As people travel the world and move from their native country to others, finding ties to their indigenous culture becomes increasingly difficult especially when dealing with the Caribbean. With music often being the most tangible tie to home- Caribbean expatriates are oft cut off from that part of the culture due to the fact that the music is not marketed to mass audiences. That is about to change.

KMC, born Ken Marlon Charles, Soca artist and native of the twin-isle republic of Trinidad & Tobago, is about to take the world by storm with the international release of Soul on Fire on Ultra Empire Sequence Records. Soul on Fire, featuring the upcoming singles "Put It Up," and "Love," is to be the first of four records in his contract with the company.

"My mission is to spread my music, to try to get it to the 4 corners of the earth, and to show the world that Soca is a beautiful, lovely music."

The lead single "Soul On Fire," though released in Trinidad for the 2005 Carnival season, has been distributed worldwide and has been remixed several times- one version features Dancehall Artist Beenie Man, another mix will feature Hip-Hop hype man Fatman Scoop.

"Beenie Man loved the song when he heard it. Fatman Scoop called us up and ended up on the record also. I wasn t in the studio when they did it; they went to the studio with my engineer. It was an overwhelming feeling especially because these are artists who come from ghetto roots and know the street life. I love working with artists who know the real hard core shit, who didn t get things easy, and who have talent to get where they have reached- those artists are real strong." KMC explained appreciatively.

Ultra Records pushing the album to be released in Japan, Germany, Poland, France, the United Kingdom and of course the United States.

According to a Trinidad Express article published in April 2005, Ultra Records president Patrick Moxey heard " Soul on Fire" and at first listen arrangements were made to meet with and sign the seasoned performer. The was song played for him by Jean Michel Gibert, a French music executive living in Trinidad, at the annual MIDEM Music Convention in France earlier this year. Gibert, through living in Trinidad for the last 20 years, has had much exposure to KMC s music over the years in the form of his own music and music that he has produced for others.

As an artist who has been releasing independently for a number of years, KMC noted that being signed to a record label required slight adjustments.

"It has been a little bit of an adjustment because this album this is the first of the four-album deal. I have no problems with the record company based on the fact that I produce all my songs, maybe on the next album I will work with someone."

Another provision of the contract is that KMC is being allowed to keep Trinidad out of the distribution deal. That distribution will be handled by KMC s company, the Trinidad based, KMC Music Limited. Charles music company features KMC himself along with a slew of Trinidad s up and coming artists, namely Jungle, Chevonne Spencer, and Revelation. The company also distributes KMC s productions which are often Soca riddims, similar to those in Dancehall Reggae.

"I kept Trinidad region for myself. It s out of the contract so I can do whatever I want, and that so I will be able to work comfortably in Trinidad. I won t have to worry about doing a song and wondering if I can release it or not. I used to do my work and put it out now I have this record label behind me and I am still working for all my artists and then I myself am doing two or three songs of my own for the carnival season. I work with many artists; these artists ride my riddims all the time, Maximus Dan, Machel Montano, and Destra."

"I have a song on my album called How We Do It that is going to be very big for Carnival 2006. I m going to remix it with a big artist, maybe Beenie Man or Bounty Killer. There is another fast song that will drop for the carnival season at the speed of 155 beats per minute; it s not on my album. That tune is called Jump Up. All of the nice groovy songs are on the album," explained the Soca Star.

With so much going on it s a wonder KMC is able to find focus!

"I m focusing on everything I am focusing on our record and that it sells, on the video for Soul On Fire, on Trinidad Carnival, my artists- producing them- It s a lot of work for me because I m focusing on all of that at one time so I have no room to skylark- it s all about business and pleasure will come with it."

From childhood KMC always had a love for music. Never having formal training, as a small boy he used to sneak and listen to a neighborhood band in his village in Trinidad.

"There was a guy named Owen Julien. When Rastafarians started to take a hold in Trinidad he had a reggae band, and I, at the age of 7, used to go under the house by the band and when they weren t around to go and play the drum set."

As time marched on the same energy and precociousness that brought the young Mr. Charles to the drum set also brought him to teach himself how to play music.

"Music is something I was never taught-I was never taught to play the keyboard- I learned to do everything on my own because of the love that is what made me master it. I did everything I do my thing by ear and not by reading," said KMC.

Written By Niama Sandy