Visually impaired brothers aiming to make it big in the local music industry

─ duo wrote over 15 songs which will soon be recorded

─ brothers believe that music will be their gateway to success

DPI, Guyana, Monday, May 13, 2019

Despite being visually impaired, Linden brothers 17-year-old Relon and 15-year-old Roell Sumner, have commenced their singing careers after recording their first song. Currently hitting waves, they did their debut performance at the Linden Town Week 2019 opening ceremony after which the song was played on the radio.

With the stage name ‘Original lyrics’, the duo has already written over fifteen songs using catchy dancehall/soca beats with ‘Money Time’ being their first two years ago. Their preferred genre, however, is dancehall.

The duo has also mastered the art of freestyling and has wowed crowds as they can flow and rap lyrics in split seconds.

The LTW theme song is entitled ‘Town Week Time Again’ and was recorded by the duo at Elevate Studios. The song highlights the excitement and hype that comes along with the annual event, which attracts thousands of people. It encapsulates the various events on the 11 days calendar of activities. “It’s basically talking about Linden Town Week, the fun, how we enjoy it, it talks about Poker Street Lime and how you roll out, bringing a vibe to the people to see what it is all about,” Relon said.

The duo is hoping the song will create the traction and support they need to be recognised as local artistes. Once this dream is achieved, they can record and perform more of their songs.

While Roell is a high achiever at the Mackenzie High School, Relon, unfortunately, had to drop out of Mackenzie High in the fourth form, because of his disability. Despite not being able to complete his secondary education, he believes that music will be his gateway to success. “I always say, I want music to carry me at the top to really build my life… I’m just hoping to get to the top because that’s what everybody wants, to get to the top,” Relon posited.

The two of seven siblings, work as a team since two others also suffer from low vision. Their mother Ronella Waldron was diagnosed with toxoplasmosis, a disease that occurs in fetuses infected with Toxoplasma gondii, a protozoan parasite, which is transmitted from mother to fetus. In cases where the mother does not miscarry, the child may be born with severe and progressive visual, hearing, motor, cognitive, and other problems. Impaired vision, however, is most common. Her third son, Dimitry Waldron, also a high achiever at the Mackenzie High School, has low vision but assists his brothers with writing their songs when they create and memorise the lyrics in their heads. “If we get a song that we want write, we does memorise it first in we head and whenever it done fix up, we does sit with him and he does write it. Sometimes we do it by verse and then the chorus.”

With the assistance from their family circle, being visually impaired is far from a deterrent to the brothers who believe they will be the ‘Stevie Wonders of Guyana’, in years to come. They are currently working on two soca songs, which will be submitted for the Junior Soca Monarch Competition in 2020.

The brothers are encouraging other young people who are differently abled, to reach for the stars, to push against every stumbling block, so they too can achieve greatness.

Story and Images: Vanessa Braithwaite.

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