New Kiskadee Karavan hopes to globalise soca

Kiskadee Kaiso Karavan, a musical movement led by businessman Robert Amar in the 1990s, gave rise to a new crop of rapso and soca artistes like Kindred, Homefront and General Grant.

It even led to General Grant reaching the Billboard charts with his Shot Call.

Amar hopes a new form of the Kiskadee Karavan could bring Trinidad and Tobago its first Grammy.

In a phone interview, he said the caravan was one of the most successful movements in the 1990s, when his business took a very frontal position in trying to find “the future of the entertainment industry.”

Through Caribbean Sound Basin Ltd, then a very modern recording studio at Long Circular Road, Maraval, international celebrities came to TT. But the team was not prepared for that type of business.

There was a relaunch in 2018, but the second opportunity did not see the return of the “qualitative artistes” the team was looking for, so it was shelved, Amar said.

The caravan’s return this year aims to achieve several objectives: win a Grammy, produce more music, locally and to promote the UN’s sustainable development goal of reduced inequalities (SDG ten).

The success of local artistes like Voice, Mical Teja and others of coming generations signalled to Amar that a new era in TT’s music industry was evolving, and he wanted to help bring the experience of the past to that.

One of the parallels between the past and new caravan is the aim of unearthing new talent. Amar hopes to accomplish this through an open call on his radio station, 104.7 fm.

The search for new talent will begin with Tik Tok preliminaries, then progress to live auditions from April 21-June 23, the More Music Festival and a World Soca Festival happening in Trinidad in 2024 and then moving to Tobago in 2025.

The live editions will take place in east, west, north, south Trinidad and Tobago. The first will be held on April 21 at New Luna Sports Bar and Lounge, Arouca.

The first soca festival will take place on Republic Day (September 24) this year.

Its truest aim, however, is the globalisation of soca, to draw a more diverse audience to the genre.

While this year’s soca festival will include the 24 selected locals, come 2025, Amar hopes to have soca artistes from every part of the world participate.

He said it is not going to be a competition, as competitions do not enrich the artform.

“The idea is to enrich our art and in the next few years have a category in the Grammy.”

He also hopes the festivals will encourage producers and artistes to issue monthly releases.

“Over the last number of years there are some people who have been working behind the scenes and have been able to get the Grammys to introduce a category for world (music). That thing happened about two years ago and has been swarmed by the African-continent artistes, who are now putting in quite a lot, because they are producing music much more regularly than us,” Amar said, addressing his main reason for the movement’s return.

He said although – during Carnival – TT artistes produce between 800 and 1,500 compositions, the Grammys was structured to look at albums, not singles.

While the country creates a lot of music, that happens mostly in one period and as singles, and that largely put TT out of the Grammy running, he said.

But now Amar sees an opportunity for the country with the US National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences' 2022 introduction of the Best Global Music Performance category. Last year, albums on the Machel Montano-led Monk Music label were up for Grammy consideration in this category.

Amar said he and his team have the expertise, experience and the background with which to create something meaningful.

He also hopes eventually to have all genres of music represented at the festivals.

“We have to make sure that the people who have the talent get the respect and guidance, because at this stage it seems as though some of them have gone off on the deep end.

“It is about the money. There is no two ways about it.

"People are interested in being compensated for their skill, ability and creativity. But it is also about making sure that the country does not go down the road where there is going to be destruction in the artform.”

While winning a Grammy for soca might be more of a long-term goal, Amar is looking at getting TT through the Grammy door with a potential win in the reggae category.

He believes there are some reggae artistes in TT who are capable of winning a Grammy immediately. So at the More Music Festival there will be a focus on reggae.

TT has been talking the Grammy Awards for 25 years but has never won one, he added, even though: “We have some people in TT who are just as good as the Jamaicans when it comes to reggae.”

He hopes one of the people from his festival will walk up to the Grammy podium and receive an award in 2025.

Two local reggae artistes will perform at the More Music Festival.

It will be held on July 20 at the Centre of Excellence, Macoya and will feature soca, reggae, pan, chutney and R&B. General Grant, Chris Garcia, Karma and D’All Starz will perform on that day.

But eventually, Amar wants the soca festival to morph into something similar to the annual five-day Glastonbury Festival held in England.

Just as Reggae Sumfest paved the way for reggae success on the world stage, Amar hopes this festival will do the same for soca.

“Reggae has led, and we have to pick up the pieces from there and say, ‘If they can do it, we can do it too.”

While there will be some streaming this year, Amar believes he has to find the right team to do widespread streaming and then sale of this content.

It is the group’s inaugural year and the team wants to use this to iron out the bugs, he added.

Local videos will be made this year, packaged and presented to international video and/or streaming companies to get them onboard for 2025, he said.

The team plans to use technology in its operations including the Tap and Get In app and LED bands at festivals.

Rent-A-Amp will be doing stage, sound and lighting for the show, he added.

“All of these ingredients are very important when you are putting together a package to give to someone outside of TT who has been disappointed for a significant number of years (at) the poor quality, including the Dimanche Gras show.”

He also plans to make pan part of the festival.

He sees all of these musical elements as cobblestones on the Grammy pathway.

He said while TT artistes were making more money than they did 20 years ago and were working a lot, this was only a handful.

“We have a significant number of them who should be working all year round.

"It is unfortunate we do not have structure. When I tried to put structure into this business, everybody looked at me and wanted to knock me down, because they thought I wanted to take it over.

“There is a business to build that would benefit many. But the greed must stop by the few,” he said.

Reflecting on the past, Amar said had it been 20 years ago, he would have aligned himself with music-industry experts who would have given TT the biggest “forward.”

With hindsight, he sees many ways TT could get a Grammy in various categories such as spoken word, contemporary Christian music, audiobooks, etc without having to reinvent the world, he said.

Even in pan, he added.

“Our pan music is symphonic. They are orchestras. They are not the orchestras that were built in Europe but this is an orchestra in its own right. But we still have not been able to put our pan music into that particular category which exists for orchestra performance.

“Somebody has to be inside.”

There is a Grammy category called Best Orchestral Performance.

The overall success of TT’s music industry on the global stage requires collective effort and a collective spirit, he said.

“People must put away the animosity and say, ‘We must do it,’ instead of, ‘I must do it.’”

He hopes the returned Kiskadee Karavan, much like before, changes the trajectory of TT’s music industry.

He also hopes to create a single with the artistes from the festival, similar to the late Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie’s We are the World and use the proceeds to better inform the Caribbean and wider world about the problems of inequality in society.