Bo­bie-lee Dixon

His voice breathes a fresh new pop-type sound to so­ca and his Groovy se­lec­tion for Car­ni­val 2012, In Your Eyes on the An­tilles Rid­dim by KC Phillips, is un­de­ni­ably in­fec­tions. What has so­ca lovers even more in­trigued about this young­ster is the need to put a face to this dis­tinct sweet voice and the name that is on every girl's tongue-Er­phaan Alves. But al­though he may seem new to some, this Cen­tral boy has been per­form­ing since the age of nine, mak­ing his name in both the Ju­nior Ca­lyp­so and Ju­nior So­ca Monarch Com­pe­ti­tions, win­ning con­sec­u­tive­ly in the lat­ter, in 2008 and 2009 with his own com­po­si­tions ti­tled So­ca Mov­ing and Mu­si­cal Jour­ney. His taste of vic­to­ry al­so came years be­fore, when he took home the ti­tle con­sec­u­tive­ly as well, from 2001 to 2003 in the Rosary Boys RC School Ca­lyp­so Com­pe­ti­tion.

Asked what in­spires him to write, Alves said just look­ing at life and ob­serv­ing peo­ple and sit­u­a­tions around him.An en­trant in the So­ca Monarch Com­pe­ti­tion for the fifth time, this year the cards have re­al­ly played in­to Alves' hands, with so­ca heavy­weights such as Machel Mon­tano, and Kees Di­ef­fen­thaller trust­ing in his writ­ing skills. Yes, Alves is the mas­ter­mind be­hind Pre­ci­sion Wine sung by Di­ef­fen­thaller, Swing It Up sung by Patrice Roberts, Dut­ty sung by up­com­ing artiste Gabrielle Al­fon­zo, Make You Rock and 4D Gyal sung by Swap­pi and he co-wrote the pop­u­lar Doh Fraid chart-top­per, sung by Machel Mon­tano.So are any of these artistes his men­tors? Alves says not re­al­ly."I re­spect all these artistes for push­ing so­ca mu­sic and the art form but I am not re­al­ly in­ter­est­ed in copy-cat­ting any­one or want­i­ng to be like them. I am grate­ful to have worked with all of them but I am blaz­ing my own trail," he said with a laugh.

Alves hum­bled

At 20-years-old with the gift to ex­plore his tal­ent and the op­por­tu­ni­ty to make his name known, Alves says he isn't too con­cerned about the hype, but in fact he is hum­bled by this chance he calls a bless­ing from God. "I am re­al­ly grate­ful and hum­bled by this op­por­tu­ni­ty this year be­cause it's what I al­ways want­ed, and now that it's here I am just go­ing to make the best of it." He added that more im­por­tant­ly peo­ple are be­com­ing fa­mil­iar with who Er­phaan Alves is as the sea­son pro­gress­es and he makes ap­pear­ances at events. "I am get­ting the chance to get peo­ple fa­mil­iar with who I am and re­fresh­ing the minds of those who prob­a­bly for­got," he not­ed.

Best foot For­ward

Asked what so­ca lovers could look for­ward to as he takes the stage at the Dig­i­cel In­ter­na­tion­al So­ca Monarch Com­pe­ti­tion on Car­ni­val Fri­day night should he make it to the fi­nals, Alves who will com­pete in both the Groovy and Pow­er cat­e­gories, said he is work­ing on de­liv­er­ing a per­for­mance pleas­ing to him­self, the fans and the judges.