DJ Private Ryan's in the mix

RYAN ALEXANDER is known to many. You might not know him by this name but by the one heard on his many music mixes: DJ Private Ryan.

He is also now known for being a co-producer of the popular Freetown Collective song, Feel the Love. This was one of five songs he produced during this year’s Carnival period. It would be fair to say that Alexander simply followed his path.

As early as seven, he began deejaying.

“I used to play around with my father’s record collection and I taught myself to deejay. So I am self-taught,” he said in an interview at Newsday’s Port of Spain office.

Alexander said he practised mixing the records in time with the songs aired on the radio.

“The radio would be playing a song and then I would take one of the records and then try mixing it with the radio and putting it in time...speeding it up.” Even at that age, he said he understood bars and music placement.

As a student of St Mary’s College, Port of Spain, Alexander teamed up with a schoolfriend and they began deejaying in some of TT’s most popular clubs, such as Club Coconuts. He was featured on radio 96 WEFM with radio personality Shal Marshall (Stephenson Marshall) on a morning show and when Red96.7fm came on air, he played for that station.

Alexander then moved to the US in 2005 to study at Florida International University and continued to play music while there.

“I deejayed in college parties, some of the Caribbean parties. And I started travelling. I was one of the first people who started travelling on a regular basis on the circuit," he said.

"While in college, I created what I became most famously known for which is podcasts. So the online mixes started in my first year in college when I realised that there was a disconnect. When people came home for Carnival, they literally did not know...online radio was not a thing, streaming services was not a thing, social media was not a thing. How am I going to learn this music when I go home?”

Alexander decided he was going to create mixes that did two things: showcase his talent as a DJ and educate people about the music so when they returned to TT they were not disconnected. He also created mixes for any genre: from dancehall to Afrobeat.

After graduating in 2009, he moved back to TT, applied for a US work visa and has been travelling the world extensively since. His musical career has been a natural progression and it was only logical that the next step was producing.

Alexander wanted to bring a “world sound” to soca when he co-produced Feel The Love. He has been producing music for two years now.

“Feel The Love by Freetown Collective was meant to be an uplifting, festival type soca. One that you can play for anyone around the world and it would describe the feeling of what Carnival is.

“So if you listen to the lyrics in the song you would recognise it resonates with people who maybe feeling in a place where they are low and based on the music, the culture, the love and everything that comes with Carnival. It is that uplifting feeling.”

Kees Diffenthaller also has a song on the riddim on which Feel the Love is set. The riddim is called Wonderland and the song is called Reason To Love (Energy).

“That song speaks about love but in a different way. It speaks to giving thanks to the people who stick with you throughout, thick and thin. The people who uplift you, the people who give you a reason to love. They give you that energy. That is basically the hook of the song,” he said.

Alexander also produced the Fizzle Project riddim which featured Teddyson John, Angela Hunte and Sekon Sta (Nesta Boxhill).

“That beat came to me on my way to St Lucia on the plane...Teddyson John’s song ­– which is the lead single on the rhythm – is one that speaks about people who have baggage from previous relationships. And you will have a situation where you go from relationship to relationship but based on the baggage you have from the other relationships you are not giving other people a very fair chance.

“He is basically saying you need to drop that baggage and give people a fair chance to make you happy. It has resonated really well both locally and internationally.”

Alexander sent Hunte the riddim and she loved it and wrote The Middle which he described as a “dancing rock song."

“She wanted to do something that was a sexy, rock, side to the side which is what she did.”

Sekon’s Sta song was Sauce, a song about women with their "special flavour."

Alexander said the last song he produced was No Standing Up with Preddy (Akeem Chance).

“I was inspired by soca from the early 2000s. It was mid to up-tempo track...we are tired of people stush in the party. We want them to move.

“It is rooted in some really infectious drums. Has brass elements. A really sweet guitar. Whether you’re old or young when you hear the beat, you’d want to move,” he said with a big smile.

Alexander's life can sometimes be a blur, moving from event to event – especially at Carnival. Since he started Soca Brainwash in 2014, events produced by him have shifted to other parts of the world. Brainwash is now staged in Jamaica, Barbados, Toronto, Canada, New York and Miami in the US. Alexander also has Soca Starter in New York and New Jersey and plans to branch out to Hollywood.

Besides his parties and music, Alexander plans to add a merchandise line to his ventures.