TT DJ shares local music with the world

WHEN Alinton “DJ Anarachy” Brereton left TT in 2015 for the US to pursue his dream of becoming an internationally acclaimed DJ, he was simply doing what he loved.

The Houston-based DJ Anarchy now has a weekly radio show, Tropical Takeover, on Sirius XM channel 13. It airs every Sunday 7 pm Eastern time.

The Moruga-born and raised DJ’s love for music stemmed from his family, whom he described as musical.

“My dad in Morgua, he had a music band. They would do shows and I would always be around the band,” he said

His father, Anthony Brereton, played with popular local band Traffik.

Anarchy’s first interaction with music began around 12 or 13, when the family had a studio in its Princes Town home. He worked with his father producing music for a lot of local artistes such as soca artiste Orlando Octave. It was in the studio that Anarchy found his passion for DJing.

“I started messing around with virtual DJ, a DJ software for macs and PCs which is used to replace turntables and CD players, and use digital music instead of vinyl and CDs.

I would make mixed CDs...I started doing mixes and I was like, ‘I am pretty good at this.’ Then I started taking it a little bit more serious and doing mixes online for different websites.”

A friend, Anton Quashie, encouraged him to take his mixes to the streets and different parties. Soon he started becoming widely known.

“He took me to a couple of parties around the Moruga, Princes Town area and I would DJ there. I was 14/15 then. I was like throwing beach parties and he said, ‘Damn you’re pretty good.’ It was one thing after the next and I kept getting more gigs in Trinidad. I also had the opportunity to fly to Grenada when I was 17. I DJed at Club Bananas in Grenada.

"I was also featured on 96.1FM, where there was a DJ competition. I was also on 96.7fm for Soundclash and in the Heineken Green Synergy.”

He also played at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine campus and at Club Zen, from 18-25.

The now 31-year-old DJ remembers his mother, Cynthia Ardonia Brereton, supporting his ambition to be a DJ, while his father supported his getting into music production. His father, he said, did not immediately see the value in DJing.

“I kept telling him, ‘Dad, times are evolving right now, where the DJ is just as important as the producer.’ Just watching how things were going with DJs, like DJ Khaled and stuff, these DJ/producers and stuff...I was telling him it is a plus to be a DJ and a producer. But he was telling me, ‘Nah, focus on the producer aspect.’”

Anarchy would travel to gigs and afterwards sleep on benches waiting for transport to get to Princes Town.

He did that, he added, because he knew it was something he really wanted.

While he had built a name for himself in TT, Anarchy always felt “there was always something more for me.” So he got his passport, musician's visa and other requirements for travel to the US.

When he told his friends and family he was going, they responded, “In the US, it is so hard and you have it nice here in TT...Why you want to leave?”

He said he felt TT was not the end for him.

“One day I just sold all of my possessions, sold my car, DJ equipment, stacked up some money and said I was moving to America.”

Anarchy flew to the US with two suitcases, his DJ backpack and Rane 56X mixer. He went to the US and “just started grinding.”

He began playing at Caribbean events and at a club called Club Riddims in Houston, where he soon began a residency.

“I played at Club 9 and other Caribbean events. I just started moving around and networking and then I got plugged in with the American-Latino crowd. Then I started doing a lot of American events.”

He also began playing at hotspots in downtown and midtown Houston, as well as concert venues.

During this time he was featured on BBC’s Radio 1Xtra, UK in 2016, when he got the chance to do a 30-minute soca mix for the show.

“They needed someone to represent for soca for International DJ Week.

“From there, that gave me a little traction and put some more eyes on me. I started communicating with Pitbull’s DJ Big Syphe. He produced Pitbull’s song called Back in Time for Men in Black 3.”

Anarchy said Syphe did research on him, saw the work he had done in TT and recognised his versatility from the mixes he had done. Anarchy had won awards for his work, including the 2015 Caribbean Achievement Award for Best New Disc Jockey.

“He took notice of that and there was a spot that opened up and he was like. ‘Hey, you know what, I want to put you on here. I like your style, I like your vibe, I like everything, your mixes, and I want to put you on Sirius XM Radio with us.’”

Anarchy was happy and shocked at getting the opportunity to be one of PitBull’s DJs. The streaming radio, he says, gives him a listenership of over 30 million people.

“I said I am going to use this as an opportunity to put my culture on to the road.”

Anarchy has broken new soca records on Sirius XM. He plays soca/dancehall, Afrobeats and all kinds of Caribbean music. He's featured Kees, Bunji Garlin, Nailah Blackman, GBM Nutron, and Jamaican reggae singer Gyptian, among others.

He said he also featured comedian Dave Chapelle and Tiffany Haddish’s official DJ, DJ Trauma.

Anarchy wants to fly TT’s flag high and share the Caribbean’s latest talent with the rest of the world.