Canadian keyboardist joins Dil-E-Nadan

Michael is top local recording artiste Raymond Ramnarine’s first cousin, and he resembles Raymond and has a similar voice. At the annual Valentine’s show at Centre of Excellence, Michael did the crossover Bollywood tune “Das Bahaney.”

Michael is certainly an artiste to look out for in the future. The band Dil-E-Nadan has certainly boosted their outlook with the addition of Michael.

Throughout the night he played keyboard for all the vocalists at this show including, Raymond, Rennie Ramnarine, Devika Ram, and Sally Sagram. He seems to be serious minded when it comes to his music as he is seen applying himself totally to the stage performance.

So the next question to him being: Is he here to stay? He answered with a handsome smile, “Definitely. I am here as a member of Dil-E-Nadan and I am going to start producing my own songs as soon as the hectic Carnival season is over.”

Mike, as he is fondly called, started off in the music industry as a vocalist doing West Indian music as a child. Although he was born in Canada, pop music did not interest him. Instead he looked to his Trinidadian cousins, Raymond and Rennie, for inspiration.

“Oh, I love soca and reggae. And I would do all Machel Montano’s and Shurwayne Winchester’s songs. I love to interpret the songs of Bob Marley as well,” he admits. The demand for West Indian music has grown tremendously in Toronto and Montreal, he added. He noted that he learnt to do Bollywood tunes, not from India, but from the singing stars of Trinidad. He has spent a lot of his time learning the Hindi pop tunes done by India’s singers Shaan and Sonu Nigam. Speaking from his cousin’s home in Gasparillo, Michael said he is also a good composer and he will be doing his own soca and chutney selections in due course.

“I want to have my own identity where music is concerned. Just like Raymond and Shaan of India, I have a style of my own and pretty soon I am going to launch my music in Canada and Trinidad and Tobago,” he said.

Talking about the Trinidad audience, he noted that he did not expect Carnival to be so big here. He was amazed at the huge turn-out at Chutney Glow and Chutney Brass in South Trinidad, saying he thought he was in New York. “For a small country such as this, people really support their stars. They attend every function and this is unique to Trinidad and Tobago,” he said. He noted, however, that there are several acts in TT that did not prepare themselves for the stage but ended up on stage.

“These artistes keep repeating the same songs. I wonder why they were not creative enough to do a wider variety of music,” he commented.

He said the radio stations are playing the songs of certain artistes while leaving out many others and this is a sad situation as many of the talented singers are robbed of the opportunity to have their songs played on the radio.

Michael is a qualified computer technician but has opted out of this career for one in music. He spends most of his day rehearsing and creating new melodies for the songs he hopes to produce in the future. He said since his arrival in TT, he has been swamped with work for the various Carnival shows. As a result, he has not yet had a chance to visit the beaches or other local places of interest.

Michael said he has left the band TnT Express in Canada under the management of his elder brother Kevin, and he hopes to settle down for music in TT.

He said he is grateful for the love and respect given to him by his cousins in this country, noting that that he feels as comfortable as if he is a Trinidadian. Raymond, Shaan and Bob Marley are his inspiration. He loves to listen to these singers when time permits him.