Kenny Phillips began learning to play the guitar at the age of 17 when his elder sister, Dr Diane Williams, brought home a guitar from her music class at Naparima Girls’ College. Today, not only is Phillips an accomplished musician, arranger, engineer and publisher but he is also the owner of Wack Radio, the country’s flagship indigenous music radio station and the new Aspire TV.
“My mother used to tell me ‘stop tiefing the girl guitar and go and get your own’,” recalled Phillips as he jokingly reflected on how it all began for him. “I went to Mr Gaskin on Cooper Street, San Fernando where I learned to play the guitar. I finished the music book he gave me on the first sitting with him as I was a real quick learner.
“From Mr Gaskin I became obsessive with music and used to run down music wherever it was being played. You could call me a ‘music peong’. From Mr Gaskin I went to Mr Farrell, guitarist in Watty Watkins Orchestra. I even auditioned for the band. When asked to read what I was asked to play I realised that I also needed to read music. This was my first embarrassment in music and I remember it well. It was then that I really began to put down some serious work.”
Having mastered music and playing an instrument after graduating from Walters School of Music Band, Phillips moved on to B Flat Majors before progressing to Shandileer, and subsequently to Carl & Carol. He said: “Having met Leston Paul in B Flat Major made me realise that I wanted to be ‘a studio rat’. I got exposed to production and arranging and became are of how the whole thing worked.
“Leston invited me to his studio to do guitar and the rest is history. The first track I played on was for calypsonian Grabbler. I also worked on Kitchener’s Symptoms. I played on Kitchener’s albums for nine consecutive years and have played with everybody in calypso actually.”
Having played in top studios like Coral/KH Sounds, and Leston’s studio, and recording with every major calypsonian at home and abroad, Phillips decided to do his own thing, opening KMP Studio in south Trinidad. He recalled: “That was a joke to everyone I told, even in the studio they rolled on the ground in laughter of the idea of me opening a studio of my own.
“I realised that changes in technology were rapidly changing the integral components of studios and recording. I acquired the new technology and the first recording I did was Iwer George’s Bum Bum Time. I must thank Frank Agarrat who did the mixing for me on that single. Of course I watched every single think he did and learned. Next was Drupatee’s Roll Up the Tassa, followed by Rikki Jai’s Sumintra, then Ras Shorty I’s Watch Our My Children. This was the embryo and evolution of the home studio.
“At that time our artistes used to fly to New York with their masters for recording. But when people realised that hits were coming out of Trinidad, and were being made in Trinidad, everything changed.”
Today, several of our artistes can stay at home and do their recordings, thanks to the bold step taken by Phillips.
About the transition from studio to radio, Phillips said: “I started Wack Radio because of the obvious lack of exposure of local content on the airwaves. People need to realise that T&T music is not just ‘Carnival music’. Our music is not seasonal as we have a wide cross section of musical genres that are indigenous and home grown. Our music is starving for airplay. Wack is not seasonal.
“When we were organising the music programming and library at Wack what I found was so ridiculous, I surprised myself when I learnt that there are over 15 genres of
music that are indigenous to T&T. Just to name a few, some of them are calypso, soca, jazz, gospel, parang, chutney, Trini pop, poetry and spoken word, big band and combo. It’s interesting to know that inside these genres are also sub genres, like pan jazz, chutney soca, parang soca and gospelypso.
“The average Trinidadian, who calls himself ‘Trini to the bone’, only hears just one of all these genres, which is soca, on the airwaves. You don’t hear calypso or pan; maybe parang only at Christmas time.”
This is 13th year of Wack Radio and Phillips remembers being told by some “big wigs” at T&T Publishers and Broadcasters Association (TTPBA) that his radio station would not survive a year. “I was told that nobody wants to hear local music on the radio, especially for 365 days,” said Phillips. “I have certainly proven them all wrong. I was told that you cannot sell local product on the radio to local music. I just didn’t agree with their view. I am not an academic and have no doctorate in music or advertising or marketing but something just didn’t seem right with that view.”
Phillips doesn’t think T&T has a functioning “local music industry.” He said: “The local music industry can be branded as ‘a local soca industry’.
“The corporate world only sees soca music as a seller. That is what is spinning the dollars and big bucks. They fail to realise that without calypso there would be no soca and pan. After 55 years of Independence, corporate Trinidad and Tobago must begin to recognise all genres of our music and stop mamaguying we. Stop saying you are ‘true Trini’. Their true allegiance is the blue note. While I respect fiscal and economic survival, there must be a balance to country. Country must always come first.”
Phillips inaugurated Aspire TV on Independence Day and is so far pleased by the response. He said: “Aspire TV is actually a spin off from Wack Radio. The whole idea of starting on Independence Day was to tweak the best delivery and format. There are so many platforms we can operate on.
“We are doing all the basic programming of a television station, inclusive of international, regional and local news, doing our own local content programming. Aspire TV is strictly online. Going full blown is not my goal but that could happen.
“Right now, culturally, Aspire TV has jazz with Vaughnette Bigford, Kaiso and History of Calypso with Sprangalang, Soca Fix with Anslem Douglas, Praise on Aspire with Pastor Bayne, Steelpan City With Vanessa Headley, and Trini Reggae.”
Phillips has always been an innovator who operated against the grain and status quo. He opined: “When everybody says this can’t be done, I say ‘no’ and show them that it’s possible.
An alderman in 2010 in the UNC council of the San Fernando Corporation, asked why he doesn’t become more proactive in politics because of all the innovative ideas he has, Phillips said: “Politics in Trinidad and Tobago is not about how good or competent you are for the job, but about how red or yellow your jersey is. Not me and dem”