Alves returns to his calypso roots

SOCA star Erphaan Alves wants you to jump and wave this Carnival season, but more importantly he wants you to listen and learn from the lyrics of some of this year’s performers.

The No Habla hit maker, who will be competing at position number seven for the Calypso Monarch finals today, says despite its rich legacy of powerful social commentary, traditional musical genres like calypso and extempo have been neglected by youths compared to soca.

Newsday spoke to Alves recently about his bid for the Calypso Monarch title and his dream of seeing younger faces bring the art form to new heights through creativity and passion.

“Taking part in calypso in primary school, sometime your peers will laugh at you. For what reason, I don’t know, but I was so in love with my music that I didn’t care and that’s why I’m still around today.

“I believe less people in my age bracket gravitate more towards calypso than they would soca because at no point was calypso considered compulsory for them to appreciate.

“Growing up, I only had contact with calypso because of my parents. They are huge fans of the genre. That was how I ended up.”

Alves said in order to better promote calypso, there needs to be more inclusion in the education curriculum, for the next generation to better appreciate the genre and what it has to offer.

He lamented that while foreign musical genres continue to grow, expanding its base of listeners to the Caribbean, the potential of local music remains largely untapped, pointing to an absence of year-round calypso events.

“We can’t expect people to have a taste for calypso all of a sudden. I believe that it’s something that needs to start from the education system.

“I can remember as a child, having a scrap book on Ash Wednesday morning, detailing who won Soca Monarch, who won Calypso Monarch and after that time, that was it. Nothing else was said of it until next year.”

He said in order to make music more palpable to year-round listeners, there must be some element of familiarity between the message and the listener.

“Gradually we’re moving away from that one-track mindset, so we’re releasing songs that are more relatable. Not just Carnival, jump, wave and wine for instance, my songs like Overdue, Rise and No Habla. So we’re coming along but education really is the best way to promote our culture.”

Alves who actually started his musical career performing calypso admits that while he didn’t perform it until recently, he has received some good feedback with the release of his 2019 single, I Am.

While winning the Calypso Monarch is definitely a high priority, he says the real victory is being able to break into new demographics and share the message of calypso music and raising it to the standard that it deserves.

“I really came back to calypso with the sake of keeping the art form alive. Even if I didn’t make it to the finals, I already won and achieved what I set out to do just by being a part of the competition.”