News: Just Kes

The band Kes is doing good after facing much scepticism from fans for leaving successful band Imij & Co.

The quartet, who in a recent Guardian interview just sat back and made themselves comfortable in the interview room, took yet another opportunity to make it clear that the name of their band is simply Kes.

“We’re not Kes The Band, or Kes and the band, or Kes and Co, or even Kees, spelt like our brother’s name. It’s not named after him, and he doesn’t even like how similar it is but the rest of us thought that the fans are already familiar with the name, let’s stick with it,“ said one band member, 28-year-old Hans Dieffenthaller, Kees’ brother.

Some weeks ago, Kes was one of the headline acts at Black Out, a concert held at Pier 1 in Chaguaramas.

The band has emerged with a new style which they call Cari-pop or Crazy Caribbean and, thus far, have been lining up jobs. Other musicians spreading Cari-pop around the globe include the Soca Rebels and young Sarah Hansson, both out of Sweden but with Trini roots.

Now with a more diversified range of music in their performance set, Kes has had gigs as the opening act at American band Sugar Ray’s concert at Zen. They also performed at 95.1’s Kiss the World Concert earlier this year and most recently at the seventh annual Cott Award Show and the third annual Soca Awards.

The band also added that 80 per cent of the music in their performance set at present was their own original work. “We’re very proud of that, we are straying from that title of a cover band, which is not what we ever wanted to be,” said bassist Riad Boochoon, sitting on the carpeted floor with his legs crossed.

“While songs like One Day, Push and The Way, which were penned while we were still in Imij, are still in our set, we are adding to all that greatness, doing a lot more song writing” said Hans.

Lead singer Kees Dieffenthaller said he was set to release his new track for Carnival 2K6, Stay With Me. The song, which is a collaboration between Kees and well-known local producer, Junior “Ibo” Joseph, is to be released during the first week of November.

When questioned about their sources of inspiration, they each described their own blend of music which they take in for listening pleasure.

“I’m not listening to anything much now, ‘cause I’m in the writing zone, so outside influences are limited in order to increase originality, because then it can all come from inside,” said 24-year-old Kees. He is an avid Dave Matthews Band fan, though.

Hans said his music catch right now is funk fusions: “Soul and groove, lots of Andre Tanker.”

His 26-year-old brother Jon, the final member of the band, is one for jazz fusions. Boochoon said he was still hooked on the heavy metal he grew up on.

But Hans said as musicians they all embraced many types of music, which is reflected in their songs. “We refuse to be boxed in as soca artistes or a rock band. We enjoy a good soca fete, while at the same take in Orange Sky and Skid”Nevely, who may be described as local rockers,” he added.

This fusion and mix of musical genres apparently helps the guys to keep their band evolving. They say they never wish to be stagnant and want to use their music to bridge the gap between the different music fans in T&T.

“There is this division between soca, rap, rock, R&B and reggae fans down here and our music really can’t be categorised, because we embrace them all, and thus try to ease that division and give simply a Caribbean vibe. And, with the help of our producer, Derek Bramble, we’ve been finetuning and hitting the target,“ said Kees.

With this said, the guys sent a message to the fans: Carnival is still on their agenda and they will be out for the greatest show on earth.

In the not-so-distant future the band plans to do a video. “The crowd at Black Out, the Concert gave us encouragement because though it was small, there were many local musicians present and to see them taking interest in us means we’re doing this right. We want to continue to contribute to this culture, maybe influence people, ‘cause we love being musicians,” said Kees.

The band members said they didn’t know where they might be in the next ten years but owning their own master recordings (having all legal title to their musical property) and spreading their work far beyond our region were future plans.