KRISTY RAM­NAR­INE

kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

Iz We Kes the Band Car­ni­val Ex­pe­ri­ence is head­ing back to Port-of-Spain.

Lead singer Kees Di­ef­fen­thaller, al­so known as KES, said the band will stage their an­nu­al con­cert at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah on Feb­ru­ary 6, from 4 pm.

“In 2023, the event was held at the Bri­an Lara Sta­di­um in Tarou­ba.

We had a good time at Bri­an Lara but it was al­so nice to come back to the Sa­van­nah,” said Kes.

“This is a very spe­cial year, I feel like we are still get­ting out of what we went through be­fore. I feel like this is a year to sort of es­tab­lish the mu­sic.

“The past year of trav­el has been amaz­ing and I feel like a lot of peo­ple are com­ing down to ex­pe­ri­ence it for the first time. I am hap­py that we can rep­re­sent at a show in Port-of-Spain at the Sa­van­nah.”

He ad­mit­ted that ‘South’ peo­ple were dis­ap­point­ed by the move, how­ev­er, ‘Town’ peo­ple had a sigh of re­lief.

“Where we have reached now, I feel like this show is al­so a mark­er of who we are,” he said.

“I re­al­ly want to put my­self out there and do some­thing spec­tac­u­lar that peo­ple nev­er felt or seen be­fore.

“Def­i­nite­ly a cel­e­bra­tion of cul­ture, a cel­e­bra­tion of who we are in all its as­pects.”

Ac­cord­ing to Kes, “It’s not just so­ca, it’s every­body, all the flights of so­ca, all the off­shoots of who we are in Trinidad and To­ba­go. We re­al­ly want to present cul­ture to not on­ly the peo­ple here but the peo­ple from around the world who want to ex­pe­ri­ence Trinidad and To­ba­go in its en­tire­ty.”

Kes the Band orig­i­nal­ly com­prised Kees Di­ef­fen­thaller and his broth­ers, Jon (gui­tar) and Hans (drums), and child­hood friend, Ri­ad Boo­choon (bass).

Hans no longer plays with the band and they have wel­comed Dean James in­to the role as drum­mer. The band is al­so sup­port­ed by Mario Cal­len­der (key­boards) and Rob­bie Per­saud (DJ).

Be­fore form­ing Kes the Band in 2005 with his broth­ers, Kes was a front­line singer in the band Im­ij and Com­pa­ny.

The en­er­getic and com­mand­ing per­former has be­come a sought-af­ter artiste lo­cal­ly and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly. And has al­so be­come a ma­jor hit with the ladies.

His hits in­clude Tues­day on the Rocks, Hel­lo, Wot­less and Sa­van­nah Grass—a song very close to his heart.

“My fa­ther, (George ‘Bun­ny’ Di­ef­fen­thaller), lives in that song,” said Kes.

“My fa­ther was a force and I feel like that force is in that mu­sic. It’s not sur­pris­ing that it played in every nook and cran­ny around the world.

“It’s just proof that when it comes from a re­al and raw place you don’t know where the mu­sic will reach. Sa­van­nah Grass will live on for­ev­er. At the end of the day, it is a prayer for me and a prayer for my pops. I am very hap­py that peo­ple can en­joy it.”

Kes went on to de­scribe his moth­er, Dean­na, as the bal­ance in the fam­i­ly.

“Mom­my is where I learnt a lot of things, clas­si­cal singing is through. Mom­my is an opera singer. I used to be with her when she was win­ning mu­sic fes­ti­vals and all of that.

“She is the one who en­cour­aged us to for­mal­ly train our voic­es and kept us in choir.

“Mom was al­so the one, pops was the par­ty one, mom loved to dance but she was the re­served one teach­ing us about the bal­ance of stuff. She re­al­ly helps me on my spir­i­tu­al jour­ney. Every time she is read­ing a book that she is in­to, she would say read these two lines.

“Mom is that rock. She is some­body who has al­ways been there.”

Kees at­tend­ed the Cedar Grove Pri­ma­ry School, Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege, San Fer­nan­do and St Mary’s Col­lege in Port-of-Spain.

While be­ing aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly in­clined with vet­eri­nary sci­ence as the biggest pos­si­bil­i­ty, he chose mu­sic as a ca­reer.

“I still feel I’m a kind of vet nowa­days. I love an­i­mals, I grew up around an­i­mals hav­ing all dif­fer­ent types of pets and stuff,” he said.

“I still en­joy na­ture at a very deep lev­el and an­i­mals. I don’t have the time be­cause I trav­el so much. Big up Rosie by Cock­er Spaniel. I feel like when I am around an­i­mals and na­ture I re­set.”

When it comes to his fash­ion, Kes likes to keep things sim­ple.

“I like to be most com­fort­able when I am per­form­ing so­ca mu­sic, it is a very hot and sweaty thing,” he said.

“If I could be as sim­ple as pos­si­ble and get to the point. Some­times I dress easy, some­times I dress up.”

The artiste said he in­tends to give fans a fes­ti­val ex­pe­ri­ence like no oth­er on Tues­day.