Nass­er Khan

Ray­mond Ram­nar­ine, lead singer, along with his broth­ers Richard and Ren­nie, and their band Dil E Nadan con­tin­ue to hold their own with the best of them at ma­jor fetes.

Con­sid­ered the world's num­ber one crossover chut­ney so­ca band, the band start­ed in the ear­ly 1960's with their dad as one of the found­ing mem­bers.

The for­mer sales rep­re­sen­ta­tive and car tint spe­cial­ist, who is mar­ried to his child­hood sweet­heart and the fa­ther of two sons, start­ed his singing ca­reer in the 90's where he en­tered his first com­pe­ti­tion, a duet com­pe­ti­tion, and won. He then en­tered Mas­tana Ba­har and placed 2nd in the grand fi­nals. In 2013 he cap­tured the chut­ney so­ca monarch ti­tle. As the band has gained in pop­u­lar­i­ty they have toured ex­ten­sive­ly to the USA, Cana­da, the Caribbean, Hol­land, Lon­don and Spain.

Ram­nar­ine has won many awards in­clud­ing best male artiste, song of the year (Some­day), best lyri­cist and best so­ca chut­ney band, all at the 103FM hall of fame awards while the band has copped the best band award on three oc­ca­sions at the Mi­a­mi car­ni­val. Among the top artistes that he has per­formed along­side are John Leg­end, Earth Wind and Fire, Shag­gy, Ku­mar Sanu, Brandy, Mr. Ve­gas, Mighty Spar­row. He has even won a best in­ter­na­tion­al artiste award in Hol­land.

His much an­tic­i­pat­ed an­nu­al con­cert "Every­body Loves Ray­mond" (card­ed for Feb­ru­ary 27th this year) con­tin­ues to play to sold out au­di­ences.

Tell us about your ear­ly years and your fam­i­ly...where born, where grew up, schools at­tend­ed in­clud­ing pri­ma­ry, etc?

I was born in San Fer­nan­do and grew up in Gas­par­il­lo, Caratal Road to be ex­act. I trea­sure the peo­ple in my vil­lage and I feel so proud to rep­re­sent them every time I hit the stage. I have not left my home­town and am proud to be from south. I at­tend­ed the Gas­par­il­lo Hin­du School and then the Gas­par­il­lo Com­pos­ite School where I had the most mem­o­rable time of my life. Made so many friends and learnt so much about life. My favourite teacher in pri­ma­ry school had to be Mrs Pal­loo, bril­liant and kind woman.

What are some of your favourite pieces of Tri­ni mu­sic?

Hm­mm let me see. David Rud­der's ca­lyp­so mu­sic, Bun­ji Gar­lin's dif­fer­en­tol­ogy, Spar­row's wiz­ardry, Palance by JW and Blaze, bring back the ole time days by Nap­py My­ers. I love tra­di­tion­al chut­ney mu­sic, so I salute all the tra­di­tion­al chut­ney singers. When I hear these type of chut­ney it kin­da draws me to my an­ces­tors and it is such a good feel­ing.

To top off my all time favourite Tri­ni mu­sic .....it has to be that in­di­an song that my dad played in 1970 with Dil E Nadan and won the prime min­is­ter's tro­phy which was judged by In­dia's great, Mo­hammed Rafi and ace arranger, Enoch Daniel. And that song is O saj­na.

Which of your works do you rate as the most sat­is­fy­ing and mem­o­rable?

I wrote my first song, Some­day in 2005 and won a bunch of awards at the 103FM hall of fame, in­clud­ing song of the year, best male artiste and best lyri­cist. I then re­alised I had that hid­den tal­ent as a writer. Then in 2013 is wrote Mar­rid­ing, where I won the chut­ney so­ca monarch. There are so many touch­ing mo­ments in my life and so many good times.

What is your favourite pas­time/in­ter­est/hob­by out­side of per­form­ing/play­ing?

My favourite pas­time has to be bas­ket­ball...I love sports. I used to eat, drink, sleep sports, but in 2005 I had a ter­ri­ble sport­ing ac­ci­dent where doc­tors said I may not walk again. But It thank Dr Ram­roop who did surgery on my left knee and to this day have me jump­ing and wav­ing like ah mad man, god is tru­ly great.

What goals and or am­bi­tions do you still have?

So much yet to do. Dil E Nadan has so many fans abroad, we in­tend to take Eu­rope by storm. Mu­sic is my life and I want to take chut­ney mu­sic and make it ac­cept­able to the in­ter­na­tion­al mar­ket. Take it away from all the rum lyrics, Bol­ly­wood melodies etc. Con­tin­ue to be the am­bas­sador for my coun­try.

I want to even­tu­al­ly go in­to pro­mo­tions. Dil E Nadan has al­ways been that in­sti­tu­tion that in­spires the youths and I will do my part to help the less for­tu­nate ones who don't have a voice, to show them the tricks and trade of the busi­ness. I be­lieve through mu­sic we can and will bring peace and hap­pi­ness to our blessed land and by ex­ten­sion the world...be­cause mu­sic is hap­pi­ness !

Of all your ac­co­lades, prizes and awards which do you rate as ex­treme­ly spe­cial?

Wow–so much awards to name. And yes all of them will for­ev­er be spe­cial but re­cent­ly our band was award­ed the Hum­ming Bird Gold Medal. That has to be the top prize. Why? Not just be­cause of what it sig­ni­fies, but all the hard work my dad en­dured in his life to make Dil E Nadan who we are to­day. The sweat and the tears ......my dad was and is still the back­bone of our band.

You are a fan of the steel­pan I hear...

At present our chil­dren, Varun and Vi­nesh are tak­ing steel pan class­es. This in­stru­ment just amazes me. Why? Its sim­plic­i­ty and the grace­ful sound it makes. When I trav­el to Eu­rope and see the huge in­ter­est our na­tion­al in­stru­ment has on the peo­ple I feel that sense of pride. I grew up in a mu­si­cal fam­i­ly and ap­pre­ci­ate good mu­sic, good arrange­ments and when I lis­ten to some of our great pan play­ers I have the ut­most re­spect. I was for­tu­nate to work along­side the late great Jit Sama­roo. My dad and broth­ers arranged a test piece for Saaj Same­lan, an or­ches­tra­tion com­pe­ti­tion held in the ear­ly 90's and Jit Sama­roo was the arranger.

What thoughts do you have for the im­prove­ment of Car­ni­val?

I think car­ni­val is los­ing its orig­i­nal form. While we ac­cept change and move for­ward it's very im­por­tant not to for­get our roots and where we came from. With re­spect to the com­pe­ti­tions, we need to put a stamp to orig­i­nal work and giv­ing new artistes a chance to shine. On­ly then we can move for­ward.

I was amazed at Mi­a­mi air­port to see two pan men wel­com­ing tourists. Trinidad and To­ba­go is steel pan....why can't we do this in our air­port? Mu­sic and cul­ture play an in­te­gral part in so­ci­ety and we are blessed as a na­tion to pro­duce so many tal­ent­ed sons and daugh­ters. Be proud and show off our he­roes to the world, that's where our gov­ern­ment comes in.

If you could in­ter­view or dine with any­one, liv­ing or dead, who would it be and why? And what ques­tion would you be ea­ger to ask?

I would freak out if I could in­ter­view the great Michael Jor­dan. He is just a per­fec­tion­ist. And nev­er set­tles for sec­ond. He is the per­fect role mod­el. I have been a fan of him since for­ev­er. I wan­na be like mike .......lol

What is an in­ter­est­ing facet of your per­son­al­i­ty that most peo­ple do not know about you?

Every­one al­ways looked at me as the crazy lu­natic, the hype one, de show­stop­pa. Lit­tle do they now that when I'm off stage I'm a re­al home boy. I love the qui­et life. Spend­ing time with friends and my fam­i­ly. I'm a very shy per­son. I de­spise peo­ple how are dis­hon­est. And I be­lieve in hu­mil­i­ty and re­spect for one an­oth­er. Oh by the way how can I for­get .....I re­al­ly love ah good roti and fry al­loo. Lol.

What is the best com­pli­ment you have every re­ceived?

Hm­mm...fans al­ways come up to me and ap­pre­ci­ate my hu­mil­i­ty. And that goes a long way. The girls al­ways com­pli­ment me on my lips ....yeh it's true. Can't help it–its re­al 100 per cent. Lol.

What ad­vice would you give to the coun­try's lead­ers to cre­ate a bet­ter so­ci­ety?

Why can't the op­po­si­tion and gov­ern­ment work to­geth­er for the best in­ter­est of our peo­ple? For­get who's in pow­er for once, the coun­try knows who is in charge, gen­uine­ly work to­geth­er for the bet­ter of our coun­try. Put coun­try first! We are a beau­ti­ful na­tion.

What ad­vice would you give to the young peo­ple of T&T?

Nev­er give up, be­lieve in you, stay re­spect­ful and live with hu­mil­i­ty. But most of all, find god. No mat­ter what re­li­gion, god wants us to live with love. Put god in your life and every­thing will be pos­si­ble!

If you could pick any singer and/or band to per­form just for you who would you choose?

Wow! I love all mu­sic so it's hard. Reg­gae, I would bring back Bob Mar­ley to life; Ca­lyp­so, I would choose Baron; So­ca, I would have to go with, Bun­ji Gar­lin; In­di­an mu­sic, I will sit and be in awe with La­ta Mangeskar.

Who are the peo­ple who in­flu­enced and in­spired you the most, in your ca­reer and in life in gen­er­al?

My par­ents are my great­est role mod­els. They taught us about life and in every­thing we do show com­pas­sion and hu­mil­i­ty to one an­oth­er. My dad taught me to play key­boards. My mom taught us to nev­er give up. My rock is my wife, Niala who is the moth­er of our 2 chil­dren, Varun and Vi­nesh. She has been by my side through thick and thin. My broth­ers, Richard and Ren­nie com­plete my mu­si­cal life. I am blessed.

What dai­ly mot­to do you live by?

Live a stress free life and smile when you can. It makes you a bet­ter per­son. Hard work, de­ter­mi­na­tion, prayers ......I live this.

De­scribe your­self in two words, one be­gin­ning with R, the oth­er with R, your ini­tials?

Hm­mm, Re­spect­ful and Re­li­gious

�2 If you have any sug­ges­tions of per­sons who should be fea­tured in this se­ries please email Nass­er Khan at nkhantt@gmail.com.