Calypso in meh blood

So meh plan is to sing soca until meh dead.

Woi yoi ..woi yoi x 3

Is Soca or Die - Calypso by GBM Nutron

For years he wrote and produced songs for other artistes, eventually transitioning to singing his own music. This year, Jason Carter’s personal voice rang a little clearer when his song, Calypso, made it to the finals of the Lotto Plus International Soca Monarch competition.

Better known as GBM Nutron, 30-year-old Carter has been in the music business for over ten years. His first professional opportunity came at the age of 18, when a mutual friend paved the way for him to produce and write the song Fever, featuring Assassin for Vincentian soca artiste, Kevin Lyttle. That collaboration led to a meeting with Kenwyn “God Bless” Holder (GB), and through GB, Machel Montano, the original “M” in GBM.

However, Carter’s introduction to music came from a very young age.

His father was legendary bass player Ancil “Perez” Ford who was part of bands such as Sound Revolution and Shandileer, and he produced many hits for Carl and Carol Jacobs, calypsonian Crazy and others.

In addition, Carter said the members of his family were always into the arts, performing parang, dancing at Best Village for years, and generally dabbling in the creative arts.

At the age of ten, his family moved to New York and, as he grew older, he became interested in studying art.

He said his first love was painting but later he went into fashion design and began to study the subject after completing high school.

“At that point in time I bounced up with a clip of fellas who were into hip hop. They were making their own music and I became interested in how they were doing it. I started experimenting with the production software and I dropped everything else,” he said.

Therefore, at age 17, he stopped school and soon began making beats, which is what led him to working with Lyttle less than a year later. Around that time, he visited a radio station which hosted a Caribbean programme.

GB, the DJ of that programme as well as the road manager for Montano in North America, was impressed with Nutron’s work, both with Lyttle and the beats he produced.

So, at 19 he was asked by Montano to join and tour with his band and Nutron did so for four to five years, writing and producing songs, and as the band programmer. He also became an official member of GBM Productions, producing hit songs for artistes such as Montano, Shal Marshall, his older brother Kevon Carter, Destra, Kes The Band, Ravi B, and others.

Carter explained that GBM was a brand and Nutron, a long-standing nickname. He placed GBM in front of his name in order to support the brand.

However, as Montano separated from the company, GMB underwent several incarnations, including the name Great Brooklyn Movement. He said over the years the brand expanded beyond Brooklyn and was now simply GBM.

Carter told Sunday Newsday the move to singing was a natural one, part of his growth process after gaining success as a writer, producer, and sound engineer.

He recalled he and Kevon had “dabbled” in music together, even forming a boy band in their younger days, before he settled on painting and fashion.

“Eventually, going through the motions, producing and writing for other artists, demo- ing the songs for other artists to learn, playing around so much with music, it became a natural transition where the closer I got to music the more it became part of me.

“There were things that I wanted to say that I would not put on record for someone else to sing. They were my feelings and thoughts, my expressions, this is how I would do it, this is what my voice could do,” he said.

Carter noted it was four years ago that he finally made the move to sing. He said GB had presented the song Bend Over to Montano, but Carter felt an affinity to the song, he “felt” it, and so decided to give singing a try with the song Bubblin.

Now, with the song Calypso, Carter again found his voice, describing the song as one of his rawest, realist contributions.

He said he loved the response the song was getting from audiences as the aim was to evoke emotions. “Calypso is a song that I put my true, honest thoughts and self into. I didn’t try to cater to the season, the genre, anything. I was just being myself within the zone of calypso and soca,” he said.

This was one of the reasons Carter was excited about Calypso making it to the Soca Monarch finals. He said it was not a typical Soca Monarch song as it was neither a power nor groovy.

He said he also appreciated that the Soca Monarch audience was different as it was not just a fete but patrons were actually interested in the performances, showcasing what a song meant to an artiste.

He believed the competition would give the GBM brand more exposure, which was timely as, this year, he planed to release a digital album called Calypso: The Unsung Legacy.

The album would have 15 songs - seven which he already released for the 2017 Carnival season and eight new songs. Carter said he would not categorise it as a soca album as it had elements of soca, calypso, hip hop, dance hall, and pop music.

He will also be performing at the annual GBM Showcase in New York on March 19.

Carter revealed he had recently been working with live musicians and otherwise experimenting with his music as he wanted people who were not fans of soca to “sit up and pay attention.” “I am interested in placing soca on the mantle with world class music. If you really investigate some of the biggest songs throughout history, they weren’t specifically any one genre, they were just great songs.

“I want to continue being able to become an honest artiste. I’m just trying to express myself, not compete with anyone. I really hope to be able to make some leaps and bounds for the artform,” he said.