As a little boy, Brent Hoyte was fascinated with how music was made. In form three, his music teachers introduced him to music production. It stayed with him.
Now, at age 21, Mr. Hoyte not only teaches music at the Elmore Stoutt High School, but he is a music producer at Home Grown Studios in Long Bush, one of a handful of commercial studios around the territory.
As a producer Mr. Hoyte works with artists to record vocals and instruments and ensure that the final work is the best quality possible.
He is one of a growing number of producers in the territory.
Alton Bertie, a former music teacher, always liked music, but he never knew much about production until he got to the Berklee College of Music in 2001.
“I learned in college and I’ve been making music since,” said Mr. Bertie, who has produced several soca songs that have topped charts around the Caribbean, including “Carnival Please Stay” by Trinidad artist Shurwayne Winchester.
Bedroom studio
There weren’t always so many options for recording artists in the territory, said Lincoln Ward. An ESHS music teacher like Mr. Hoyte, Mr. Ward owns Beatlink Productions, a studio he opened in 2008.
“It started out as a bedroom studio,” he said as he sat in a room with keyboards and guitars in the Butu Mountain studio.
In the old days, the now inactive TML Studios in Sea Cows Bay was the most popular production studio around, the three producers agreed. Back then, musicians would pay as much as $75 per hour to have a song produced, they said.
The prices are cheaper these days, in part because computer technology means that more people have access to recording equipment.
“As we speak even, I’m making music on my iPad,” Mr. Bertie said in a phone interview from New York. “The meaning of a studio now has changed. It is more personal, and you can produce music in your own convenience now.”
Recording studios as they are known today may be becoming a thing of the past, said Mr. Bertie.
“They are not as popular as they used to be,” he said. “People now have access to everything and even better grip and control of what they want.”
Mr. Ward agreed somewhat. But while any musician with a computer can access a recording programme, he said, having the proper skills is important in producing a song that’s of professional quality.
“Having a good ear is the first order of things, then the equipment falls in line,” Mr. Ward said.
And while there’s always scope for local musicians to step up their game, the VI’s reputation is growing, Mr. Bertie said.
“I have a friend in England who said our VI soca is becoming popular too,” he said. “We are getting there and we are being appreciated and noticed.”
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