“My life began when I picked up the guitar because that’s when I found my identity,” singer and guitarist Christian Sobers says and it has been a decade since he took up music professionally at the age of 16.
Christian began his musical journey with the teen band Breaking the Barriers as a guitarist, today he is both guitarist and singer in the band Prophetic Breed.
“When I first began playing music professionally it was for a Christian Rock Band… Also part of the band were Andrew ‘Drew Thoven’ King and my brother Jeremy Sobers,” Christian said.
The singer attended New Guyana School, from nursery into secondary, but at the time music was not part of the school’s curriculum. This is no longer the case and Christian has been instrumental in that change. He was in the Science stream, focused on a career in medicine, until an American Idol episode changed everything.
“… I can’t remember which season it was but there was a girl standing barefoot onstage and she was playing ‘I’m Yours’ by Jason Maraz. When I saw that, I said I could totally do that; that’s awesome. Literally, when it went to commercial, I remembered a guitar we had put away and I went and grabbed it… opened it, but it had no strings.”
The guitar Christian was speaking of was one his father bought while at the JFK Airport three or four years before that. While sitting at the airport Sean Sobers, Christian’s dad, saw a man singing and playing his guitar. After some negotiation, he left the airport with the guitar which cost him around US$250. But no one seemed a bit interested in playing.
A month later, Christian had managed to buy some strings. The internet had just become a big thing in Guyana, but it was too slow for him to watch tutorials, so he went to the National Library instead and found some books on learning to play the instrument. When he could, he downloaded tutorials from YouTube. Christian was 15 when he started learning to play the guitar. The first three months, he did not make much progress, if any at all.
Whenever, he accompanied his father to various music shows Christian would seek out other musicians about learning to play the guitar, but no one was interested in sharing any knowledge. He got lucky eventually after talking to a bass guitarist who assisted him in what he needed to know. Surprisingly, many of the things he read about but couldn’t comprehend were fully understood by the guitarist who also learnt a thing or two from what Christian shared with him. That moment, he said, was one that impacted his life in music.
Fast forward to a year later when Christian began 6th Form at Queen’s College. “Back in [New Guyana] school, I was super quiet. I was an introvert. I kept to myself. My school was a Christian school, so I always had that kind of shelter. My first major life experience was when I went to 6th Form. The first day was like a culture shock because there are things that happen in those schools that just won’t happen at my school because of the structure but that’s where my life started. That’s where I began to get involved. My first day at QC I was known as the ‘guitar kid’. I could never take my guitar to New Guyana School because we never did music, so nobody knew. At QC people would stop me at break-time and say, ‘Hey, can you play the ‘Lazy Song’ [Bruno Mars] for me’. I played that song like a hundred times. The girls had their selection of songs too and if I heard someone that had a really nice voice I would say, ‘Hey, let’s try something else’. I didn’t stay at QC very long, however, because I didn’t get any work done and was just playing the guitar. I attended School of the Nations after that. That’s where I met Larone. That’s where I met Meshach. He [Meshach] and I started a musical journey together that lasted for years.”
Today Christian has 12 guitars and is currently building his first.
Music has also made Christian more outspoken and was the mechanism that bridged the gap between him and his father. During his teenage years he kept mostly to himself. After becoming musically inclined he found himself always talking with his dad about an artiste, a song, a melody or guitars. From there their relationship flourished. His father, a musician and singer himself was Christian’s icon, someone he always admired. One of his most remarkable experiences, he shared, was when his father allowed him to play for him.
“The first time my dad let me play for him was at a church called New Testament Church of God. I was there with the guitar, him onstage next to me. He made me practice so hard, he made me practice through the night like 40 times. He didn’t just want it to be good, he wanted it to sound a certain way. We performed one of my dad’s original songs called ‘I Believe’ and it was amazing; the audience loved it. I remember my dad saying ‘Good job son’ and that affirmed everything for me to know that I was [acknowledged].”
Christian has played almost all the genres from Gospel to Country Western to Dance Hall. He recalled an experience at Club Next at the Ramada Hotel. Wanting to sing what he thought was appropriate for the setting, he and the rest of the band decided on Dance Hall songs. But the audience knew the kind of music they played was more soulful and groovy and was surprised to hear them playing that genre. They were not dancing or singing but more trying to understand what was really being performed by the group, as that was not expected.
Christian noted that once you define yourself in the music industry, that’s who you are. If then you should deviate from that people don’t know who you are anymore. Therefore, he said, when you are going to define yourself, you should take heed to do so positively.
One of his life inspirations is Tyler Perry, while musically the singer is inspired by the likes of Israel, Travis Green and Todd Dulaney, all renowned artistes Christian would have opened for at concerts. Tyler, Christian said, is someone who began working in the background even when nothing big was happening, yet he was pushed to the forefront by persons who realized his talent and humbleness. “People always say ‘Whatever is in the dark will come to light’ but they are usually trying to say if you do something bad that is what will happen, but the good things also will come to light and that’s like a motto I live by. Whatever happens in the dark will come to light.”
Christian teaches music. His day job sees him teaching music at the Georgetown International Academy where he’s also the tech guy. He also teaches at his night school, Music Unlimited, which he founded with his brother Jeremy.
He boasted that he has the best job in the world because of the many titles he holds in the industry and can make a living from it. Though he added that if he played music only in Guyana, he would struggle as gigs do not come so regularly. He records music, performs live and also arranges music.
The recent Mashramani season saw him doing many arrangements for various artistes. Around Easter time there will be many shows in and out of Guyana, so he has started booking for these events then come May he will be in studio again recording songs and doing arrangements for Carnival.
He is also the music manger of his band, so even when he is away, he gets his manager’s cut after his band would have played at an event. For the last three years, he has been the technical director at the National Cultural Centre where he is in charge of the lights and sounds during productions.
“A con of the music business in Guyana is it still a developing and not a fully operational industry whereas we have copyrights issues also,” the singer said.
Another challenge is artistes trying to get their songs to be played on air.
Christian’s hobbies include playing video games, travelling, sports, kickboxing, working out, and repairing things.
He has three other siblings aside from Jeremy: Yannick, Nessa and Tehillah.
He is working on getting a PhD in Music and is currently pursuing a degree at the Royal School of Music.
The guitarist/singer is set to celebrate his 26th birthday next Friday. In celebration of his decade in the music industry, he plans to have a mini-concert at one of the malls. The venue and date of this event is still tentative.
Persons can contact 223-7535 or 626-7282 for more details on the music school.
Meanwhile, Music Unlimited will be performing in Trinidad at Carifesta in August.
