THE BUDDING music industry in Linden has experienced a few stumbling blocks along the way, but refuses to remain dormant even as young promoters, producers and artistes continue to nudge it back up. Currently the industry is flooding with talent, some recently explored by the just completed High School Supernova singing competition. With only two recording studios and a plethora of talent, Linden’s leading music producer Devin Sears is of the opinion that the lack of resources to produce high quality music is not the only deterrent but the lack of support from Lindeners and Guyanese as a whole.
In an exclusive interview with the Guyana Chronicle, Sears who has been an established music producer for over a decade and founder of Divine Entertainment, said that the greatest stumbling block for Linden artistes was the fact that Linden was so distant from the capital coupled with the foreign mindedness of Lindeners when it comes to music.
“Yes we have talent, yes we are doing well when it comes to the music industry, but sadly we are in a box. We are in a boundary all by ourselves, we are basically entertaining ourselves,” Sears articulated. In his opinion, Lindeners are supportive of their artistes when they perform well in national competitions but on a regular day, such excitement dwindles.
To boost Lindeners’ confidence in their artistes, they must first be cognizant of who they are and what songs they produce. Sears has commended the local media houses, especially 104.3 FM in promoting Linden music every day for one hour. In addition to this, promoters have birthed a “Mike up” initiative which focuses on taking music to the streets. According to Sears, this initiative strives to build confidence and explore new talent via street performances and has been deemed successful thus far. As the talent continues to be unearthed through various initiatives, Sears along with other music producers have observed the lack of originality in Guyanese music, describing the artistes “as good impressionists,” sounding like other Caribbean artistes. This has created a tremendous blow, not only for Linden’s music industry but Guyana’s as well, coupled with the breakdown in the quality of music.
“Somewhere along the line we fell back significantly….we have lost our way significantly we have lost who we are when it comes to standing out and putting a signature mark and say that this is Guyanese music,” he said.
To tackle this ill, Sears in his effort to bring originality to Guyanese music through Linden artistes, created an original genre called “Boom Drop”, which is the fusion of reggae/soca/ dancehall.
“Nobody has that kind of sound,” boasted the young producer. The first song to be produced under the genre was “Chapping Grass” by a Lindener Anthony “Chini” Abrams who continues to produce songs in that genre. Sears revealed that the song did well with a lot of views and commendable responses on You Tube and other social media sites and so forth.”
The music industry has produced several winners in national competitions such as Timika Marshall, Malika Boyd and Brandon Harding who copped the GTT Jingle and Song Competition, Dianna Chapman and Niossi Alsopp who won the Junior Calypso Competition and Lester Charles who repeatedly won the Senior Calypso Competition. These however can be no match to international artiste Gregory Parkinson who represented Linden on the international arena, even in Vietnam years ago.
Local producers however realized that for the industry to flourish the focus should be placed on teenagers. This idea birthed the recently concluded High School Super Nova Competition. “If you wanna make a greater impact in the music industry, the teen group is who you have to target and if you wanna nurture or look at the prosperity of the Linden’s music industry you have to start from the school level…introduce music in schools,” posited Sears.
Super Nova, which means “shooting star” was the first ever music competition which challenged participants to write and record an original piece before producing a music video. The competition took several stages moving from the auditions, quarter finals, semi-finals and finals. The winner who hails from Christianburg Wismar Secondary School Melca Garraway along with the two finalists were signed by Devine Entertainment has commenced their music career.
They will be making an appearance in New York later in the year to perform for Guyana Day and will be entering their music videos in the Caribbean music competition as well. According to Sears, this competition has been a great boost to the music industry and many young people are more enthusiastic to unveil their talent.
With the upsurge in music production in Linden over the past months, Devin Sears is of the opinion that artists will not fully benefit from this if the copyright law is not enacted. Presently it is still in Parliament, but in the interim, it is suggested that the municipality implement a regional policy to have local music protected from piracy. “In Linden what we can do in the interim is to establish policies as it relates to Linden music, video and content, the new municipality can set policies…we can have a regional copyright policy,” Sears reasoned. With this materializing local sellers will only sell the original copy of the artiste’s music with them having the bigger share of the profit.
With the support of fellow Lindeners and those in the diaspora, Linden’s music industry will see progression and the artiste will not only see music production as a hobby but a business. In the next 10 years, as a vibrant music producer, Sears is hoping that the Industry attracts more professional recording studios as they are presently only two and the establishment of a music school to produce more professional music artistes. “We have so much unexplored talent, sometimes what a person needs is just an opportunity,” Sears said confidently.