Creole rocker crowdfunding to attend UK festival

 

  • aims to showcase unique Guyanese musical style

DPI, Guyana, Thursday, July 5, 2018

Creole rock artiste, Gavin Mendonca is on a mission to showcase his unique musical style at an international festival in the United Kingdom (UK).

The Georgetown-born Mendonca began experimenting with the musical genre of rock and roll after graduating high school and purchasing his first guitar roughly 8 years ago.

In an exclusive interview with the Department of Public Information (DPI), he said, “I have come up with my own style of music called creole rock which is a fusion of Guyanese folk music. That’s the foundation with our Creole culture and dialect how we does talk cause I do believe our voice is a true representation of our identity and also punk rock to kind of fit it all together.”

Mendonca has so far done renditions of Dave Martins’ ‘Not A blade Ah grass’, and Eddie Grant’s ‘Electric Avenue’ and his own ‘The Great Rebellion’ which is about Cuffy and the 1763 slave rebellion, and ‘City by de Tides’.

Although he may have these accomplishments and may now be getting greater support than before, his fulltime career comes with challenges; these being finances and copyright.

“One of the main challenges is finances, there’s no steady stream of income, and not a lot of people book rock musicians, and I’m trying my best to stay away from going into Soca or going into any other genre because I am rock and roll, I am creole rock, I want to always represent who I am when I perform live. Another challenge is the lack of copyright laws in Guyana. There need be systems in place for the local artistes in terms of content and selling that content both here in Guyana and internationally.”

In the face of these challenges, Mendonca has been given a unique opportunity to attend the World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) event in the United Kingdom. WOMAD is an international arts festival which aims to celebrate the world’s numerous forms of music, arts and dance. To attend this, the Guyanese artiste needs his country’s support.

“Being a full-time musician is very hard so I have to put out a few public callings for support for my venture to the UK. It would be a great opportunity for me to go and experience a fully functioning music industry; to network and meet people like myself and other musicians, A&R representatives, booking agents, and festival directors for me to develop a relationship with them so I could come back home with the new knowledge I have acquired so I can contribute to the development of the local music industry and also provide opportunity for myself and my colleagues here in Guyana.”

Anyone interested in contributing to his international journey can visit his website www.creolerock.com where they would be guided to an Indiegogo page to contribute. Contributors will receive a digital copy of his debut album “Creole Rock: The Beginning” or a private link to watch his short film “How to build a treehouse” filmed at Kaieteur Falls which features the Patamona language and folklore and was directed and produced by Derrick A. Denheart aka ‘Zikki’ of Infinity Productions.

By: Stephon Gabriel.

Images: Shamar Semple.

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