A song for the islands

KV Charles
KV Charles

When he saw what hurricane Maria did to Dominica and Puerto Rico, entertainer Knolly KV Charles originally wanted to do a song about how nice we have it in Trinidad, while it matters not, how bad things are around the world.

However, two days later while awaiting a traffic light to turn green he heard a song in his head that led to the creation of Da Da Woo.

“I just heard this thing in my head....da da woo, da da woo.... and I just kept on singing that. When I came home I started to write, put some music to the melody, but the focus changed to one of acknowledging the pain these people are going through.

“Then when I listened to the speech from the Dominican Prime Minister [Joseph Skerrit] at the UN, it touched me so much that I just used emotion to write the song. I just wanted something that is honest.”

Charles recalled when he was 16-years-old, he came home to find his family’s Santa Cruz home had lost its roof during a freak storm.

“I can’t tell you how they feel, but I know how I felt at that point. Imagine when I came home from school and went to my bedroom and saw the sky. I remember how that felt for me because is your bed wet, your TV wet, you lost all your privacy, everything.”

He said it took about two weeks with the help of neighbours, to put the roof back on, and while that work was going on, his family had to cram into one area.

“It was very uncomfortable for me because life had now started to bring a nice head for me where family life was concerned. Mom had now bought this house and everybody got their own space and then to come home to see roof off, it wasn’t the most pleasurable thing. And, so I use that experience as an impetus to put the right words together to get the song across.”

Charles composed and arranged the song but background vocals was done by Kerwin Trotman and Adrian Philbert. It was recorded at Charles’ own Jamri Studios at his home in Santa Cruz two weeks ago. He then went in search of the meaning of the song title.

“I called around to my spiritual mother and I told her about this Da Da Woo and she told me that’s a call. From my initial research it is basically a call to the higher order for help. Don’t ask me how this thing came about, but that is the strangest part of this whole song.”

Da Da Woo took Charles one day to pen the lyrics. “I just went and sang it and things came to me. And when I got what I wanted to be said, and how I wanted it said, I quickly finished it,” he said.

Asked what he wants listeners to get out of the song he said: “I want people to stop and really take a second look at life, not just their life, but life on the whole, observe how easy it is to lose everything you work for and how important it is to see somebody else’s side of the story more than your own so that we can all grow.

“At the end of the day I think we just get caught up in what happiness really is. We so think of happiness as the physical things that we have that we never stop to understand that happiness is meeting a stranger and saying ‘hi how you are going’, or helping a child that you see going wrong. But as you grow older you get wiser and that’s how I’ve changed how I do a lot of things. So I hope the song can give people that kind of inspiration, that even when you are down, find a way to get up. The verses are on a more serious thing so you can stop and listen, and when the chorus comes you should just feel the pain but joyously participate.”

Da Da Woo
Composed, arranged and mixed by KV Charles

Verse 1
Can you hear a voice, of a people crying
Can you feel the pain that’s left inside
When you look around, there’s nothing to be found
No place to sleep your, home swept to the ground.

Chorus
{Da da woo da da woo}
Can you hear my people calling
{Da da woo da da woo}
Can you hear my people say
{Da da woo da da woo}
Can you hear my people calling
{Da da woo da da woo}
Hear them when they pray

Verse 2
So much a people crying out for peace
So much a people crying out for justice
Leaders of the world, time for war to cease
Like natural disasters begging us for peace

Verse 3
Can you feel the pain, of a people crying
Can’t you see the hurt Maria left behind
When you look around, Roofless homes to be found
No place to sleep, People on the ground

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"A song for the islands"

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