essay: afropunk contributor, dein moore of sonitus pens powerful essay about on his experiences as a black rocker in the uk

My name is Dein Moore, I grew up in Jamaica but have now spent most of my life in the UK. I play guitar and songwrite music in a band called Sonitus, who’s members have become my greatest friends and partners in crime. I have loved the sounds of heavy guitar riffs and amp fuelled distortions since I was a kid, my earliest memories of Rock have been from my dad’s old CD collections of Aerosmith, Guns and Roses, Alice in chains, Lenny Kravitz, Skunk Anansie and later my own discovery of Korn, Tool, A Perfect Circle, Deftones and Rage against the machine to name a few.

Yet the importance of representation from all races hasn’t eluded me and when my family moved to the UK in search of our English family heritage and a more creatively open lifestyle, the obviousness of the truth that the grass wasn’t exactly greener here either became apparent. Don’t get me wrong, I have so much love for my life, lifestyle here and am more than happy to call myself British but my chosen career has and continues to be marred by racial preference and descriminstion. The U.K. Certainly isn’t as obvious as the US is but it certainly has its own devide and less opportunities for people like me simply because of Skin colour. I’ve had people actually tell me that my role maybe should be more background and into songwriting than to be onstage or in videos which at the time I couldn’t believe was happening in the present year we’re in. The worst part is never knowing though, sometimes an opportunity will come up with a lot excitement buzzing around it, for someone to later get involved to tell you they don’t think your suited towards their audience, which could mean so many things but the fact that a half black singer and a black guitarist who writes the songs for the band cannot be omitted and it’s a shame that sometimes we have to resort to being that paranoid but as a black person it kind of forces you to see things in this light. Which honestly isn’t all that bad when compared to a lot of Different cases I’ve read about in America and other countries but still needs to be said and addressed.

There were certainly a lot of chaotic nights too, We had a gig at a venue called the 229 that we headlined, there was so much buzz from us personally around it. The place was crammed with friends and fans, we had a few bands that opened for us too. Nothing seemed to have gone right that night, all the bands complained, the house equipment was lousy, the sound guy was just having the worst day (while being a complete knob) and just killed everyone’s sound, by the time we were to play it was getting super late and the venue was going to close, we played 2 tracks; one without my guitar as the amp just died and the other was rushed. Everyone being super pissed pretty much started a fight while the sound guy proceeded to kick our pedals around on stage, our singer (Russell Balogun) absolutely lost it while the promotor tried to sneak off with the money who was later arrested and to this day I feel kinda sorry for. We burnt posters and made a lot of life long friends that night, including Tokyo Taboo and Calm for the restless.

None of that compares to the time we played in a boxing ring though, around Seven sisters is a block of warehouses (fountayne road) that my band mate Nate use to live at. We were asked to headline a festival they have there every year and when we saw the stage was a boxing ring we couldn’t possibly salivate anymore. The band before us played so many encores it was ridiculous. When they finally got off we setup and pushed the crowd to a euphoric state of being, this was the gig we probably will never replicate. It was so difficult to play as Russell our singer kept insisting on jumping up and down which is not good for our equipment but even worse for our drummer, I have no idea how we kept it together but somehow we did. The after party that came later was just the best. I’ve never had a better time being a musician than that time, most of what happened that party will stay private (sorry, not sorry) but certainly I look forward to even more crazy times to come.

Im very grateful to be a musician and would love to have this be my lifelong career, I have shared stage with many an upcoming acts such as my good friend Sample Answer, my sister Denai Moore and many more. There are many things that society will present to try and keep us out but I’ll never be deterred. I’m also super grateful for the time I live in, I could only imagine what Jimi Hendrix would have had to have overcome in his time and hope to do just as great things with my own future. I love what I do, it’s certainly makes me happy and in the end that’s all that really matters. www.instagram.com/deingerous
www.twitter.com/deingerous1
www.facebook.com/sonitusmusic/
www.soundcloud.com/sonitusmusic