Alternative music in T&T is experiencing a "dip", says musician Gerry Anthony. And he's doing his part to boost it.
He manages the band room at the Woodbrook art space Alice Yard. The band room has been a go-to location for underground musicians since it was founded by Sheldon Holder of the now-defunct 12 the Band and architect Sean Leonard nine years ago.
Leonard designed the room with help from sound engineer Yoichi Watanabe and Holder was its first manager.
3Canal recorded the video for 2009's Boom Up History there. Iwer George and his Jab Jab band collaboration with Orange Sky's Nigel Rojas rehearsed in–and held an unscheduled photo shoot around–the band room. Other bands and artists who've recorded and rehearsed at the room include Ronnie McIntosh and D Experience, Alison Hinds, Chromatics, Gyazette, jointpop and Ken "Professor" Philmore.
"A lot of the good things that have happened in the underground scene would not have happened without this space," Anthony reflected in a recent interview.
"It grew organically out of the underground musicians themselves creating the space, because there wasn't a space," he said. "So that alone tells you how important it is."
Anthony has been part of the alternative music scene since the mid-2000s. He started off as the bass player of a hard rock band, went through an ideological and musical transformation, until he is now lead singer/songwriter with the West Indian Rhythm Konnection, a socially conscious amalgamation of reggae, rock and kaiso.
Anthony started managing the Alice Yard band room two years ago as part of a deal with Leonard when he and his band couldn't afford to rent the room.
"I offered to manage the room in return for free rehearsal time," said Anthony.
As manager Anthony organizes bookings, upkeeps the equipment and furnishings, and promotes the room. He doesn't need to do a lot of the last. There's no shortage of demand for the space. Around 15 bands and artists use the room in a year, he said.
It's not surprising that Alice Yard has become such a lightning rod for creative musical energy. Since 2004, it's become a gathering place for the who's who of the art world.
The property, which includes a house where Leonard's great-grandmother once lived, is also the site of contemporary art exhibitions, poetry readings and talks about various aspects of the arts.
"I like to think of Alice Yard as the epicentre of a contemporary art scene," said Anthony.
Adding to his role in developing the underground music scene, Anthony organises a monthly concert series for alternative bands and artists called New Fire in the Old Camp at the legendary De Nu Pub in Woodbrook, formerly known as Mas Camp Pub.
It started last year January with a concert featuring West Indian Rhythm Konnection and Gyazette. Other shows featured jointpop, Orange Sky and Gillian Moore's Bush Tea Party.
Alternative music has experienced "a dip, a kind of decline" since he started performing, said Anthony. This is happening not only in T&T.
"The DJ is the superstar [now]," he said.
He started New Fire because he felt "an intervention needed to be staged."
The 2015 edition of the series kicks off on Februrary 5 with Freetown Collective and Mistah Shak. It will continue on the first Thursday of every month.
One recent late afternoon, Anthony and three members of his band practiced in the Alice Yard band room in preparation for backing up Mistah Shak, who placed third in the Calypso Monarch final last year.
The small, grey room was decorated with posters from last year's New Fire concerts and a large T&T flag. The band warms up with the popular West Indian Rhythm Konnection track Mr Big. The lyrics are rapid-fire and hard-hitting–"I fed up of political machinations/Who to believe in this time of tribulation"–and in the confined space the drums and bass assail two non-musicians squeezed against the door like a physical force.
Anthony said even though popularity and opportunities for alternative musicians have declined, the quality of music has improved, but bands and artists are still looking for the right "formula" to reach enough people to survive.
New Fire and the Alice Yard band room give them outlets to perform and improve their craft while they find it.
aliceyard.blogspot.com and West Indian Rhythm Konnection on Facebook.