Audie Hewitt's got the pipes for H20 Phlo

His very name (Audie) causes one to stumble a bit. It’s derived from the Latin word audio, meaning “sound”. Unfortunately, some pronounce it “Audi”, like the car. He doesn’t seem to mind much... that’s how cool he is about most things. You will know Audie Hewitt as the newest member of the local singing sensation H20 Phlo, whose current single and video “A Little Closer” is making headway locally. The oldest of three, he was a former student at both North Eastern and St Joseph’s Colleges; it would be at the latter where he entered the Mr & Ms St Joseph contest, winning the crown by singing Babyface’s “When Can I see You Again”... and of course he won! “I was never a performer as a kid, but I had the desire and the dream,” he began softly. (For the record, his voice stayed at that level throughout the interview.) “I basically grew up in a musical, urban environment. My uncle was a DJ. My father Dennis had a band, but oddly enough, I never heard him perform. From what people tell me, he was an excellent guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. They say I inherited most of his talents, you know? I guess it’s in the genes. My singing wasn’t something that I broadcasted (I always had that awareness that I could sing), but people knew that I could do it.”

Hewitt would then spend three years working with Sterling Gittens (95-98) before becoming musical director of a gospel musical group in 1998 called Raydiance. His life took a strange turn later that year while living in St Lucia, he met up with the lead singer for the band Third Eye, one of the leading Jazz bands in that country. It led to the gig of a lifetime. “The night before I was to return to Trinidad I happened to meet that person and she told me that she was looking for a singer. Luckily I had a CD with me and she loved what she heard, and that led to my touring with Third Eye, and also singing with the American group Soul II Soul (of  “Back to Life” fame) for about a year. Now I am already six feet tall, so you could imagine the visual of me with these women in the group who were even taller than I am, and singing at the top of my lungs! Even they got some kicks. But all in all it was an exciting and educational experience for me.”

Fresh from that gig he came back to TT a year later and joined the group Abstract (again as a lead male vocalist) before settling with H2O Phlo and producer Richard “Charsu” Ahong. “I’ve known the guys a long time, plus I’ve worked with Nigel Soyer, so there was always that  mutual respect for one another, so when the group (H20 Phlo) was minus one, they called me,” he quipped. But what is giving him the most joy these days is his new project, entitled 20/20 Vocal Vision, where he is teaching others how to sing Urban Style at the Caribbean Sound Basin. According to Hewitt, one of the main “problems” that up and coming singers encounter is that most receive classical vocal training as opposed to a more Urban style. “They want to sing like Whitney, but it sounds like an operatic Whitney,” he said. “Urban style includes hip-hop, R&B, gospel, soca, calypso... anything that isn’t a true classical music style. My classes are not broken down into modules per se, but when people come to the camp, I would make them sing and see what they are capable of, and work with what they have. My job is just to enhance what is already there.” Hewitt compares vocal training with going to the gym. To him, the voice is a muscle that can be affected by how much you use it, therefore, he approaches vocal training from a holistic approach, encompassing diet and regular vocal exercises. “Vocal exercises are not that complex, but it does have a lot to do with your determination and desire to train hard and exercise it properly,” he explained. “I train them how to ad lib, how to curl (Think Mariah Carey’s whooa-oaah, ooohh in ‘Vision of Love’)... sometimes I play some R&B and have the students do vocal exercises to the music, or even breathing exercises. Let’s just say I like to experiment a lot.

For one of my lessons on breathing power, I had lit a candle and had each of my students take a turn in blowing it out from a certain distance. In another class they had to attempt to hold up a piece of paper against a wall, by blowing at it for as long as possible. All of this builds their strength, making them capable of sustaining notes for longer periods.” His programme includes basic principles of songwriting, intonation, tone development, vibrato and much more. He designed it particularly with young people in mind, and of course, it’s all fun. Classes for his introductory programme have already begun (August 18-22) and will be  followed by another run from August 25-29 at the Caribbean Sound Basin studios in Maraval from 9am to 12 pm and at Da Crib Studios, Lady Chancellor on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6pm to 7pm. For more information, call 776-1467 or send email to vocalvision@hotmail.com.