Fighting Traffic has a battle plan that they are sticking to: take it easy, don’t overthink everything – it’s not about signing contracts or getting a deal . . . but only about making music. And that is what Carlos Baptiste, lead vocalist; Kevin Jack, guitarist; David Thomas, bassist; and Melvin Alick, drummer are doing every day.
“We wanted an outlet to do something we love. We wanted to rock. So we formed our own band”, explained Carlos. “After searching for a drummer, David asked Melvin and he said yes.” That said, the band goes against the popular grain of soca, reggae or rhythm or blues to bring you a distinctive rock vibe that they call “their sound”.
“We bring our own style as well as originality. Because of that we are not really a crowd puller. We have our fans but it is difficult to get gigs and book venues. But we prefer to not get gigs than betray ourselves and do covers. We are about playing rock,” emphasized Carlos and David.
The band is all about getting into people’s faces this year.
The band rehearses every Tuesday night at David’s home studio and the atmosphere during the interview was one of poking fun at each other and cracking jokes. The guys admit that this was their true self. “We take our craft seriously but in this studio while we jam . . . we also have fun. Music is fun, says Kevin”, while tuning up his guitar.
With their original songs playing in the background, the band set up their equipment for a sit down interview that was vibing in a relaxed sort of way. By the end I felt like I had known them forever.
Fighting Traffic has been together since 2007 and all are talented musicians. Carlos played trombone while at high school and was a part of a Christian church band, while the rest are self-taught with Melvin playing the drums since age nine. Melvin highlighted his skills at the Spice & Company reunion show held last February at the Globe Drive-In.
Kevin, Carlos and David went to Combermere while Melvin, the odd one, out went to The St Michael School – a point they rib Melvin constantly about who laughs it off.
The three also have part time jobs as teacher, plant inspector and land surveyor while Melvin is the only “full-time musician”.
They released their only album Don’t Worry About It in late 2010 with seven original songs. Last year they recorded more songs, had a publishing contract with ACM records (an indie label in New York) and shot their Runaway music video with House Of Shoshin.
“The guys who shot the video actually heard our song, contacted us and said they wanted to do a video to the song,” explained David, who has been operating his own company Dsquared Productions for the past ten years and had a relationship with House Of Shoshin.
Even with all of that Carlos’s take on last year was that it was “rough, rough, rough”.
The band explained that every band suffered last year in terms of performances and revenue but for that, because of their style of music, they had it double fold.
“We did a couple private shows, some charity work, opened for Betty Payne at Plantation, did a jamming session with Nexcyxx, but big venues were not opening for us,” the band explained.
This year the band wants to “change up the paradigm . . . with a different approach to live performances.”
They have ideas that they are trying to push and one of them is instead of people coming to them they will be going to them. David’s take on it is “that the music industry is changing. So we have to switch it up a bit too. We are using the social media such as Twitter, Facebook, iTunes to get us into people’s faces.”
The group is now working on a selection of songs and they plan to release singles rather than an album and do another music video off the 2010 album.
While they all have different tastes in their pick of music they like – ranging from electronica to roots-reggae – they all agree that they keep an open mind when it comes to music.
Melvin is excited about the focus of the group: “We are open to writing songs for people. We have songs that fit even Rihanna.”
And the beanie that Carlos is always wearing during performances? It was a band suggestion that took off and which will remain as long as they rock.
