IT HAS been almost a year since local musician, Gavin Mendonca launched his debut album, Creole Rock: The Beginning.Since then, he has sold over 400 physical copies, while benefitting from Online sales via iTunes, and and royalties from having his album streamed via Spotify.
Now, Gavin is ready to take his brand one step further with the launch of his website, creolerock.com which will bring all his musical endeavours on one platform, while he presents his music to the world.
“As a musician and entrepreneur, I came to the realisation that with today’s technology, the world is my market,” Gavin said.
“Everyone uses the Internet more and more these days. As a musician with a Guyanese product to sell, I realised that I do not have to limit myself to the physical market, but I can gain international reach via my own website.”

DIGITAL HUB
Launched on January 23, the website is intended to serve as a digital hub for all things Creole Rock-related. That includes tours, events and ticket sales, as well as his work with rock band, Feed The Flames; his work with Kross Kolor Records; the Rupununi Music and Arts Festival and other projects.
“The main thing right now that will generate traffic to my website are my two radio programmes,” he said, adding:
“Every week, I will be uploading one new episode of each programme as online Podcasts.”
His two radio programmes have been receiving much attention since their introduction to the airwaves. Radio Rock ‘n’ Roll airs live on 100.1 FM every Monday evening, and features 100% Caribbean Rock music.
“I have already established strong relationships with the rock movements in Trinidad and Suriname, as well as Aruba, Brazil and the Netherlands,” Gavin said.
“The show will also feature pre-recorded interviews with bands from around the Caribbean. So, after it airs live on Fresh FM, it will be uploaded to creolerock.com where anyone in the world can tune in and listen to the best of Rock Music from the Caribbean,” he added.
His second show, ‘Today’s Playist’ features 100% Guyanese music, and airs live every Saturday night on 98.1FM.
Now, with podcasts being uploaded to his website, people worldwide will get an earful of the best of Guyanese music.

CONTRIBUTIONS
Gavin’s work to push Guyanese music on the airwaves has, in his eyes, helped to answer the call by local musicians to increase the local content being played on the radio.
“I believe that ‘Guyanese Radio’ should be exactly that: Guyanese, creating a platform for artistes to have their music featured on national radio,” he said.
“I have enough Guyanese music, very well produced and great songs too, to run for five hours straight.
“And this is only songs that were released in 2016! I am sure there is much more music out there that I haven’t gotten my hands on as yet, so there should be no excuse by any radio station saying ‘We don’t have enough local content.’”

PLANS FOR 2017
Now, with his website launched, Gavin will continue to promote Creole Rock: The Beginning on a larger scale, while working to push his other projects as well.
With a soon-to-be-released album from Feed The Flames, and an upcoming show in Trinidad for the band, as well as the highly anticipated Rupununi Music and Arts Festival, which Gavin plays an integral role in promoting, he is sure that the Online platform will help to garner a large audience.
The young musician will also link talents with local Soca queen, Vanilla to merge his Creole Rock Sound with her upbeat rhythm to create an even more original content for music fans’ listening pleasure.
As for a second album, Gavin admits that he has already written new material, but is hoping to sell 5,000 units of Creole Rock: The Beginning before venturing in that direction.