Pellau Magazine

Vocalist and songwriter, Nadia Batson has a concern. She is worried about the negative impact the lack of airplay of the music of the region’s soca artistes by local radio and fete DJs during Carnival 2012 may have on local artistes. The No Pressure singer told the T&T Guardian she foresees a backlash as other carnivals around the Caribbean come into focus. Batson, who introduced her all-female soca band at the end of 2011, said there must be more Caribbean unity and integration when it comes to music and she will personally strive to attain this as the year progresses. 

 

Why aren’t they up to date? 

Divulging plans to work with a number of Caribbean soca acts this year, including Antigua’s Tian Winter, Batson said Caribbean cohesion in music was essential for the growth of soca music and Caribbean music in general. She expressed delight over her recent trip to Toronto, where she performed at Dr Jay’s Return Fete at the Cool Out arena just after Carnival. She said she had been the only female act among a cast that featured entertainers such as Machel Montano, Shal Marshall, Super Jigga TC, Kimba Sorzano, Iwer George, Swappi and Kerwin Du Bois. “Yuh gyirl really mash up de place,” she said with confidence. Explaining that Toronto’s DJ’s and the Caribbean nationals living in that city are always in the know when it comes to new releases from soca artistes, Batson was puzzled as to why some Caribbean islands were not as up-to-date when it came to new soca releases.  “This thing called the Internet is the greatest thing ever. Now, the music is spread across the world via the Internet. From the moment I mention that I have a new track online, everybody looks for it,” she said. “I’m not certain what’s happening because we have all the resources. When I have my material, I send it off to an extensive list of DJs and media and other people. But I guess people have to do their research as well,” she rationalised. She said she was always open for requests from DJ’s or radio personalities for her music and would always be accommodating. 

 

Still a lot of work to do

Turning her attention back to what happened during Carnival in T&T, the artiste said the situation was a two-way street as a lot of the music recorded up the islands by soca artistes were relatively unknown by T&T nationals. “I don’t know if that’s their way of reacting to us not playing their music,” she said. The soca monarch situation, she opined, was a perfect example of what a lack of airplay could do to an artiste’s career. 

“The people who are automatically entered into the Soca Monarch competition, their songs are huge where they come from and we don’t know that. “I just think that because it’s such a touchy situation. It boils down to us being mindful of Caribbean integration,” she said. Batson also called on artistes to put in the work. “You can’t just sit down and think that you’re known and that’s it. “All of us have a lot of work to do in terms of getting our brand out there. There’s so much that we can do, but the thing now start.”  

 

Get ready for Usually

Batson is getting ready to release her post-Carnival single, Usually, which was produced by Martian Music and written by Batson herself. She said the track is about a good girl gone bad and described the sound as “a grungy kind of world music kind of feel.” She said no matter what, she will always fuse the soca into her music, even when she releases out of the carnival season. The SASS band leader said the 2012 season taught her a lot as a solo vocalist and also from the perspective of being a band leader. Now, her focus is on marketing her team and ensuring that the world comes to know SASS, year round. 

source: Trinidad Guardian