For more than 20 years Dj Cat has been playing music.
He has kept the crowds dancing with wild abandon or tapping their feet and nodding their heads to the tunes he play at events.
Cat, real name Alan Callender, said in an interview with Barbados TODAY, that he would like to see the DJs playing 100 per cent local music during the national festival.
“I love the music. I love everything associated with the festival and that is the driving force and keeps me going more than money. I love good music, I love to see the effect that good music has on people. Crop-Over is the one time of the year that everybody comes out and enjoys themselves,” he said.
He said that while he might play “one or two” songs from other regional islands because there might be revellers from other Caribbean countries in the band, on Kadooment Day his emphasis is local music.
“At least 95 per cent of our music on the road is Barbadian music. I have an issue with DJs playing music from other countries right now. There are a lot of things I would like to see changed. From the DJs on the radio right straight down to our bands.
“These are people producing music every year and they themselves are not taking the mantle in pushing our music, they are pushing their’s, the music they have produced and everything else is from another country.
“We’re not doing us, last year, the year before or back then. We are either doing us now or some other country which I think is totally wrong.
“For instance, shows like Party Monarch which is part of our national festival I think we have too much music from other countries in Party Monarch and I think that is wrong also.
“I have no problem with it at Soca On De Hill or at events where we have other artists or groups from throughout the Caribbean but I think that Party Monarch, which is totally our’s and I think we need to inject 100 per cent of our music into it,” Dj Cat said.
He noted that some DJs were of the view that if they did not play foreign music they would not be accepted as Djs, which was wrong.
‘The DJs are now allowing the audience, the public to make the decisions for them as opposed to the other way around. You’re the DJ, you’re the one with the power, you’re supposed to push and if you do nobody is going to complain. They look for the easy way out,” Cat said. (DS)