Calypso and soca music are in a precarious position, says much-sought-after producer Martin "Mice" Raymond, who's known for his outspoken, no-nonsense views on local music and the industry. "Calypso and soca have painted themselves into a corner,"?he says. "Calypso needs to stop pretending that soca is some ugly outside chile and recognise it's just another form of calypso.
"There's an amazing variety of fantastic music in all genres being developed. Trinidad is in the midst of a great flowering of creative talent. By the way, some of the best social commentary in recent years has come from Bunji Garlin and Maximus Dan (Maximus Prime). Machel Montano's Advantage, written by Kernal Roberts, was a very good social commentary as well. Exactly the sort of thing Kitchener would have done.
"Soca artistes and writers need to write about something other than Carnival and fete, though. The reason soca hasn't made it big internationally is entirely because it is seasonal. No other form of popular music worldwide is seasonal.
"Also, all due respect to the organisers of various competitions, but in my opinion, the competitions have done more harm than good. They've set artistes against each other and have led to a lowering of standards as everyone now writes
to please 'de judges and dem,' and not necessarily the public or their creative instinct."
Asked about the state of the CD business locally, especially when compared to other countries like Jamaica and Canada, and the role of radio in promoting local music, Raymond replied, "The CD business? What's a CD? Oh, you mean those shiny things we used to buy and sell and play music on? Yeah, right. Those things.... Business? The money now is in live performance.
"I don't understand how radio works in Trinidad. Talk to Keith Nurse, re a Unesco study showing that Trinidad has the highest per capita worldwide of persons involved in arts and entertainment, but the lowest ratio of airplay compared to everywhere else. A quota system along the lines of Canada or France is sorely needed. I think tax incentives are way better than legislation, though."
About his future ambitions and aspirations, Raymond said, "We have a new company, the Champion Creative Group Ltd. Our focus is developing creative talent for export. Names to watch include Abroneka, Cyrilia Lopez, Richie Luna, A_Phake. These will be the musical equivalent of a Keshorn Walcott.
"By the way, how come no one ever criticises our sportsmen for playing European games and sports, but somehow feels that our musical talent should be restricted to soca, calypso and chutney?"
At the moment, Raymond is extremely busy mastering for lots of people. "I am mastering for almost everybody-from Machel to Kes to producer Neil Bernard. Yesterday, I completed a pan song for Professor (Ken Philmore) and Destra.
Mastering is like the final phase of the creative process and the beginning of the manufacturing process."
English-born Raymond came to Trinidad at an early age and began playing music at nine. His first instruments were the piano and organ, but he switched to the guitar at 14. After a few stints in school bands, this Fatima College alumnus was recruited by Carl "Beaver" Henderson to join the band Fireflight as second guitarist.
Through the band and its parent company, Gold Sounds, Raymond got a thorough grounding in many aspects of the music industry, including live performance, studio engineering, sound design and synthesis. He was involved in the production of many of the band's hits, including Morning Loving and White Horse, and also helped to co-write the hit Meet Me On Level 2 with Francis Escayg for the band RF-JAM, before going back to the UK in 1986.
In London, Raymond focused on engineering and music production. He was at the forefront of the emerging UK hip-hop/dance scene and worked with many artistes, including Terry President, Pascal Gabriel, General Levy, The Pasadenas, The Crawdaddies, Wayne Marshall, Deborah Dyer of Skunk Anansi, as well as visiting calypsonians Merchant, Gypsy and Tobago Crusoe.
During a five-year stint at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, Raymond did music arrangement/ direction for academy productions and also engineered projects for clients such as CBS/Sony, Polydor, Channel 4 Television, Russ Abbot and Lionel Blair.
Raymond returned to Trinidad in 1996, working primarily at Caribbean Sound Basin Studios and Eddy Grant's Blue Wave Studios in Barbados. He co-produced tracks with top R&B producer Teddy Riley and did remixes for David Bowie, Taral Hicks and Andrea Martin. He also lent his engineering skills to projects for Sean "P Diddy" Combs, Notorious BIG, Aaliyah, and Wyclef Jean, as well as British stars Sir Cliff Richard, Gerry Rafferty and Right Said Fred.
Raymond has produced and mixed projects for T&T artistes including Andre Tanker, Ataklan, David Rudder, Machel Montano, Mungal Patasar, Renee Castle, Bro Resistance, Shadow, Sugar Daddy, Three Canal, Iwer George, and General Grant. He also worked with reggae hit-makers Steely and Clevie and Aswad.
Raymond has also performed with several local bands, including Fireflight, Exit, Frontpage (UK), and has also toured Europe with Calypso Rose and Brother Resistance.
This affable and multi-talented musician, who is married with a nine-year-old daughter, disclosed, "My most recent favourite production was the Streets & Avenues album by 12 The Band, released 2008. And, my favourite song on it was Prosper. Unfortunately, though, the album had zero impact in T&T. I don't think it played even once on any station. The video, though, got some plays on Synergy TV."
In 2003, Raymond created a premier mixing and mastering facility-Champion Sound Studios-and, as a mastering engineer, was responsible for mastering five Road March title winners from 2004 to the present:
• Look The Band Coming-Shurwayne Winchester (2004)
• Dead or Alive-Shurwayne Winchester (2005)
• Band of the Year-Machel Montano & Patrice Roberts (2006)
• Jumbie-Machel Montano HD (2007)
• Get On-Fay-Ann Lyons (2008).
He also mastered winning selections for many soca, calypso and chutney monarchs, including Kaiso, Kaiso and Check The Foundation for 2006 National Calypso Monarch Luta and Mor Tor for 2005 Chutney Monarch Rikki Jai.
Raymond is currently assistant professor of audio recording and music production at the University of T&T's Academy for the Performing Arts.
He has been a consultant to local industry bodies including the Entertainment Company of T&T; Copyright Organisation of T&T; and the Recording Industry Association of T&T, in addition to working alongside the National Training Agency in developing a national standard and curriculum for audio engineering.