Melodic, with heavy undertones, and a punk attitude.
A name is
just a name
Beazer is a rock band from Trinidad and Tobago, built around the guitarist and songwriter whose surname it carries.
The name was not a branding exercise. Every other name they reached for was already taken — if we continued we would just get lawsuits
— so a close friend suggested the simplest option left: be yourself. Seeing his own surname on a flyer took some getting used to. His answer to anyone who thinks it is an odd name for a rock band is short. A name is just a name. Korn became one of the biggest bands in the world.
The line-up did not come together through auditions either. These are players who have been crossing each other’s paths for decades on a small island scene — in Orange Sky, in Jointpop, in bands in Europe — and who finally had the same year free at the same time. Joel calls it destiny, then apologises for how that sounds.
What they are making is rock, played by people who grew up on it in a country built on soca and calypso. That tension is the point rather than a problem to be solved: the band drifted away from their elders’ music because it did not sound ready to travel, and then found they had carried the island with them anyway.
It’s quite melodic, with heavy undertones, with punk attitude.Joel Beazer · on the sound
one first jam
Tacarigua
behind them
manager’s book
The line-up
01
Joel Beazer
Guitar · Vocals+
Guitarist and songwriter, and the reason the band is called what it is. Grandson and son of legendary Trinidadian calypso artists — by his own account he was supposed to be singing more calypso than anybody, and went to rock instead. Spent years playing behind other bands in Europe before putting his own name on a flyer.
02
Obasi Springer
Drums+
Known around Trinidad as the drum god. Played alongside Joel in Orange Sky, and alongside Mark too. He is the one who says the island is in the music whether the band admits it or not — we drinking the water here in this island, we smelling the Sahara dust.
03
Jerome
Bass+
Held down the bass in Jointpop, one of Trinidad’s best known rock bands, for years. He and Joel met as teenagers and had been circling a project together ever since. Joel’s summary is short: a solid, solid bass player, and every band needs one.
04
Mark Dobson
Guitar+
A veteran of the Trinidadian rock scene from before Orange Sky existed, who then lived in France for around fifteen years and played with numerous bands there. Back home now, and back in a room with people he has known most of his playing life.
First jam
Every frame here was shot on the first day this line-up played together. That’s a little disclaimer there, folks
— Obasi, before anyone could call it sloppy.
Live
Hutt Shutts, Tacarigua
Trinidad & Tobago · with Supernormal
- The roomIt looks like a castle from the road, and there is a whole universe inside. The band rate the stage as one of the more impressive they have played on at home.
- The lightExecutive producer Bruce Bressler is bringing a lighting design cued to the music, which is not how a local rock show usually gets put on.
- The stakesThe night raises funds toward a festival the band has been invited to play. Producer Jeff Glicksman and Bressler are both flying in for it.
If you’re looking to see something authentic, come to Hutt Shutts.Obasi Springer
The people
behind it
Joey Sabeeney
He walked into Eclipse Studio to listen to a pair of speakers, knowing nothing about the music industry, and walked out managing Orange Sky. He stayed fourteen years: over four hundred shows, half of them outside Trinidad, a US tour, dates in England and as far as India, and three independent record deals.
He has spent the years since promoting, and says he did not expect to manage a band again.
I don’t see anybody else knocking on Joel’s door. Maybe they’re not hearing or seeing what I am.
Kansas
Blue Öyster Cult
Collective Soul
The Cranberries Most recently Buckfest — a fourteen-band tribute to Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath
Bruce Bressler
Orange Sky’s first manager and the producer of their first album, long before any of this. He saw Joel play at Buckfest and then spent months telling Titan Music to do something about it.
He is financing the recordings and will share the international side of the management.
International management
Lighting design, 3 October
Jeff Glicksman
A Grammy-nominated producer, and a friend of the manager’s for more than twenty years. He was sent a handful of Joel’s demos and the answer came back quickly: once you’re involved and you’re willing, I’m willing.
He is flying in for the October show.
Ozzy Osbourne
Black Sabbath
Deep Purple
Electric Light Orchestra
Lita Ford
Saxon
Georgia Satellites
