- 1 week ago
- #essencefest
Friday night at #EssenceFest just may become a SOCA Party and Machel Mantano is leading the pack!
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00What's up Essence? It's Deshaunda Brown here, Associate Editor at Essence and Essence Girls United.
00:05And today we have a special treat because I will be in conversation with Masha Montano,
00:09aka Mr. Fett, who's going to be at this year's Essence Fest.
00:12So hi Masha, how are you doing?
00:14I am fantastic. Just chilling in the beautiful Caribbean weather in Trinidad, feeling nice, very excited.
00:23I'm so jealous. I'm so glad to have you here.
00:26Thank you so much for taking out the time to speak with me.
00:29So the internet is telling us that you have been named Mr. Fett and the monarch of Spokka.
00:36So how did you get these names? Because that's a heavy title to carry.
00:41Well, Fettin is what we do. You know, we all say in the song, the song goes Fettin as we name.
00:47We are a Caribbean country that's very famous for party and Fettin is French for party.
00:52And we adopted that from our French heritage.
00:54You know, we had Spanish influence, French influence, the English.
00:58But we kept a little something and especially the part about Fettin.
01:02We party like no other nation.
01:04Times are changing. This is a different day.
01:09I ain't a waiting. Let me embrace the change.
01:12Now we Fettin are better than everybody.
01:15You know, when it's coming to Carnival time, we Fett from Boxing Day, day after Christmas, all the way to Ash Wednesday, every weekend.
01:24So, you know, me growing up, I started in Calypso Music and then I went into Soka.
01:29And Soka is the soundtrack of Carnival.
01:31So leading up to Carnival, all you hear is Soka music in Trinidad and Tobago 24-7.
01:37And, you know, for me to become Marshall Montana and become successful in the Soka business, I had to work my way into the Fetts.
01:44And, you know, my goal was always to Fett the hardest, do the best shows and just make people have the best Fettin' time.
01:51So over the years, I'm celebrating 40 years in the music business.
01:56And I would say 35 of those years have been in Soka music and Fettin'.
02:01So when you see Marshall and you see him, it's synonymous with the guy who brings the best Fetts, the best Fettin' energy.
02:08And, you know, that went on to Soka music being, you know, the mainstay.
02:14And I had some of the biggest Soka songs.
02:16They were Soka competitions called Soka Monarch all across the Caribbean, but the main one was in Trinidad and Tobago.
02:24And, you know, I've won that title many times.
02:26So they called me the Soka Monarch, Mr. Fett, the King of Soka.
02:30All these names have been bestowed upon me, but I'm just a simple Soka artist trying to deliver the best Fett every single time.
02:38And I think that's what made the name stick.
02:40For those who aren't familiar with Soka music, can you explain the energy that Soka music brings into a space and what type of vibe it creates?
02:48Well, first of all, Soka music sounds like the Caribbean.
02:51It sounds like paradise.
02:52It sounds like vacation.
02:53There's a syncopated beat, that beat you would hear synonymous with things like reggaeton and reggae.
03:00But Soka is a different kind of version.
03:02It's what we call celebration music.
03:04When you hear it, you feel celebration.
03:07You feel joy.
03:09There's also a unifying factor about it because it was made on the basis of African rhythms mixing with Indian rhythms.
03:16So there's a unity in it, in the beat itself.
03:19But when you hear this music, you feel to hug your friends up, you feel to smile, you feel to release, you feel to celebrate being alive.
03:27You know, it's very joyful, but most importantly, it's very energetic.
03:30So it's sweet and energetic.
03:32And it's the music that makes you feel to dance.
03:34From the time you hear a Soka beat, parts of your body just start moving.
03:37And you don't know why, because, you know, the beat is that sort of driving force to dance.
03:42It's not about sorrow.
03:43It's not about anger.
03:45It is all about love and happiness.
03:47And that energy, you know, really goes from the artist, from the stage into the audience.
03:54And it's a kind of reverberation.
03:56What we give out, they get it.
03:57And then they give us back that energy.
03:59And it's a circular feedback loop of just joy and pure ecstasy.
04:04Soka music is really a happy music and a unifying force with great messages at the same time.
04:10But it's about partying.
04:11It's about carnival.
04:12It's about celebrating the joy of life.
04:14And speaking of joy and energy, you've been hitting these stages since you were a kid and holding it down in the Caribbean for decades.
04:22So I got to ask you, how do you get, like, how do you pull the energy to whine and jump, entertain on the stages for all these years?
04:32Like, where does that come from?
04:33I can't even go up a flight of steps.
04:38It's definitely not easy.
04:39It looks easy if you master the art and master the craft.
04:43When I first started singing Soka and I wanted to be one of the best, I told you, you know what?
04:47I need to sing power Soka, like 160 BPM, one song, two songs, three songs, four songs.
04:53Sometimes I would find myself running out of breath, running off to the side of the stage, you know, feeling like I want to throw up because I was so tired.
05:01And I had to develop the art of, you know, taking it step by step, pacing myself.
05:06And then I found out that, you know, this beat itself, you get the energy, first of all, for the people.
05:12The people in the audience, the fans, when they hear this beat and they start going crazy, they start doing things like climbing up the fences and jumping up on the stage and doing weird things.
05:21You start to get excited and you get this extra energy.
05:24But it's also the beat and the music.
05:26The music is a wave that you can ride this wave.
05:29You can ride the beat and really, you know, enjoy yourself and find what I call a second wind.
05:33Just when you think you're getting tired, you can just dig deep and start over, start fresh, you know, but it's really a play between the people and the audience.
05:43And that being said, you know, when you get older, things start to not work, like the knees and the back and the neck.
05:51And this is where I have employed my yoga practice.
05:54I've started doing yoga, meditation, eating right.
05:59You know, you have to eat right.
06:00You have to do a little bit of exercise.
06:01So there is some level of maintenance physically that you have to do.
06:05But once you keep yourself in good shape and you do the right things, the beat will just take you and deliver you to that place where, you know, you feel like you have endless energy.
06:16And speaking of delivering it to another place, like your music is literally the definition of sensational.
06:22Like it allows people to transport into like a warmer climate.
06:27It feels like a warm hug.
06:29It feels like good food.
06:30It feels like drinking a Red Bull.
06:32And there's just so much exhilaration.
06:34So where, if you can name, where do you pull some of your inspiration from for your music?
06:39I mean, definitely from the experiences, from life experiences.
06:44And, you know, when we go into every carnival, every carnival is like a story.
06:49It's like a chapter in a book.
06:51You know, this is about people coming to Trinidad, people playing mass.
06:54There are a lot of things happening during carnival, like the story of the mass, which is the costumes that people wear.
07:00And those stories, then there's the stories of the steel pan, the songs that they choose to play and how historic that becomes.
07:07And then there's the story of the Calypsoenian who's telling, you know, these stories about issues that are happening today.
07:12They're like, you know, talking about government issues, societal issues.
07:16There are many stories going on for you to pull, you know, inspiration from.
07:21But a lot of it is your experience, meeting people who you met last year, the fun you guys had,
07:26what times you had on your fets when you went to six o'clock in the morning, you know, what food you ate, you know, where they came from.
07:33These are the kind of life inspirations that come to you and you want to write about it because it's fun memories.
07:39It's joyful memories, especially when, you know, you make that connection human being to human being.
07:45Somebody will say, so long, I haven't seen you.
07:47I can't wait to come back.
07:49And then you want to write about that feeling.
07:51You know, when I wrote Big Truck.
07:56Yeah, Big Truck was one of my biggest roadmatch songs.
07:59And we crossed the major, major carnival stage to the biggest song.
08:03And when we did that song, you know, the band masqueraders were playmasks.
08:07And then there was a time when people would leave.
08:10And then I would say, no, no, no, turn around.
08:12Come back on the stage.
08:13And they would all run back, these thousands of people.
08:16And when I saw that in 1997, it reminded me of the charging of the bulls in Spain, like the Toro, Toro charging bulls.
08:26And I wrote a song for 1998 called Toro, Toro Charge.
08:30You know, it's that live experience and seeing something and paying attention.
08:34But it's really about the people and the experience that you get from the music and the culture mixed together.
08:40It's easy.
08:41And, of course, this is natural.
08:42This is nature.
08:43So a lot of it is coming from the heart and coming from reality.
08:47And now you mentioned connectivity and people coming together.
08:50So, you know, we absolutely have to talk about Essence Fest.
08:53And you had a taste of it back in 2019.
08:56So what are you looking forward to the most this year now that it's coming back and it's live and in color and in person?
09:03What are some things that you're looking forward to?
09:05Well, I mean, we had so much fun the last time.
09:08You know, much thanks to Estelle and to Essence for having me.
09:11Estelle said, and she brought out so many different aspects of the Caribbean, you know, and we had to fit in there.
09:17So it was a really short moment for me to get some soka in there and do my thing.
09:21So I'm looking forward not to having a little more time, but having the main stage and being able to tell my narrative, my story,
09:28because I saw the Essence audience, how they really wanted to stand up, get up off their chairs,
09:33and party.
09:34I felt that energy.
09:36I'm looking forward to going back there and seeing all these people celebrating culture
09:40and, you know, doing what I could do with soka with them.
09:43You know, the set will be a little longer than it was the last time,
09:46so I could express myself with a little more variation.
09:49And I'm really happy to have my band there.
09:53You know, it's a totally different experience when you have your musicians and we get into it and we feed off of the audience.
10:00And the Essence audience is crazy.
10:02I saw the Dougie Fresh.
10:03I saw the Wyclef.
10:04I was there looking on, and I know what is possible.
10:08So I'm really, really excited to, like, you know, work with that.
10:11And it's all unknown and unexpected what will happen.
10:14But I know what I will bring.
10:16I'll bring the 50%.
10:17And once the audience is there, you know, I'll just take them over the top.
10:21For sure.
10:21I know they will be.
10:22I know they will be, too.
10:24And the beautiful thing about the black experience is, you know, we're so non-monolithic.
10:28And, like, it's something about music that allows people to, like, come together.
10:33You know, Thursday night at Essence Fest is going to be nuts.
10:36It's going to have Caribbean, Afro beats, reggae, vocal vibes.
10:40Like, it's just going to be a whole melting pot of this music because.
10:45And we're in New Orleans.
10:47We're in New Orleans.
10:48This is the heartbeat, the center of that kind of carnival, that kind of masquerade, that kind of energy.
10:56There's something really special about it.
10:58When you put that jambalaya of culture in one pot and you start stirring it, I mean, the flavor is going to be off the hook.
11:07And I think people are going to really go crazy for this night.
11:10And it's beautiful because, like, we have artists like you.
11:14We got Nicki Minaj.
11:15We got Beanie Bitch.
11:16There are so many people there.
11:17We got so many performances.
11:19So how does it feel to be one of the people who helped Soka Music become international and essentially, you know, become a language that a lot of people can speak and understand and really vibe to?
11:31It's really humbling.
11:34And, you know, I'm really grateful for the opportunity that I had when I came into Soka Music.
11:39And, you know, it wasn't even that popular amongst young people.
11:42You know, the older people really had control over Soka Music when I got in.
11:46And I felt like I needed to do my part to make it hip and take it to the corners of the globe.
11:52You know, and I had to mix it with dance or working people like Beanie Man, Red Rat, Shaggy.
11:56Over the years, working people like Wyclef, W Fresh, Pitbull, Bill John.
12:01You know, I played a role in trying to expose different audiences to Soka and expose the Soka audience to how well we can fit with other cultures and tell our own story.
12:13And, you know, I'm just proud to be a part of it still, to be here, to see how the younger generation has taken on the Soka Music, people like Kes and Foyce and Patrice Roberts.
12:23You know, so it's really a proud moment for me to stand on the Essence stage, which is a stage of great integrity.
12:29And it's a privilege to be there among some of the names that I'm seeing, Janet Jackson and New Edition, people that I grew up on.
12:36You know, so for me to really be there to represent for Soka Music, something that has been my lifelong project and my purpose to build, it's just a satisfying and fulfilling moment to stand in this, you know, and be here to represent.
12:51And I'm repping hard for all the Caribbean islands, every West Indian person who loves Soka Music and people in diaspora.
12:58You know, I'm just really, really honored for the opportunity to be there and do this.
13:02And speaking of the younger folks, you know, some of us are probably going to have to go to TikTok to learn a few tutorials or practice a few dances.
13:11But can you tell us a few moves that we might need to, like, perfect and get under our belt before your performance at Essence Fest?
13:17Soka is easy.
13:19I mean, when you hear the beat, the first thing you have to do is just get up and free up.
13:23We like to say free up.
13:24You know, let your body do the talking.
13:26The body is going to move on its own.
13:28But some of the staples when you're talking about Soka, the first one is your ground game.
13:33When I say ground game, there's your dribbling.
13:35You know, your basketball dribble, your ground game is definitely whining.
13:39It's definitely in the waistline.
13:40You have to know how to whine.
13:42So just go and look up some YouTube videos, watch that whining.
13:46Some people like to say it's a figure eight, but it's not just a figure eight.
13:50By now, there are many variations of whining and marshals, things about fast wine, slow wine, one wine.
13:56You know, there's all the different types of whining, rough wine.
13:59Just know how to whine and move that waistline.
14:02That's a ground game.
14:03When we're ready to take it into the air, that three-point game, it's time to jump and wave.
14:08Make sure you walk with your flag.
14:10Everybody walk with something to wave so we can wave things in the air and really create that energy like we in a World Cup, FIFA World Cup football final.
14:21You know, that's when we want to see the whole arena, Essence, audience just jumping and waving.
14:26And after that, you know, you do what comes to you naturally.
14:29You know, you just really enjoy each other's company.
14:33And then you follow the instructions of the Shantuel.
14:37We call it Shantuel because he's the one holding the mic.
14:40And once you hear me say, do this, you just be prepared to do whatever instructions you get.
14:45You follow the leader, leader, leader, and you get on bad.
14:49Get on bad.
14:50And then lastly, the theme of this year's Essence Fest is, it's the black joy for me.
14:58So what brings you joy?
15:00Wow, what brings me joy?
15:03Right now, these days, life itself, just being alive, you know, having my family with me, having my friends and having my fans, you know, I've been on the road for a long time.
15:12I've been working, we had a rough last two years, you know, as a human race, as a planet, you know, dealing with all the challenges and, you know, to just be alive in this time brings me a lot of joy.
15:24You know, the essence of life itself and being able to share my creativity with people, to be able to share stages like these and express myself, I think is a privilege, you know, and I love to see other people happy.
15:39You know, I like to see smiles on people's faces.
15:42I like to please them with music.
15:43I like to, you know, mix my music and tell some messages that make them laugh and make them smile.
15:49You know, so I'll put all of that in there because this is what brings me joy, you know, serving people, especially musically and vibes and energy and, you know, taking some sort of the stresses of life, the pressures of life, all that we've been through for the last two years, you know, getting back on that essence stage, you know, that's joy for me already, you know.
16:09So I just want to give that back in return because I get it from my people, I get it from my audience, I get it from those who are closer on me and I definitely get that joy from my music.
16:21Awesome.
16:22Yeah, it was a great conversation.
16:23Thank you so much.
16:24I appreciate it.
16:24Thank you so much for your patience as well with this horrible traffic.
16:27I appreciate it.
16:28It's all good.
16:28It's all good, Nishana.
16:29Thank you so much.
16:30And I hope to see you guys at the essence.
16:33Three pounds lighter.
16:34Three pounds for sure.
16:36Three pounds.
16:36Guaranteed.
16:39Guaranteed.
16:39Don't care if I whine on you, I will you start whining back when the music stops.
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