Skinny Fabulous heats up Trinidad with ‘Worst Behaviour’

With Vincy Mas less than six months away, Gamal “Skinny Fabulous” Doyle has already started making waves, not only in St Vincent and the Grenadines, but the region — especially at Trinidad’s carnival.{{more}}

And on Wednesdsay evening, things got even better when Doyle was announced as a finalist in the Groovy Soca Monarch in Trinidad and Tobago.

The four time and reigning soca monarch came in for high praise from the Trinidadian media for his song “Worst Behaviour”, which he wrote and performed at the semi-finals of the International Groovy Soca competition, at the Arima Velodrome in Trinidad, on Sunday, February 9.

In an article on the competition, the Trinidad Guardian said “…St Vincent’s Skinny Fabulous (Gamal Doyle) had more big flags waving, bodies moving, hands raising and women wining than any other competitor. The crowd thoroughly enjoyed his interaction and the song itself.”

In an interview with the Doyle on Wednesday, he said it was a good feeling to have his song and performance recognized that way.

“The power soca was good, but I really went in hard with the ‘Behaving the Worst’ track just because I understand the popularity of the song. I know that from the time the music start, I know people were able to relate to it,”Doyle added.

Doyle, who is known mostly for his aggressive style and for being lyrically versatile, has also written for, perhaps Trinidad’s biggest soca artiste — Machel Montano.

The song, “Happiest Man Alive”, which was written by Doyle and sang by Montano, has been a staple on the Trinidadian airwaves, along with Skinny’s “Worst Behaviour”.

“It is all about moving with the time. I have realised that soca music in particular is slowing down and groovy soca is becoming faster. It was a direction that I wanted to go down, especially for the Trinidad market,” Doyle told SEARCHLIGHT.

According to Doyle, it was a matter of timing, mood and feeling that propelled him to write the song.

“Happiest Man Alive came about from just being in the studio and being in a very good mood. I was in a ridiculously good mood and me and Alex (Alex Barnwell, producer) was just vybing and I wanted to express that,” Doyle recounted.

With the song written, Doyle said it may have been too much a contrast to put off that song from his perspective.

“At that point, we said the best person to represent this idea would be Machel Montano… If anybody enjoying the happiness of soca right now, it would be him.”

He said from the minute Montano heard the song, there was no hesitation for him to do it.

“He didn’t think about it at all. He said he wanted this song,” Doyle chuckled.

Following that, Doyle said he had to do something to represent himself on that same rhythm.

“That is when I went and wrote Behaving the Worst, to represent what I think the Vincentian public is accustomed to hear. If Machel could represent the happiness and feel good vibe and I could represent the revelry and carnival madness,” Doyle said, stating that both songs were written a week apart.

With two successful songs, Doyle said it has somewhat set the tone for him Skinny Fabulous as a writer.

“It opens the avenue for Skinny Fabulous the writer. That doesn’t say I am going to be writing for a host of artistes — that is not my thing. Because I share a creative space with Machel, I would be more likely to write for and with him… To say that artistes could just call and ask Skinny for a tune is not the direction I want to go, but I am open to writing for others..,” Doyle stated.

Doyle, who writes most of his songs, said it is a really good time to be a Vincentian — musically, stating that for the last six years Vincy music has extended throughout the region.

For Vincy Mas 2014, Doyle did not want to let the cat out of the bag, but stated that Vincentians should expect “big news” from him.

He also indicated that he has already written and recorded three songs called, “Beat dem bad”, “Argument done” and “Flatten”.

“These are already recorded and ready to go for Vincy Mas,” he said.

He urged patrons to look out again for the annual Uncle Skinny’s Fair and Black Rave show, which he said will be called the “Golden Journey”. (KW)