Matthew Chin

Re­porter

matthew.chin@guardian.co.tt

So­ca Brain­wash, the mu­sic fes­ti­val cre­at­ed by in­ter­na­tion­al­ly-ac­claimed DJ and event pro­duc­er DJ Pri­vate Ryan (Ryan Alexan­der), will fea­ture a West­ern sto­ry with a twist this year.

Sched­uled for St Mary’s Col­lege Grounds next Sat­ur­day, So­ca Brain­wash 2024—The West­ern Sto­ry will fea­ture cow­boys, In­di­ans and even me­chan­i­cal bulls but there will be no guns and no bar fights. Tick­ets are al­ready sold out for the event.

DJ Pri­vate Ryan, who has achieved un­prece­dent­ed suc­cess pro­mot­ing so­ca and oth­er Caribbean mu­sic gen­res to a glob­al au­di­ence, is al­so known for his col­lab­o­ra­tions with top-flight artistes, in­clud­ing Patrice Roberts, Kes, Nes­sa Prep­py and Ter­ri Lyons and has pro­duced for Mela Caribe and Olatun­ji Year­wood.

He said he is ex­cit­ed about So­ca Brain­wash, since he has large fol­low­ings for the themed events he hosts in New York, Mi­a­mi, Toron­to, Bar­ba­dos, and T&T. The event evolved from his mar­quee sound and brand in­to a pre­miere fes­ti­val in Trinidad Car­ni­val, and is head­lined by an in­ter­na­tion­al cast of DJs and MCs.

The award-win­ning DJ, who had a fas­ci­na­tion with putting mu­sic to­geth­er since child­hood, start­ed play­ing in clubs pro­fes­sion­al­ly at age 16, but his ca­reer took off in 2006 when he up­loaded a mix of so­ca tunes to Face­book from his dorm room at Flori­da In­ter­na­tion­al Uni­ver­si­ty (FIU) in Mi­a­mi.

In a re­cent in­ter­view, while the fo­cus was on So­ca Brain­wash, the DJ-dri­ven fes­ti­val that he head­lines every year, DJ Pri­vate Ryan al­so spoke about some of his oth­er projects, in­clud­ing his work with ris­ing so­ca star Mela Caribe. He al­so shared his views on the state of the so­ca scene.

Q: How did you dis­cov­er Mela Caribe—what was it about her artistry that stood out to you so much that you said, ‘You know what? I want to make mu­sic with her.’

A: Work­ing with Mela was birthed through the pan­dem­ic. I saw her singing a cov­er of one of the songs that I did, Keep Jam­min’ On for Kes. She was do­ing it so ef­fort­less­ly that I had to reach out to her. She’s very fear­less, like me, in terms of cre­at­ing songs. We’ve been able to cre­ate a dif­fer­ent sound for our­selves, a pock­et of Caribbean mu­sic that is very root­ed in our cul­ture but still al­so glob­al.

Do you think any­thing is miss­ing from the so­ca scene?

There needs to be more ca­lyp­so, more so­ca crossovers and def­i­nite­ly more par­ty and fes­ti­val songs. When you bring these types of mu­sic to­geth­er, the puz­zle of the mu­sic ac­tu­al­ly makes sense and it is ex­cit­ing as a genre. It’s not just about one piece, it’s about all the pieces work­ing to­geth­er to make the whole en­gine run.

What in­spired you to make this year’s So­ca Brain­wash west­ern-style?

So­ca Brain­wash changes the theme every year. It al­ways rein­vents it­self. One of the themes I had in mind was a mod­ern west­ern tow, which is ex­cit­ing be­cause Brain­wash is sev­er­al fes­ti­vals hap­pen­ing at the same time. It’s drinks, it’s food, it’s fash­ion, it’s cul­ture,
it’s mu­sic. I took guns out of the whole con­cept for it be­cause of the his­to­ry be­tween the cow­boys and In­di­ans. This ver­sion of the west­ern city does not mur­der the In­di­ans, it’s peace­ful. It’s ac­tu­al­ly what Car­ni­val is sup­posed to be—love, fun, and uni­ty.

As some­one who’s been in the mu­sic in­dus­try for a while now, what are some things that ex­cite you about so­ca’s pro­gres­sion? And what do you think needs im­prove­ment?

What has been ex­cit­ing for me is the artistry, the mu­sic. Every year, there’s a vibe-in­jec­tion of new­ness—it’s the bless­ing and chal­lenge of the in­dus­try. What is hap­pen­ing now is that this year, which is the re­al post-COVID era, you’re see­ing the con­sump­tion of mu­sic is dif­fer­ent.

Peo­ple have been learn­ing the mu­sic a lot slow­er than last year, so build­ing the sea­son has been chal­leng­ing for both DJs and artistes be­cause peo­ple are still in the process of learn­ing over 500 songs.

In terms of what irks me, first­ly, we need to eval­u­ate how mu­sic is re­leased to give it more breath­ing room in terms of re­leas­ing it ear­li­er and not clut­ter­ing it at the end of the year in De­cem­ber.

Sec­ond­ly, the in­dus­try it­self needs uni­ty. There are things that artistes, DJs, and pro­mot­ers, could do for a more uni­fied front to present a prod­uct that is glob­al. We need to fu­ture-proof our­selves be­cause there are oth­er coun­tries and car­ni­vals that want to take that away from Trinidad, and that’s what you’re see­ing now with the rise of oth­er car­ni­vals and des­ti­na­tion week­ends. Al­so, the younger gen­er­a­tion is al­so not re­tain­ing so­ca, they’re more in a dance­hall zone. We have to make our cul­ture more palat­able.