Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

Rave the Band will mark its ninth an­niver­sary at Side­line Sips Bar, Mar­vin Lee Sta­di­um, Cen­tre of Ex­cel­lence, next Fri­day with a spe­cial per­for­mance that promis­es to be a cel­e­bra­tion of their mu­si­cal jour­ney.

From so­ca and chut­ney to dance­hall, rock and even Bol­ly­wood tunes, Rave the Band has made a name for them­selves as a crossover band with a fresh ap­proach to Caribbean mu­sic.

The band’s sto­ry is one of spon­tane­ity and pas­sion. Ac­cord­ing to the band’s leader, Lochan Ra­goobir, bet­ter known by his stage name Mr Rave, the idea for the band start­ed on a Sun­day evening in 2016.

“It was just me, my nephew Bran­don Ra­goobir, and Nicholas, chill­ing at home. We were all in dif­fer­ent bands at the time, and we thought, ‘Why not start our own?’” Ra­goobir re­calls.

The next step was to reach out to their friend, a busi­ness­man, who gen­er­ous­ly helped them with some ini­tial equip­ment. From there, Rave the Band was born.

What start­ed as a ca­su­al idea quick­ly grew in­to some­thing much big­ger. Over the years, the band has earned a rep­u­ta­tion for their eclec­tic per­for­mances, com­bin­ing the rhythms of so­ca, chut­ney, dance­hall, and even film songs, all while main­tain­ing their Caribbean roots.

“We just want to con­tin­ue hard to get where we re­al­ly want to be,” Ra­goobir said, adding, “Our goal is to trav­el more, play at big­ger events, and take our mu­sic to in­ter­na­tion­al au­di­ences.”

In their nine years, Rave the Band has played on pres­ti­gious stages in­clud­ing Di­vali Na­gar, Pan on the Av­enue, and nu­mer­ous Car­ni­val events.

One of their most re­cent ac­com­plish­ments was per­form­ing at the I Love Cho­ka fete at the Cen­tre of Ex­cel­lence.

Look­ing ahead, they have ex­cit­ing in­ter­na­tion­al plans, in­clud­ing gigs in Guyana and Suri­name lat­er this year.

Lochan ad­mits singing wasn’t ini­tial­ly his pas­sion.

“I liked drums and rhythm ma­chines. I just picked up a mike in a par­ty and start to sing and that was it. I’ve been singing 22 years now,” he said.

With fel­low front­line singers Si­ta “De­si­Girl” Son­ny­lal, and Quinc “Quin C” Chadee, Ra­goobir is promis­ing that the an­niver­sary cel­e­bra­tion will be an ex­cit­ing event, with spe­cial guest artistes join­ing them on stage for a night of live mu­sic and un­for­get­table vibes.