Bunji Garlin's Carry It: The creation of the ‘ground’ anthem

WHEN Ian "Bunji Garlin" Alvarez first heard a beat sent to him by Stemz (Michael Ramroop S’obrian), he immediately felt the “raw, raw magic” that could only come from the grassroots. He told the producer: "Don’t try to imagine what this song will be. Because no matter what you imagine, that is not it.” He knew it was about to be something unexpected and impactful. And it was. And he carried it.

Carry It, his 2025 hit, features background vocals by Vernice “Trini Baby” Herreira and guitars by Kyle Peters. It was mixed and mastered by Johann Seaton.

Bunji opens by singing, “Yes, I can hear dem saying, ‘Boy, stop livin’ in d past.’ Where can I find that energy, the raw, raw magic that comes down from d grassroots? Yes, I’m from a place where soca, the resounding power, you could feel any time or hour, sunshine or shower. You will feel it any way you look and it read like a story book.”

He reminds listeners, “I come from when ground used to carry it,” before listing several areas of the country that “had it.”

The entire song speaks to the golden days of feteing where the energy of patrons and performers was paramount, parties were filled with rags and flags, and events united both the “uptown and downtown massives.”

'Your mind will be blown'

Last year, Bunji's friend and fellow artiste Shaquille “Chingee” Mark told him about a producer who wanted to submit some beats to him.

Mark told Newsday once he had heard the beat from Stemz, he knew Bunji “would definitely kill it” but found that it was not ready to present to him yet. He is also credited as one of the song's arrangers.

“I gave my input on things that I think should be added, things we should add to enhance the build of the beat, the way the beat goes to the climax and that kind of stuff. And then we were at a point where I was like, ‘Okay, I don't think we should go any further until he hears it.’”

So they sent it.

Bunji remembers liking the beat but asking for a few more tweaks because he already formulated a plan upon first listen.

“Really and truly, besides being tapped in, seeing all the discussions online every day and the constant topic of what we were before and where we were before and where we are at now, it embedded itself so deeply that subliminally, I tapped into that and didn’t realise,” Bunji told Newsday.

“It wasn’t that I was searching for a topic or anything – no. That was just what immediately came to mind and I just followed through.”

In fact, it took him all of 20 minutes.

"I just kept building," he said.

He knew it was not going to be what Mark and Stemz expected, but he urged them to trust him ahead of listening.

“I told them, ‘Your mind will be blown.’

"I purposely like to go way out of the box, so I definitely knew they were going to get shocked when they heard it.”

He said his chat became filled with the fire and mind-blown emojis when the men had finally heard it.

“I told them, ‘I don’t know where this is going to go but I am pleased with it.’”

Stemz confirmed this, saying that when he heard it, “I was like, ‘Whoa!’ I know he said not to expect anything in particular but I still wasn’t expecting it to go there.”

He continued, “(With the production) I basically decided to go down that same route and make it something nostalgic that felt like the early 2000s but still with a modern spin.”

He said it was only a bit later on that Bunji realised he knew him and that he had even opened a show for the Viking.

Stemz was part of local band Dil-E-Nadan as a keyboardist for several years. His cousin is Raymond Ramnarine.

“There’s this picture I have with him (Bunji) from ten-15 years ago. And when I showed him that, he was, that's when he was like, ‘Holy s---- it's you,” he said with a laugh.

Mark was “in awe” when he first heard the demo as well, he said.

“It was fire from the beginning.”

The power of the ground

Mixing engineer and producer Seaton said as he was fine-tuning the track, he told himself: Something feeling special about this.

“Based on what Bunji wanted to do in terms of bringing back that vibe of what long time used to be in our time where we used to jump up in Brass Festival, Flour Mills, Licensing Fete…I think he achieved it.”

He said it made him feel nostalgic as well.

For Stemz, the song’s journey was seamless from all sides of the team, adding that Seaton “definitely did his thing to bring out those frequencies and sonics so people could receive it the way we wanted them to.”

And Mark said he also needed to give credit to Bunji for literally taking the song to the ground and carrying it.

“He started performing it sometime last year and nobody knew it. But then he kept performing at different events and it grew and grew and became what it is today.”

He added, “I’m really thankful for the opportunity to bring these two guys together and to create something like this.”

Crowds across TT chanted, "I come from when ground used to carry it" at several events throughout the season.

Bunji, a four-time Soca Monarch winner, recalled specifically crafting tunes for the competition. But he said after leaving that, “I changed format and started writing the songs to be part of the season but for the story to outlast the season as well.

“I think it’s unfair to art to give it a timeline. And sometimes, even though society has its own timeline, we as the creatives must push to create something that goes beyond the expected timeline.”

And he thinks Carry It will do this.

Other songs he released for this season including Fete I Like (a revisit to his 2006 song Bomb Song) and Thousand also speak to the golden era of fetes.

Asked if this theme was intentional, he said yes.

He said his belief in “the ground” remains as strong as ever because, as the song says, that’s where he came from and what he knows.

“The reality is, most of the talent coming out in terms of music is still from the ground, in any capacity. Most of TT is still 'd ground’ by societal standards, by economic standards and just by real-life existence. So naturally, the ground is the energy still.”

But, he added, “In recent years, the word or the term ground started to become something people running from. All of a sudden there’s this notion…as if, when you listen to energetic music and like to party, you from down so, and if you listening to soft and slow music, you seem cultured and you from up so. And it’s mindblowing that people actually subscribe to this.”

He wanted to remind everyone that it all comes back to the ground.

“It’s a natural energy that I see every day. People put a blind eye to it but not because you close your eyes it means it’s not there.”

Bunji, Fay Ann 'carry' energy to Hard Fete

Stemz said his DMs were filled with messages from strangers as well as fellow music industry peeps praising him for the track.

“People said the intro was sick and that the music was very different.

“I thought it would take a while for people to kind of understand where we're coming from…But they latched on to it right away.”

He admitted that at some points in the production process, he was moved to tears by the music.

Bunji and his wife, fellow soca star Fay Ann Lyons, held on to all of these energies and brought them to their event titled Hard Fete at SoundForge, Port of Spain on February 20.

He said it was just an idea that came about during a casual conversation.

Fay Ann immediately said, ‘Yeah, lewwe go,’ he recalled.

He posted about it to X (Twitter) and his online following supported it.

He said a lot of the feedback from the event included people saying it was nostalgic and reminded them of what they knew fetes to be, while younger people were grateful to get a taste of what the song speaks to for the first time.

In addition to the Viking and ViQueen, artistes like Shurwayne Winchester, Iwer George, GBM Nutron and others performed.

“Hard Fete was a safe space. You didn’t have to worry about how you look, how you dressed, what people would think of you…It was your time to be free and enjoy yourself. And people have been looking for that for a while now.”

And he hopes to do it again next year as he believes TT is long overdue for a return to that era.

In the end, Carry it trailed Pardy by 14 points, just missing out on the 2025 Road March title.

But the impact of Carry It continues to be felt across the country.