Patrick “Pahjo” Joseph believes it is never too late to do anything and so he has a flourishing music career at 40. The Guyanese born, UK-based singer/songwriter has a new single with Vincentian singer Johnny “Problem Child” Fontainne called Identity, released through UK independent label, Caricom music.
The song is being released August 30.
The song speaks to how people identify themselves, and says no matter who you are, Carnival welcomes you
. Part of the chorus says: “This is my identity, I identify as a drinker, I identify as a feter, I identify as a bacchanalist.”
While he has been to Trinidad and Tobago as a feter, come 2025, it is going to be his first time coming to TT as a performer.
Cricket and music were his childhood interests, a media release said.
At 19, he migrated to the UK and that is where his musical career started.
But it was only five years ago he decided to pursue his musical interests after the death of a friend.
That friend used to encourage him to follow his passions.
“His words stuck with me and I always wanted to get into music and I said, ‘Now is the time for me to actually do it.’”
Pahjo contacted upcoming Guyanese producer Joel Browne who sent him some music. Together, they produced his first single Ah Mas in 2021. This made Pahjo realise he also had some writing talent he wanted to develop.
[caption id="attachment_1105661" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Patrick “Pahjo” Joseph is certain about his identity in his new song: “This is my identity, I identify as a drinker, I identify as a feter, I identify as a bacchanalist."-[/caption]
That achievement made him overconfident.
He said, “My chest in the air, I was overconfident. The idea was, ‘I going now and become this superstar overnight,’ which did not happen because covid said, ‘Nobody doing anything. We going and close the whole world down and you not going back to Guyana.’”
Despite the career disruption, Pahjo remains grateful for the pandemic.
It allowed him to refocus and make industry contacts, he said.
One of those contacts was producer Vallis “Shaker” Weekes, who became his musical mentor, he added.
Pahjo realised, through Shaker, that everything he wrote before was “absolute garbage.”
He was then introduced to songwriter Darryl Gervais who mentored him in songwriting.
“He introduced me to vocal coach Christiana Balbosa from Trinidad. They all said I had a great tone but could not hold a note because I never sang professionally.”
That was when he started to come alive, he said.
While progress has been made, he said there is a long road to walk to become the musician he hopes to be.
His love for soca stemmed from growing up in a household in which soca/calypso was constantly played.
“I used to be around my uncles who were always arguing who is the better calypsonian, who would burst into sudden song…” Admiring the work of soca icon Machel Montano also fuelled his desire to be a musician.
Initially, he tried singing dancehall but did not enjoy it.
“I did two songs and was like, ‘
