Bo­bie-lee Dixon

Car­ni­val is here again and while some are get­ting ready to just en­joy them­selves on the road, there are those we must re­mem­ber, had it not been for their cre­ativ­i­ty, ded­i­ca­tion and skill, Car­ni­val would not be the great­est show on earth. Who am I speak­ing about? Well, let's hear it for the mas men who im­me­di­ate­ly re­turn to their camps fol­low­ing Car­ni­val each year to be­gin work­ing on the next con­cept for the fol­low­ing.

And what about the mu­si­cians and artistes? Can you re­al­ly imag­ine Car­ni­val with­out mu­sic or with­out them? These pro­fes­sion­als are the rea­son why mas­quer­aders and so­ca lovers break their pig­gy banks each year to soak up the eu­pho­ria that is Car­ni­val. The T&T Guardian got up close and per­son­al with some of the champs from last year and this what they had to say about their con­tri­bu­tions for 2012.

Karen Ashe: Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch

"Hav­ing per­formed for the open­ing of Kaiso House on Jan­u­ary 24 at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah, Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch win­ner Karene As­che, says she is def­i­nite­ly ready for this year's com­pe­ti­tion. "I am just go­ing with the flow. I am ex­cit­ed about de­fend­ing my ti­tle and mak­ing it to the fi­nals is al­ways a weight off your shoul­der," she said. Asked about her de­fend­ing se­lec­tion, As­che dis­closed that what she has cho­sen to per­form at the Di­manche Gras will not yet be re­vealed, she did say how­ev­er, she was con­fi­dent her choice will do well and not­ed she is just stay­ing fo­cused.

Kees Di­ef­fen­thaller: Play Whe In­ter­na­tion­al Groovy So­ca Monarch

With Kes The Band's Car­ni­val theme–We Are Wired, they are cer­tain­ly putting their all out there for Car­ni­val 2012. In a tele­phone in­ter­view with the de­fend­ing Groovy So­ca Monarch King, Di­ef­fen­thaller said the theme is re­al­ly about the band be­ing ready...wired to fete, to so­ca and to bring some­thing new to the ta­ble. "When we say bring­ing some­thing new to the ta­ble we are fo­cus­ing on pre­sen­ta­tion and songs." He added that this year was re­al­ly sig­nif­i­cant for the band as for the first time it has been work­ing with its own ma­te­r­i­al. "We have worked hard over the years for this. So I am hap­py we are work­ing with our own ma­te­r­i­al op­pose to be­ing a cov­er band."

The Pre­ci­sion Wine singer al­so re­vealed the band was get­ting more in touch with their fan­base via its on­line di­ary which keep fans abreast of what's hap­pen­ing with the band. Re­gard­ing his take on So­ca Monarch and de­fend­ing his ti­tle, Di­ef­fen­thaller said he felt good about the com­pe­ti­tion, how­ev­er like As­che, he has cho­sen to keep a low pro­file on which song he would de­fend his ti­tle with come Car­ni­val Fri­day night. But he did lend some ad­vice to his col­leagues com­pet­ing in the com­pe­ti­tion. "Mu­sic is a mis­sion not a com­pe­ti­tion and I think peo­ple need to be re­mind­ed of that. We are not in the 'tit for tat' thing...we are just fo­cus­ing on do­ing our best."

Ben­jai Young Kings Monarch

Ben­jai who won the Young Kings ti­tle last year was un­able to speak to the Guardian as he is cur­rent­ly out of the coun­try. How­ev­er, his man­ag­er Roy Christo­pher Cape (Royie) gave a few com­ments on what the I's Ah Tri­ni singer's sea­son has been look­ing like so far. "Ben­jai is hav­ing a good sea­son. This year he has four of­fer­ings for Car­ni­val; Take Your Time, Kinky Wine, Feel­ing and he just re­leased an­oth­er-Swanky­li­cious. "The great thing about Ben­jai is that he pens his own songs. I think any artiste will feel proud about their work es­pe­cial­ly when it is loved by many. "This sea­son he is just about mak­ing good mu­sic and feels con­fi­dent his ma­te­r­i­al will bear fruit."

Neal & Massy Trinidad All Stars: Na­tion­al Panora­ma cham­pi­on

Win­ning in the large band cat­e­go­ry last year, Neal and Massy All Stars Steel Or­ches­tra is back again this Car­ni­val with their cho­sen pan piece Play Your­self com­posed by Clive Tele­maque and per­formed by Ed­win Ay­oung, aka Crazy. Beres­ford Hunte (Berry), the band's man­ag­er said the bad was tak­ing each round of the com­pe­ti­tion one day at a time. Hunte said: "All the large bands go­ing to the semi­fi­nals so we have all won re­al­ly. We are just look­ing for­ward to the com­pe­ti­tion and tak­ing it one step at a time."

Bri­an Mac­Far­lane: Band of the Year

When Bri­an Mac­Far­lane cross­es the stage each year there is the fear by oth­er bands that he may take the band of the year ti­tle with ease. With his por­tray­als al­ways rel­a­tive to top­ics of life, he tells many sto­ries through colour, move­ment and de­sign. He gave the T&T Guardian a small in­sight to what mas­quer­aders should ex­pect from Bri­an Mac­Far­lane for 2012. "In our 2012 pre­sen­ta­tion, "Sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion...in search of" we will de­pict the cur­rent state of vi­o­lence, vul­gar­i­ty, and blood­shed preva­lent in our coun­try and the po­ten­tial our peo­ple have to con­quer the dishar­mo­ny, by bring­ing back the peace and love that once ruled our beloved coun­try.

"The pre­sen­ta­tion fa­cil­i­tates be­tween 1,000-1,100 mem­bers and will be see­ing the na­tion­al colours, red, white and black thread­ed through a pow­er­ful and mov­ing dis­play." Ac­cord­ing to Mac­Far­lane he has spent months con­cep­tu­al­is­ing "Sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion...in search of" and is con­fi­dent that the work will have a telling im­pact on view­ing au­di­ence and mas­quer­aders alike. "We be­lieve that this pre­sen­ta­tion will fol­low the trend which had been set in the past, every­thing per­tain­ing to de­sign and pro­duc­tion are on par but far more the­atri­cal and dra­mat­ic."

Ros­alind Gabriel: Ju­nior Band of the Year

As wit­ty and bright as her per­son­al­i­ty is, so does those at­trib­ut­es shine through her pre­sen­ta­tions each year, maybe that is why she has won Ju­nior Band of the Year 14 times con­sec­u­tive­ly. Speak­ing with the T&T Guardian Mas woman Ros­alind Gabriel had no shame in her game about de­fend­ing her ti­tle and aim­ing for a 15th win. Gabriel said: "This year I am de­fend­ing strong­ly. I love what I do and I put my heart and soul in­to it. Each year I main­tain the stan­dard but I am al­ways find­ing new ways to im­prove the prod­uct that's Ros­alind Gabriel. "I love con­tribut­ing to the cul­ture and I will be do­ing this for as long as I have health and strength." Gabriel's ju­nior band por­tray­al for 2012 is themed gold and will re­flect the cel­e­bra­tion of T&T's 50 years of In­de­pen­dence-The Gold­en An­niver­sary-while her adult band will por­tray Trin­ba­go Xante-Show off Trin­ba­go Show off.