Jimmy October ready for South by Southwest festival

NEW CALYPSO wave-maker Jimmy October is preparing to share his eclectic Caribbean sound with the rest of the world at the celebrated South by Southwest Music Festival (SXSW) in Austin, Texas.The festival, which saw more than 400,000 attendees in 2019, takes place March 11-20.

October said, “I look forward to being able to play my music somewhere else and experience what that feels like. I don’t generally make soca music and I live in Trinidad, but I always choose to do my own thing.”

He will be among a number of Trinidad and Tobago artistes including Kalpee, Nailah Blackman an Freetown Collective to grace the island wave stage – a concept co-founded by international performing artist from Trinidad, Kalpee. This is the first leg of taking the stage to a number of festivals.

The island wave stage is yet to receive confirmation of upcoming festivals for which it has been booked, but its cast is looking forward to stage performances at a number of music festivals this year.

Asked how he feels about performing for an audience of this size for the first time, October said, “This is my first time performing in the US. I don’t have a lot of expectations, but I look forward to the experience and will just allow it to be what it is supposed to be. Sometimes in preparing for things like these we tend to get ourselves so worked up and create all these expectations for what we want it to be – but I don’t want that. I want it to flow freely, while I rehearse and ensure the performance will be as tight as possible.”

This will be the first time performing with a live band in almost two years for the 27-year-old performer from Sangre Grande.

“We have been rehearsing two days a week since February until we leave TT. It will be a 20-minute set which will include two songs that aren’t even out yet."

October said those already familiar with his music can also look forward to a performance of Vacation, which he said seems to be a favourite for many.

After years of deliberate work fuelled by a love for creativity and music, October feels ready to share his TT essence with the world. But where did this musical journey begin? Asked when he started nurturing his gift for music, how he decided this is what he wanted to do, if he had a backup plan and how he feels in this moment after years of hard work, he said, “This has been the one thing I have felt this way about.”

Since childhood he knew this was what he wanted to do and so, he stuck with it, he said. “If you feel like there is something that you don’t feel that way about anything else the way you do about that thing, and it is different from everything else I could have imagined myself doing – it is definitely something I want to spend my time doing. I think it is also part of my purpose.”

He said the easiest way to lose the race is to stop running, but if one continues they get to see where it goes. “For now, this is the path I’m going down. And while it takes up a lot of my time, the outcome has much to do with how focused I am.”

October said while going to school, while his mother ensured he focused and excelled, she understood his passion for music and therefore gave him all the support he needed.

“She was very supportive of me making music. As a child I remember singing with my mother every day. There was never any resistance from her, but there were people around who had questions about whether a musical career would work.”

He said those concerns from others are inevitable, but it comes down to the vision that someone has for himself. “You get to decide how this plays out. It does not always work out how you want it to work and make sacrifices that will help in manoeuvring the space.”

Asked what are some of the main sacrifices he has had to make, October said, “I think musicians and artists feel and experience things differently from most. So, sometimes you want to be in the company of people, and other times you don’t and that does tend to affect life and relationships, generally. Sacrificing time is also very important. Sometimes I feel like I don’t sacrifice enough time, and I give music a lot of time. But it is also important to work smart. You want to work hard to get to a place where there will be a greater level of creative freedom.”

The self-taught vocalist said the journey to where he is now began around 2015, at which point he was still a teenager.

About representing TT on a stage of this magnitude, especially not performing soca music, October said, “In my head, I represent TT and the Caribbean because I think holding on to that is necessary. I have respect for so many other Caribbean artistes doing their thing and being part of such an amazing league of artistes, pushing our sounds, our style, our energy to the rest of the world is a brave thing to do and it is very much needed – and needed to be done by us. To be able to share the stage with other artistes like Kalpee, Freetown Collective, Nailah Blackman – to be there with other people who also understand what it is like coming from TT, and being an artiste making music is dope.”