Machel Montano

TEMPO: Your lyrics are known for being very powerful, but sometimes they're happy or serious. What inspires your content?

MM: Usually I write from the music. I'm not the kind of person who sits down and reads the newspaper and says I want to sing about this, I want to sing about that. Sometimes I try to latch on to the sounds in the music and the messages usually come out of the music and when you look around it's something that's happening in your area that's relevant and deep. I love deep, spiritual music and I love blending that with Soca. Soca was always the soul of calypso. I like to poor out my soul in my music and get deep. We love dancing, we love having a good time but I think it's more special when you can get people feeling that you and I have to bring out the best energy. I'm representing who I am and I am doing it consciously and I'm doing it with maximum enthusiasm and that's just how Soca comes to me.

TEMPO: What are you working on right now?

MM: Right now I'm back in the studio and working on my music again. For many years I've been doing a lot of studio electronic and computer work. I really want to work with live musicians more. I had a live band for over 18 years and we've been fortunate to go into the studio and record live music, something that Soca has lost. It used to be live, then it went into the drill machine era, and now we are trying to get back. I'm trying to work on my music and mix live stuff with electronic stuff.

TEMPO: Your lyrics are known for being very powerful, but sometimes they're happy or serious. What inspires your content?

MM: Usually I write from the music. I'm not the kind of person who sits down and reads the newspaper and says I want to sing about this, I want to sing about that. Sometimes I try to latch on to the sounds in the music and the messages usually come out of the music and when you look around it's something that's happening in your area that's relevant and deep. I love deep, spiritual music and I love blending that with Soca. Soca was always the soul of calypso. I like to poor out my soul in my music and get deep. We love dancing, we love having a good time but I think it's more special when you can get people feeling that you and I have to bring out the best energy. I'm representing who I am and I am doing it consciously and I'm doing it with maximum enthusiasm and that's just how Soca comes to me.