{"id":22860,"date":"2019-02-01T11:45:07","date_gmt":"2019-02-01T16:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=22860"},"modified":"2019-02-01T11:45:07","modified_gmt":"2019-02-01T16:45:07","slug":"kobo-town-set-to-spice-up-valentines-day-at-cultural-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/kobo-town-set-to-spice-up-valentines-day-at-cultural-centre\/","title":{"rendered":"Kobo Town set to spice up Valentine\u2019s Day at Cultural Centre"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir <\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re looking to spice up your Valentine\u2019s Day plans, look no further than Kobo Town, which is set to bring its warm calypso sounds to the Aurora Cultural Centre on February 14, just in time to get the blood pumping.
\nKobo Town takes the stage as part of the Centre\u2019s \u201cBrevik Hall Presents\u201d music series and the Juno Award-winning band is looking forward to giving all ticket holders \u201cexuberant sounds\u201d on themes of love.
\nThe band was formed by lead Drew Gonsalves, a native of Trinidad, who took the sounds of the islands to heart when planting his musical roots growing up as an \u00e9migr\u00e9 to Ottawa.
\nWhile in the nation\u2019s capital, Mr. Gonsalves sang and wrote music while in high school, but after moving to Toronto after his graduation, he says he \u201cgave up music to become a sensible person.\u201d
\nHe tried his hand at becoming a school teacher, but while he was in the classroom he found himself writing a lot of new material in the calypso tradition.
\nSomehow being a \u201csensible person\u201d wasn\u2019t all it was cracked up to me, a sense that was bolstered after meeting fellow Trinis in the city.
\n\u201cAt that point in my life, I realised I either give this my all or I give it up,\u201d he says. \u201cI either had to jump in and fully commit or put it on the list of deferred dreams.\u201d
\nThere was really only one option on the table and Kobo Town began to take shape.
\nThere was never any conscious effort to develop a particular style once the band was formed, says Mr. Gonsalves. He grew with various styles of calypso and reggae as the soundtrack to his life, so this naturally influenced how Kobo Town took shape. On the other hand, this soundtrack of calypso and reggae was supplemented with a healthy dose of rock and roll.
\n\u201cI think this is very much true for the other members of the band as well,\u201d he says. \u201cThey all had come into the group with different musical backgrounds; some are rockers, some are jazz guys. They all bring an interpretation and energy to the material that it wouldn\u2019t have if we had all grown up in the same genre playing the same music. Whatever sort of eclecticism there is in the music is a result of the varied interest of the members, and not something we consciously try to create.\u201d
\nOnce the band was formed, Kobo Town hit the road and took what Mr. Gonsalves describes as \u201ca lot of uncalculated risks\u201d at the start, going to music events, putting out an independent record as a \u201cshot in the dark\u201d not knowing how people would respond to it.
\nBut that result was clear and almost immediate, connecting with audiences Mr. Gonsalves was certain would be more of a hard sell.
\n\u201cOne of the most formative moments for us as at our first show, our first time presenting this music for a live audience,\u201d he says. \u201cWe had a crowd come, which was mostly Trinis from Toronto and I remember being very frightened, thinking, \u2018How is this going to resonate?\u2019 I hear the music in my head and it comes naturally to me, but in some ways it could be foreign to anybody who hears it. Their response was really touching, warm and overwhelming, and it is an experience that has been repeating itself over and over.\u201d
\nThat response has been repeating itself again more recently as Kobo Town toured with their latest album, Where The Galleon Sank, which was released in 2017. The seed was planted by the sight of several sunken ships spotted during a dive between Trinidad and Venezuela.
\n\u201cI remember thinking at the time about how much of our history was like that,\u201d he says of Caribbean history, which can be considered dark and painful. \u201cIt is buried in the sea.\u201d
\nSongs on the album are all inspired by historic traditions ranging from first contact with Christopher Columbus to the Caribbean Diaspora, the latter represented by a song inspired by the struggles of a new immigrant mother.
\n\u201cWriting is like bringing one of these boats up to the surface that has been obscured by the time that has passed,\u201d said Mr. Gonsalves.
\nWhat has been unearthed, however, never fails to strike a chord.
\n\u201cEvery now and again we\u2019ll stand in front of an audience in a small city in Germany, a festival in Malaysia or whatever, and I will ask myself this question every time: Are people going to get this? How are they going to respond? I have always been pleasantly surprised and touched to see that people have been so gracious and positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kobo Town hits the Aurora Cultural Centre on Valentine\u2019s Day \u2013 Thursday, February 14 \u2013 from 8 \u2013 10 p.m. Tickets are on sale now and available now from the Centre by calling 905-713-1818. CDs will be available for cash purchase at the event.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re looking to spice up your Valentine\u2019s Day plans, look no further than Kobo Town, which is set to bring its warm calypso sounds to the Aurora Cultural Centre on February 14, just in time to get the blood pumping.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5WI","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-05 22:16:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}