{"id":3465,"date":"2022-06-05T19:53:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-05T19:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lauradowrich.com\/?p=3465"},"modified":"2024-01-05T19:55:57","modified_gmt":"2024-01-05T19:55:57","slug":"franklyn-grant-stamps-his-name-on-american-pop-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lauradowrich.com\/franklyn-grant-stamps-his-name-on-american-pop-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Franklyn Grant stamps his name on American pop culture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

June is Caribbean-American Heritage Month, a month dedicated to recognising and celebrating the significance of Caribbean people and their descendants in the history and culture of the United States. Over the next few weeks, Loop News will profile some people of Caribbean descent who have made a tremendous impact in the entertainment industry in the United States.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Franklyn Grant recalls the first time he met Mariah Carey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to meeting her, the musician, producer and audio engineer, had expressed doubt about the authenticity of her famous whistle notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she stepped into the recording booth, she hit the note and he realised he was wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI apologised and from that moment her and I working together were like magic. We worked for like four hours. We were like Bobbsey twins from then,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carey is one of Grant\u2019s favourite artistes that he has worked with. Her work ethic, he says, is amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working with global chart-toppers and countless others across multiple genres has given Grant insight into what it takes to be a successful musical star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He plans to use that knowledge to help artistes in his native country Trinidad and Tobago and is currently on the lookout for unknown up-and-coming talent who is willing to listen and learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grant hails from the eastern town of Tacarigua and started his musical journey at the age of nine playing the steelpan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t wait for school to be over to head to the panyard. Music and art were the two main things I cared about and football,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In December 1970, at the age of 19, Grant left T&T for the shores of the United States to live with his mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cWhen I landed in America I wanted to go home. I was in Connecticut and after the first couple of weeks I said I going home, it had no steelband. The woman my mother worked with asked me what was the problem, I said I am a music guy and she asked if I could get steel drums would I stay? She said she would buy the drums for me,\u201d Grant recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He went to the Manhattan workshop of legendary pan pioneer Ellie Mannette who made pans for him to form his own steelband. The band was called Trinidad Panasonic and played for events all over Connecticut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI coulda charge anything and they would always say okay,\u201d he says with a laugh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Vietnam War was going on at the time and Grant received several draft letters. He joined the United States Air Force in February 1973 as an Air Operations Specialist and was sent to Las Vegas. There he started a band on base, bringing in his steel drums from Connecticut and introducing an American electric bass player.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Nellis where he was first stationed to England and back in the US, Grant performed consistently, winning competitions such as the Worldwide Force Talent show where he won the Classical Division playing Variation on a Theme from Paganini on double seconds. The judges were Quincy Jones, Artemus Gordon from the Wild Wild West Television Show and Lyn Collins from James Brown\u2019s Touring Band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While stationed in England, Grant, who was married with a son by then, thought about his future and decided to attend audio engineering school so he could work in the recording industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He attended the Institute of Audio Research in Manhattan and scored his first audio engineering internship at the Platinum Factory Recording Studio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Platinum, Grant set up a package called the Breakthrough. For US $250, artistes could record for five hours on a Sunday and get a two-inch reel of tape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSet It Off\u201d by electro group Strafe, which Hip-hop, house, techno, and EDM artistes have extensively sampled over the years, came out of that programme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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