About three years ago, Alton Bertie met Trinidad and Tobago soca singer Shurwayne Winchester at the airport in Puerto Rico.
As they talked, Mr. Bertie, then a music teacher at Elmore Stoutt High School, mentioned that he was a music producer.
That meeting would lead to a turning point in Mr. Bertie’s life. Mr. Winchester soon contacted the Showtime Band member, and within months, Mr. Bertie had joined the musician’s band as a producer. He has been living in Trinidad ever since.
The songs he has produced for the soca artist include “Carnival Please Stay,” which won the soca singer the title of International Groovy Soca Monarch in Trinidad and Tobago. Now, Mr. Bertie is the artist’s music director.
A typical day for him starts with a session in his music studio in Trinidad, he said. “I am chiefly in charge of making sure the music is awesome to the audience. … So basically it’s just like saying I am in charge,” Mr. Bertie said in a telephone interview.
Mr. Bertie credits the BVIHS music programme with his musical success. “It has helped a lot of us,” Mr. Bertie said. He added, however, that there is a need to focus on aspects of music apart from just performing on stage.
As a proud Virgin Islander, Mr. Bertie said, he promotes the territory wherever he goes. “It feels good. I just walk with a VI hat. Whenever I travel, I walk with my big VI sign,” he said.