“You just put a few words together, repeat a phrase and boom you have a soca song.”
That’s usually the view and comments expressed by writers coming from different genres. Not in real life unfortunately. Writing soca is like riding a unicycle on a narrow culvert with a stenkkkk drain on either side. The culvert is the melody so you have to stay on top of that. How fast you pedal is the energy. If you go too slow you surely will fall, head first into something unspeakable. And the drains on either side are called “too much lyrics” or “too little”. The balance is key Soca is dance music but you still need enough lyrics to inflate the concept. You can’t just say “I feel like Hulk“. The key relatability of the song built in the verses would be missing.
So yeah, I dove into it. I’m writing it with my brother Daniel Hamilton. We did one release last year which was cool. We got a decent response. The melody was nice but we didn’t have the language of the genre down yet. I’m still learning the cadence. Soca has a certain vibe that listeners expect. As much as it has evolved, there are some laws to this shit still. It’s been enjoyable colouring in the lines and playing around within the established parameters. Specifically, I’ve been adding hip hop things like internal rhyming and assonant rhyming to the table but you can’t go too crazy otherwise the lines may come off too wordy and programmed. It’s highly important stuff rolls off the tongue.
I’m working on a potential Road March hit now with Ballistik Boyz Productions and this in particular has me intrigued. Writing a Road March tune compares accurately to composing the soundtrack of a movie. Let’s be real, Carnival is a movie. The winers and jammers, the drinkers, the stoosh people on the side watching, the children dragged to watch mas with their parents, the old and young, the judges, everyone has to be considered in your concept. And without question your concept must be grand. Band of the year. Like a boss. Soca Kingdom. Epicness is the currency.
The lyrics must be grand and relatable. Everyday I fete, I come out to fete I bet I feting more than you. The city, go bun down so (what?) we jamming still. Your lyrics must be rousing and inspirational coach’s speech at a half time game in a sports movie. Or a general before the pivotal battle at the end of a war movie. But you have much less words.
So it’s not easy. It’s been one and a half years and I’m finally starting to crack the code. It helps that Ballistik Productions is an awesome production group up there with any soca producer anywhere (yeah I said it). It helps that I have my own studio Future Crab Studios. So I’m putting my work in. Will let you know how it goes. I’m interested to hear your thoughts or personal experiences on writing soca as well.