Cherisse Moe

Where can you find Dex­ter "Blaxx" Stew­art when he's not prac­tic­ing with his band Roy Cape All Stars or en­ter­tain­ing the crowd on stage? Well, the self-pro­claimed "fam­i­ly man" says he will most like­ly be at home watch­ing car­toons, like Sponge Bob Squarepants and shows such as Dis­ney's Han­nah Mon­tana, with his wife and five chil­dren. Ap­pre­ci­at­ing the sim­ple things in life is what the so­ca artiste says he is all about. "I do the usu­al dad­dy things," Blaxx said in an in­ter­view on Mon­day. "I bought my­self a big screen TV and a Blu-Ray Ma­chine and we just watch TV and re­lax. My sev­en-month-old daugh­ter keeps us very busy. She's like a smil­ing ma­chine. I just like to lie down and love her up on the couch, she so sweet."

Nowa­days, Blaxx has been put­ing his fam­i­ly's tele­vi­sion time on pause as he gears up to com­pete in this year's In­ter­na­tion­al So­ca Monarch Com­pe­ti­tion, in which he is a fi­nal­ist in both the Pow­er and Groovy cat­e­gories. His sin­gles Sound De Horn (pow­er) and In­na Band (Groovy) have been "mash­ing up" fetes for the Car­ni­val sea­son and Blaxx isn't com­plain­ing. Com­ing from a mu­si­cal fam­i­ly, the Siparia-born, San Juan res­i­dent has had a lot of ex­pe­ri­ence per­form­ing on the So­ca Monarch stage-20 times to be ex­act. His love for mu­sic, he says, runs deep. "My dad was the late Jer­ry Stew­art, a gui­tarist and key­boardist. My mom is a singer and my two broth­ers are both writ­ers, that's why I'm al­ways in the frame of mind to per­form and com­pete. I get no cold feet, no but­ter­flies. My life is mu­sic," he added. He shied away from stat­ing just how long his en­tire mu­sic ca­reer spans be­cause "then yuh go know how old ah is."

Blaxx is ap­peal­ing to his fel­low en­ter­tain­ers to be­come more "lyri­cal­ly con­scious," and re­vealed he may soon hang up his So­ca Monarch hat to al­low younger, as­pir­ing artistes to make their names in the so­ca in­dus­try. Sin­gling out young stars Er­phaan Alves, Swap­pi, Fire­ball and Kim­ba Sorzano, Blaxx opined that the fu­ture of the lo­cal genre seems to be in good hands. "I can­not sing for the rest of my life so pret­ty soon I might not be in the So­ca Monarch again. Old­er artistes need to make room for the younger ones com­ing up," he said. We can't keep hug­ging the stage for a pay cheque." But un­til he calls it quits, this "artiste from the old school" as­sures that come Car­ni­val Fri­day (Feb­ru­ary 17), he will be pulling out all the stops and walk­ing with "some sur­pris­es" for his fans when the high­ly-an­tic­i­pat­ed show gets un­der­way at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Port-of-Spain.

So­ca Monarch Champs 1993-2012

1993 - Su­perblue - Bac­cha­anal Time

1994 - Su­perBlue - Flag Par­ty

1995 - Ron­nie McIn­tosh - On The Road

1996 - Su­perblue - Bounce

1997 - Ron­nie McIn­tosh - Ent + Su­perblue - Bar­bara (Tie)

1998 - Su­per Blue - Ato Par­ty

1999 - Kurt Allen - Dus Dem

2000 - Su­per Blue - Pump Up

2001 - Shad­ow - Stranger

2002 - Bun­ji Gar­lin - We From de Ghet­to + Iw­er George - Gimme Ah Bligh (Tie)

2003 - Iw­er George - Ah Home

2004 - Bun­ji Gar­lin - War­rior Cry

2005 - Bun­ji Gar­lin - Blaze de Fire

2006 - Shur­wayne Win­ches­ter - Ah Can't Wait

2007 - Iw­er George - Fete Af­ter Fete

2008 - Bun­ji Gar­lin - Fiery

2009 - Fay-Ann Lyons-Al­varez - Meet Su­perblue (First fe­male win­ner)

2010 - JW & Blaze - Palance [2]

2011 - Machel Mon­tano - Ad­van­tage

In­ter­na­tion­al Groovy So­ca Monarch

2004 - Michelle Sylvester - Hone

2005 - Michelle Sylvester - Sleep­ing In Your Bed

2006 - Shur­wayne Win­ches­ter - Don't Stop

2007 - Big­gie Irie - Nah Goin' Home

2008 - Shur­wayne Win­ches­ter - Car­ni­val Please Stay

2009 - Fay-Ann Lyons-Al­varez - Heavy T Bumper

2010 - Shur­wayne Win­ches­ter - Mur­dah

2011 - Kes The Band - Wot­less