Dancehall/ soca artiste Jahremiah Love hopes to make an impact on the local and international music scene as the only Indo-Trinidadian dancehall artiste.
Born Jeremy Curtis Mahapat, the 27 year old said his stage name Jahremiah came about when he fused his spiritual beliefs and his love of “Jahovah” with the name Jerimiah.
Love said his musical style was heavily influenced by the ghetto community of Suzanna Trace, Montserrat, South Trinidad, where he grew up and still resides. He said: “I grew up listening to reggae music as it was played a lot by neighbours and relatives and I became very fond of it.”
Love said soca and dancehall allow him to be creative and do original work unlike other local genres as chutney soca that relies heavily on sampling Bollywood tracks for rhythms.
Love revealed that he began getting involved in music at the age of 14, a formative period in his life that allowed him to fine-tune his work, to bring it to what he hopes is “an international standard.”
Using social media to publicise his work, Love said he has received tremendous feedback from members of the public. He added that while his work is distributed freely online, he hopes this marketing strategy would allow him opportunities to perform at shows where he can earn income to further expand his work.
Love acknowledges that there are challenges to becoming successful in genres dominated by artistes of African ancestry. Saying that this only encourages him to work harder, Love said: “As an Indo-Trinidadian a lot of people would not accept me as a dancehall and soca artiste, but that doesn’t stop me; that gives me more motivation to make it. Thefollowing that I have been having around the world and in T&T is remarkable.”
Love has released four tracks, including soca items From the Dust and Get on Bad; and, My Life and Taking Wuk, two dancehall compositions.
They can all be viewed on YouTube.
Love said he plans on reentering the International Soca Monarch competition in 2019, having competed in 2017 with the single From the Dust. Love said he did not make it into the quarter-finals but was happy to participate.
Love ended by saying that he plans on doing collaborations with “big artistes” in the near future.
