With more than enough time on his hands due to the current COVID-19 restrictions, local musician Gavin Mendonca has managed to complete a punk rock album, which he plans to release for free on his website tomorrow.
The album, titled “Punks and Pirates,” can be downloaded at Mendonca’s website, www.creolerock.com, and he will also be releasing lyric videos for each song on his YouTube channel, at youtube.com/creolerock. Additionally, on his Creole Rock Facebook page, there are special homemade music videos and short films called the #LackDungSessions.
“It’s most important for us right now to stay safe, stay clean, be responsible, and support each other in as many ways as we can, even if it’s making someone smile for just a moment. I hope that my music can distract you for just a few minutes and share some positive vibrations with you,” Mendonca said in a statement to the press on the launch of the album.
Mendonca has been on a “hardcore mission” with his drummer ‘Chucky’ to inject Guyanese folk songs back into society by performing them at various venues, and, most notably, The Courtyard, on Robb Street every Friday at lunchtime since January 2019. Their debut album, Folk It Up Vol. 1, is the first of a series that will feature all of Guyana’s traditional/folk songs. Volume 1, which was released last year at the Guyana Folk Festival in New York, is currently available for sale and streaming from all major digital platforms.
The current partial countrywide lockdown has halted the folk song initiative and many planned performances scheduled for this year. Mendonca and Chucky were supposed to be in Trinidad at the beginning of April to perform at the New Fire Festival, but this was cancelled. In addition, they were supposed to finish recording their second album together.
However, Mendonca explained that he saw the situation as an opportunity to create. “Although conditions are not ideal, it’s the perfect time to just create content and release it,” he said.
Before he was a folk ambassador, Mendonca said he started off as a punk rock musician back in 2011 and the songs on the new album were written by him beginning in 2012.
True to the ‘Do-It-Yourself’ spirit of punk music, all the songs were recorded in Mendonca’s bedroom as he had little choice but to do it himself, despite having no formal knowledge or skills in mixing and mastering.
Mendonca said that he has even begun teaching himself to produce music as he has always been interested in the physics and chemistry of music. ‘”Being able to produce music is such a thrill – to be able to manipulate and combine sounds and frequencies to engineer a song that someone else could enjoy is truly magic. I know that the album won’t sound like it was produced in a big rock studio by big-time producers, but this album, and punk rock, is not necessarily about how good something sounds. No. It’s about passion, it’s about love, it’s art,” he added.
