A budding Saint Lucian artiste is looking to utilize his ‘Afro Tropical’ dance-hall rap beat to promote an authentic style of Creole rhythms.
Prestan Joseph aka ‘Prestan Banks’ wants to push forward his range of the wider Afro Caribbean rhythms and take him deeper into the realms of the music vibes.
Hailing from the suburban community of Ciceron, on the outskirts of the city, Prestan got a feel for music from an early age; but it had to take the persistent urging of a close friend for Prestan to realize that he possessed a talent waiting to be explored
He started off dabbling in different genres to get more in tune with the musical scene, and from thereon, Prestan has been looking to create a niche sound to promote his music.
Off-times from his current employment in the services department at the Harbour Club, Rodney Bay; Prestan devotes lots of that free time to fine-tune his lyrics and musical styles.
His latest selection released on February, 22 is entitled: ‘Simply Beautiful’. Prestan says that though he had not originally planned to release the tune as an Independence song, he is quite happy that the tune is fitting for this national celebratory occasion.
“While going through the process of trying to link into the different genres of Reggae music, I realize that I had to be more real with my vibes and it’s like I have to get that St Lucian vibe into it and put in something of my own,” the 26-year old Sagittarian declares.
Dipping into the different genres of Afro-beat, dance-hall styles, calypsos, and groovy soca, gave Prestan the head start that he so desired and from there, he says, “it just evolved into a number of multiple genres. Right now, I can do multiple genres like rap, and all other sorts of things, but I choose to do the positive ones all the time.”
What was the motivation for composing this latest song, and was it meant to have an impact on the independence celebrations?
“To be honest, I did not make it for Independence (celebrations) …I made it for my people – St Lucians, to understand what we have, to nurture the resources and each other. Our island, our country to want to grow and to evolve into bigger things with the music and to advance.”
However, the young artist is pleased with his efforts, and feels that the tune fits in “like a part of St Lucia and it should be a part of the independence (celebrations) as well.”
Lyrics from the ‘Simply Beautiful’ song flows with a smooth tropical crescendo beat and vivid prose depicting the splendor and beauty of the island:
“Me come from the land of beaches, hills, and valleys…
British and French there in our culture, like the Pitons we built with structure
Make we stick together and fly like ‘AmazonaVersicolor’
I love tropical people, meet the island people, see the island life
Feel the island fever, me swear say me love the life
Me Nah go leave Lucia …Simply Nice, Simply Beautiful.”
Does Prestan have plans to further promote this ‘Simply Beautiful’ tune and to gain wider exposure on Social Media?
“Yes…I’m looking to record it, get airplay looking to get into social media, get some sales on it and we make more progress along the way from here,” he explains. “We just want to be progressive with the music as much as we can, and positive too.”
Prestan shared that he employs a ‘very peculiar’ method as he prepares to dish out a tune. “Most times for me, it has to do with the beat. When I hear the style of beat, it would give me the imagination and then build up that energy to make me get the words to connect with one another,” he adds.