by JOHN BOYCE
After almost two decades on the soca circuit, Sanctuary Vibez is transitioning to being a “world artiste”.
Sanctuary, who won the People’s Monarch title in 2017 with Pick Me Up, said he has slowed the vibes and added some Afro to his beats as he reimagines his image and trajectory.
With the Sweetest Summer Festival in full swing, the Mega Monday artiste has released Kitty Kat and Heavy. He has also brought international-sounding A Good Woman and Have You Ever as precursors to his upcoming roll-outs with the Afro touch.
In pursuing a path of being a “world artiste”, he is conscious of the significant financial backing that would be required for the transition, but he remains undaunted.
“It was a smooth transition as I released my first two songs, but soca does not garner the kind of finances you need to hit the international market,” the artiste told the DAILY NATION.
As he pursues his journey, Sanctuary has pitched songs to international artiste Davido, a Nigerian-American who was born in Atlanta but raised in Lagos, Nigeria.
Sanctuary, who has released collabs with Barbadian artiste Narii who lives in Croatia, said several producers from Nigeria, London and the United States have been calling and inquiring about their work.
As he awaits that call that could change their career, the artiste agonises over the difficulty in securing the funding.
“It is frustrating that we do not have the funding to shoot a professional video. If we do so on our own, it would not be on par with the videos out there.”
He stressed that the videos for soca are significantly different to those of a pop artiste and require professionals to produce them.
In so doing, he said that’s what
would necessitate the financial support that he is now seeking to make the mission a reality.
Sanctuary said their fan base has increased exponentially and there are several people who are giving them props, but the finances, so far, have not been forthcoming.
“I do not have a day job, this is my job . . . . This is the only thing I know how to do best. It makes no sense having a profession and cannot make a living from it.”
Describing himself as “a poor man living in the country”, he said he has pulled his own pockets to do the productions which are done in his studio at home.
For the past 19 years, he said he has been singing soca, but was able to bring only two songs because it costs $3 000 per song, “so it has to be seasonal”.
He reasoned that an artiste who invests $6 000 to produce two songs must be in a position to make it back, otherwise it is like spinning top in mud.
Citing the Crop Over season as the only time artistes get gigs, Sanctuary said all of the fetes “mount up” then, so the artistes take a risk in having music produced and incurring the associated costs with the hope of generating gigs to repay.
“I went for years owing producers . . . because I did not have the money to pay [up front]. And, if you want the best producers, that price is then
$5 000 per production.”
In referencing the weight some carry as they try to keep their heads above water, he said many producers end the season in the red while several artistes are “pretending” that all is well.
Sanctuary recalled inspiring words spoken to him several years ago by a senior politician whom he saw as a “godmother” who climbed to even higher heights, and said they so resonated with him that he redoubled his efforts to make a mark on the musical landscape.
“She taught me the culture of the art form, even if she did not realise that she had done so.”
So, as he traverses a challenging road of spreading his musical wings to become a “world artiste”, Sanctuary raises his trained voice in song while showing his immense talent to a world in which he hopes to reach sponsors so as to secure the necessary backing to take his music to the next plateau.
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