"A Better Tomorrow": The Music Video
On Friday 4th February, the music video for ‘A Better Tomorrow’ — the latest innovative project from Mark Loquan Music — premiered on YouTube. Featuring lead vocals from reigning Calypso Monarch Terri Lyons; backing vocals from Gerelle Forbes (who also served as writer/producer); and ground-breaking anime-style animation from GemGfx Animation Studios, Loquan’s new composition is music with a message, in a video unlike any you’ve seen for soca or calypso before.
“Back in July 2020, I remember writing this song in the midst of a lot of conflict and uncertainty locally and globally,” explains Loquan. “There were George Floyd protests in the US, starting in May; and Sea Lots protests in Trinidad in July. On top of that COVID had hit our shores and we were also dealing with a global pandemic. The song ‘A Better Tomorrow’ was trying to find a way to turn all the anger, strife, confusion into something positive through facing the challenges together and creating a better future.”
Loquan, a celebrated composer and arranger, wrote the music and lyrics for the song, and recorded it with Junior ‘Ibo’ Joseph, Lyons, and Forbes. Loquan had collaborated previously with Forbes on his 2019 release, ‘My Home’ (re-made in 2021 with Etienne Charles). So he reached out to her again for this project. But with the challenges presented by the pandemic, producing a new music video turned out to be much more complicated than they anticipated.
“What we did know is that we wanted a project that was inclusive — that no matter what, everybody could watch it and think, ‘yes, I could do this too’,” Forbes says. “Originally, it was to be like a normal music video — with real live people. But then lockdown came into play, so I changed that initial storyline and concept, and developed another one that could be executed in a day shoot. But that didn’t work out because of curfew now in the middle of the lockdown!”
They began to explore the idea of using a mix of live action and animation, similar to Space Jam. They got Lyons ready, shot in front of a green screen…but it wasn’t feeling right. So several months, story drafts, and reflective conversations later, Forbes landed on the ultimate concept for the video — a universal story about personal responsibility and empowerment. Loquan went brave, suggesting they go full animation, and Forbes suggested they specifically explore anime — something which informed her final script. They eventually settled on Everard McBain and Dixie Ann Archer-McBain’s GemGfx, and their all-local animation team.
“What interested me is using local talent and skills which remain undiscovered. And all of this is part of creating a better tomorrow,” said Loquan. “They were doing animations like Jumbie and never had done a full-fledged anime equivalent story for music.”
“GemGfx understood the story, they understood the intention both myself and Mark had — it was so easy working with them,” Forbes said. “And I really hope in doing this that we open the conversation about mixing artforms and not staying in our lane … It was a lot going on, but we finally finished!”
In addition to this soca-calypso-anime epic, you can find several past projects on Mark Loquan’s YouTube channel — including the A Better Tomorrow video series featuring Kareem Brown and shot by Maria Nunes.
