Can a person be destined for music? Bryan Paton believes he was as he came from a line of singers and music enthusiasts. Bryan, who goes by stage name ‘Militant’, rose to fame in 2001 with his popular soca hit “Hot and Groovy”. He has been living in Trinidad, the mecca for soca, for many years now.
The second of four children, Bryan was born on July 21, 1971 in Georgetown. He grew up singing in church with his mother and grandmother. His grandmother was a lead singer in church. His late mother, Hazel Downer (then, Hazel Downer-Paton) was the lead vocalist of a popular band in Georgetown back in the 1970s. Hazel’s moves in the music business led to her touring and eventually settling in Trinidad. Bryan remained in Guyana, living with his grandmother at Roxanne Burnham Gardens until he migrated when he was 12 years old to live with his mother.
He had begun learning to play steel pan when he was six and he had fever for music. In fact, when Bryan was not singing in church, he played the pans or listened to calypso music on the radio. But that was still not enough. He spent his break and lunch periods, while attending St Pius Primary School, drumming on the desks and dreaming of the day when he would be holding a microphone and performing in front of a crowd.
The songwriter has penned hundreds of songs to date, recording 30 and releasing 20 to date. Of the 20, five ranked high as Caribbean hits: “Hot and Groovy,” “Passion,” “Tiger Baby,” “Sugar Cane” and “Desire”. His most recent releases are “Soca Angel,” “Bum Bum (done with a combination of artistes including Fevah and Fire Farma)”, and “Desire”.
“Passion”, one of his well-known songs, is currently in remix mode and is expected to be released soon. Bryan’s songs are not only soca oriented, but some are also of reggae, dancehall, soul and pop genres. “Soca Angel”, written and released in time for Mashramani, is said to be a compliment to a beautiful lady who gave him the dance of his life. “Soca Angel” was produced at A J Records and executively produced by High Rollas Production Inc.
Singing for more than 20 years, Militant has shared the stage with some of the big names in the Caribbean, like Bunji Garlin, Fay-Ann Lyons-Alvarez, Destra Garcia, Machel Montano, Shurwayne Winchester, Blaxx, KMC (Ken Marlon Charles), DMX, Sizzla Kalonji and Tanya Stephens.
His inspirations, he expressed, stem from many artistes and genres. “I grew up listening to calypso, with my grandfather being a lover of music,” he said. “Every time a new record came out, he used to actually purchase it. I could remember as a child, he would bring it home and play it on weekends along with all the other songs.
“…Some of my influences were Mighty Shadow, Sparrow and [Johnny] Maestro… soca artiste Byron Lee. Since I know myself, even before these guys, reggae has always been more of an influence… and I had gravitated to [the music of] Bob Marley and Peter Tosh… I used to try singing their songs while I was going to school, trying to emulate these singers. It was after this time I used to listen to the calypso songs because they used to make me laugh. Back in that time the calypso songs had plenty humour and plenty double-meaning metaphors.
“I want to include, too, singers like Percy Sledge, the rhythm and blues genre, soul music too, James Brown, Barry White, Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson in ‘Thriller’. When he came on the scene, probably every teen and young adult at the time was mesmerized by him and idolized him. So, these are the ones who did it for me.”
Being an artiste, Militant proclaimed, has a range of benefits. Making the top of his list are travelling, engaging with people, learning of their culture. The pros of his profession extend also to open-door policies for artistes, important links and networking, he shared.
Thinking back to the most exciting time of his career thus far, Militant said this would definitely be 2003 when he was approached by Sony Records. During this time, too, he said, Kevin Little and Rupie were also approached by the same company. His excitement, however, did not last very long.
At the time, he was signed to Caribbean Sound Basin and being young, when only certain information on the production of “Hot and Groovy” was released to him, he took them at their word instead of doing his own research. The Caribbean label, according to Militant, had initially told him that the production was all theirs. It turns out that the record label took a sample from another artiste and went ahead with recording and released the song. When the song became a huge hit in Europe and Sony Records learnt of the illegal sampling, it no longer wanted to sign Militant.
He remains steadfast that he had no inkling of the sampling being done. “I’ve learnt from that point in time… [It is] most necessary for artistes to know about what is legal and illegal, what is infringement and fractions. So, this is the highest and lowest point of my music tenure so far,” the singer shared.
One of the disadvantages he has faced as a singer is getting a normal job, adding that people have in the past said to him that he is a big artiste and what did he want with another job. Another one is getting the right producers to understand and produce music in the style he wants. Getting producers can be another challenge, he said, noting that there are persons who call themselves producers who do not know the musical scale or what key an artiste is singing in. “They just throw two beats together and they feel it sound good. There are other challenges too like the marketing agents not getting right bookings. It’s all about being patient… I was able to solve some of my problems by getting the right producers, having the right temperament, required skills. My other challenges I deal with it day to day; my experiences made me wiser.”
Militant has fans in different parts of the world including Guyana, Trinidad, Canada, the US, parts of Europe and the Caribbean. According to the singer, not many persons know he is Guyanese, including many in Trinidad who consider him one of their own. This, he said, was because of his song releases and through onstage performances.
His biggest live performance so far was at the Glow Fest in 2001 at Madison Square Gardens. His second best was at Brassorama in Trinidad, once considered the biggest event in the Caribbean. The St Kitts Music Festival was another of the big ones. The early 2000s were great years for Militant. In 2003, he arrived in Guyana as the feature artiste at a concert being hosted at the Bourda Cricket Ground. He next performed here in 2012 at the National Stadium alongside Machel Montano. Last year, he returned to perform at a concert in Berbice. Aside from these concerts, Militant has also made appearances at different clubs around Georgetown.
Militant said music has become a part of him. “Music is life, life itself is love,” he said. “It is what holds the fabric of sanity together. If we didn’t have music in this world, I think the world would have done already. People would have done kill themselves and all kind of disasters where people is concerned would have taken place. Music controls our human actions, our emotions and the way we love.”
It was music, he further said, that disciplined him and performing onstage has improved his social abilities. It has made him view life from a different and better perspective. He sees himself producing music, touring and being someone in-the-know; he sees himself giving workshops, teaching and moulding other upcoming songwriters and arrangers. “I would want to someday win a Grammy for my music in soca if possible. I believe I have what it takes to bring that honour to Guyana and this region. I’m definitely, definitely working towards making that happen.”
Asked what he wants to see happen in the music industry in Guyana, Militant said, “Guyana really doesn’t have a music industry per se, realistically looking at it. To have an industry, first and foremost, it has to be legislated at parliament whereby the music has to be recognized firstly by the government as a resource or an income to Guyana itself. They would need to have things in place as it regards the laws that surround music and copyrights. These would need to be implemented in the laws of Guyana itself as well as the percentage of music played on the radio and should be more of content from Guyana whether it be soca, whether it be pop, R&B, once it is produced by Guyanese artistes, from Guyana’s studios/engineers, it should be played more. Countries like Jamaica, Canada, USA, England, they had recognized from since the early stages of their existence where music is concerned, that it is an industry that will bring in the income that the country needed.
“The US was practically built by music, and movies. This is what I see for Guyana for music, and want for Guyana, as Guyana has a wealth of talent….
“Music was what fuelled Jamaica’s economy for so many years and made Jamaica so popular with the tourism. They need to get serious, that is the powers in power, the government, and the ministers.”
Aside from music, Militant has a business on the side. However, he said that everything in his life is second to music.
His biggest peeve, he said, is seeing people being bullied. Growing up as a boy he could never see other people being bullied. Luckily for him, his father, who was a soldier in the army, had taught him self-defence at a young age. His first experience in dealing with bullies was the first day of primary school; the bully turned out to be a child several classes above him. “I see the bully, bullying other newcomers like myself. My father always show me there is a way to bring down a bully no matter how big he is. He came to bully me. I take the money out and said, ‘look come fuh the money’ and when he bend down to take the money, was a knuckle-sandwich smack on the nose. He was amazed to see his nose bleeding and what-not because he wasn’t expecting a boy that smaller than him to generate such power to bust he nose, even the principal was amazed about it. So, I never like seeing people being bullied and was always like a protector to them,” the man enthused as he reminisced.
Militant spends his free time with his children, doing a bit of research on his music or catching up on one of his hobbies: playing basketball, football, fishing, nature walks and anything to do with adventure.
The singer is a foodie and loves his Caribbean cuisine. He gave a colourful list of favourite dishes: cook-up, fry fish or stew fish, pilau, crab and callaloo, curried fish or curried wild meat, chunkay curried duck, curried crab and dumplings, rice and peas and escovitch fish, stewed oxtail and curried goat.
The Cancer-born man is not a believer of the astrology signs but instead said he follows the Ethiopian orthodox from which he learnt he belongs to the tribe of Judah.
For bookings or to make contact with the artiste he can be reached at Facebook at Militant Soca, on Instagram @Militantadaartist, YouTube at Militant or emails militant@gmail.com or martainalmeen@gmail.com or nkkij@gmail.com or via phone at 347-264-7210 (USA) or 592-664-8354 (Guyana).
