CREOLE ROCK: FOLK IT UP

category: narratives, short films

CREOLE ROCK: FOLK IT UP

"Creole Rock is a fusion of Guyanese Folk Music, Creole Culture and Dialect, and Punk Rock n' Roll."

Creole Rock creator Gavin Mendonca has recently embarked on a Creole Rock Folk It Up Tour and has been popping up in various parts of the country performing many of Guyana’s folk songs. Gavin is currently working on a folk music album so as to recapture the songs in their almost original format while at the same time also creating a creole rock version. He hopes to finish by midyear in time for the annual Guyana Folk Festival in New York where he is scheduled to perform. “Over the next year I’ll be playing folk music so much in the different places that people will subliminally begin to appreciate it. They’ll be walking down the road and they’ll be humming ‘Bamboo Fire’ because they heard it yesterday. If I can get children to appreciate folk music, it means they will grow up with that appreciation and they will carry on and help to preserve it as well as they get older.”

The Ministry of Public Telecommunications has assisted financially in the sponsorship of this venture. The Department of Culture also contributed toward this specifically during the Mashramani period.

Want more CREOLE ROCK? Visit Gavin's website: https://www.creolerock.com/, for current tour dates.

about GAVIN MENDONCA
Gavin Mendonca is a young Guyanese Musician, born in the heart of Georgetown on Christmas Eve 1991, and in 2011, Gavin found his calling: Punk Rock! As one of a very few ‘Punk Rockers’ in Guyana, he made a name for himself in the local rock community as well as on the National scene, signing with local label 'Kross Kolor Records. Since January 2014, Gavin is also the host of his self-produced radio show – Radio Rock ‘n’ Roll, Guyana’s Premier Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio show, bringing rock music to a wider audience, and allows a platform for Rock Music from all around the Caribbean/Region to be heard on Guyana's National Radio Station. He is also an advocate for more local content on Guyanese Radio; as well as one of the directors of the annual 'Rupununi Music and Arts Festival.

Gavin has represented Guyanese Rock ‘n’ Roll multiple times in Trinidad, as well as Suriname. Also a composer, he has written many songs that are patriotic and tell a story about being Guyanese, such as ‘City By De Tides’ (a song about his home town) and ‘The Great Rebellion’ (a song about Cuffy, and the 1763 Berbice Slave Rebellion) and the 2015 Christmas Hit ‘Cause Is Christmas (in Guyana)’. He is currently the bassist of local Heavy Metal band - Feed The Flames. He has managed to fuse Guyanese Culture, which is truly unique, with Rock ‘n’ Roll, creating an entirely new sub-genre of Rock Music – Creole Rock.

His first solo album, titled ‘CREOLE ROCK: THE BEGINNING’, was released in April 2016 and successfully launched in Trinidad at the Skyy Rock Festival 2017. On December 4, 2017 - Gavin launched a 4 song EP titled 'Hung Up On Your Cross'.