Bunji Garlin Interviewed by Maya Trotz for Jouvay.com. February, 28th 2004.

At twenty five Ian Alvarez aka BUNJI GARLIN is taking the music world by storm with brilliant lyrics laced in an uptempo ragga-soca style that truly captures the essence of this new generation. Only six years in the business and Bunji is already a two time champion of the International Soca Monarch competition and the reigning ragga soca king. From being a child who never experienced carnival, to being the beat box teenager in Arima, he's now one of the most sought after artists in the business with hit songs like Send Dem Riddim Crazy, In de Ghetto, Snake Oil, By D Bar, Soca Bhangra, and Warrior Cry from his four CDs, Chronicles (1999), Revelation (2001), Black Spaniard (2003) and Graceful Vengeance Part 1 (2004). His appeal and flexibility shows through his collaborations with artists like Iwer George, Denise Belfon, Shammi, Onika Bostick, Kerwin Dubois, Red Rat and Bounty Killa. Read on to get a glimpse into the mind of this lyrical genius as he talks about family, relationships, music and his plans for the future.

Jouvay.com: We're sitting with Bunji Garlin, the girl dem dahlin. Bunji, it is a great pleasure to meet you and catch up with you to do this interview. Many people on the West Coast (California, USA), hear the music, but they don't know much about the artists and we'd like to change that. First of all, where is Point Fortin and is that where you are from?

Bunji Garlin: Point Fortin is the Deep south of Trinidad. I am from East of Trinidad. Originally Sangre Grande which is far east where wise people come from. Then I moved lower down to a place called Wallerfield where one of the first airports in Trinidad was built. There is a new airport in a more commercial area. Now I live in Arima which is the city of the east.

Jouvay.com: You had a j'ouvert thing in Arima at which you performed?

Bunji Garlin: Actually, no. Carnival monday there was monday night mas' and being I am from Arima I played there. Arima is now coming into its own.

JC: What's that like compared to Port of Spain?

BG: Very nice. It's safer for sure.

JC: With all of the police presence in Port of Spain this carnival was quite safe.

BG: Arima is extremely safe. The number of people in comparison is less. With less people everybody tends to be more free and comfortable.

Jouvay.com: Were you on the road on carnival Tuesday?

BG: Carnival Monday night my brother and some of the members from my crew, the Godfather's Asylum were in a car accident. The vehicle was no more. Some of them are in hospital right now. I almost did not come to Miami because I was the main person taking care of everybody. I just had to leave for a little bit. One of the persons is critical and everybody else is recovering slowly. Everything is in God's hands so I have no worry.

JC: I know I did not see you on the truck with Machel them and I had my theories that Bunji don't support this Poison thing.

BJ: Well, I don't do the pretty mas'. Not that I hate it. I am just an extremely hard core guy.

JC: How about j'ouvert/jouvay?

BG: Nah. I don't go to j'ouvert because of safety reasons. That is the time when the real roots of the country come out. J'ouvert is not an uptown thing. It is more ghetto. When you have that crowd coming out in that magnitutde plenty things can go wrong so I tend to stay away because I have to stay alive to entertain people. Someone might piss me off j'ouvert morning and the people might go into automation like, "Yuh disrespect Bunji that mean you disrespect all of we." So let me stay home so everybody can have a safe carnival.

JC: What is the Godfather's Asylum?

BG: The Godfather's Asylum is my crew which consists of 55+ members in Trinidad alone. We have some around the world so combined we could be anywhere from 1500-2000 strong. This crew actually started as an idea in my head because I was in a group before called Schizoflavor. Trinidad has no label where you can get signed. The music in Trinidad is like a hustle. You get into a studio and get your tune finished and you don't depend on record sales because the pirates would eat out your CD before it even hits the stores. You have to depend on all of the shows you could get to make an income. I decided that I had a talent to sing and I had all of these friends around me who could perform and sing who were looking for a way out and they always got turned down. So I thought why not use the energy that I have to try and help them. Some people might see some homeless person on the road and say don't give him money because he will take it and buy drugs. I cannot judge and say that man is going to use drugs. At some point in the day he must get hungry and I might have put towards that. If he decides to take my money and do something else God records that. If all of these people around me have talent whether they are bad or good and God allows me to observe all of that it means I must be here to help somebody do something. Every time I get a chance I try to help somebody new. They don't have to stay a part of my crew. I particularly would rather if they move on, because that would be less work for me. It will show a great sign of success when each of them branches out onto their own. The Asylum is about helping as many people as we can because soca music is not for us to keep. Music is the food of life and it is to share. Like food, there is enough food to feed everyone. It's just that some people are greedy and like to keep the food for themselves.

JC: So, Benjai...

BG: That's blood. That's my brother.

JC: How about Maximus?

BG: Years ago we made him an honorary member of the Godfather's Asylum.

JC: Which other singers would be part of Godfather's?

BG: Immideate members right now would be Ninja, Gailann, Scarface, Benjai, Shammi. Nobody ain't see Shammi for about a whole year. He calls every now and then and does not want to disclose his whereabouts, but don't worry Trinidad we will find him. We will bring Shammi back. That's who're known right now to the public. We have alot of artists incubating and soon they will be coming out. Everything takes time.

JC: You were saying there were no labels in Trinidad. I thought Chinese Laundry had a label?

BG: I don't know if to call it a label really because it's not very big. He has a collection of studios and a copyright logo so that when his production is finished for the season he puts it on a CD and he uses his copyright logo and that is the end of solomon grundy right there. But to say you are a new artist and you are going by Laundry and if you are good enough he will sign you to X amount of contract....Trinidad don't have that. We don't really have an industry. We have so many artists in the country and the carnival season is so short that only a certain number of artists get exposed in the season. Because of that nobody wants to give anybody else a chance and if you last too long, they try to put you out. It's a kind of hustle to stay alive. Imagine drug lords living better than soca artists in Trinidad.

JC: Drug lords live better than alot of people.

BG: It's a shame with the kind of work the artists are putting out home in Trinidad and the commitment and dedication they give. Some to the point where they are giving up their own life to make a life and getting nothing in return. It's unfair. But once you're a warrior nothing comes easy. And you have to fight for what you want and when you get it you have to fight to defend it.

JC: You put up a good fight with Warrior Cry for the Soca Monarch 2004 title!

BG: I was built for war and fight. I love hard hard challenges. You don't really know yourself until you end up in a situation to see your true self and then you realize what you really have.

JC: That was a really good show at Soca Monarch 2004 with the dragon and the fire coming out of your hands. You certainly set a high bar for next year. You and Iwer are cool though?

BG: Yeah. He showed me alot in this business. Every time he gets a chance, just like a father he allows you to do your own thing until he realizes you are about to do something wrong and he stops you and says I passed through that already don't do this, do this. This is one of the roles that Iwer played in my environment. I have the same respect for him. He showed some other people in the business and he was expecting them to show me, but I maybe ended up moving too fast. So, he ended up showing me the way here and there. That is why I am the person I am today. I learnt alot from him. Not because of that that means that if he does something wrong I won't put him in his place. He knows that. That is why we have that relationship that we have now.

JC: And it's coming out in a song.

BG: Even before a song I am going to tell him about it. I will pull up his socks on the spot and then tell him it's going to be in a song. He knows he can't do anything about it. Iwer George is my boy.

JC: It's so funny when you were at Insomnia and doing the freestyle about the maxi taxi and I was looking at Faye Ann and she just cracked up at the end.

BG: That Invasion family is a band I have a particularly good relationship with due to Iwer George and the kind of person I am. I am a very staightforward and cool kind of guy. I don't try to make any fairy tales about what I am doing or about what is being done in this business.

JC: You're not with VP anymore?

BG: I was never really with VP. The Revelation album was distributed by them. We distributed Black Spaniard by ourselves. Not that VP was not doing their work. You have to remember that VP focuses on reggae. I need to put something in place to defend mine because that is mine. When I saw that they could not put out all that they could put out behind me I was not angry. They had to do their thing. The next year we decided to do it ourselves. It ain't make sense trying to give a mason who has about five or six houses to see about already another job. Give it to another mason and the house will be done faster. We did everything ourselves and got the job done. The job was so impressive that it influenced the music I did for this album, Graceful Vengeance. My manager ended up in negotiations with VP again because they realized these fellas ain't coming to play. We waiting to see what the results are now.

JC: Who's IP distribution?

BG: That's my manager, Ian Pantin.

JC: I was checking your website (bunjigarlin.com) out and I know it's not complete, but I see it's going in the right direction in terms of artists having that web presence and selling individual songs which is what many other artists not in the soca genre do. The whole Triniweb is just Bunji stuff?

BG: My website is on Triniweb. Triniweb is a broad thing. From what I noticed recently it's supposed to deal with everything tops in Trinidad.

JC: Ok, because whenever you click the "BUY" button it goes to Triniweb. Let's go back to how you started singing?

BG: I started not on soca or calypso. I will say that one time. My parents are not Trinidadian. My father is St. Lucian and my grandfather is Spanish. My grandfather is Spanish and my mom is Christian and at that time when I was growing up....I am only twenty five now so I not making it sound like a long time ago... I was probably around seven or eight and people in church and thing used to look at the wining and all of those gestures and thing not in a positive way. So, people who were involved in church used to try and keep their children away from it. I ended up being in that bracket with my mother being Pentecostal. She never allowed me to get involved and I had no interest in it anyway because of my family background. The music we used to listen to was different and every time carnival comes on Monday and Tuesday they used to have church camps for the two holidays in the countryside by the beach. The whole church would go and have their family day and fun day and whatever day. I used to be a part of that until I started to go to junior secondary school at age eleven. With the teenage zone right around the corner I started to feel like I am a big man now and could do what I want. So, at home I am playing I don't want to hear this, but when I'm at school I am a bad boy. Since I small everybody in my family has been involved in music in any way possible. I was the only one who did nothing besides sing bass in the primary school choir.

JC: This was all in Arima?

BG: This was further east in Sangre Grande. By age twelve I was taking other people's melody and putting my lyrics to suit. At age fourteen I started beat boxing. Other people in school would sing, I was the beat box man. I started that and I found that every time these men sang they would have the crowd in the palm of their hands and I wanted that. By the time I was fifteen I tried and I got booed off the stage, toilet paper, everything. By the time I was sixteen I ended up in a sound clash competition home in Arima. There was a place by the marketplace called the Greens and they would take a KFC box and put it on the ground. They had some men with goat skin drums and we used to chant to the drums. At the end of the night there would be about ten of us and people would put money in the box. We used to try to decide how the money was going to share. And somebody came up with the idea of a clash and the winner takes all. It so happened that I won the competition for nine weeks straight. One week I lost because some guy came from somewhere who had more theatrics than lyrics and that caused him to win. I am not really an antical kind of guy, I am a lyrical kind of guy. He just blew the crowd's mind and after that I came the next week and murdered that. Everything started from right there.

JC: You were fifteen now?

BG: I was sixteen at that time. I ended up running into this producer Ital D. Ital D introduced me to another producer named Joseph Miller and he introduced me to another producer named Ricky who we called Total. And then I was introduced to Darren Braxton, the producer who introduced me to soca. I was nineteen and he influenced me to do the first soca which came out as a ragga soca which is a cross between the raw soca and the dancehall. That was a track called Send That Riddim Crazy. And that was the end of Solomon Grundy right there. That was 1999.

JC: Did you sing and play that carnival? Actually, 1999 was my first carnival.

BG: My hair was green, glasses green, sneakers, everything. The whole country was wearing green that year. It was a nice year.

JC: And then you stayed with Darren Braxton?

BG: He produced stuff for me until 2002 when I tied with Iwer George for soca monarch with Down in The Ghetto. He did alot of the work on the 2002 album, Revelation.

JC: So about your show tomorrow on Biscayne boulevard. That's where it is right?

BG: I don't even know where it is. Once there is a crowd and a microphone just let me mash up the place and let them buy it back.

JC: It should be good it's the Greater Miami Mardi Gras and they get a very culturally diverse crowd.

BG: That's what I am looking forward to.

JC: People say it has major representation from Haiti. Port Au Prince is in a state of anarchy today and many people felt that the show should have been cancelled. All of this madness going on in the Caribbean. What's your year like after soca monarch?

BG: Having that title to my name means alot more shows and a great increase in my salary. This is going into my sixth year of as soon as carnival done I leave my country. For nine months of the year it's almost like I am not home at all. Home for two months constantly working and just when I want to relax home and try to put a family together or be with my existing family, mom, brother, sister I have to leave to go touring for nine months making sure the soca stays alive. One day I hope the cycle will end for me. I love doing this, but I don't want to be traveling like that for the rest of my life. I want to be able to settle down and I want to have children, but with the speed I am going at I can't afford to do that because I have no time to give anybody. Promoters don't see it that way and I can't blame them because they see us as business. Then there are some fans who love you so much that if they see you take a wife they want to come and mash up your house. I have to wait for all of dem tings to wear out before I get to where I really want. I want to have my studio, TV network, radio station, by the time I am done I want to be able to have my own country.

JC: In Trinidad?

BG: Let dem keep Trinidad. I'll call the place Next Door.

JC: Is it really hard to have a relationship in your position as a male artist?

BG: Yeah. Every carnival, by the time December reaches I have to find a new girlfriend because the pace real hard. Especially with me because I don't only sing soca. For this year gone here I was fortunate to end up on some dancehall riddims. I worked with some Jamaican producers like Robert Livingston, Mr. Doo and Gold Finger who is responsible for the track on the mudslide riddim soon to be released with me and Bounty Killa. We have a song on there called the War Combo.

JC: So, were you actually in studio with him?

BG: No. He did his part and I did mine separately. I never met him. We did alot of shows together, but I never got a chance to talk with him. Everything is in due time. I did a song on the Sexy Lady riddim from Shaggy them. A next one called the Wappy Back produced by Robert Livingston. Two or three songs on the album were produced by Buddha who is one of Busta Rhymes' producer. They produced most of the biggest hits in the hip hop industry like Hey Ma and Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See. I was fortunate enough to get some songs with them. All of those songs will be on the second part of the album. This Graceful Vengeance album was supposed to be a double album, but due to the piracy in Trinidad we decided it was not going to make sense. The next album is coming out in about three weeks: The Year of the Warrior. Because of all of this work going on my time is really limited.

JC: What does your mom think about all of this?

BG: At first she did not want me to get into it, but me being the rebellious type she could not say much. Once I got in she could not say much because I am the type of guy who when I decide to do something, it's going to get done. That attitude helped me to be a powerful musician at this day and age. I am very young at this stage in what I am doing and that is a plus for I have alot to adapt to and I can fit into any groove. I have a long distance to go.

JC: It's actually good that you are doing the reggae thing with Sean Paul blowing up.

BG: That is my boy too. I know him personally. Sean, Hawk Eye, Red Rat. Red Rat is my boy.

JC: Really? You all should head in the studio this weekend because he is here.

BG: I did a song on one of his riddims, the Red Indian riddim when I was here for Miami carnival. And for my album launch in Trinidad he came down. It's a nice vibe. I have alot to look forward to.

JC: Your song with Onika this year, it's so sweet to see her on stage and you encouraging her to rap fast. When the male artists are encouraging women to sing in soca it's normally to come and shake and wine.

BG: I mean, oh gosh woman means taken out of man. The same thing I have to offer, they have to offer too. I won't look at a woman as an element of gestures to make the crowd go wild. They could do something else too to make the crowd go wild. I did not know she could do that. She surprised me one night on stage and the crowd went in a frenzy. They have so many talented women in the world that people underestimate and look at them for one thing. It's time for us to broaden our minds because they have plenty to offer.

JC: What show was that?

BG: That was in Fire fete. Somebody was drunk backstage and unplugged the generator which made the show go about an hour late and that caused my band a short time to play. We had fifteen minutes and Onika, Benjai, Ninja, Scar, Iwer George, Denise Belfon, and somebody else were to be on stage with me. I said, "Onika we have to do this fast because time is running out." She said, "Bunji, I going and do something I just do in a next show. You stay quiet and listen to this." I did not bother to sing for the rest of the night and the crowd did not want me to sing because nobody ever saw anything like that. It was a good thing. Nobody ever saw anything like that. I know Onika like forever. She was working on a radio station in Trinidad called Gem Radio that broadcast all the way up the islands to Montseratt, St. Vincent and so on. I did not know she could sing, but she started and she being the lead singer for Burning Flames did this same song on a Burning Flames Riddim called the Rash riddim. She came and asked me to do part of the song. She's a very talented young lady. She knows how to stand up and defend her own.

JC: I did not know she was Trini.

BG: Alot of people home don't know she's Trinidadian. Well, my sister from the Godfather's Asylum is Gailann. That's the queen warrior. Very soon she will release her first album, "Gailann Unleashed."

JC: We need to hear from more women. What do you think of Denise and...

BG: Denise is the boss. Dat is my girl. She is like the soca queen. She set some good examples too. With all the wining and thing she have good songs too.

JC: You never worked with Destra?

BG: I was supposed to do something with Destra this year, but it did not work as yet. In due time if God permits. Sometimes things change and people change in ways that surprise you and it does not turn out how you expect. I leave everything in God hands.

JC: And the Riddim Rider movie? You guys finished it?

BG: Nah, they have not started shooting it as yet. It will be a new direction being produced home in Trinidad by Trinidadians. It will be something interesting. The artists who act in the movie...we get alot of freedom to input into the movie.

JC: You and Machel ever did a song?

BG: Not yet. Sometimes when you have two talents with that kind of force with different vibes it could cause sparks. Not sparks between us, but it could make something negative come out of the combination.

JC: You have a friend in New York who wrote a movie for you?

BG: Yeah, Damian who we call Darkman. Actually the person who is supposed to produce the movie is getting ready to shoot Shottas 2. Some nice vibes coming around.

JC: Well, with the kind of music and personality that you have things will blow up. What kind of girlfriend you looking for? We could put an AD out for you in California.

BG: Haha, I don't know boy. Let me flip the TV and see if I can find one.

JC: You have any videos?

BG: No. In Trinidad it does not make sense because we don't have a musical network home for TV. If they do show a video it might be somewhere in between two programs where they have two minutes to spare. If they do show a video it won't be anything from Trinidad. It does not make sense for me to put out all of that money.

JC: But it's important for us over here.

BG: If we keep getting requests to put together a project and get it out it will be done. We don't get too much of those requests now.

JC: It's such a shame though that all of the soca is just geared around the carnival season.

BG: That started from a long time ago. Sometimes I believe that it started from a religious point of view where they try to change the vibe after the thing to say they cleansing your vibes. If that is the situation then youths growing up into the business grow up with that mentality. When they get the opportunity to work on the station it is embedded in their brain and when carnival done they go into automation and stop playing the soca. So, that has to reverse right now.

JC: That's why you have to come with your own station. The Bunji Laundry.

BG: Haha. That is not a good title to have home. You could lose your life for that.

JC: I must say the man was very nice to me the night of Soca Monarch. I was walking alone late at night to go from Soca Monarch to Girl power and I had a scare and then saw him. I said, "Mr. Laundry, could I possibly get a ride to Girl Power." So, I thank him dearly. How you get the scar?

BG: Different type of life. Machete to face

JC: A fight? With a cutlass?

BG: Ah, cutlass, that is a good one. We call it cutlass, but for those who don't know it's a machete. It was not a nice thing. I was young.

JC: Is there anything else that you'd like to say?

BG: Thank God for giving me the strength to get through all of my hurdles, all of my ups and downs. You know God only helps those who help themselves. I thank him for giving me the strength to help myself and I thank him for everything he has done in my life and for everything he is doing still.

Thanks to Francis Ragoo who put me in touch with Ian Pantin in 2003. For two consecutive years I tried to catch up with Bunji in Trinidad soon after carnival for an interview. Luckily he was performing at the Greater Miami Mardi Gras after this year's carnival (2004) and my return flight stopped in Miami. I told Mr. Pantin on the phone that I would change my flight if I could get this interview and I am most appreciative that he believed me. Alesia Ferguson provided technical assistance.

NB. (3/21/04). A quick call to Trinidad:

JC: Hi Bunji, I am transcribing the interview and wanted to include some of the lyrics to your songs and need some clarification. I had not listened to it in its entirety when I did the interview and I have to say now that I love it. The lyrics are so great. In the One Family tune, you say "my father was a patiose, my grandfather was miranda rose"...what is that?

BG: Oh ho, you see in Trinidad when we speak we sometimes add the "os" to the ending of stuff to make it sound spanish. So, my father was a partyos, my granfather was a parangdaros.

Email maya@jouvay.com if you have any questions or comments about this interview.

BECOME a JOUVAY.COM SPONSOR NOW !!!

Contact us if you're interested in sponsoring one of our events.