Iennesha Bailey wants to be seen for her own merit

MUSICIAN Iennesha Bailey, 15, says she has been writing songs, lyrics and melodies, since the age of seven and they have been piling up.

Bailey said she mostly writes calypso but performs in a number of genres.

While she started writing at age seven, she said she only started to “take it seriously” around Standard 4 when she composed and produced her first calypso.

She said music is like therapy for her and it helps her focus.

She plays the guitar, her first being given to her by her grandfather, the late Winston “Shadow” Bailey, the cuatro, the recorder, as well as tenor, double tenor and guitar pans.

“I always had a love for music. I grew up surrounded by it as both my parents and grandfathers were calypsonians.

“But I only started playing instruments in 2020, around covid time, when I transferred schools on a scholarship to Holistic Music School. Before that I was more or less singing.”

She said while the legacy of her grandfathers, Shadow and Felix "Breed" Joseph, influences her in that she wants to keep their memories alive and have people remember what great musicians they were, she strives to be her own person and musician, and hopes people see her for her own merit.

She added that her parents influence her to be better and work harder.

Her father, musician and calypsonian Sharlan Bailey, encouraged her to release her first parang Parranda Preciosa in 2024.

“I think I would not have played as many instruments if I wasn't so competitive with him all the time and if I wasn't trying to be better than him at everything.”

Meanwhile, she said her mother, musician and calypsonian Tammico “SpiceY” Moore, inspires her to push herself and be an overachiever. She said she does not believe would be involved with as much as she is if her mother was not around.

Bailey participated in the 2024 TUCO First Citizen's Junior Calypso Monarch competition and was awarded Best Junior Calypso Composer in the 13-15 category.

She also participated in the TT Music Festival, several smaller calypso competitions over the years, at her parent’s shows and with the school’s choir, parang band and steel orchestra.

“I believe that my parents want me to go into music but they also want me to be happy and they will support me no matter what I do. My dad is the one who says, ‘It don't matter what you do as long as you enjoying it.’ And my mom is the one who wants me to have set goals and know where I'm going.

“I think because of that, I have mixed emotions where I have thoughts and goals of what I want to do but if I don't achieve them, it won't be the end of the world.

“Luckily though all my other interests are in the creative arts area as I am also interested in art, theatre arts, clothing and textiles and design, which I also do as subjects in and out of school – music being my ninth and art my tenth subject.”

Bailey added that she would like to start her own parang band one day.

“I can see myself doing music professionally – being a composer and producer as well as a full-time musician in the future, but I’m not sure. I have a lot of interests even though music is my main focus right now.”

Bailey explains Parranda Preciosa is about her love for parang, the Christmas season and the local traditions surrounding it. They are precious to her.

“I wanted to keep the vibe of traditional parang in the music and instruments. It has a traditional parang strum. But I added a parang soca element because it doesn’t talk about the traditional coming of Jesus and only the chorus is in Spanish.”

She said even though her first love was calypso, parang is one of her favourite genres of music. And when she joined her school’s parang band in 2022, her love for parang grew.

The Bishop Anstey High School, Port of Spain, student said she wrote her first parang in 2023 but did not release it.

“I just wanted to finally have something out for my name to be seen.

“I feel proud of myself as this is something my family and many of my friends have been asking me to do for a while. It also makes me feel excited for the future because I have many other projects to do and release.”