Meet Tremaine Facey – Music is a World within Itself, with a Language We all Understand!
Tremaine fondly remembers being around music from a very young age. He was always around music because his father, Andrew ‘Drew’ Facey, who is the captain of Mangrove Steelband played the steel pans and was always playing music at home mostly hip hop and reggae.
Tremaine plays the Steelpan as well as the Cello which he learnt to play in primary school. He started playing the steelpan from around the age of five and has always been around steelpans and Mangrove Steelband owing to the fact that both his parents played with the band. His mom stopped when he was born and he attributes his father’s massive influence for the reason why he decided to try it.
When asked what was the first steelband he played for he replied with a broad smile, ‘Mangrove the only band to play with of course!’ Tremaine takes great pride in carrying on his parents’ legacy of playing steelpans and with Mangrove. The first time he played at the UK National Steelband Panorama competition was in 2016. His face was beaming when he said, ‘We played ‘Different Me’ by 5Star Akil and musically arranged by Andre White, The Boss.’
Tremaine and Tristan at Notting Hill Panorama
Tremaine has played with Mangrove Junior and Adult bands. His progression from the Junior band to the adult band was a smooth transition as he is a very skilful and capable player and his dexterity with the instrument is very notable. He is a double guitar player in both bands and is capable of playing the tenor pan as well but loves playing his double guitar although his hidden desire is to play the tenor in the frontline at Panorama.
When questioned about the importance of his role in the band he replied, ‘I think it is very important as it is an essential element in the structure of the band. You must be able to strum very well and sometimes very strong as it provides the rhythm playing chords in the same way as an ordinary guitar does in an orchestra. Each pan has eight notes with a tonal range just above one octave, from D3 to F4.’
He has performed in a few blockorama events with his first one when he was only six years old. He loves playing with the Mangrove steelband. However, he confirmed that when his father takes him to Trinidad Carnival, he would love to play with Phase II Pan Groove. He would also like to play with Andre White’s band, PESO, in New York. He sounded very sad when he stated that he was supposed to go and play with PESO at the 2020 New York Panorama but Covid 19 put a stop to that.
When questioned about the most challenging thing he had to do with steelpans he replied, ‘learn how to strum as before I played at my first Panorama I played the tenor but playing alongside Tristan Russell-Lynch made things easier as we were both young and our first panorama competition, Leon Foster Thomas and Hannah Charles were both strict and demanding but it helped us a lot.’
Tristan and Tremaine playing with Mangrove at UK Panorama Finals.
His most inspirational musical moment in his life to date was winning the 2018 UK National Steelband Panorama with Mangrove Steelband. They did not win in 2016 or 2017 so their victory in 2019 culminated his desire to be the Panorama Champions. He attributes his inspiration with the steelpan and music to his parents but loves the way Andre White and Leon Foster Thomas make playing pan fun and the way they make the whole song come together. He also paid homage to his uncle, Matthew Phillip, the driving force behind Mangrove.
Tremaine made a valid point that the steelpan instrument and its art form needs get more exposure on TV and other social media platforms just like other musical instruments so it can hold its own amongst conventional musical instruments. He likes to see and hear the instrument used to play all genres of music.
He wants to continue winning the UK Panorama competition as many more times as possible and hopefully tour with Mangrove when he finishes school. He believes that steelpan should be introduced to more schools to give the students the exposure to the instrument from an early age so they can continue playing after school and ensure that the steelpan instrument and its culture gets the recognition it deserves and be more widely recognised on all musical platforms. Tremaine is one of our young talented pan musicians who will certainly ensure that the steelpan achieves its rightful podium amongst all instruments on all musical platforms.
Tremaine setting up his pans for Panorama
In closing Tremaine said, ‘I would just like to say thank you to Panpodium for allowing me to have this interview; it is much appreciated we don't get to see much about young pan players so please continue to feature them.’
Panpodium salutes this young aspiring musician for his determination and patience in his musical career and the persistence to achieve his goals.
