Andaz International creating musical waves

Now 46, and the father of two, Nanan, who still lives at Cedar Village, Princes Town, has now taken the initiative to restructure his band to have more international appeal and recently he discovered an unknown singer in the form of Anand Basdeo, an English school- teacher whose music is soon to be released on the local and international airwaves.

Nanan, who operates a tent and chair rental company at his home, said he recently refurbished his studio and continues to produce music for a variety of artistes but he is quite excited about the release of Basdeo’s music.

He said that the songs on the CD track were chosen by him and Basdeo executed the songs so professionally that he received excellent ratings from music promoters in Miami and Canada.

The CD is expected to be made public shortly. Nanan said people would be amazed by the versatility and sweetness of Basdeo’s voice, coupled with the musical arrangement for the songs.

Nanan was trained in music at a London School of Music .

“My moulding came from my father, Frankie Nanan, he taught us what to do, encouraged me to listen to other bands, not only the East Indian bands but the soca bands for versatility,” he said.

He said that Andaz International was the first crossover band to represent Trinidad in foreign countries so “we decided to add the Trinidad flavour to the band which is the Brass into the music to spread the culture, so that’s why we moved the band to have a heavy brass background and I now observe that other bands are following suit.”

“We are taking it to a different level. The difference with our band is that we always like to add a different feel, a different touch, and Andaz was the first band to introduce soca into chutney, and soca into Indian music so we always try to be ahead of the game, and now we are taking the Bollywood music and mixing it with the 80s and 90s music, and introducing it to the market because we have found a home for our music.

“Music changes, like food, every day, so you always have to be ahead of the game and try to always improvise on sound, quality, in tone and stage performance. If you not doing that you are nowhere in the game,” he said

Nanan added, “Our music speaks for itself because we have set the trend where other bands have come to follow today...

“I produce a lot of original songs for the market, but again it is who wants to play it, so the point about is that you have make sure that your music sound good, and your band has to have a different tone, sound and quality and when it comes to sounding good, that is me, I set that trend for other bands to follow.”

Nanan said that for Divali he would be releasing a religious CD.

He thanks God for all his successes, his wife, children, sister Asha and her husband for their support and assistance as well as the band members. He said that he lives by the notion of following in his father’s footsteps, being humble, charitable, giving back to his community and giving support to those who need it.

On Independence Day, Andaz International will host a free show for the public at the Cedar Hill Grounds. Nana said the band will soon head off to Guyana to perform at Divali and Christmas functions.