Ralford “Remo” Joseph was born
on February 23, 1970 in Mahaut,
Dominica. He was born into a
two-parent household as the
youngest of 9 children. Growing
up, Remo was always encouraged
by his mother to achieve
whatever goals he set for
himself in life. He considers
himself blessed to have grown up
in Mahaut because that iswhere he received
early exposure to music by
living within hearing and seeing
distance of band houses of two
locally well-known bands at the
time. This exposure led to an
interest and soon after a love
for music; so much so that he
decided that he was going to be
a musician as well. As such, he
started teaching himself to play
the drums at the tender age of
13/14 years. At this same age
he participated in Mahaut’s
Calypso Competition and won
first prize. Achieving this
first milestone in his music
career only served to encourage
Remo to become more serious
about pursuing his dream of
becoming a successfulmusician one day.
After winning his first calypso
competition,
Remo got more
serious about the music
business. He believed that
music was cut out just for him.
At that time it seemed like his
way out of having a “regular” 9
– 5 job that didn’t appeal to
his young mind or spirit, plus
music excited and inspired him.
He started writing and
producing his own calypso songs
then decided after some time to
get a band of his own. His
first band was called Root Boys
and the band members all came
from his village of Mahaut. He
left this band a few years later
when he decided to leave home
and move to St. Maarten. Shortly
after moving to St. Maarten,
Remo 19 years old at the time
met some musicians from his home
country and form a band called
Xplosion. His first project with
this band was a album called
“Pirates” for which he had
written and produced a number of
songs. His first time on stage
with this band was like a dream
come true. It showed him how
hard work could pay off as long
as the focus and desire is
there. No words can explain how
Remo felt the first time he
heard his single on the radio.
In his own words he says “it
would have to happen to you for
you to understand how it feels.”Disappointments did
come along though. With the
initial success of Xplosion
Remo
discovered that the rights for
the first two albums he produced
with Xplosion had been sold to
Spice Island Records and as
such, this company benefited
from the band’s hard work and
not the band itself. In his
mind, this was a major setback
in this band achieving the
international success that was
within its reach at the time.
This also caused Remo to
re-evaluate his music career.
He left Xplosion band and struck
out on his own. By this time,
Remo viewed his music as a gift
from God and he realized that he
couldn’t give up on music
because he still had plentyto give to the world
of music and he still has a
plenty to achieve in music.
Remo has been working for the
past few years as a solo artist
who collaborates with bands both
regionally and internationally.
He is pursuing his music on a
full time basis. He has a love
for music of most genres though
in his career he focuses mainly
on Soca,
Bouyon (traditional
music of Dominica), and within
recent years Reggae.
Remo sees
his music as evolving, as
continuously growing and
expanding as he learns to
maximize his gift. Fans can
look forward to a number of
contributions from
Remo to the
music world in the near future
in the form of more and new soca
and reggae tunes as well as
music video clips on regional
and local TV channels that will
bring him closer to them. With
the support of his fans,
Remo
hopes to have a number 1 hit in
soon and ultimately a record
deal with a major company. To
date, his career has taken him
to almost every Caribbean island
and various parts of the United
States including New York, Miami
and Orlando. He has also
performed in Europe, mainly the
United Kingdom, Holland and
France. Most recently
Remo’s
career has allowed him to
perform in Africa.
In the near future,
Remo will be
expanding his music career even
more to include video clips for
his songs that will be shown on
regional and international TV
channels. He is currently
working on setting up his band
after having recently relocated
to the Caribbean and with this
band he plans to come out at the
end of this year, the beginning
of next year the latest, with a
brand new album that he knows
his fans and others will love.
His ultimate goal for himself
and his band is to be able to
tour as many places as they can
reach just sharing his music
with the world. So look out
for Remo!
