.
• 43:22
  Corie: And that's how I felt.
• 43:24
  Corie: That was on your mind already, is in terms of the ambition.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_04: What you mean?
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_04: You manifest that for sure.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_04: It's what you see, what you believe.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_04: So it's I I remember believing that was possible.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_04: I remember looking at the Calypso Monarch itself as a young fella.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_04: And I saw parts of it I didn't like where I I felt as this wasn't really fair.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_04: I felt like I could switch this and put this here, and this person was I didn't like how it was going because in terms of the results and in terms of how we would treat with the art, I didn't always like the way we treat we we treat with it because it It didn't seem like it was in a position to develop young artists.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_04: It seemed like it was in it was made to keep the artists who were there.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_04: Um to just continue performing the way they were.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_04: Nothing is wrong with that, but it it it the uh the process stops it stops innovation, it stops an artist from developing developing into a global sensation.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_04: It stops that because you you you get so used to the same blueprint, the same regular type of of thing.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_04: You need people to shake it up, you need different types of of individuals.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_04: So I remember looking at it and saying, Why why is it that that it it's staying this way for so long?
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_04: You know, and so when I actually had my opportunity, I decided to change it a little bit, do my own thing, you know, make changes.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_04: I I left secondary school and I left secondary school and I went to do music because I wanted to sing.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_04: So at that point in time, you didn't have any formal training, it's just what no, I I didn't have any formal training.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_04: I I got I got formal training in two three.
• 45:10
  Corie: Don't forget you could also reach out to us to advertise on the show and have your brand place here, anywhere here.
• 45:16
  Corie: You could get your brand.
• 45:18
  Corie: So don't just call to get on the show, right?
• 45:20
  Corie: We'll call and get you on the show to we know you have big brands and you do great work in this country.
• 45:23
  Corie: But don't forget you could also advertise with us to help support the stories of our countries and our region going out to everybody.
• 45:31
  Corie: Help you out.
• 45:32
  Corie: Don't just don't just call your friend, don't just call David to come on the show.
• 45:36
  Corie: And advertise, you know what I mean?
• 45:37
  Corie: Pay, spend.
• 45:39
  Corie: How are we going?
• 45:39
  Corie: Which way are we going back?
• 45:40
  Corie: How does it go back this way?
• 45:42
  Corie: Back to the conversation.
• 45:43
  Corie: Well, let me ask you this before you move on from secondary school.
• 45:46
  Corie: What kind of topics you singing about in a beating people all these five years?
• 45:48
  Corie: In them years?
• 45:49
  Corie: Mm-hmm.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_04: Topics, boy.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_04: Listen, there's a lot of guys, so you're trying to put me back in.
• 45:54
  Corie: Yeah, that's the idea.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I would sing a lot of nation building songs.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_04: Like almost close to close to the the the the style that I sing now.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, so you already had developed that style?
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_04: I sang nation-building songs, I sang.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_04: You wouldn't sing songs about a particular topic.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_04: Mama, you're a junior, you can't really do that.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_04: And that's not your place.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_04: Uh so I would sing nation-building songs, I would sing songs about, you know, just philosophy.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_04: The philosophy song, the philosophy of just living.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_04: The, you know, the things people experience, you know, the things a man or a woman might experience, or a child might experience.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_04: So you you develop uh a style or understanding philosophy.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_04: Because George was a philosophical guy, and his his melodies himself, his melodies are not excellent, great melodies.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_04: He always had fantastic melodies.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe that's where I kind of get my my union to have melodies too.
• 46:52
  Corie: Yeah.
• 46:53
  Corie: So even then, your songs as melodious as they are now.
• 46:56
  Corie: Yeah, yeah.
• 46:57
  Corie: I love them.
• 46:58
  Corie: I always want to ask you how much of an influence, because again, the pacing of your songs, the diction and delivery, right?
• 47:04
  Corie: Yeah, a lot of your songs in your catalogue, when I listen to it, I hear reggae.
• 47:09
  Corie: Okay.
• 47:09
  Corie: In terms of how the feel of the song.
• 47:11
  Corie: Like I could hear the same song on a reggae beat, and it becomes a like it's not uncommon for reggae to sing about social, political issues, people suffering, uprising, nation building, reggae, reggae.
• 47:24
  Corie: Very, very topical.
• 47:26
  Corie: Was it influential for you in terms of the music you were listening to?
• 47:28
  Corie: Reggae?
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_04: Man, I listened to so much music.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_04: I listened to almost everything.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_04: I've got a very wide range of music.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, I grew up listening to reggae too.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_04: I listened to listening to rockers and I'm telling you.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_04: I grew up listening to rockers and all these kinds of things.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_04: And you call in Jamaican artists here.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_04: I knew them.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_04: I remember knowing all the Gregory Isaac and all them things, because that's what my father would listen to when I was home.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_04: But we also have a Kaiser house.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_04: So I would listen to a wide variety of music.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_04: My music was the music, the music that I developed today, it's based on the the wide variety of music that I know.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_04: There's a little bit of everything because I can't say that I can't say that I just listened to this alone.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_04: Because this is the genre that I like.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_04: No, I like every once a song that I like it.
• 48:15
  Corie: Yeah, you you're on.
• 48:17
  Corie: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 48:18
  Corie: Yeah, it's interesting because again, going to I have a little bit of experience in secondary school competition too, right?
• 48:25
  Corie: Secondary school competition is vibes.
• 48:26
  Corie: So the first year I went fatty, my I went and finally went around because I girls doing a corner and them fellas for Fatty.
• 48:32
  Corie: I had nobody to beat me.
• 48:33
  Corie: I'm going in then I sing no primary school songs with out of the gates.
• 48:40
  Corie: But what I read one of the first things I learned in secondary school delivering a song is that, and especially in our all-boys' school, when they full that hole with fellas, and I've uh uh uh um it's a guitar company meant, right?
• 48:52
  Corie: You're not tracking them time.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_06: Right.
• 48:54
  Corie: And I tell the man, I say, here what?
• 48:56
  Corie: What's the fastest tempo you could deliver this?
• 48:59
  Corie: I said, just go as fast as you could go.
• 49:01
  Corie: Because now I know the song, I done performed this song all the time already.
• 49:03
  Corie: So I say, just Lego pace.
• 49:05
  Corie: The song was about 105.
• 49:06
  Corie: Them days, 105 radio station now come out.
• 49:09
  Corie: My father's my writer, right?
• 49:11
  Corie: Okay.
• 49:11
  Corie: So radio tempo, FM stereo, 105, staying alive, so I say, I say, get them.
• 49:17
  Corie: I say, go as fast as you could go.
• 49:18
  Corie: And I think I come and win.
• 49:19
  Corie: Yeah.
• 49:19
  Corie: Because once you mash up that whole is a scene.
• 49:21
  Corie: Yeah.
• 49:22
  Corie: I wonder what it's like for you because you go in, your BPMs is the exact opposite of why you go in.
• 49:26
  Corie: You go in in school competition singing songs at that pace that you sing at now.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_04: But we used to sing calypses at all paces, man.
• 49:34
  Corie: Oh, so you used to go.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_04: It was not slow.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, so at all paces, at all paces.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_04: We had some nice ones.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_04: Um but the the the pace that that I use now is mainly so that you could hear what I'm saying.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_04: So you could hear what I'm saying, you could get the opportunity to realize and uh to comprehend.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_04: Remember, it's a calypso.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_04: You want people to to hear, to understand.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_04: If I say something and you don't get a chance to comprehend it, then I waste, I wasted what I just said.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_03: And when you say for people to comprehend, you're talking about the audience or the judge?
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_04: The audience.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_03: The audience, for the judges and the audience, technically the same thing.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_04: People must comprehend.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_04: You must you must be able to get an opportunity to hear what you just said.
• 50:20
  Corie: You come from good stock for real.
• 50:22
  Corie: Because just this year we were in um, what's the tenth name again, David Warrior Addison?
• 50:28
  Corie: Kaisos?
• 50:29
  Corie: Tukotet.
• 50:30
  Corie: And we had some former guests on the show, alumni, who come through and there were plenty of them singing calypso, which is encouraging to me.
• 50:38
  Corie: Nice.
• 50:38
  Corie: But okay, so let me use Krokra's example, right?
• 50:41
  Corie: Krokro is a man say, he says, when you're singing a kaisu, you have to sing it at the highest register you could go and as fast as you could go.
• 50:49
  Corie: He said that all the time, right?
• 50:50
  Corie: But he does die any competition.
• 50:53
  Corie: When he in the competition, he go in and say, He said they had to pick Lakadeyo Budu, Krishna Maharaj.
• 51:00
  Corie: Slow it down.
• 51:00
  Corie: Yeah.
• 51:01
  Corie: Watch how he slow it down.
• 51:02
  Corie: Yeah.
• 51:02
  Corie: So I was telling one of them when they come up this stage.
• 51:04
  Corie: I mean, he was asking me how the performance or something.
• 51:06
  Corie: I said, Real good.
• 51:06
  Corie: I say, but boy, when judges anything, you know.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 51:09
  Corie: You had to slow, you had to slow it down.
• 51:10
  Corie: You're not gonna.
• 51:11
  Corie: And he in particular have a very big voice, so it'd take over the whole header.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_04: I think it depends on whether you know the song or they don't like.
• 51:17
  Corie: Why is it so?
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, because I mean some songs, some songs, some songs they must know it before you.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_04: Alright, so you must release.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_04: If you release a song, obviously.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_04: You could always sing it at the same speed.
• 51:30
  Corie: I understand what you mean.
• 51:30
  Corie: The audience, whether they know the song or not.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_04: I see.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_04: I see.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_04: So it depends.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_04: There's the the fine details too that you gotta pay attention to.
• 51:40
  Corie: We go learn from you.
• 51:41
  Corie: Understand?
• 51:42
  Corie: I hear it loud and clear.
• 51:44
  Corie: I hear it loud and clear.
• 51:45
  Corie: So this way when they're going in the competition and everybody waiting to see, well, alright, the political commentary coming.
• 51:52
  Corie: And they're now healing Francis.
• 51:54
  Corie: And I hear say Jesus Christ.
• 51:58
  Corie: When I hear the tempo, I say, oh my god, it's gonna be bad.
• 52:04
  Corie: I say they're not gonna like this.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_04: Listen, when you have a lot to say, when you have a lot to say, you can't, you, you, you had to make sure that they hear it.
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_04: And and the lines that I remember?
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_04: My writing style.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_04: My writing style is is my right, I write lines and they mean a line could mean three different meanings at the same time.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm I purposefully do that.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_04: So you could so you could grasp the three different meanings at the same time.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_04: They can mean this, that, and this.
• 52:37
  Corie: Yeah.
• 52:37
  Corie: But you comfortable when you do that and you put it out there, leave it, let people interpret it.
• 52:42
  Corie: Because you don't explain much, you know.
• 52:43
  Corie: You say, man.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_04: This is the most I ever hear you talk.
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_04: It's for it's for them to interpret this.
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_04: Not for me to explain.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_04: That's that's that's not why you're writing it.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_04: It's for them to interpret.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_04: I hear you.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 52:55
  Corie: So coming out of secondary school, you're going to tertiary, you have intention to go and study tertiary, pursue tertiary education at that time.
• 53:02
  Corie: Yep.
• 53:02
  Corie: UCT?
• 53:03
  Corie: Yeah, ma.
• 53:04
  Corie: So where you did this?
• 53:05
  Corie: What was the program?
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_04: I did music.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_04: I did music.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_04: I did my bachelor's and my bachelor's degree in music and arts.
• 53:10
  Corie: Right.
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_04: And yeah, we went through the process doing doing music theory.
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_04: Doing music theory.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_04: Listen, when you take this seriously, sometimes people don't people who actually understand the efforts you go through, you go to to succeed at at what you're what you're doing.
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_04: When you take something seriously, you go to a uh a certain level of experience and effort.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_04: And people see it and they just think that, well, you just woke up on stage and get through.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_04: They don't know that they don't know the effort you put in.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_04: I remember doing I remember going to Napa, going to Napa, and doing voice, doing voice, learning music theory, learning structures, time signatures, styles, you know, different different things that could that could you could even use on the global market.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_04: I remember learning these things.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_04: And in that, even in that period of time when I was going there, I still maintained the idea that yes, and I come into single.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_04: I don't care what nobody saying.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_04: I come into sing guys.
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_04: That's true.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_04: I remember saying, I remember that there was a time I had um a class and the class was the class was air training.
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_04: So he's training now, yes, air training, and we had a Russian lecturer.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_04: I had a Russian lecturer, and the Russian lecturer decided, you know, like any teacher, um to ask the class, what are what what you guys are going to do?
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_04: And I was only reminded of this the other day, because uh a friend of mine who teaching in in a university decided to remind me it remind me of it.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_04: So the Russian lecturer would ask what I what everyone's gonna do.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_04: And if you want to get up, people would get up and they would say I am going to perform in this orchestra.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_04: I'm going to Amsterdam, I'm going to to to Germany, and that's that's their thoughts.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_04: When I stood up, I said, I'm I'm going to give back to my culture.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_04: And everyone looked around and I was like, What?
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_04: It was like you're going and give back to your culture.
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, yeah, go ahead and give back to my culture and take what I've learned here and try to develop a brand for them to develop some more my culture.
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_04: The the the Russian lecturer, look at me.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_04: He watched me like what the the class, they they laugh a little bit, but but that was how sure I was at that time.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_04: And someone had to remind me of the soon.
• 56:01
  Corie: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_04: You know, but that's how sure I was, that's how focused I was.
• 56:04
  Corie: This is what I'm gonna do.
• 56:05
  Corie: So it means that no matter what they're teaching, because from my understanding, that programming UTT is very, very broad in terms of where you're exposed to musical genres, different forms.
• 56:14
  Corie: Yeah.
• 56:14
  Corie: So no matter what they're teaching you, there is Kaiso, you applying it to.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_04: Man, Kaiso Ion.
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_04: You talking about Kaiso Aion.
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_04: I love Kaiso.
• 56:25
  SPEAKER_04: No, for real.
• 56:26
  SPEAKER_04: I love Kaiso.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_04: I love the I love, I listen, I love my culture.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_04: I love my people.
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I'm in love with my people, I'm in love with who we are.
• 56:36
  SPEAKER_04: So me being in love with who we are, I had to love Kaiso.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_04: How I can not love Kaiso if I if I'm in love with who we are.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_04: So because I'm I I grew up in a Kaiso house.
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_04: Let me let me give you a look of how my houses look like of my family.
• 56:55
  SPEAKER_04: Everybody making Kaiso jokes.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_04: The jokes are sung like kaisu, the conversations are sung like kaiso.
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_04: Everything that we is do is that element.
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_04: So why wouldn't it be natural?
• 57:14
  Corie: Yeah.
• 57:14
  Corie: And what age is this you're talking about going in UTT?
• 57:17
  Corie: Yeah.
• 57:17
  Corie: 20 a little bit.
• 57:19
  Corie: Sorry, 20.
• 57:20
  Corie: You're very young when you're in UTT.
• 57:21
  Corie: What age you went in your wrong?
• 57:23
  SPEAKER_04: What age I went in, right?
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_04: Probably 20, 2014.
• 57:28
  SPEAKER_04: I think so, 2014, 20.
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it could be about 2014.
• 57:32
  Corie: Yeah, so 2014, you're looking at what age you had in 2017.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_04: 2014, what age was I?
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_04: If you can remember you're in the wrong room, it'll be good.
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_03: Because you're not going to be able to do we use the old people hope to remember anything in this room.
• 57:42
  SPEAKER_04: 2014, I was um I think 17.
• 57:47
  SPEAKER_04: 17, 18, somewhere there.
• 57:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 57:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 57:49
  Corie: 1718.
• 57:49
  Corie: Thanks for saying that.
• 57:50
  Corie: People tell my friend, I'll do a heal on age when they come, right?
• 57:52
  Corie: So we gotta do the maths, right?
• 57:53
  Corie: Yeah, some some genders want to know.
• 57:55
  Corie: Some genders.
• 57:55
  Corie: So some genders.
• 57:57
  Corie: So the notion and the idea that young people not interested in calypso and young people not interested in kaisu and interested in any culture.
• 58:05
  Corie: You're talking about that 17 years old, you have that fire and passion.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_04: Come on, we love Kaiso.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_04: Grow with Kaiso.
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_04: I was saying I have Kaiso household.
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_04: Having conversations that sound like Kaiso.
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_06: I like it.
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and we and also a very spiritual family too.
• 58:21
  SPEAKER_04: So, you know, we grew up spiritual.
• 58:24
  SPEAKER_04: I grew up a Christian.
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_04: I grew up a Christian and we with it with all we kind of link very well.
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_04: The family links well.
• 58:32
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 58:32
  SPEAKER_04: You know.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_04: We we understand, we understand how to have conversations and how to feel each other.
• 58:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 58:40
  SPEAKER_04: You know?
• 58:41
  SPEAKER_04: The music is more than just that, it comes from the spirit itself, the spirit that we carry.
• 58:45
  Corie: Well, there's something we could definitely feel.
• 58:48
  Corie: Definitely feel.
• 58:49
  Corie: There's one particular song I want to talk to you about before we we go back to 2024-5 again, where you came and you talk about a Calypsonian representing we.
• 58:59
  Corie: I wonder, I wonder about that.
• 59:01
  Corie: That to me is my favorite song I ever sing, yeah.
• 59:04
  Corie: Because I think the way you approach it and the topic, it addresses a few things that we should talk about.
• 59:09
  Corie: Because you you went on to a space where you became an independent senator, or these days a demon or sit on what it's called now.
• 59:17
  Corie: I can't remember the words, you know what I mean?
• 59:18
  Corie: You don't answer that, right?
• 59:22
  Corie: Only three, I couldn't help it.
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_03: Tell me to do that.
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_03: It's wicked for this always David Ford.
• 59:36
  Corie: Yeah, you know, you and and the thing about it is I would imagine you talk about that time with Sugarlo's.
• 59:41
  Corie: Sugarlo's went and sings she's royal for a political party.
• 59:44
  Corie: People, people were against it, it's gonna park and they wait for him.
• 59:48
  Corie: It I don't think it matters what he sings that year, because he was the best to ever do it.
• 59:51
  Corie: Didn't matter where he sang, they was waiting for him.
• 59:54
  Corie: So I felt as though, just like we said in the beginning, where you ain't no big social media man, you don't pose, you ain't going live, you don't tell me nothing, you know what I mean?
• 1:00:02
  Corie: But your songs address the things.
• 1:00:04
  Corie: Because I had to imagine that as a Calypsonian, and for you now that I know a Calypsoan all your life, going into the political arena, you know it was going to be difficult, yes?
• 1:00:13
  Corie: Yeah.
• 1:00:13
  Corie: So you take that song to address that.
• 1:00:16
  SPEAKER_04: Of course.
• 1:00:17
  Corie: It's not a politician singing Calypso, but it's a Calypsonian representing me.
• 1:00:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:00:21
  Corie: How important was that message to you, like Calypsoan representing me?
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_04: Because that's exactly what it was.
• 1:00:26
  SPEAKER_04: The experience itself is first thing was the experience of being a parliamentarian is far different to the experience of being a Calypsonian.
• 1:00:36
  SPEAKER_04: You and you could understand why.
• 1:00:38
  SPEAKER_04: That's self-explanatory, right?
• 1:00:40
  SPEAKER_04: So.
• 1:00:42
  Corie: Maybe I should I should say what my understanding is and see if you agree, right?
• 1:00:46
  Corie: Because as a Calypsonian, you could be judged by how you perform, what you do, what you like, and thing.
• 1:00:50
  Corie: And so we wait for you to do your job before we decide if we like you or not.
• 1:00:54
  Corie: And as a politician, you almost before you do your job, 50% of this population gonna like you, and 50% of this population is gonna dislike you.
• 1:01:02
  Corie: Or maybe I should put it in three tooth.
• 1:01:04
  Corie: And one third thing, okay.
• 1:01:06
  Corie: Once they go hate you, and the next, no matter what you do, they're gonna like you.
• 1:01:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:01:11
  SPEAKER_04: Feel?
• 1:01:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:01:11
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 1:01:12
  SPEAKER_04: Nice, nice, nice, well, nice, I mean, nice way of putting it.
• 1:01:15
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:01:15
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but also there's there's the the fact that your perspective as a politician sometimes is swayed towards the side, despite what the results may incur.
• 1:01:29
  SPEAKER_04: So you if you pay attention, there that's as sometimes as is the whole part of the of the job.
• 1:01:35
  SPEAKER_04: Person has to to debate a point, and they debate any point whether they believe it or not to themselves.
• 1:01:42
  SPEAKER_04: They don't have a choice any matter.
• 1:01:44
  Corie: Okay.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_04: They don't, technically.
• 1:01:46
  Corie: So the party line kind of thing?
• 1:01:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you know what, you know how it goes.
• 1:01:50
  Corie: But your appointment was independent, yes.
• 1:01:52
  SPEAKER_04: It was.
• 1:01:52
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_04: It was.
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_04: So it was it was ideal.
• 1:01:55
  SPEAKER_04: It was ideal for me to be there as an independent.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_04: Because I am already looking at things from both sides.
• 1:02:02
  Corie: I see, as a Calypsoan.
• 1:02:04
  Corie: Yeah.
• 1:02:04
  Corie: Can I hear you talk about Al Rabi Renton play something?
• 1:02:06
  Corie: I said, but it's man a belly.
• 1:02:11
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, okay, yeah.
• 1:02:14
  SPEAKER_04: So the the perspective is very different.
• 1:02:16
  SPEAKER_04: You know?
• 1:02:17
  SPEAKER_04: The Calypsoan looks in.
• 1:02:20
  SPEAKER_04: You know, the the politician kind of throws out.
• 1:02:25
  SPEAKER_04: So being that I had to make that clear what you're looking at.
• 1:02:32
  SPEAKER_04: You know, the personality of the human.
• 1:02:35
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, the appointment as an independent senator, I try to do the best I can as an independent senator.
• 1:02:40
  SPEAKER_04: I was there for two years, and I I tried to be respectful to everyone, everyone's wishes, how they deal with things, you know, their perspectives.
• 1:02:49
  SPEAKER_04: Try to be balanced.
• 1:02:50
  SPEAKER_04: And even in the last song that I won with, I was trying to be as balanced as possible.
• 1:02:55
  SPEAKER_04: The um the song representing we, that song.
• 1:03:00
  SPEAKER_04: That song was me also having a bit of fun with just the moment.
• 1:03:05
  SPEAKER_04: You know, the moment of being a Calypsonian in Parliament.
• 1:03:09
  Corie: In the Senate, no.
• 1:03:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that was to be to be to be in the Senate at that moment.
• 1:03:14
  SPEAKER_04: And especially especially being the the only, especially being the only Calypsonian and slash Calypso Monarch.
• 1:03:24
  SPEAKER_04: I mean I'm senator slash Calypso Monarch.
• 1:03:26
  Corie: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:03:26
  Corie: Only one.
• 1:03:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I'm the only person to win to win a Calypso Monarch while being a senator.
• 1:03:31
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, right, of course.
• 1:03:32
  SPEAKER_04: You was winning while he was there.
• 1:03:33
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so is so just the experience itself was surreal.
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_04: It's a surreal experience, and I had to bring that out in the song to let people know and let people understand the differences, you know, the experience.
• 1:03:47
  SPEAKER_04: To let them know what happens to you when you're in that position.
• 1:03:51
  SPEAKER_04: Because in another position you gotta explain very often.
• 1:03:53
  Corie: No.
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_04: What's the chances of the television being in that position?
• 1:03:56
  Corie: And I felt as though, to tell you how I interpret it, I felt like if you was trying to tell me, well, you should be glad a Calypsoan represented me.
• 1:04:02
  Corie: It felt that way.
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_04: Well, that's exactly what I said.
• 1:04:05
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, good.
• 1:04:05
  SPEAKER_04: Because if you're being honest, you're being honest, I have to take the balance approach.
• 1:04:13
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 1:04:14
  SPEAKER_04: I have to take the balance approach to things.
• 1:04:17
  SPEAKER_04: And that's because I'm a Calypsoan.
• 1:04:20
  Corie: Well, I know a Calypsoan who have a line in a song, right?
• 1:04:22
  Corie: He says they have a way to say Kaisonia and then go to school.
• 1:04:25
  Corie: So anything we say they consider we as fool.
• 1:04:28
  Corie: Yeah.
• 1:04:28
  Corie: So I want to know how you gain to the independent senate because we might need a little thing, you know, because if this podcast thing ain't work out, I look into see.
• 1:04:37
  SPEAKER_03: I look in for a while.
• 1:04:39
  SPEAKER_03: Iron demon time.
• 1:04:42
  SPEAKER_04: No it matters how it came about.
• 1:04:45
  SPEAKER_04: Uh they they recommended me.
• 1:04:47
  SPEAKER_04: It was a recommendation.
• 1:04:49
  SPEAKER_04: They recommended me.
• 1:04:50
  SPEAKER_04: And they they they asked me to And it's a day like Devon Ziel and the movie.
• 1:04:54
  Corie: No, no, no.
• 1:04:54
  SPEAKER_04: No Devon Seals.
• 1:04:56
  SPEAKER_04: Um someone recommended me as a they said, well, you know, Keelan Francis could probably be a very good fit to be a part of the Senate.
• 1:05:05
  SPEAKER_04: And they while when they recommended me, they they asked for me to to to write a speech for them to test my my ability to be balanced and be a good speech writer.
• 1:05:18
  SPEAKER_04: I wrote the speech and Madam President obviously agreed.
• 1:05:23
  Corie: It's polymer weeks at the time.
• 1:05:26
  SPEAKER_04: Oh no.
• 1:05:26
  SPEAKER_04: By going back too far, Christine Kanglu.
• 1:05:28
  SPEAKER_04: Christine.
• 1:05:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 1:05:29
  SPEAKER_04: So Madam President agreed and she she she sanctioned it.
• 1:05:32
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:05:33
  SPEAKER_04: That was a very nice moment.
• 1:05:35
  SPEAKER_04: You enjoyed it?
• 1:05:37
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:05:38
  SPEAKER_04: I I enjoyed it.
• 1:05:38
  SPEAKER_04: I enjoyed the experience.
• 1:05:40
  SPEAKER_04: It also gave me a different perspective to being a politician as well.
• 1:05:44
  SPEAKER_04: Because you now see the mindset behind making decisions.
• 1:05:49
  SPEAKER_04: It's very easy to judge on how a decision is made when you stand outside.
• 1:05:54
  unknown: Of course.
• 1:05:54
  SPEAKER_04: But when you're inside, you realize the different factors that are being taken into account.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_04: Consideration.
• 1:06:01
  SPEAKER_04: So when you see all the factors that have been taken into consideration, you realize where sometimes they're blind spots, they're places you can't see.
• 1:06:09
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 1:06:09
  SPEAKER_04: You realize why why someone would make a mistake with a decision and why they would sometimes overlook particular things.
• 1:06:18
  SPEAKER_04: So being there, expose that to me.
• 1:06:21
  Corie: Yeah.
• 1:06:21
  Corie: Who feels it knows kind of thing.
• 1:06:23
  SPEAKER_04: For real.
• 1:06:24
  SPEAKER_04: For real.
• 1:06:24
  SPEAKER_04: You know?
• 1:06:25
  SPEAKER_04: Doesn't take away the the results of the decision.
• 1:06:29
  SPEAKER_04: Of course, yes.
• 1:06:29
  Corie: That's what it is.
• 1:06:30
  Corie: That's what it is.
• 1:06:31
  Corie: Very, very consequential, the the things that you're doing.
• 1:06:34
  Corie: Yeah.
• 1:06:35
  Corie: So that experience in the in the in the as an independent senator, again, appointed by a president who was appointed by a party.
• 1:06:42
  Corie: Right.
• 1:06:43
  Corie: That seemed to be a very popular topic these days, right?
• 1:06:45
  Corie: And people getting called names and them kind of thing.
• 1:06:47
  Corie: So when you you talk about the so I guess the popular accusation or the accusation in the public space, or the rhetoric, let me say, is that I assume there's overlap sometimes when you win an election where the president is in place, who the last party would appoint.
• 1:07:04
  Corie: So that the independent senators are appointed by a president who was appointed by the last party.
• 1:07:09
  Corie: That makes sense?
• 1:07:10
  Corie: Sorry, bro.
• 1:07:10
  Corie: Say that again?
• 1:07:10
  Corie: Yeah, drunken.
• 1:07:12
  Corie: Let me make sure I say it correct, right?
• 1:07:15
  Corie: So if you in power, I I don't want to call no party name, I'm frightened.
• 1:07:18
  Corie: If you're in power, uh-huh, you lose the election, you get some character building, right?
• 1:07:23
  Corie: I beat you.
• 1:07:24
  Corie: You would have appointed the last president of the country.
• 1:07:27
  SPEAKER_06: Right.
• 1:07:27
  Corie: The president of that country would have appointed the independent senators, right?
• 1:07:30
  Corie: Nine independent senators.
• 1:07:32
  Corie: Correct.
• 1:07:32
  Corie: When I come in power now, I have them same nine independent senators that I might be facing, and the same president that you appoint.
• 1:07:40
  Corie: So now when I go to make decisions on them nine independent senators seen as being voting in caucus, we were voting together, and they seem to be voting against me, I find they satan thinking.
• 1:07:57
  Corie: That's what the discussion is now.
• 1:08:00
  Corie: For you as an independent senator, you felt independent, you could do your own thing, you felt that, or you're feeling pressure from the party.
• 1:08:07
  SPEAKER_04: Of course you're independent.
• 1:08:09
  SPEAKER_04: That's the whole purpose of being there.
• 1:08:11
  SPEAKER_04: You have to be independent to be successful as an independent senator.
• 1:08:18
  SPEAKER_04: You cannot be biased.
• 1:08:19
  Corie: This is you personally or the system.
• 1:08:21
  SPEAKER_04: That's you're not all right.
• 1:08:24
  SPEAKER_04: Human beings have biases.
• 1:08:27
  SPEAKER_04: Let's put this start there.
• 1:08:29
  SPEAKER_04: Every human being has a bias somewhere inside.
• 1:08:32
  Corie: I wish we would all admit that.
• 1:08:33
  SPEAKER_04: That's the truth.
• 1:08:34
  SPEAKER_04: If you if you if you're lying to yourself, then that's you.
• 1:08:37
  SPEAKER_04: But human beings have biases naturally.
• 1:08:42
  SPEAKER_04: With a human being having having a bias, whether they are for this party or that party, you still have to remove yourself when it comes to making a decision for your country.
• 1:08:57
  SPEAKER_04: You're a part of the Senate, and your purpose as an independent senator is to bring balance to the argument.
• 1:09:07
  SPEAKER_04: You go the one one is for, one is against.
• 1:09:11
  SPEAKER_04: Your purpose now is to see the loopholes with within that.
• 1:09:15
  SPEAKER_04: You you to be honest, you probably have the most important part.
• 1:09:19
  SPEAKER_04: The most important part uh in the in the Senate, your purpose is the most important.
• 1:09:26
  SPEAKER_04: Because you're the only person who has to who has to share the perspective of being of not towing a line.
• 1:09:37
  Corie: In other words, both parties are likely to vote at each other.
• 1:09:42
  SPEAKER_04: You basically understand what they're going to say.
• 1:09:44
  SPEAKER_04: Of course, of course.
• 1:09:46
  SPEAKER_04: But you're with your voice as an independent senator, you know how you could now you could now probably even sway a decision towards where they would go or perspective.
• 1:10:01
  SPEAKER_04: You could now sway their minds to what's towards seeing the perspective equally or more balanced.
• 1:10:08
  SPEAKER_04: And as human beings, you have to expect people to be to get into uh a form of habit.
• 1:10:17
  SPEAKER_04: You have to expect them to go into a form of habit.
• 1:10:19
  SPEAKER_04: If I'm towing a line all the time, toe in a line only time, sometimes you get into habit.
• 1:10:24
  SPEAKER_04: The habit of towing the line and miss what was not being said.
• 1:10:30
  SPEAKER_04: That's why you're there.
• 1:10:31
  SPEAKER_04: So independent senator.
• 1:10:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um as a former independent senator, I have to defend the independent senators in that situation.
• 1:10:42
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I I don't agree with those remarks.
• 1:10:45
  SPEAKER_04: The remarks that was made, I wouldn't agree with them.
• 1:10:49
  SPEAKER_04: Uh but I understand the perspective.
• 1:10:54
  SPEAKER_04: I understand the perspective, understand why you'd look at it that way.
• 1:10:58
  SPEAKER_04: But that's you that's not why they're there.
• 1:11:02
  Corie: Yeah, of course.
• 1:11:02
  Corie: And I understand the so for people who mightn't pay attention to it.
• 1:11:05
  Corie: And I guess that's why I like representing we a lot because you shed light on something that the average man in the well, first the Calypsonians talk to the average man.
• 1:11:14
  Corie: They used to say the poor man newspaper, you know, is you're talking to the average person.
• 1:11:18
  Corie: The average person not sitting at home thinking about who didn't think and Senate and where's this one role and sufferers don't care about who's there, you know?
• 1:11:27
  Corie: No, no, no.
• 1:11:28
  Corie: It does not matter to them.
• 1:11:29
  Corie: No.
• 1:11:29
  Corie: So you take that into an arena where and you force people to listen in the way that you usually do, so that they sort of understand, hey, this number one, it felt like if you're saying, as I said, you should be glad I call it soon in here, it also felt like you were saying, hey, we send about these people, but this is not as easy as you think.
• 1:11:46
  Corie: And so it felt like you were being, as you usually do, kind of balanced in your role.
• 1:11:51
  Corie: And um for me, it in in and as in a sense you're saying now that we should all be um, as a population, as the average man, be very grateful for the system of independent senators and and and understand your role.
• 1:12:07
  Corie: Because you say, that's the that's that you representing we when you go there as an independent senator.
• 1:12:11
  SPEAKER_04: Listen, if you're being honest, most Trinidadians don't understand your role at all.
• 1:12:14
  Corie: Yeah.
• 1:12:14
  SPEAKER_04: Most.
• 1:12:16
  Corie: They just know that these people exist.
• 1:12:18
  Corie: Of course.
• 1:12:18
  Corie: Well, you shed light on it today and in the song, and I appreciate that.
• 1:12:21
  Corie: And I think that one of the things that people might miss interpreters is that sometimes you see the nine independent centers vote together.
• 1:12:29
  Corie: And it seems as if they voted in caucus.
• 1:12:31
  Corie: But I seem to remember article one time where they had a property tax something, and I think everybody went one way and you went the next way.
• 1:12:36
  Corie: Just real.
• 1:12:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, remember that.
• 1:12:39
  Corie: Any issue with that?
• 1:12:40
  Corie: Like you get pushback for that because the property tax was a big issue under the administration and you decide as an independent senator.
• 1:12:46
  Corie: Again, out here.
• 1:12:48
  Corie: President appointed by a party.
• 1:12:51
  Corie: That president appointed the independent senator.
• 1:12:54
  Corie: So so even the true line there is, people have their own biases.
• 1:12:57
  Corie: I can understand why one might see it as the nine people can't be independent.
• 1:13:02
  Corie: You understand?
• 1:13:03
  Corie: So, what's your what's your feeling like when you decide to vote against at the time?
• 1:13:07
  SPEAKER_04: And I felt I felt like I felt justified.
• 1:13:10
  SPEAKER_04: I felt like what I said or what I felt was a reality.
• 1:13:15
  SPEAKER_04: And I think even when I when I said no, when I voted no in that time, some of that, some of that vote, you could we're kind of seeing it right now.
• 1:13:27
  SPEAKER_04: So it's some of my reasoning.
• 1:13:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 1:13:31
  SPEAKER_04: Some of my reasoning for it.
• 1:13:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um you have the free will to say no.
• 1:13:43
  SPEAKER_04: And you should you should use that free will as an independent senator at any time.
• 1:13:49
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 1:13:50
  SPEAKER_04: It doesn't matter what people, how people view you, you use that.
• 1:13:56
  SPEAKER_04: You you you you exercise that because you're there for your country.
• 1:14:00
  SPEAKER_04: You're not there for anyone in particular or any view.
• 1:14:04
  SPEAKER_04: You're there for your country.
• 1:14:06
  SPEAKER_04: If you think there is a a piece of this bill that does not make sense, and you think that it should not, you can't pass this bill because of that piece, then you say no.
• 1:14:18
  Corie: Yeah, exercise you're right.
• 1:14:19
  Corie: It's quite simple.
• 1:14:20
  Corie: I guess it's yes, no, abstain.
• 1:14:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, no, abstain.
• 1:14:23
  SPEAKER_04: Or you bring it forward, you bring it forward and ask them to address that piece.
• 1:14:26
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 1:14:27
  Corie: Yeah.
• 1:14:27
  Corie: I'd ask you like I asked you with TTT and Tuku.
• 1:14:29
  Corie: When you make that vote, people calling you and thinking it's that kind of thing.
• 1:14:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:14:33
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, this time you get calls.
• 1:14:34
  SPEAKER_03: Phone ringing and what kind of thing.
• 1:14:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, phone ringing right.
• 1:14:39
  SPEAKER_04: But but um, but if but if you if you understand, if you go and you you read what I said no for, like if you go back and take a look, you'll see why I said it.
• 1:14:50
  Corie: It probably would.
• 1:14:51
  Corie: It was spelt out.
• 1:14:52
  Corie: I think you whether you agree with your arguments or not, you had to respect the conviction.
• 1:14:57
  Corie: Because I I would imagine it's difficult to do.
• 1:14:58
  Corie: I would imagine you know the pushback that comes when that happened.
• 1:15:01
  Corie: And we don't know as a man who likes to answer your phone, so you must turn off your phone before you make the vote.
• 1:15:06
  Corie: Is that good?
• 1:15:07
  Corie: It's a good practice.
• 1:15:08
  Corie: It's a good practice.
• 1:15:08
  SPEAKER_04: I stand on what I stand on.
• 1:15:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I stand on what I stand on.
• 1:15:12
  SPEAKER_04: I'm I'm firm with what I think and what I say.
• 1:15:14
  Corie: Yeah.
• 1:15:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so it I'm I'm quite okay with how I'm viewed.
• 1:15:17
  Corie: Yeah, you're not worried about it.
• 1:15:19
  SPEAKER_04: I'm fine.
• 1:15:20
  Corie: I'm fine.
• 1:15:20
  Corie: I wait till you know again.
• 1:15:22
  Corie: Congrats again coming back and win the Calypso monarch in 2025.
• 1:15:26
  Corie: You know, I mean, you're always in the mix, you're always there.
• 1:15:28
  Corie: I think you're at that stage now.
• 1:15:30
  Corie: I'm glad you say it a little earlier where you see it young Calypsoans or thing they're watching like a veteran.
• 1:15:35
  Corie: You're the man who, you know what I mean, up there, you're winning, you're competing.
• 1:15:38
  Corie: When did that happen?
• 1:15:39
  Corie: You know, life is funny.
• 1:15:41
  Corie: Wait till you sort of get knee pain and thing, you know what I mean?
• 1:15:44
  Corie: That that's coming next.
• 1:15:45
  Corie: But it leads me to like we we saw recently in the in the in the last few weeks the person of the great bird, Dr.
• 1:15:52
  Corie: Birds, Dr.
• 1:15:52
  Corie: Slinger Francisco.
• 1:15:54
  Corie: And one of the things that um we did at God Reserve Soul, we did a tribute episode, and it was interesting to me when we when we spoke to many people about him from all different walks of life.
• 1:16:05
  Corie: How many people spoke about the way he did political and social commentary?
• 1:16:09
  Corie: Yeah.
• 1:16:09
  Corie: Some of them he make a party to, yeah.
• 1:16:11
  Corie: Some was direct.
• 1:16:12
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 1:16:12
  Corie: And some of them was proper, proper double on tundra.
• 1:16:15
  Corie: And he had he had a way of covering not just local but world issues.
• 1:16:19
  Corie: I wonder for you as a Calypsoan and a lover Calypso.
• 1:16:22
  Corie: Was it taught on Mighty Sparrow?
• 1:16:23
  Corie: How he influenced on influence and affects you?
• 1:16:26
  SPEAKER_04: Class act.
• 1:16:28
  SPEAKER_04: That's my words.
• 1:16:29
  SPEAKER_04: Class act.
• 1:16:30
  SPEAKER_04: There is no, there's no.
• 1:16:32
  SPEAKER_04: I don't think we have anybody who has had the influence that the Mighty Sparrow has had.
• 1:16:39
  SPEAKER_04: You know, he got God bless him with long life.
• 1:16:42
  SPEAKER_04: Because I think that's living long.
• 1:16:44
  SPEAKER_04: I think that's a long time to be, to be around and to understand where you are.
• 1:16:51
  Corie: 91 by any metric.
• 1:16:53
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's a long time.
• 1:16:55
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, we it's sad to say that we we have to say bye bye to him.
• 1:17:01
  SPEAKER_04: We have to say bye-bye to him, but we have to be more grateful that we actually got to experience him.
• 1:17:09
  SPEAKER_04: The mighty sparrow would kill us with so much different things.
• 1:17:12
  SPEAKER_04: Charm, charisma, um, dancing, vocals, lyrics we could have write too.
• 1:17:21
  SPEAKER_04: It's is is so much.
• 1:17:25
  SPEAKER_04: So it's when you when you see an artist with that much capability, and he wasn't a bad looking fella either, yeah.
• 1:17:33
  SPEAKER_04: Down to the end though.
• 1:17:35
  SPEAKER_04: So when you see artists with all that ability, you had to just just praise them, just say, hey, yeah, yeah, you are the king.
• 1:17:43
  SPEAKER_04: King of Calypso.
• 1:17:44
  SPEAKER_04: You have to give that to you.
• 1:17:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, the the ability he had was shining ballads.
• 1:17:51
  SPEAKER_04: Come on.
• 1:17:52
  SPEAKER_04: So come on, he's a Calypso and not singing ballads.
• 1:17:55
  Corie: Yeah, ballads, ballads.
• 1:17:57
  Corie: Big music, singing, singing, orchestral music behind him.
• 1:18:00
  Corie: Singing, singing, come on.
• 1:18:03
  SPEAKER_04: He was a class act.
• 1:18:04
  SPEAKER_04: No one could really step in them shoes.
• 1:18:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:18:07
  SPEAKER_04: That is it.
• 1:18:07
  SPEAKER_04: Nobody could step in that amount of shoes.
• 1:18:09
  SPEAKER_04: He he was too good.
• 1:18:10
  SPEAKER_04: He was too good at everything.
• 1:18:12
  SPEAKER_04: Um I have utmost respect for the legacy that he's left.
• 1:18:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:18:17
  SPEAKER_04: Utmost respect.
• 1:18:19
  SPEAKER_04: And I still I sh I love all his music.
• 1:18:22
  Corie: All we know when we finish the episode is how much song we ain't play.
• 1:18:26
  Corie: I feel we play a hundred songs.
• 1:18:28
  Corie: Yeah.
• 1:18:28
  Corie: And when we're done, it's just like, hey, we didn't play this, we didn't play that because it was just he was just that guy.
• 1:18:32
  SPEAKER_04: Listen, I remember that as Sparrow.
• 1:18:34
  SPEAKER_04: I was I I remember Asparrow I was listening to.
• 1:18:37
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, when I was going to Napa, when I was going to to to the Academy of Performing Arts.
• 1:18:46
  SPEAKER_04: And up to today I looking for this song, I can't find it.
• 1:18:50
  SPEAKER_04: I talk about looking for it.
• 1:18:52
  SPEAKER_04: Break listen, I was trying to find the song.
• 1:18:54
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know where to find the song.
• 1:18:55
  SPEAKER_04: I can't remember the name, but it was a song I would listen to almost every day.
• 1:18:59
  SPEAKER_04: Every day, because he sang it so smoothly, so beautiful.
• 1:19:05
  SPEAKER_04: It was it was so good that I up to now I still are longing for this song to find the song again.
• 1:19:11
  Corie: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:19:12
  Corie: And here now, any topic, any kind of thing.
• 1:19:14
  Corie: Uh he has the breadth to do it.
• 1:19:15
  Corie: Yeah, he has the breadth to do it.
• 1:19:17
  Corie: But listen, I know that you have we we we we go in and we go in the show.
• 1:19:20
  Corie: Everybody here we still did the people here say they're going all the show and then we know we're gonna be in the show.
• 1:19:25
  Corie: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:19:26
  Corie: I I eager to see it because again, I I want to thank you first because I know that for for myself, yeah, for the folks here, as well as for the audience, it's difficult to hear Helan Francis speaking with me.
• 1:19:38
  Corie: So I appreciate you taking it.
• 1:19:39
  SPEAKER_04: I want to thank you for doing what you're doing as well, brother.
• 1:19:42
  SPEAKER_04: This is excellent documentation for the nation.
• 1:19:45
  SPEAKER_04: I can only do this because you're doing what you're doing, you know.
• 1:19:47
  SPEAKER_04: Because I can't do it.
• 1:19:49
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:19:50
  SPEAKER_04: It's very, very important.
• 1:19:51
  Corie: Ladies and gentlemen, Mr.
• 1:19:52
  Corie: Helan Francis, thank you very much, bro.
• 1:19:56
  Corie: I just want to let you know that the mic was off, and we didn't capture your side.
• 1:20:02
  SPEAKER_03: We didn't capture your side.
• 1:20:06
  SPEAKER_03: Somebody take touch for me.