GYASI MER­RIQUE

Se­nior Re­porter Pro­duc­er

gyasi.mer­rique@cnc3.co.tt

There is an un­de­ni­able in­ter­sec­tion where cul­ture, arts and fash­ion col­lide, and on May 8, that meet­ing point was no more ev­i­dent than in Amer­i­ca’s Na­tion­al Pub­lic Ra­dio (NPR) Tiny Desk Con­cert.

T&T so­ca act Kes the Band graced the pop­u­lar YouTube se­ries, and while the world swooned about the band’s set of sweet so­ca smash­es, oth­ers fan­cied the finer­ies.

Fresh off their cel­e­brat­ed per­for­mance, the band’s bassist, Ri­ad Boo­choon, sat down with WE to talk her­itage, na­tion­al pride, and how the 1989 Strike Squad still epit­o­mis­es T&T’s soft pow­er.

Q: The Tiny Desk per­for­mance could have been ex­clu­sive­ly a cel­e­bra­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go mu­sic. Along­side one of our lead­ing bands, you had a top pan play­er and the reign­ing Ca­lyp­so Queen. Yet, in the midst of that, the in­ter­net has been chat­ter­ing about the man in the Strike Squad repli­ca shirt. You wore the jer­sey de­lib­er­ate­ly. Why?

A: “The rea­son why I brought it, is that it is her­itage to me. Just like Spar­row and Kitch­en­er, that Strike Squad team was and still is her­itage. Even though we didn’t qual­i­fy in the 1990 cam­paign, every­body who was around at that time still re­mem­bers that time fond­ly. And that’s why I con­sid­er that a big part of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s her­itage. That was a time when every per­son knew every per­son on that team. It was a time when na­tion­al uni­ty, love, and pa­tri­o­tism were at their peak. And that’s what the Tiny Desk per­for­mance is about. Yes, it is a cel­e­bra­tion of Kes the Band’s mu­sic, but with a plat­form that has 50 mil­lion lis­ten­ers and view­ers every month, we were go­ing to cel­e­brate Trinidad and To­ba­go. And we’re cel­e­brat­ing any­body who has brought us and in­flu­enced us on our jour­ney, be­cause you can’t know where you’re go­ing if you don’t know where you came from. So that was my in­spi­ra­tion and my con­tri­bu­tion and why I wore the Strike Squad t-shirt. Back in 1989, that was the first time in my mem­o­ry of be­ing alive where the en­tire coun­try was gal­vanised and fo­cused on one goal. It was such a beau­ti­ful time in Trinidad and To­ba­go for at least two years of that cam­paign.”

Was there a par­tic­u­lar state­ment you want­ed to make?

“Well, in our con­ver­sa­tions with Tiny Desk, and in­ter­est­ing­ly enough, there were like two Caribbean women, you know, one from Guyana and one from St Lu­cia, that we were talk­ing to with re­spect to pro­duc­tion. And they gave us lee­way in trans­form­ing the set as much as we could in­to a cel­e­bra­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go. As you can see, the records of Spar­row, Kitch­en­er, and Su­per Blue. We had pic­tures, ob­vi­ous­ly, of some peo­ple that re­al­ly have been dear to Kes the Band. That would be Un­cle Bun­ny and Danielle Di­ef­fen­thaller; those are Kees’ fa­ther and sis­ter. Ricky Bob­by, who was our key­boardist. We had a Julie man­go in the back­ground. We had the na­tion­al flag, of course. We had me in my beloved Strike Squad t-shirt from 1989, the de­sign, at least. And Ter­ri Lyons in what she called the ‘Sor­rel and Pitch Lake’ dress, which is in­ter­est­ing enough. And I mean, there was no doubt when you watched that where this band is from. It was meant to be a cel­e­bra­tion and an ex­plo­sion of Trinidad cul­ture, you know. I would al­ways say that mu­sic, sport, fash­ion, food, art—all that is like the same um­brel­la to me.”

Those par­al­lels are re­al­ly strik­ing. Where does mu­sic stand along­side sport in el­e­vat­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go on the world stage?

“We all have a part to play in rep­re­sent­ing. Look at what our ath­letes are do­ing in the Olympics. The javelin, sprint­ing, and cy­cling. Look what Bri­an Lara has done and is still do­ing, even though he’s re­tired. Dwight Yorke, Rus­sell Lat­apy, Stern John, Ken­wyne Jones, and the mu­si­cians. All of us are play­ing a part in rep­re­sent­ing the coun­try, and we do not get a smile on our faces. They all in­ter­sect, is what I’m try­ing to say. We all have a role. Trinidad and To­ba­go, as we know, has been blessed with a lot of rich­es, but hon­est­ly, what we still haven’t prop­er­ly tapped in­to has been the mu­sic, the sport, the fash­ion, and, of course, the food. That’s what we hope Tiny Desk does and any sports­man rep­re­sent­ing Trinidad. It is all un­der the same um­brel­la.”

Lo­cal ath­letes are fac­ing fund­ing short­falls that may pre­vent them from com­pet­ing. As some­one who rep­re­sents the coun­try through mu­sic, what do you make of that?

“I mean, I’ve been around a long time. This is not new, you know. I wish it were bet­ter. I wish the ath­letes did not have to won­der if they’re go­ing to get this chance to rep­re­sent be­cause they work so hard, but at the same time, this would be mak­ing us stronger, you know? We’re find­ing ways to get it done. The Tiny Desk op­por­tu­ni­ty, you know, that took a long time. I mean, they want­ed us for a while, and it took a long time for us to reach there, and it was a lot of sac­ri­fice. So, I do hope sim­i­lar­ly that there are some an­swers for these ath­letes that may not get a chance, but some­how we will fig­ure out a way to get them there.”

Could you imag­ine if Kesthe­Band, for some rea­son, was un­able to make it to the Tiny Desk Con­cert af­ter all of the hard work?

“It would have been heart­break­ing, hon­est­ly. If we had to do a big Cur­rants Roll and Mau­by sale, we would have done it. You know, not to say that the ath­letes should de­pend on that, but if the gov­ern­ment is not able to jump in to save the day, I do hope pri­vate stake­hold­ers jump in be­cause this is im­por­tant. This is very im­por­tant for the en­tire coun­try be­cause, as we know, we all gal­va­nize. You re­mem­ber when Bri­an Lara was mak­ing that 375? The whole coun­try glued to our TV. The same thing with Richard Thomp­son when he did his thing, same thing with George Bovell. These are the mo­ments that bring our coun­try to­geth­er. Let’s give the coun­try that again. I mean, we know they have peo­ple out here that could medal. Just give them the chance. You will see the hap­pi­ness, and any bit of hap­pi­ness we could get now would be great.”