Slammer Cutter lends a hand

Mark has been in the business for over ten years and says the time has come for him to assist others on their musical journey.

“But most important for me at this stage of my career, I have been doing this for ten years, I just really want to have fun, do what I love and really bring along some of the talent that I meet.

“You never know who you cross paths with, but my job is anyone that I meet and I can influence in a good way, coming to music.

That is my personal journey.

I don’t worry about the hype.

I worry about the people and treating people with respect and pushing the music as far we can push it.” Mark and Ragoonath have collaborated for the 2017 Carnival season and created a new single called “Ah Doh Mine She”. It was released last Wednesday.

The song was conceptualised by Ragoonath and written by the duo in two days time when Mark was on vacation in TT from Canada earlier this year. “Basically, I came home for a family vacation approximately one month ago and we met up. Shivan explained he had the concept for the song, which speaks about your wife liking rum more than you,” Mark explained.

He was quick to add that although the song speaks about women drinking, it in no way denigrates women, but is simply a fun song.

Last year, Mark released “Oh Gosh”. He says while it has been challenging living abroad and doing music, he has been dedicated to coming back each year to create and promote his songs.

“Ah Doh Mine She” was produced by Rishi Mahato, and has yielded sponsorship from Angostura.

He says having grown up with Ragoonath in Cumuto, it provided the perfect platform for collaboration between the two of them. Mark says after Ragoonath pitched the concept he decided to work with him (Ragoonath) to get the song done.

This is Ragoonath’s first ever collaboration with a soca artiste.

He has been singing traditional chutney since 2010/2011. They described the song as being “catchy”.

Since its release, Mark says there have not been any negative feedback. A video is scheduled to be shot over the weekend and will be released soon. The duo intends to enter the Chutney Soca Monarch, among other competitions.

Ragoonath says while his day job is outside of music industry, music is his ultimate love. For while others smoked or drank, he made music. The 29-year-old recalls the overall good feeling he had when he first hit the stage at a party he had attended. He says he was encouraged to ‘take the mic’ and that singular event led him down a musical path. He hopes the song will be well received for Carnival 2017.

Earlier this year Mark released a track called “Thank You Father” - a conscious song thanking God for blessing him and his family.

He plans to release two more soon -- “Highly Intoxicated” done with Stefan “Jaxx” Bindoo, and “Born A Drinker”.