We've all fallen in love with the 2024 Road March song, DNA – one of the many songs written by Young King and 2024 Road March winner, Mical “Teja” Williams.
Teja, now a household name, is doing even more behind the scenes with his production company, System32 Music.
The company was co-founded by soca artiste, writer and producer Teja and electronic dance music (EDM) producer, writer and sound engineer Kevin “Vexmony” Beharry.
And while not at the frontline of the music industry, System32 has been a part of playlists over the years, with hits like Bodyline by Olatunji, Party Bad by Shal Marshall, Beat Rum Bad by Wadicks, Head Gone by Viking Ding Dong, Waves by Machel Montano and many others.
Teja started making music at just 14 years old, co-writing on hits for stars like Destra Garcia, Machel Montano, Patrice Roberts and more. Throughout that time, he honed his craft, practising different instruments and learning additional skills like music production. By 18, he had transitioned to writing, producing and performing as an individual artiste.
Beharry took a different route. Initially studying information technology (IT) at the College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts of Trinidad and Tobago, he found his way into music production organically. In 2008, while studying, he started sound engineering near his school’s campus at Fine Tune Media, ran by Samantha John and her husband Romel Best.
He worked in IT from 2008 to 2016, while also pursuing his love for music production before going into it full time in January 2017.
“It was the same computer, I mean it's programmes. I’m already familiar with the computer. It wasn’t really that difficult, it’s just more so again, making a composition out of nothing.”
At that time, he said, there were no building blocks to expand on.
“Back then it didn’t have things called loops or song starters or things like that, so you literally had to make it from scratch.”
[caption id="attachment_1064508" align="alignnone" width="898"] 2024 Young Kings winner Mical "Teja" Williams. - Angelo Marcelle[/caption]
He would practise music production by cutting up his favourite songs and intertwining them to create entirely new versions.
Teja and Beharry were introduced in 2014 while working on the production of a song by Mr Renzo (Lawrence David Gonzalez Adams), which was the catalyst for their continued collaboration, and ultimately the creation of System32 Music.
The production company started with remixing popular soca and EDM songs. At that time, the EDM space was a popular one, which had the pair performing at local events like Life in Colour, with Teja hosting and “hyping up the crowd,” Beharry said.
While based at their first studio along the Diego Martin Main Road, the duo slowly shifted to producing music full-time. In 2018, with their discography quickly expanding, they outgrew their studio space and moved to their current location in the Petit Valley hills.
Moving from an idea to a complete piece starts with inspiration, and Teja and Beharry, while bo
