Corie Sheppard Podcast
Corie Sheppard Podcast
Episode 237 | D Piano Girl
Episode Description:
In this episode, we sit down with pianist, singer, and producer Johanna Chukaree — better known as D Piano Girl — for an honest and uplifting conversation about creativity, healing, and purpose.
Johanna shares her journey from early classical training and national music festival wins to a corporate career in engineering and HR — before finally stepping fully into her artistry. We get into the story behind her viral Savannah Grass cover, the emotional layers of her new single Forever, and how she blended Bollywood rhythms, Hindi lyrics, and Trinbagonian spirit to produce a deeply personal anthem.
We talk about her process, her voice, and how music became a way to process life, raise her vibration, and reconnect with joy. From working out Phase II Pan Groove intros as a child in Woodbrook to making original music heard on major stations, Johanna opens up about learning to believe in herself — and how that belief shapes everything around her.
🎹 This episode includes:
• The making of Forever and her Hindi-infused production choices
• The impact of her Savannah Grass performance
• Boogsie and Phase II being musical influences
• Her time in the Marionettes Chorale
• Hosting 12 & Under with Vaughnette Bigford
• How she balances artistry with purpose and peace
🎧 Click the link in our bio for the full episode.
#coriesheppardpodcast
I'm great, you're good. It looking like every time we try to link up is to be heavy, torrential rain and dongpo work wasn't that true, but I think we in that season I feel, like we in that time but, um, we made it today we made it, we made it, we made it through all the dongpo we made it. Last time you're supposed to meet it was yellow alert.
Speaker 2:Congrats on forever true, thank you it sounds great, it sounds great I'm now finding out that you actually came to be part I did, I did, I did of the heart in this semana so I don't tell people this story about this right.
Speaker 1:We connected some time ago.
Speaker 2:We bonked up on las cuevas quite coincidentally, we could do our bongs.
Speaker 1:You know, I like when things are thoughts and then they become things. So it feels good to be here from bonking up. Then you know, and you sent my message and you say you're doing this video, you have a new song you're going to release and so on, and um, I should come through, yeah, say that's something like good. But when I say come through is behind the scenes, I'm not the front of the camera guy, despite what this might say right you did say that you wanted to observe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just wanted just to make for a better episode too.
Speaker 1:So we have the conversation. So you told me quite clearly, with all the notes and all the different things that I needed I was going to be in the Savannah opposite Napa and as a headline kind of guy, all I see is Napa. So, driving to Napa with all confidence, I say I'm here for the video shoot, the people looking completely lost. But I did see the video. In the end I saw what the heart was about, because even when you said it then I was like okay, what do you mean by a white heart?
Speaker 1:I didn't understand, but it was great how it went, how was the video shoot and everything it was good.
Speaker 2:It was good. I wanted, like I knew that there was going to be part of the song and the message of that part of the song was put your hands in the air, throw your hands up, because love is everywhere. And I really wanted to kind of drive home that feeling of like coming together with different people, different faces, different races. And so I had this idea to form this heart in the savannah and, you know like, have it shown from above and yeah it.
Speaker 2:It ended up being good. I, I, I think I originally I wanted like 30 people in it and I was like no, it could work with 20 and 19 people yeah there's some famous people came out.
Speaker 3:Joshua.
Speaker 2:Regrello showed up Koryan Maaz. I wanted a famous TikTok couple and some other friends and yeah, it worked out well. So 19 people showed up beautiful. There's actually one part of the heart that has 18 people and then another shot that has 19 people because one guy like he just rushed yeah he probably went now, but yeah I was responsible song but I'm good. I think it's good. Everyone says they like it. You know we were chatting before. Like you said, it's very emotional.
Speaker 1:Instantly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, For me too it's quite an emotional thing to like put together and create. Some people are like this song is fire. Like you know a lot of people I sent it to. They're like the beats, they're like it's been good.
Speaker 1:It's been good.
Speaker 3:That's good.
Speaker 2:I want to shout out 95.1.
Speaker 1:They've been playing this a lot, so it's 95 kind of music, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:So you know, um, that's great for me to hear it's on here. People say that they've heard it's on the radio, and I want to just like say thanks to all these stations that support my music yeah, I want to tell them thanks to.
Speaker 1:It is one of those songs where, like for me, sometimes you hear a song and it takes a while for the song to soak in, to become a party, even if you like something. But I don't know if it's the forever and ever and ever and ever. It just feels like it hits you somewhere. So you would have been the person who wrote it, you. How do you come up with it?
Speaker 2:yeah, so probably like a year ago. Well, I actually have group chats with myself on my phone and whatsapp. Say that again. You have what group chats with myself? What do you mean?
Speaker 3:like who's the?
Speaker 2:group. The group is me and me um well, I do have another number right so I sort of like create this group with me and okay myself so use your own accountability partner yeah, like it's like this the board of directors, everybody just in here you know it's like oh, it's the team you know what I have?
Speaker 2:to pull together team. I pull together team but, in a lot of the lead up like this is the, this is the team you know they say there's no I in team and I'm like it's not. I t e a I m pronunciation it works, that's hilarious.
Speaker 2:So yeah, like I have these group chats and they're all called the Piano Girl Song Dash and then the name Of the song that I think it's gonna be. So I have like About 15 of those Existing Forever was one of them that I started about A year ago and just me, a lot of them is me Like sitting on the piano Playing and or go um, and just me, a lot of them is me like sitting on the piano playing and with the lyrics and whatnot right and so it was just in my head.
Speaker 2:I um, I like I heard this thing. I think this song did not come from me, a lot of people are like you know how did it feel to create this song, but I feel like it's existed somewhere in the ethos.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:And I just happened to be the person to like grab it and like bring it into this reality where we could hear it and listen to it and see it. But it could have been anybody.
Speaker 2:That's how I feel about this. So I kept hearing this forever, ever, ever, ever, ever. And I'm like is that lame, like, is that like too basic? And I was like no, no, it's kind of catchy. And you know, then I had the chorus and then just kind of like fleshing out the verses and I knew I wanted it to have this bollywood feel, which is, you know, something different for me, right different yeah and so there's some Hindi in there.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:And I had to get someone to translate it and all of that, and so the unfolding of that was beautiful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to help us with that. You know, because, as Trinnies, we are accustomed to wrong lyrics in English. We sing people lyrics wrong all the time. Yeah, me too.
Speaker 2:You know it was something I was kind of like crap, I need to get this right. So I actually linked up with a friend of mine who's fluent in Hindi. So one of the lines in his song I hope I'm saying it right, because I'm not fluent it's oh, my love, my heart deal is my it's hot is yours. So that's that line. And then later on in the song there's the um to marry being an? Uh. He sucked the surgeon. Uh, which is the bridge.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So that's just a word, for that just means beloved.
Speaker 1:Gotcha.
Speaker 2:Um, there's another one later on. I say mahiya, same name to marry be, to marry be nana, he's acting mahiya. Mahiya is another word for beloved or my love, but it means I can't without you, like I can't do without you. Those are the two main parts and the second verse too. There's um uh to marry, to marry, duniya, who I think that one is you are my world or you are my life, and another one to mary's and dougie, who you are my life, you're my world.
Speaker 2:So just like these little infusions of hindi in there right and then the beat of, like you know, the start of the song, would I kind of like a kind of remember, like what I would hear in woodbrook growing up like jose, jose am I saying that right, yes, I grew up in woodbrook. I say, yeah, jose, yeah, I grew up in st james, okay, all right, boom okay, yeah, woodbrook and st james, it's just like wonderful culture, like you're just immersed in it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can't escape.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So you know, like those rhythms and stuff, like the beginning of the song kind of reminded me of that. And then we're just so blessed here we're exposed to like all kind of genres pop, rock, hollywood, chutney, soka, soka, junibad, rap, hip-hop, like everything. So like you get influenced from, by you know. Just, I feel like I was talking for a long time. Yeah, I was. You know, I like that, that's me okay.
Speaker 1:But I'll like you are bringing in woodbrook explains a lot like for st james, and I try to explain that to people because the influences of everything just kind of converges around woodbrook in particular and it's it's carnival. You can't escape carnival if you live in Woodbrook, like you might remember so many times where, um, when the avenue really starts to pump and become a liming spot, it used to be real problems with people parking in front of people gates. You can't leave when it's time, and I remember crowbar and them having issues. Remember them times.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes and you're immersed in it.
Speaker 1:Whatever trinidad is doing culturally at whatever time of year where there's cycling and it happened is either you like it or you don't like it honestly but you're in it, but you're in it regardless, yeah, so either something about it moves you or you're just like listen, this is too much for me, too noisy for me, yeah I tell my father the other day, like as somebody who loved kaisan soka, I didn't like that 90s era super blue road matches at all, because you just hear it over and over and when you live in st james or woodbrook this would have been the same.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can't escape them things yeah, like a lot of, I feel like a lot of the rhythms that I picked up was actually from face two, pan groove, because it's damien street is where I grew up, okay, and you could hear that like.
Speaker 1:So you have with brook halfson, james, a little bit. They're trying to claim you know.
Speaker 2:No, I mean, there's plenty of that, there's plenty of that to me and all of those. Like you know, I would like drum a table on my lap or like feeling that um because I have, I mean, I have training in western classical music, right, but we don't get. You don't get exposed to any of these type of indigenous rhythms or anything in in western classical music right, you know, you have like very straightforward, you know rhythms yeah so I would say like that influenced me a lot I would too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I want to go back to those early days of you and music, but first I want to go back to the first message I ever sent, joanna right, okay which stood out wait, you sent me a message.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I sent you a message long, long time ago.
Speaker 1:You want date something, the 11th of march. I know what date is coming out, but okay I say, joanna, this is quarry shepherd, who's opal as well, reaching out to see if we could schedule recording the podcast and so on. So you send all the pleasantries and so on. But I said part of it was like what are we going to talk about? And I say, well, I want to talk about like where you're working on, where you're working towards as well as who you are and so on. And he said sure sounds good.
Speaker 1:I'm presently working on being happy oh my gosh, I love it but that is something that, um, the more I talk to you is, the more of that energy that I get, because when you send that, I'll tell him. The initial reaction was oh lord, I wonder if she's not doing music or if she's in a good place, because when somebody said they're working on being happy, it sounds like.
Speaker 2:It's like why do I need to work on this? Why? Why do we need? Why do I feel like I need to work on being happy? Really interesting, right, can't I just be happy?
Speaker 1:I would think so. I would think so, but the more I talk to you and your energy and your spirit, it seems like something that you put a lot of energy into.
Speaker 2:Yes, there have been times in my life that have been very chaotic and I am moving towards really like being in alignment, with a lot of peace, a lot of contentment and a lot of joy, a lot of bliss, a lot of fun, a lot of just happiness. Being silly, understanding that like it's a blessing to be here.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Like to experience what we experience, to learn different lessons.
Speaker 2:So being happy for me is whatever that means, Whether it's working on music, whether it's resting, whether it's hanging out with friends whether it's being on a Coreyory shepherd podcast where he's meeting everybody behind the scenes on, like you know, talking, dancing, chatting, laughing, like, yeah, like I think that we have this wonderful compass within ourselves which is our emotional feeling, and it's like a guide on system that kind of alludes us like, hey, this is not like a good space to be in. In my mind, in my heart, in my energy. This is not a good space to be in. Let me see how I can come out of it. Or just, you know, raise my vibration a little bit. So when I say like we cannot be unhappy, I think I think that's what I mean. So when people ask me what's my next step or what's my next plan, it's to do whatever it means to really just keep being happy, like just keep, you know, being peaceful content and being around the people that make me feel that way.
Speaker 1:That's important to you.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Being in the environment that make me feel that way, like I love nature, like you're talking about how we met we met on the beach right like I love, like just you know, the ocean and the sun and so much abundance, like you know, like I could be upset with the sun I'd be like hey, son, like what you do today, get up the next day.
Speaker 1:Son's still there, A hundred percent Like the son's still there.
Speaker 2:You know, it's like. It feels to me like unconditional. Yeah, nature feels like unconditional love and like peace, you know. So, yeah, being happy, I remember an old guy.
Speaker 1:Once I was working TSTT at the time and I used to work late all the time. Right, there was no sense of time.
Speaker 2:What did you do at?
Speaker 1:TSTT. At that time I used to be in a department that um where they print all the bills. There was this huge machine that used to envelope all the bills okay and then we had to kind of gather them and take them to TTPO so that was our job thousands of A whole month. So when your bill prints let's say your bill prints today, yeah, that will not. It cannot print again until a month from today because of how much bills coming after that.
Speaker 2:Right, so it's just like in the queue, because that's landline days, right, yeah, like in the queue.
Speaker 1:In the queue. You're already in queue, yeah, so that it takes a full month cycle, maybe 19, 20 at this time. So I'm now joining the working world and you're learning how to adult a little bit, right. And I come to work later in the morning and I tell him I say boy, heavy rain, and he tell me if it's not the rain, it's going to be the sun, and that's thrown to my lot.
Speaker 1:It's the same thing you say about you could be upset with the sun for real, but the likelihood is that if you're upset with this and you're probably upset at a lot of things it's probably from within. So I was telling you before we started there was a book that shifted my perspective on some of these things, a book called the road less traveled yeah, I'm good of it something else. The first line in the book is life is difficult do you remember the author of that book, scott peck?
Speaker 2:yeah, I'll send it to you I'll send it to you.
Speaker 1:I'm better ats. Let me put that out there one time. I can't read so well.
Speaker 2:No, me too I fall asleep.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I fall asleep on the audio too.
Speaker 2:I get to like two paragraphs and I'm just like, but with the audiobook Corey you are right in that, like I find, like you can put on headphones, you could do other things while you're listening to it driving Like a podcast.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, what I've learned is that, like, I used to be a little bit attention span short, so I might listen to the audio book and realize that I wasn't listening for a stretch, but I've started to realize now that you absorb a lot of it even if you're not paying full conscious attention. So, deliberate about the kind of books that I listen to and the kind of things that I listen to or take in because of what it could do, you know and I didn't think you're paying attention, but maybe you're always up, yeah, so that that message stood out to me.
Speaker 2:What we're brainwashing ourselves with right, so you're in this thing over and over, you know.
Speaker 1:That's why I don't tell you right I like how you say that, joanna, because I don't tell you, joanna listens to people, thoughts or the things I say, so every time I say something that could be deemed to be lower vibrational negative or talk about myself. You pick up on it quickly. Is it something that you pay attention to with your own thoughts.
Speaker 2:It is something I have started to and something I do, you know, I guess, with my friends. I don't know if it's annoying. Is it annoying to you?
Speaker 1:No, when I do it.
Speaker 2:Okay, like when I do it. Okay, you like it. Yeah, of course, okay, it helps me because I don't see it so many times. Okay, but yeah, it is because I do believe that we create, like I. I think we are such powerful creators like, such powerful manifestors like, and we doing this thing instantly, so we go from like vibration, the thought, to thing, and it happens right, and like if I could catch that Now some of us really like, have a wonderful way of, you know, just moving in a very positive and enlightened direction. Me that had not been had. Not, I'm talking in past tense.
Speaker 3:Back then.
Speaker 2:Had not been when you say back then it's like 2024. Okay, okay, I was like January 2025 Was kind of like A turning point for me, I see. So this is all new.
Speaker 1:I'm a lot older than Joanna. I didn't say a lot later that we established that's how I'm going to be 12 whole months Actually.
Speaker 2:No, when is your birthday?
Speaker 1:Which month.
Speaker 3:February 17th.
Speaker 2:So it's less than 12 months.
Speaker 1:No, it's a lot, because I'm in May.
Speaker 2:I'm in May. So it's like it's a long 10 months. How many days I can't do that much. A lot, a lot, a lot.
Speaker 3:But it's like you are so much older.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a lot, yeah, Like I could just you know see it in a way. In normal in spirit. Sorry about sidetracking it. No, this is fun, it's fun, it's all good fun, cory, it's good fun.
Speaker 1:Um, I don't know what I was talking about, but it's great to laugh yeah, so it's a good way to get us back on track, but you see that you pay attention to those thoughts, right, and you're shifting 20, yeah, like and because I think it starts in energy and then in thoughts and then in things.
Speaker 2:You know things start to happen. So I try to catch it. I try to catch it for myself and I try to find something a little better. You know, they say like be kinder to ourselves. I really feel like if you could find like just a little different perspective that just changes, like I feel a shift within myself and then when I shift, people around me start to shift and like I start to get like free fries and saying you're gonna take a note of that. No, like no, because I, the energy I bring into something, I find it really affects people around me and scenarios around me. And so if I could catch it and I could like lift myself, everything just seems to like flow better.
Speaker 1:I think so. I think your social media shows that. I think your radiator energy there that people could feel via social media. I spent a lot of time on your social media over the last few weeks.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I appreciate that. Thank you for the views. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course, of course, I Thank you.
Speaker 1:I appreciate that it shows. Thank you for the views. Yeah, yeah, yeah Of course, of course.
Speaker 2:I know I'm watching myself, so I was talking about TST and corporate life.
Speaker 1:You are a parent's dream. You're in the energy sector. You have engineering training and so on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, did you say a parent's dream? That's what parents want. Patron daddy. And parents want you to do medicine, law, engineering professional. Am I not a professional? No, cory, yeah we are, we are. Wow, we have some. I think parents want the best for us and sometimes the best for us is what they knew, um, but that doesn't necessarily have to be what resonates with us or what we feel connected to. So I did. My first degree is in engineering. I have a degree in electrical engineering. I worked in the industry for maybe like 10 or 12 years, found that I wasn't really aligned with me so much.
Speaker 2:And so then I moved into human resources, so I have a master's in HR management.
Speaker 1:So you went in the energy sector doing engineering at first, yes, and then, within the sector, I moved over into human resources, so I have a master's in HR management. So you went in the energy sector doing engineering at first, yes, I see.
Speaker 2:And then, within the sector, I moved over into human resources, where I worked on like curriculum development for technical staff and corporate staff as well.
Speaker 1:And you say you trained in that area as well. Yes, in HR.
Speaker 2:Yes, Well, a master's in HR management. So undergraduate.
Speaker 1:You like engineering? Yeah, in well, master's and hr master's.
Speaker 2:So undergraduate uh, engineering, yeah, hr was like. Training was the the. The schooling was so different to engineering yeah, like so different because engineering is like black and white. You're like principles proven for hundreds of years, and the hr training was like we. I had to learn to write like this may, of course, help improve employee morale.
Speaker 1:That must be uncomfortable for you.
Speaker 2:That may and should and ought to well once I learned it it was good it was good once I learned like what the field required of me to be more you know, fluent and fluid, and less like you know, because you're dealing with people now yeah, yeah, so it was interesting it was it was interesting interesting um. The first engineering was ue and the hr management was university of uh. Is it harriet what?
Speaker 1:sbcs. So yeah, gotcha, gotcha, yeah, gotcha, yeah, we'd have been around the same time you see what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm a 00 ID number, oh man, I'm 99 yeah, yeah, alright, so much younger advanced education so much younger, right.
Speaker 2:So 10 whole months younger, 10 whole.
Speaker 1:A lot could happen in 10 months, though yeah, a lot could happen in 10 months, though, yeah, a whole next person could happen in 10 months. Yes, yes, so getting in that field, how difficult is it for you mentally to shift from engineering the working world to hr? You already feeling that shift happening?
Speaker 2:yes, within my department, like I would. There were things about my job that I really enjoyed, like I enjoyed project management, I enjoyed working with other people. I I enjoyed like training younger engineers, some of the core work. I would see my coworkers be like whoa, a transformer, and I'd be like you know, I don't really feel this enthusiasm.
Speaker 1:Oh, you mean a transformer?
Speaker 2:Yeah, like a piece of equipment. Oh no, like Optimus Prime. I'm into, that'm into, I mean, like I mean.
Speaker 2:But robotics and stuff is based on engineering you know, of course, but yeah, like pieces of equipment or, you know, a substation or I mean it was good, but I I I didn't feel very connected to it and I think I was good at what I did. I think I made a lot of difference. I think, you know, I enjoyed working as part of a team and and I decided to say like okay, can I like move into something that resonates it a bit more with me? Now I was always doing music, like like some years ago, like I performed as part of Isaac Blackman's band in Barbados Gospel Festival, like I feel like jump it up to the ceiling. Yeah, like I you know. So I was doing like things like that. I performed, you know, different things like weddings, functions, um, but I did not come out and step out as like a soloist right, I see which was the change around 2019.
Speaker 2:Okay, so yeah, like I was always doing music, but there was a definitely a marked difference in 2018 2019 where I was just like okay here's what I can do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all the way to the edge, right?
Speaker 2:yeah, it was kind of like a time of like nothing to lose and, um, I was like, well, yeah, let me just have some fun, I'll put a piano in the savannah, of course, you know like that's how we introduced a lot of people in Trinidad that piano in the savannah, but you can't get there, it'll get there, just so.
Speaker 1:Where did classical training start? You had to be playing from young yeah, really young.
Speaker 2:I was fortunate to be sent to lessons on stuff, to be sent to lessons and stuff when I was like four or five years old. Um, I have a sister. I have an older sister who lives in the states and she was doing piano lessons as well. So we would kind of like you know, you have a sibling doing it and you know you're doing it together, we play duets together, you know. So, yeah, it's um, I did have. Um, where's this formal training like grades?
Speaker 1:in music from five up till, I think, around 13 oh there's 13, I thought there's stop and two where I stopped where you stopped probably two, two years ago.
Speaker 2:I'm a real rum shop musician. I play when I hear people play, but listen, I heard you do a whole like you are a writer am I you are a producer. You are a writer. Am I? You are a producer. I heard, like you do, a whole song that got very popular over the season. There's quite a novel concept.
Speaker 1:The Lazy Rum Shop concept. You know, when you grew up in St James, you had to be able to come up with something.
Speaker 2:It resonated with a lot of people. It resonated with me. So I mean, training or not. We have musicians, and very famous musicians, who have absolutely no training in music. It was funny to bring that up.
Speaker 1:I had lou here, uh, from free town, a few episodes ago and you know, something he said sparked a thought in me right, because you have trained classical musicians or trained in any, any, any genre or field, uh, but he was saying that so many of our musicians learn by rote. Yeah, like I learned by watching somebody else play quattro. Yeah, figure out what they're doing, try it, and when you do that, you almost have to develop your own style, because it's years after, after I really could play. I start seeing the people who I learned from and I realized what I was hearing and what I did is not what they were doing, but against a similar, similar song. Yeah, and I wonder if sometimes it doesn't, if there's not room for us to retool the education system to help the people to learn, like, formalize the road to learning.
Speaker 1:Right, you know maybe there's the opportunity to do that.
Speaker 2:So I do think now within the secondary school curriculum like music is a.
Speaker 1:I think music is our subject. I have not been in in that system. My son is in form one. He does music. He's playing keyboard too. Yeah and um so there is.
Speaker 2:I think there has been a move to kind of they're doing it better.
Speaker 1:It's better than when I was in school people complain and lewis complain about it. So the recorder thing right but, um, yeah, I think it takes some time to learn what instruments you really like and what you want to play.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, because that's a whole discovery process of course, of course because I tried playing guitar and I was not drawn. I love guitar, I love to listen to guitar, but I was not drawn to it in terms of like how it felt and how I. My mind sees things like that that was not working for me and it was kind of big for me to hold when I was, you know, tinier.
Speaker 1:Of course yeah, because you start from five years old yeah, yeah so you're always drawn to piano, like from that young age you wanted to do it, or wasn't there anything your parents made you do I?
Speaker 2:did, I think because my sister was doing it. It's like okay, somebody doing it, I think because my sister was doing it, it's like okay, somebody doing it. So I'm going to do lessons, right, gotcha? And then it was a very natural thing for me. I had a lovely teacher as my first teacher, just a very gentle she's passed away now, but very gentle.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:Who really kind of like, took you on, instilled like music, in just a wonderful way, like I'd have a big scrapbook, like drawing, like treble clef, different signs, cause when you're that small, like young, like reading and writing, you know. So she was just really nurturing.
Speaker 1:I think that was it what was her name Yvonne James. Yvonne James.
Speaker 2:She used to live on O'Connor street. Oh, I to live on o'connor street. Oh, I see, yeah, in woodbrook, yeah, okay, and um, I had several teachers after that too, but I think she really introduced that in it and there may have been a time when I wanted to stop, probably like around nine, ten years old, and I do think my mom would have kind of pushed me to continue. Um, I didn't even stop for common entrance, like that's nice yeah that's not most people's story, right? Yeah?
Speaker 1:you usually stop any extracurricular yeah, which I feel to be a mistake.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I think that you know, it was kind of helping me, like in terms of my brain development and stuff like that, and I did stop theory, so you have practical like playing and then theory and at the time, like you had to do up to grade 5 theory to continue in practical and I was like listen after grade 5, that is it for me.
Speaker 2:I don't know why. I want to know all of this because my friend who was doing like he was he is doing his PhD in music education was telling me, like grade five, grade six is actually like a university type, you know.
Speaker 1:So imagine like you like 12 years old or something and you do like this kind of like a one complex thing and the thing is for context, from five to nine ten, you play and playing at that point in time You're playing. Yeah, I was playing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I actually like I'm a music festival winner, so I would have in the National Music Festival I would have won my category in piano solo for under 12. And at that point I was awarded the most outstanding instrumentalist of the festival.
Speaker 3:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:Like at 11, you know, and then I continued to win, like in under 15 and and you know other categories as I went on. But you know, like, interestingly, you know at that time, like I didn't really think I was good no, no really yeah, I had to go through a lot of life experiences. I think the first time I thought I was good at music was pretty recent around, like probably that same time, like 17, 2017, 2018.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah yeah, I'm sure you experienced people telling you a good long time, because the first time I saw you play, like you say, when we saw that on the some, you know you're still dealing with somebody who played then I knew okay, what I was capable of but a lot of people tell me you were winning all these things and you were always doing music in school and always doing what you didn't know you were good.
Speaker 2:I'm like no, I don't recall ever having an experience where I knew that this was something above average or like some. There was never anybody pull me aside and say, hey, you know, I'll get out of this, that never happened in my life.
Speaker 1:That's what the awards were supposed to be saying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know, but I was just like okay, well, I did this thing and I win this thing, Okay well, you get used to it.
Speaker 1:Well, I didn't think it was anything you, it was anything you know, until I realized well, listen, I think I'm, I think I'm pretty good, I think I'm pretty good, interested in life from where you were there. So that message you send me, where I just working on being happy, is a big shift yeah, perspective right yeah big, big shift. So classical. Anybody who trained music would know that typically when you're going through those grades you're playing mostly classical pieces yes, you are where did it change for you and you used?
Speaker 2:you always used to play a lot of local music or different genres of music or interested in it yes, I think I was always interested because, um, I would have had that influence like living so close to face, to pan groove and hair and, nissan, you know, like len booksy shop compositions like, oh my gosh, like I know some intros to stuff by heart like, is mind your business? Yeah, I mean, this is like we pick out the chords you know what they're doing.
Speaker 2:You're figuring out, yeah like we work and I'm figuring all these things. So like being able to mesh it, yeah, I would always. And then in school we would Convent Port of Spain is where I went to school. St Joseph's we would where we, you know, met our mutual friend Adele of course yeah we were in class. We were in class together for a while got it got.
Speaker 2:It Is where, like, we would have school calypso competitions, Right, and I would do, like you know, fun funny things with like the. I was like okay, well, this person will enter through the Mission Impossible theme, Like you know, and we mesh that in with our calypso, or you know like.
Speaker 1:So you're playing for the?
Speaker 3:people who sang.
Speaker 2:Yes, I, I think I wanted to sing on. My calypso was too controversial, I know, sure, um. So it was a time when, um do you remember, there was this thing with a young girl wearing a hijab I remember yes it was sagged oh no, the convent was one too.
Speaker 1:There are a few, there are a few instances of it, actually but we were not allowed to wear really any religious um things so I could not.
Speaker 2:So um. I grew up catholic. Now I'm more much spirit, more like spiritual, open-minded person, but at the time like I would have wanted to wear a cross. Um, I mean, people wear symbols for different things, whatever, whatever it means, and I had a song called If she Wears she Hijab, I Wear my Cross.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 2:You want me to sing a little piece of it. I mean, yeah, it's kind of what we like.
Speaker 1:Do you remember it?
Speaker 2:I'm wearing my big gold cross and I'm playing boss. They can't tell me what to do Because I have my rights to a playing boss. I ain't taking it off. If she wears she hijab, I wear my cross X of Johanna. No way, johanna, you cannot come up here in a Catholic school.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, no, no, no, no. That is not in Kipiluragad. Convergill Johanna.
Speaker 2:So, no, I did not sing that song and I support wearing all forms of whatever you want to wear, you know, but there are rules to play within when we are in systems and we are. That's how it goes, yeah.
Speaker 1:You think about the song and the idea behind it. It would be a good concept because it's such a big issue in the country at the time. You should give somebody to go up in the monarchy. Somebody would sing it. Yeah, somebody would sing it, yeah. So those, those that that almost in you innately. So the local music I like. I like the, that hearing that bugsy is so interesting. You just they're beating that when they're rehearsing, yeah, I mean 20 times and I'm playing it slow too yeah of course, I'm playing it fast.
Speaker 2:I'm learning the whole thing I learn in it.
Speaker 1:So even while you're doing your corporate job, you're gigging and stuff.
Speaker 2:At that point in time, yes, off and on On weekends, like weddings, funerals, memorial things, little functions, things like that.
Speaker 1:Is it typical trinidadian home where everybody come home they say oh, they play, yeah, yeah yeah, all your siblings play instruments.
Speaker 2:It's just a brother and sister um it's three of us right so I have an older sister, few years older, not that old 10 months times of you. Her name is Christine.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:She plays piano, pan, I think. She plays a little bit of guitar. She sings too. She works in the States, so she's a scientific consultant. Nice and myself and my brother, yeah, so we all play, we're all very musically inclined.
Speaker 1:And you all play multiple instruments.
Speaker 2:Yes, but I mean, piano is my strength. I mean I could play a scale or two on a steel pan actually did exams on thing on on pan like ue creative arts center exams.
Speaker 1:But I can't you know something like the same thing you say about piano in the earlys and like nothing special and.
Speaker 2:My voice like my voice is something that I really gained a lot of confidence with, probably in the last two years.
Speaker 1:But where did it start?
Speaker 2:I was a member of the marionette chorale for many, many years, so I'm a chorale singer. I was a singer too, turning two. But I felt like when I was there I more like to listen to harmonies, how harmonies sound all together and like we would sing. Like gosh Corey, there were these very intricate, like eight part harmony acapella songs. Right, so no accompaniment.
Speaker 2:So when you sing in our part on the inside, like you have to hold your own there and you're hearing like you know, and one of these things that, um, the choir leader would do, actually like to get a better sound, would be to like mix us. So it's not like sopranos here, altos here, tenors, like you mix it next to anybody yeah and you like.
Speaker 2:For me it wasn't like opposing, it was like me singing my part and hearing how it blended with the other two. So I enjoyed that aspect of singing and singing in a choir and I, you know, I had all these songs in my head like forever, like other.
Speaker 2:There are other songs too um and I was like, who can sing this? Like it had to be me. So actually, in terms of, like the Savannah Grass cover, I wanted to write arrangements of soca music for piano for people to play. That's really how that idea started, and I still I'm working towards actually making those arrangements available, which is something that and I still I'm working towards actually making those arrangements available, which is something that, yeah, I'm working towards, um, but then I was like who's gonna play this? Like how do you know how it sound?
Speaker 2:like I had to play it. So that's how I end up playing these things to say like let me show you, like, let let me show what this could sound like, because I don't think I originally wanted to like be seen or be in the forefront doing this right but when I was like, who else, who else?
Speaker 2:who you going to give this arrangement of Savannah Grass? And what's the other thing, plenty girl, have man, like all of these songs, forget if I single Orlando Octave, orlando Octave, who are you going to give this? Which pianist are you going to say here?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you do it.
Speaker 2:Like you play this, I'm like, well, it had to be me to push this vision Like I had the vision. You know, it's kind of hard sometimes for people to see your vision, because it's your vision.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's different when you execute on your vision than when you do it through people. So I appreciate you taking that step. Always saw it as you know, seeing it initially played. Maybe it's the way my mind works. When you see somebody play as well as you do and you're silent vocally throughout the whole thing, it's almost like you see that person as they don't talk. That's how my mind is, like that person yeah, exactly, right, exactly.
Speaker 2:And so for a long time, like I wasn't comfortable really with like talking, I like to talk a lot more now.
Speaker 3:I mean, I'm always talking my personal life like I'm one of those people like always on the phone and we just like exchanging thoughts.
Speaker 2:And you know, Got you I love to talk For the public talking yeah. And so finding my voice singing actually helped me speak up more and also, in my personal life, helped me speak up on things that I wasn't able to speak up for a long time. I was doing a lot of people pleasing. I was, you know, in these roles of, so that you know. People tell me, like what is this? I don't know much about chakras, but they say, like my throat chakra cleared in a way.
Speaker 2:So now you know, and some of it was because I wanted to sing my own stuff, Like who I going to give forever to?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can imagine.
Speaker 2:Actually, I wanted to collaborate on this song with a Soka artist Because I had a different idea for it and it would have been a song more like more fused, sorry, and the person wanted to buy it and turn it into pure Soca, which is a kind of I love you forever, ever, ever, ever, which is beautiful. And I'm like why don't you remix this song after? Like, I don't mind if you, you know, remix this, but he didn't have a collaboration in mind.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:And I really wanted to stay true to it and what it felt like to me. So I was like oh well, joanna, you had to sing now. Yeah, you had to sing your stuff now because it's your vision, like you have to put it forward in the way that you see it, and so, yeah, I had to like find out what is my voice now, not in a choral setting where you are sort of trained to blend with other voices because I didn't know what my voice was like, and when I first started singing I thought I was shouting oh wait, this was went to the choir, I mean no um singing solo.
Speaker 1:Okay, gotcha, yeah on my own.
Speaker 2:I actually um, you know, because I would have worked with a lot of singers. I was so blessed that, you know, I know people that could sing so I'm like, and I want to get some coaching sessions, I want to get some guidance yeah, we're better to start on marionette.
Speaker 1:It explains a lot. I saw you one time at um performing with etty and charles at a show in queensville right and he had opened the show right, yeah yeah, and I remember well, two things stood out. No, so again, senior play for the first time. I said right, she didn't know how come she played. And when I saw you sing there I was like, okay, yeah I did sing there too.
Speaker 2:I did the um thinking oh lord passion, militant passion, mashup, I think oh, that's what it was I think I like to feel your body with the way how you're walking in I think it was that one Amo Dupé.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it did a few because you stopped. Right, that's right, that's right. And when I hear you sing, I say no, she's just vocally trained too. This is not by guess either. So the marionettes and so on make a lot of sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think possibly. Yeah, that training, that one I didn't have like much form, I didn't do grades or anything in in singing or anything like that. But then even before that, corey, I could remember like in primary school when you you know songs and stuff like yellow bird you had to lie, we used to lay down, I had to play it on the recorder.
Speaker 1:Okay, we used to play it on quatra same thing, right right, right.
Speaker 2:I could hear harmonies in my mind your love for harmonies.
Speaker 1:It explains a lot about even forever. I love harmonies oh gosh, I love them.
Speaker 2:And um, you know like no, there are a lot of terms that I don't know in music, like some of my friends who are have had tertiary level training. They would say like this is counterpoint melodies. I'm going to Google it, yeah.
Speaker 1:Chad should be teasing a friend.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was counterpoint you know, and finding all that, some of the things that I would do, naturally, like they are. You know words for it, you know. So it's been like a real interesting journey and expansion and forever. I Well, interesting journey and expansion and forever. We spoke about this and I produced this song as well, which with that was something new for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you told me that Outsider, kyle Peters, who played on it. Yes, shout out to Kyle, he's a mess.
Speaker 2:Yeah, kyle is brilliant. Kyle is really really brilliant.
Speaker 1:In so many ways yeah.
Speaker 2:Also, you know, as a producer as well. Yeah, so this, like I wanted to get forever to the point of a demo so that I could take it to a producer, that was my whole thing would start and to kind of you know, fiddle along. And then, as it went on, I was like wait, I could do this, I think I could do this, I think I could do this. And then, um, I got access to um splice do you know splice?
Speaker 2:it's a sound library okay I feel like that was a missing link. So you have beats loops. I mean, I think a lot of our producers locally and internationally are using Splice. You could type in Indian beat flute and just like preview all of what you want. It lists it like according to the BPM and the key. You download the sound that you want you bring it into your project. I would have had to tweak some of them a little bit to get it in time or to get it in the right key of the song right but this now you're learning as you go along.
Speaker 1:You just figure out the production thing as you go.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, there was also. So there's a friend of mine called janine ruiz um, a wonderful, also producer musician. I did do like a few sessions with her to help me with software.
Speaker 1:Gotcha, because I'm like it's a new world, right, you're going right back into engineering.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And now I would use Logic before to record piano. Right, I've played piano on various things, some songs you hear, some of the piano is mine, sometimes on some popular songs you must tell us.
Speaker 1:Which was one that came on like Apple Music and Spotify do a great job telling us the instrumentals there's one called.
Speaker 2:There's one called Best Friend, that Nyla and Viking Ding Dong released this year. Um, I play keys on that, yeah, yeah. So you know I would have used Logic before to like put down my keys and bounce the track, save it and send it to a producer. But to say, like to put, and I've done a few things like strings and whatnot and with it, but to say like a whole song and it really beats anything right.
Speaker 2:So I mean there had times when, like in terms of like data management, like my project crash and saying I get corrupted, I'd be like yo, janine, like what to do? Hashtag johanna, relax, take a deep breath, send me a file. You know she actually, like, helped me retrieve some of my files because, like a few days before thing, crashed and all you will, you're gonna love it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so yeah, but that was such a beautiful, beautiful experience for me. I really learned like some more of my capability and I feel like that song and all I went to it is more in line with what I can do and what I want to do. I challenged myself to not use piano I used it towards the end. But I was like can I build a song that doesn't have so much piano in it?
Speaker 2:just step in out of your comfort zone a little bit yeah, yeah, I mean everything I built using a keyboard right, because I just yeah, you know, makes sense but um, yeah, and the introduction of, like the sound library, with splice with these beats like just mmm, mmm yeah when I find these beats mmm it comes in here, sorry boy, like final product is something else because people are saying you know, like Joanna, we listening to your music, are we doing meditation, are we doing yoga? Great, which is great, which is great. That's really good.
Speaker 2:I want to like have some, you know, have some vibe, like I have some Samadhat in me and yeah, like the beats, I like the beats gotcha.
Speaker 1:So again, samadhat out, there was also with Long Time right, because Long Time is soka soka yeah, there was long times reminding me about. Korea I forget what.
Speaker 3:I do that's when he used to do a lot.
Speaker 1:I don't know boy.
Speaker 2:You said 10 months, 10 months younger but in mine, like I just like right, long time was 2023. I think and that was I also co-wrote that song With Kyle Phillips, right, who's a bad? John Republic, of course yeah, um Kenny Alright. Shout out, shout out. It's another Kyle. I was talking about how you know this.
Speaker 1:So many calls. We have a Kyle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's true, off stage what we call Off camera, off camera.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's his brand himself. Make sure you have water too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what we were talking about right long time? Yeah, that was Soca.
Speaker 3:Soca, Soca.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I wanted to do a Soca song and then, coming towards the end of long time, I don't know if you listen to the whole thing, but it goes into like all the time, kaiso whole thing, but it goes into, like all the time, kaizo as well it's it you had done it as a separate
Speaker 3:track as well. Yes, I like it a lot I did.
Speaker 2:I love the feel of it version.
Speaker 1:Yes yeah, I like it a lot, so it's real. Real, I mean, when you learn to play music. I learned from, I learned calypso it's have quatra.
Speaker 2:In there there's a janine ruiz same girl I'm talking about she. Can she play just?
Speaker 1:just the feel of it, that that kind of case of you.
Speaker 2:What do you call that? Again, I forget it.
Speaker 1:Have a weird feel there is yeah tell us in the comments, tell us in the comments but that, that, that, that feel and everything. So, when I heard the, because the soaker is like power soaker.
Speaker 2:Yes, it is power soaker.
Speaker 1:And then it's get a lav way. Feel like a lav way.
Speaker 2:There's a lav way. It switches into that. Have you seen a video of it?
Speaker 1:No, I didn't see the video video that you put together. You're scripting and coming up with your ideas.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes yes, and of course the videographer also has their creativity in it and whatnot. But yeah, I could see. So when I write and arrange music visually, I have an idea of what I want it to look like as well. So putting out a song is kind of expensive Probably.
Speaker 1:I imagine.
Speaker 2:No other do a video too and the quality of videos.
Speaker 1:I was telling you is aces, thank you, thank you so I'd ask you about that what does it take to make that step, to do that Savannah Grass cover? How do you move it from the little girl who's listening to Boogzy Home to being on the Savannah stage to do that?
Speaker 2:wow um stage to do that, wow um. I want to say, like I will tell you what I think happened, but I don't want to say that that is the route that it has to happen by, because I feel like it was a hard and somewhat traumatic route and now in this part of my life, I have been trying to like line up more with, raise my vibration and like come into alignment more with these types of projects and stuff. I think I went through like a lot of personal traumatic events in my life. Um, really, there was a point in time when I was just very, very broken and putting myself back together. I sort of remembered, like hey, like I like music and hey, I think I'm good at music. Like new thoughts started to come into my mind. Sorry, in 2018, the company I was working with closed and I started interviewing for other positions in HR.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:This is 2019 now. I did two interviews. I was unsuccessful, you know, like johanna.
Speaker 2:We regret to inform you I went to like a recruitment agency and I was like sitting there talking, I like I just kind of feeling that like something off. I just had this feeling like something is off, almost like a. They were really nice with me in the recruitment agency. Everything was going and I just wanted to like get out of it and I started to think like how do I wrap this up? Because I don't want to be here. And at that time, going on, it was like I didn't have anything to lose and I was like, well, I want to do this cover of this song. Um, it's not an original concept. There. There is a group called do you know the piano guys?
Speaker 2:no, the piano guys it's a guy playing piano and one playing cello I see and they have their instruments, like all over the world, like in different locations, and they cover songs, and I was like trinidad and tobago. We have beauty here. We have such wonderful spots and iconic spots here and I want to showcase one, something set to music. It's like okay, savannah grass, let's go in savannah. No, interestingly enough, that was not the song that I thought would get popular no that day I did.
Speaker 2:I covered two songs trinity bone and savannah grass. Trinity bone was the one like I was really, like you know, geared up for and whatnot and I like, I changed my clothes and we repositioned the piano. So there is Trinidad, and Bond got striked from YouTube did it. Yeah, copyright right yeah and I had to attend YouTube school oh nice which is just like. It's really just a few, a few minutes where it takes you through. You know you're not supposed to do this and answer some multiple choice questions.
Speaker 2:If you get three strikes too, it suspends your call yeah, yeah, yeah so that is quite a a song that you know just heads up.
Speaker 1:Be careful covering Chinese Ribbon.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so yeah, and people liked Savannah Grass a lot.
Speaker 1:But Savannah Grass would have been that year. No, people liked Savannah grass a lot, but Savannah grass would have been that year. No, yes, 2019.
Speaker 2:It was 2019. And then all sorts of things started happening after that. Like I remember watching this video go viral on Facebook. I was like wow.
Speaker 1:The Savannah grass video yeah it's like this is crazy.
Speaker 2:And then I was playing in Kess Tuesday on the rocks.
Speaker 1:And then I was playing in Ubersoka Cruise, the rocks and then I was playing an uber soca cruise and then I was.
Speaker 2:I was like so it kind of take off from there. Yeah, so that's where it's into the piano girl.
Speaker 3:So uber soca cruise I was.
Speaker 2:I was looking for a name um, that would mean piano, but that would not limit me to one genre. Because people were saying soca pianist. People were saying limit me to one genre. Because people were saying soca pianist. People were saying and on uber, soca cruise. People kept coming up to me and saying are you the piano girl? Because I have my whole name, you know johanna chukari. Johanna chukari is quite a long name and they're like you're the piano girl. I was like yeah, you're the piano girl. I'm like I go on online, is this name taken? And now is it the piano girl?
Speaker 1:the little like Trinisa the piano girl.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the piano girl, and now that was the end of that. I didn't think too much about Brandon I didn't think some people don't like to say the name they think is. I think they feel like they're disrespecting me to announce we now have in these corporate formal functions the piano girl I would have think so, to be honest that's like the brand, like if you come up to me outside and you're like a piano girl or a that is very true to the idea and people say hey, wait, now use not the piano girl.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's it, that is me, that's me, so call me it like I want you to use that name. I love when people actually I want that necklace in dpg, like you know. You know, like I love when people use the name with the introduction of singing. I was, like you know, people ask me are you gonna like, change or rebrand?
Speaker 1:and produce.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was like you know, you know what? No, I'm here already this is just, this is, this is what it is, and everything is under that brand I love it. I love it there's something bigger than me, of course, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's how it goes right with brands, right. So I will turn it to the bone, I guess. Yeah, I guess it makes sense. I would have thought that would be bigger too. Uh, maybe it's just my reverence for that song and the people very patriotic too. But you know, funny enough, savannah grass as a song itself started to become that. Without saying isa trini, it became a signatory of the trin big onion in its own way. Yeah, a lot of things happened. Savannah grass that year too, because I remember the song well, is reminiscent of the several songs that were there before.
Speaker 1:Right, right which song is on yeah, well, that's which song is called structure is familiar yeah so, um, that was that. And it started to pick up and the kind of ode to the savannah resonated with a lot of people and it started to resonate with people outside the carnival, because that's somebody who grew up where you grew up, you know kite flying in the savannah and what easter is like, and it starts to build and build, and then it was the pooey right, and then kes did a video and then his father had a dance and it was dedicated to his father and it just and you gave that song, did you just elevate it again?
Speaker 1:thank you only if you you accept that you would have had it a whole lot?
Speaker 2:do you know? I didn't until there was a conversation that kes had with me on uber so Cruise. It was, you know, just a lovely moment where you get to enter. One of these things about that environment is like you get to mingle with like guests of the cruise.
Speaker 2:Mingling with like artists just everybody just all together. And he said, you know his father had passed away, right. And he said, you know, when he started to see like people covering his song and the version that I did, it sort of like fueled him, it gave him an infusion of energy which he then gave back out. And this is the thing with inspiration it's not a one-way street. Like I, I am inspired here sitting today talking to you I think you are, I hope you are inspired by me and like it goes back and forth and it is just this wonderful exchange of energy and like I, I kind of I do understand that what I did with this song and how it moved people. I think I understand that now and I mean it was like my honor, like to you know, to be able that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let me lay it on a little more there too, because I think more than just good, bring it, bring it, I'm taking it, I like that, I'm soaking it up like in the sun.
Speaker 2:You are my sun. That's what we're here for. I like that. Shine on me. It's one more time. Shine on me.
Speaker 1:I think one of the things that powerful for me too is it's just that the experience of learning music in school right it is. So I feel it to be a little bit limited even now looking at my son grow up, because he had this experience the other day where he was. He's playing keyboard too and he's good. I guess his grandfather and the musical people he have it in him.
Speaker 1:Yeah any blood I hear any touch. You know, when I hear him play I say, well, you, you could play. But yeah, just like what you said about theory, he gets maybe a little bored or frustrated with the kind of pedantic process. But you gotta go through that, fingers gotta get wise.
Speaker 1:That's just what it is yeah but, um, I saw something light up in him recently when he was playing. I was practicing for something I had to do for the podcast and I think this song was also a kiss song his miss how she name and I was practicing for something I wanted to do practicing and I think this song was also a Kess song it's Miss how.
Speaker 2:She Name and I was practicing for something I wanted to do.
Speaker 1:You were practicing, you know, more like a quattro. I was on the quattro in the next room. Okay, okay, just playing it out.
Speaker 2:I feel like we should have had our instruments today. We had to do our next one, All right good.
Speaker 1:I'm glad I didn't have to ask.
Speaker 2:Okay. So I chords and he could play all the chords nice, because he told me, you know school boys, so they have a teacher named miss fortune.
Speaker 1:Okay, so every time she leave the class all he will class him is fortunate.
Speaker 2:I love it and how they fit it in.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, that works sweet. So I say, well, I let him play the chords first. And when he was playing it, and I play along with him, uh, I started singing it and he said what you could play that with this? And I was like, yeah, music is music. The genre thing is a marketing thing, but music is music. Oh thank you for saying that that genre is because I find it quite a limiting word yeah, of course I would. I would imagine for you in particular. I would imagine you would find it limited.
Speaker 1:Yeah sorry, go on with the story but no, I just saw how it unlocked in him because this is right, yes, is guess means a lot to him, right, and the song means a lot to him. And misfortune, they mean a lot to him and when it, when it localized or made it relevant for him yeah I saw a different energy when he come from practicing next week because when he when he went he say I play it for them anything and all the boys sing misfortune. I said that's what music is.
Speaker 1:Music is plenty borrowing, plenty learning, plenty experimenting, and it's more similar than we think this whole genre thing. So I felt like if you unlocked a lot of that in a lot of people, by playing that song.
Speaker 2:Somebody told me like I make piano look cool, this is what I mean. Somebody told me and I never thought about that.
Speaker 1:That might be why the thing went viral with Savannah Grass, because it's relevant to people who the younger people is always making viral right, despite what we like to think. So when they latch on to it yeah and they share it with their friends. It's like look what the song's like. And I think it didn't just, it didn't just play the song, it's at the front arrangement the way it introduced it.
Speaker 2:I worked real long on the introduction.
Speaker 1:You did.
Speaker 2:The introduction to the song, which is just like probably 15 seconds or something. I feel like I think I worked on it like maybe a week, like a little bit at a time, thinking like what could really introduce a song of this magnitude. Like you know, there are elements of this. I sing it wrong here, but it has the chorus in it.
Speaker 2:The introduction is and it was almost like I remember somebody saying this song is like a calling of people to come out so that like I thought of like a community and so have some gospel like a chord progression in there which almost feel a little like communal call, and come together yeah, and you know, then have some little you know things in there, sprinklings which are me. But yeah, I really thought about this introduction. You know people talk. There were several people I showed it to who kind of told me, like you know, we don't like this.
Speaker 3:I mean like industry professionals. This is always.
Speaker 2:By the way, I want to see when you're doing something different on out of the box.
Speaker 2:Please don't listen to anybody please like because it's your, my, it's your vision is my vision, is our vision is. Only us know what it's going to look like and it's very hard at least for me, it was very hard to find people to line up with that. So people thought I needed to change that. I needed to, and I was just true to myself and I feel like when you're true to yourself and you really believe in yourself, like I'm saying, cory, we have to believe in what we are doing so much and so like, unapologetically and with such conviction that the people around us have no choice but to believe in us we feel the vibration.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, is you tell me about these streams of success? You know, yes, so if you believe in yourself, there's no feeling there's no feeling and, and you know it's so reminiscent when you tell me how long you work on the intro yeah, and then you also tell me it was a little girl listening to bugsy. Yeah, it kind of makes sense, because that's one of the things that Boogzy is known for what happens in the opening.
Speaker 2:Listen you like. Okay, okay you, I did not put this together.
Speaker 1:Me neither, but I put it together now. Okay, okay.
Speaker 2:Not true? Let me just take a moment to feel that the beauty of what you just said.
Speaker 1:The intro, that, the beauty of what you just said. The intro, yeah, the intro. Yeah, yeah, bugsy, don't play with that. This is what he's known for when he starts, you gotta listen. And it's exactly what happened.
Speaker 2:Savannah grass wow, no, I did not from nowhere right. I did not realize until you say it. When you, when you song start, you just have to listen. Yeah, it pulls you. When your songs start, you just have to listen, yeah, it pulls you in, and that is what I Wanted to do With that intro.
Speaker 1:And the intro. Congrats, you did it.
Speaker 2:Thank you, the intro became used by like Kes was using it To introduce their songs. You know, I get a message saying hey, could you send us that intro?
Speaker 1:No Kes Tuesdays. Now I forget the new name for it not tuesday is we, is we yeah? Yeah, yeah but yeah, you hear him using it when he performs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, so I get a message saying, hey, could you send us the way you file the mp3 and low quality like send us. You know the rip, you know, and so it's really nice when you have artists who kind of like see that and they realize, like you know, you work together and of course there's.
Speaker 1:At this point, when I look at the amount of people who we have worked with, collaborated with, contributed to nobody no, there's no artists that not on the list.
Speaker 3:Yeah on the list yeah where you getting this list.
Speaker 2:I just make more listen, since you talked to me in last few episodes.
Speaker 1:I'm making a lesson. I don't stop making lessons, wow.
Speaker 2:But I see everybody, almost everybody, in that space there's a lot, and there's a lot of it's like mixed genres too of course they have like the in the classical world, like John Thomas, wendy Shepard, you know, like different yeah, so I really like yeah, any thoughts on that.
Speaker 1:When you're a child, learning and stuff, that you have ambitions to be the piano girl you ever thought you'd be here.
Speaker 2:That's a great question. I mean, I didn't think that it would be this, what it is, but I would say that I did feel this desire to create, a desire to have fun. Really, you know, like there are things about the piano girl that I liked the only time I refer to her in third person a lot of times, like in my notes, to the videographer. I'm like. I don't like how she look in there.
Speaker 1:Or in your group chat too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, boys, like real, like you know, you know, could we and it helps me to like separate myself from? That because that's not. You know, there's a whole lot more to Johanna than some. In a lot of ways, that's a rule that I'm playing. There is a lot of me in it, but it's not all me gotcha. So you know, like I remember being younger and like dressing up with my sister, like putting on stuff, like fashion.
Speaker 2:That's something I like to experiment with as a piano girl, you know in that last video, like I dressed up in like this Bollywood style and then she had like this hoodie and you know, like different, you know different things. Like today I came wearing my hair in two Like you know, I like to, you know stuff like that, a little bit of fashion in there. So, no, I don't think I knew that this was what it was going to be like, but there are elements of it that you know, like you kind of resonate with you or things you like doing or things you have fun doing.
Speaker 2:Arranging music, writing music was something I liked when I was younger.
Speaker 3:Like poems.
Speaker 2:I have books with you know things and little songs Of course, songs that we might still hear. Yeah.
Speaker 1:If it forever could come out, we could hear some more.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:You said that the choice of doing it at iconic locations is deliberate, Because I saw San Fernando Hill Temple on the sea savannah stage, or so many of them yes I think it helps to enhance everything else that you're doing, because people connect with those things in different ways. It's just like the songs yeah, you know which one. You remember which one? It did on san fernando hill, god bless our nation god bless our nation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a big tune, of course I was like where do I do this one. I haven't done something in south. Like you know, let me honor south trinidad, um, and I was like this hill. Like you know, you, we get shots to the hill and it's really a powerful place to be like around this monumentous piece of rock that is just like the earth, you know, like, yes, there's a lot, and when I record in locations, I feel a lot of the energy there.
Speaker 1:That's good. That's good. I was going to ask about that because our iconic video to me, ricky J, had done some intro up there, which was his first real breakaway hit, one of the first songs that I really called Chutney Soaker. You know before that they would have said Indian Calypso Right, and Kenny was talking a lot about that. He was our main contributor. I like to tell Kenny he's one of the inventors. He don't like when I say that, but he's one of the inventors of Chutney Soaker I so Kyle Phillips mixed the song forever.
Speaker 3:Don't worry. Yeah so well, I recorded. You have both Kyles on it. Yeah, Kyle squared.
Speaker 2:I was like well, I say well, peters is only play on hits Right and Phillips is only record hits, so I real good here. I going real good here, but no, but as I say that, as I walk into that studio because I recorded Forever Vocals at I think it's KMP Music.
Speaker 3:Lab in Palm East right.
Speaker 1:Very true.
Speaker 2:As I walk in there, like I'm thinking, like so many hits make hair like Marshall, like you know people, yeah like the energy of a space is really something I mean, and you could get that anywhere Like, that's not to say like in your studio at home, of course, of course. You know, because the rest of the song creates in my studio at home, well, on a desk.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:But yeah, like just to be around that good energy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah important, and I like that you're continuing to do it. I have a Fort George request but at your own time.
Speaker 2:I have a Tobago request at your own time. No, listen, tobago. Listen, I want to.
Speaker 1:you have to come with me you just tell me when, because we're going in the nylon pool oh, there's more than a bargain, for I had some ideas for Tobago, but that is way better than anything I could have come up with when the tide is so low?
Speaker 2:yeah, when the tide is so low that is like two inches of water.
Speaker 1:I want to ask you about that logistics-wise, because you go to a grand piano and stuff.
Speaker 2:Well, I have a shell Now Savannah grass is an actual piano. An actual piano will I don't know 500 pounds and you're like nine people on a hydraulic Shout out to.
Speaker 1:Simon's Musical Supplies because he was the one that brought the piano there in the Savannah.
Speaker 3:Nice.
Speaker 2:I have a baby grand piano shell. It weighs 150 pounds. The legs come off, a keyboard sits in it. I see when you see a lot of my videos, so beyond, probably beyond 2020, anything beyond there is a shell. Okay, well, it makes sense. Yeah, easier, right, less stressful. It's still had to go on a truck it's expensive, but yeah, I would imagine.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, a lot less manpower for it yes so I want to fast forward to one of your, one of your. A place on the soil, uh, a pill where I felt really really good was you and von at bigfoot on 12 and under. Oh gosh.
Speaker 2:I was actually a 12 and under semi-finalist a bus, a bus in the semis boy, oh cool yeah, and I didn't make it to the finals, but I won my prelims and I went on to semi.
Speaker 1:So, yes, I would have been around, uncle Morris yes yeah yeah, yeah, playing, and so y'all, what was this like like now for you all to be doing this in your own space, in a whole new era.
Speaker 2:That was a really great, great, great experience and for me like interacting with young people. I enjoyed some. I enjoyed a lot of that.
Speaker 3:I enjoyed.
Speaker 2:I enjoyed that a lot. I'm working with Bonnet.
Speaker 1:It was it was great, so you all seemed to mesh. Yeah, you know, it looked like Oli was hosting something for a long, long, long, long time and then Oli gets again. It looked like Oli bent to it.
Speaker 2:I will tell you like I really like connecting with people. I like connecting with people. I mean, what did you see? A connection.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, we didn't know each other at all no, so like I I thought I was mr piano girl.
Speaker 2:No, no, I mean shout out to jeremy. Jeremy is a model um, I think he was mr kanupia, some some years ago um, but yeah.
Speaker 2:So just to bring it back to that, like I love connecting with people and if there's something that me and you could connect on um whether it's music, whether it's young people, whether it's like so you know, like I want s and I would have just connected and brought that energy to do what we had to do and supported each other to get to get it done. I mean, we had. There were some challenges, like for myself, like there was this time. There's one teleprompter and I have to like play and read the teleprompter and watch this way and I was like what?
Speaker 1:it was. It was good, it's live hunting or it was recorded. Yeah, you did it some of the episodes. Well, no, it was recorded okay, good but um, yeah, I mean I guess you still want to flow straight through.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah so it was good, we had a good vibe. And then there was also um tim tim, right behind the scenes, and he had real good energy too, and it was just it was awesome.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's not going on anymore. What happened to it?
Speaker 2:I don't know. I didn't get no call, but I didn't see it happening at all yeah, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1:For somebody who would have come through that system very young with your talent, how important you feel a space like that is for little children. Oh, gosh.
Speaker 2:Yes, it is to have the opportunity to just even like be on a stage and show what you can do and be behind a camera and have that experience. Yeah, it really is.
Speaker 1:That really, really is yeah, so much of the people who we look up to now are stars in trend that started off on stages like those you know the more people I talk to here.
Speaker 2:It's amazing to hear how much people was on teen talent or 12 or whatever it's like, there's my son they have um these different festivals for talent they used to be best village and better village and losing several festivals. We have things going on still, though, right well, I am not. I don't keep up. Well, I live in my own little world.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I try to keep up, but I can tell you now is very, very different from what it was back then okay because you don't hear. There are a few instances of people who would be like a prodigy, like there's a little youth named Zachary Rans yeah, yeah, he's a next level.
Speaker 2:He's a star, don't you?
Speaker 1:want me to see him no comparison.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I could watch him forever but I found that back then and maybe it's just you know sometimes you get so caught up with your youth that you find it was the best era ever, so you just look at that favorably compared to now right, but I used to find I used to have around, bubbling around, these talent shows and different competitions and different showcases Okay. And then sometime you're in a fet or you're in a functional and you see the person and it's like, hey, this is a little fellow who used to. I find that there's.
Speaker 2:I see what you mean.
Speaker 1:I feel now we need to keep up with TikTok more because some of these stars are there, I feel like, yeah, they have an avenue to get them. They don't have to go through nobody again yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's just, you know, like a lot of social media now just decides like this is the person.
Speaker 1:I suppose you're probably right.
Speaker 2:You know like we have like people like Maya Real. Do you know Maya Venezuela and singing Spanish like she yeah, yeah yeah, and I mean she was in the One Caribbean, I guess, contribution Festival, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:You was booked for it. No, no, no. You gave all money and all that. No, no, no. Okay, just checking.
Speaker 2:I didn't get that call. I didn't get that call.
Speaker 1:Yet, yeah, you never know, because it's still going on. It seems to be the festival that never ends, you know.
Speaker 2:But, but yeah, like we have all of these people like you know, um, maybe the focus is there. Now we have social media, really people like the audience is coming out and saying, hey, this is what we like this is who we want to hear. We don't need to win a competition anymore, like the people have spoken, we have spoken, we are using this song, we're singing this song, we're doing this dance we, you know what? I mean. So it might be like a change to yeah, just a shift in the whole landscape shift.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because there's a. I was looking at um molly who was booked for the like.
Speaker 2:It breaks all the borders you can do it pretty much anywhere yeah, like Gladys, I mean her remix of that song, like we have like Stars in Dubai and like singing, it's just like break barriers just like boom red tape.
Speaker 3:What is that?
Speaker 2:yeah red tape, no TikTok no more gatekeepers, yeah the red tape is yeah, let's hope it goes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, anything is possible. So we didn't get back. The red tape is yeah, let's hope it goes all the way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, letting people rise to the top, anything is possible.
Speaker 1:So we didn't get back that call for 12 hours and you're going. It's something you enjoy. Yeah, I would love to.
Speaker 2:I would love to. I would love to and also, like you know, talking more and like media and like doing Like who's you know, like you. You know Like Like I like that.
Speaker 2:I like that a lot yeah, it's so funny when you say that you know you used to talk too much and now you know you're comfortable talking about whatever and to whoever yeah, I kind of I feel I used to be a little hard on myself, corey, in terms of I felt like I had to know all the statistics to talk about, um, all you know. Just, I had to have all the information and then I realized somewhere along the life I just speak from my heart everything would just line up and everything goes well and the conversation flows. So sometimes when I'm asked a question and I just say like I'm not sure because I don't, I don't know, I don't have the information to answer that question, and that's honest. You know, that comes from my heart and that's authentic. Yeah, I don't know, I don't have the information to answer that question, and that's honest. You know that comes from my heart and that's authentic.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't know everything. I can't. You know, I can't know, everything and once I just speak from my heart, like I think. Once I realized like to just be me talking and talking to people and doing things like this became a lot more natural for me yeah, my old fellow in jamaica, kind of peanut vendor, he tell me um.
Speaker 1:He said message don't need no direction, find the right audience. He says rightful audience is find the message, message yes, yes, the audience, yes, yeah he said I think he was making the point to me. I mean, you know, things have a way Of unfolding themselves over time.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, the great unfolding, but yeah.
Speaker 1:I also felt it to mean like I might be the right person For the message, but it might be the right time for me. So when the right time comes, the divine alignment. Divine alignment. Yeah, that's what I said to say.
Speaker 2:That was like Savannah, that was a moment of alignment yeah, boy yeah, boy, where songs that make a big moment of alignment or anything you know like. Like I knew that day leaving my apartment I knew like my life wouldn't be the same serious. I had that feeling and I smiled and I closed it down and I went don't do it like, yeah, and I close you down. I went don't do it like yeah, so there are times when you, but in your life too, there would be yeah, for sure yes, you kind of feel these shifts, of course, yeah there's these tipping points, they come, they come.
Speaker 1:But I'd ask you as well, because I saw your post recently where you said you did a performance you didn't do forever. Then somebody come and say well, why is this?
Speaker 2:you know, forever yes, so I, so I performed. What day is today?
Speaker 3:Tuesday alright, tuesday it's a day.
Speaker 2:It's a day. It's a day during the week. So this weekend at it's the El Dorado Lions Women's El Dorado Lions Women's Club. It was an event right and the event got like delayed a bit and I had two sets to play and I had, like you know, I had forever in my second set and I was, you know, gonna do this song and I, like I got tired.
Speaker 2:You know there was some waiting going on and then also what happened was because, um, we had to shorten things, um, I had to do my set now, while people were having refreshments. So it was a different mood, a different vibe, a different, and I, just like you know, I'm not going to do I also had to shorten the performance a bit. And I dropped that song.
Speaker 3:Right right.
Speaker 2:Because it was like something new and I'm like why are we? Really going to put a lot of energy out to sing this song. It was like something new and I'm like, why really gonna put a lot of energy you know all to sing this song and you know, and yeah, I didn't do it. And then afterwards somebody came and said like they were looking forward to hearing it and I was like, okay, that's a good lesson for me to have learned, a good experience to have, because you never know who's listening.
Speaker 2:You never know who looking forward to hear that and, as an artist that got popular doing cover cover music, right it is sort of like uh, you know, I, I am working through insecurities with performing original music yeah, more comfortable to do the covers. Yeah, because people know it, and people sing along. And what not right? Yeah, see how you had them in Queens.
Speaker 1:All of us. Yeah, we're singing along, going to the songs?
Speaker 2:yeah, because you know the song but how is somebody going to know your original song unless you sing it like? Is you how to sing it?
Speaker 3:is you?
Speaker 2:how to push it is. You have to you know like. I'm gonna love you forever, ever, ever, ever will you stop singing? Yes, I'll leave you never, ever, ever, ever ever.
Speaker 3:Oh man, I do tera, tera, tera, tera, tera I'm gonna love you forever ever ever, ever.
Speaker 2:That's it, that's it, that's all, that's it that's it that's all.
Speaker 1:That's it I don't know if I could have survived that. Yeah, no, it was good musicians make me nervous, and all this everything.
Speaker 2:You are a musician. You are a musician accepting all your words.
Speaker 1:You know, I think your words come with a lot of weight. I think they come. There's something special in talking to you. I think you did say that you work on your own energy, the way you listen to yourself and so on. You're working on mine. I've given you full permission and consent to call them out, you have good energy same, same, same same. We've been looking forward to this for a long time like the song say long time right long time.
Speaker 2:I feel you. So I say I I only seeing you all on the media, I only feeling you from a distance and everything I do, always watching you yeah, like me and everywhere you move, love is instant. It's true.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's true, it's always watching so the thing about it is just like you do it forever and the person asks for it. Especially that's my request that long time, especially the kaizo version. Keep it in your set thank you yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, people are to hear more of the piano girl thank you and she says okay.
Speaker 2:So come up to her and say she's the piano girl. Yeah, I'll be like oh, the piano girl. I love pictures, I love meeting people. I love yeah, I love connecting with people.
Speaker 1:Good, beautiful well, no better place to end on there and congrats on everything you've done alongside president, prime minister, award ceremonies, artists, traveling for having me I have. It's my pleasure. It's my pleasure. I've been looking forward to it since you said we would do it, so I appreciate it and we're doing it again with instruments next time?
Speaker 2:yes, come back, all right perfect, perfect.
Speaker 1:I'll learn to play by then. Thanks, outro Music.