Cassell hopes to build ‘sensational’ legacy through music

GROWING up with a mother who was a music teacher, it seemed almost inevitable for Cassell George to get involved in the music industry.

Now 35, the musician and singer has been part of groups and bands, even dabbling in background vocals for some popular local artistes. But he is also beginning to carve his own path in soca.

George, a “proud Central boy,” was raised in Cunupia. He recalled his earliest involvement in music being at the Las Lomas RC Primary School.

“I was in standard five and we had a calypso competition. My mom wrote a calypso for me and I won, actually.

“Since then, I think I really had an interest in music," he added.

He also played football and ensured he balanced academics, music and sport.

His love for music grew when his family began visiting his parrandero uncle in Rio Claro every Christmas.

Laughing as he admitted he thinks there are “musical genes” in his family's DNA, he said those visits inspired him to learn how to play the cuatro.

“And then I took that talent into secondary school at Chaguanas Government, where I was part of the school’s band. Then from there, I went to Belmont Intermediate and was in the school’s parang band again.”

He also played African drums at his church, as well as for the Junior Best Village Competition.

His "musical genes" continued to shine when he moved to Fatima College, where he and some others started a soca band in form four.

“I was actually singing in this band. We did covers of popular songs. We would perform at different events, our school's graduation ceremonies, other schools’ graduations…"

But his love for parang continued. In 2008 he was the musical director for the St Augustine Girls’ High School parang band, which won the junior parang competition.

“After that, my entire interest in music expanded even more. And in form six, I started a parang band called Voces De Promesa (Voices of Promise), and I am still the manager and music director there.”

George, who also plays the guitar, told Newsday it was his colleagues who led him to explore soca further.

He recalled his friend Nesta “Sekon Sta” Boxhill calling him for help with backup vocals on a song in 2015.

“I did background vocals for him, and I also did some work with Patrice Roberts, because I had a friend who was associated with her. She wanted a guitarist to accompany her for some live recording videos to put on social media."

He also did background vocals for JW and Blaze (Jason Williams and Ancil Isaacs) for their Soca Monarch-winning performance of Palance in 2010.

Asked if, while he was doing these background roles, it ever crossed his mind that he would go solo, he said, “It actually came up…Because I think, so after doing all these background performances with all these people, I started to realise, ‘You know what? I actually want to sing on my own, too.'

“I love to entertain. I love to sing. I love to perform. It was always in me.”

He said he gives 100 per cent when performing, joking that he is always “the sweatiest person in the parang band.

“Whether I’m in the background or I am leading, when I am performing, I give it my all, because it is something I love to do. It is what I am passionate about.”

He released his first single in 2017 under the name Hekaya, which is Swahili for "legend." It was titled Lifted.

He has released a few other songs since then, such as Elevator Love, Manifest, Perfect and Weakness. But it was Party Sick in 2021 that helped him “take off” a bit more.

“I got the opportunity to perform on some major stages for Carnival...Sekon Sunday, College Boy Jesse’s Soca Love Story and some other events."

He then took on one of his most prominent roles – becoming the lead singer of Temperature the Band in 2022. He still holds this role.

“I'm an advocate for live performances. I love performing with live music. Not that performing with a soundtrack is bad, but you can be so creative when you're performing with live music.

“I feel like you connect more when you're able to manipulate the music in a way to get the people to move with you when it's live music. And you can add more music on top of that when it's live.”

Suffice it to say, he thoroughly enjoys performing with them.

But this year, he wanted to resume working on his own music as well. And this is when the creation of what is now his first single for the 2025 Carnival season, Sensational, began.

He said his colleagues kept asking him: Why are you using the name Hekaya, when Cassell is such a good name?

He thought about it. Then about four more people asked the same thing.

“And one of the first days, Mevon (Mevon “Xplicit Mevon” Soodeen), who produced Sensational, was like, ‘Bro, if I help you with a song, you have to change your name eh,'” he recalled.

George said to this day, he is not sure whether Soodeen was joking.

It took some trial and error, with the producer’s laptop even crashing while the project was under way, but they got it done. It was written by George, Soodeen, Akeem “Preedy” Chance, Roland Yearwood and Justin Phillip. George and Kwami Morrison did live guitars, while Joel Wiggins played bass and Kristian Dick drums.

Sonja Chase and George sang background vocals and the track was mixed and mastered by Nikholai “NMG Music” Greene.

In addition to clever lyrics like, “I feel like the father give me the master key to open the gate and create legacy,” he speaks to the “sensational” feeling Carnival brings.

He sings, “From my heart, I will declare, nothing else it cya compare,” and: “The rhythm and vibe, it calling out to me/let the music flow like waves upon a sea.”

George told Newsday he felt “so happy he could cry” when he heard the final version.

“It was just disbelief at the moment that this was the same project that crashed on the computer, the one I went through all this writer's block with…this is the end result.

He said he is “somewhat of a cultural fanatic,” so the vibrance of Carnival highlighted in his track is more than “just talk.

“Carnival is connected to our ancestors. It was a form of freedom by means of expression. So I feel like Carnival, to me, is way bigger than just a costume. It's just this spiritual connection that we have with our ancestors to feel free, to feel sensational.”

As he continues to build his solo portfolio under this new sobriquet, Cassell said he will be taking things one step at a time.

His music can be found on music-streaming platforms.