As a young boy, Carlos Gonsalves ensured that his mother hadno choice but to keep restocking her kitchen with utensils, as he utilised hervessels as his drum kit of choice. Having eventually laid his hands on hisfirst kit, Carlos spent hours cooped up by himself, making a musical ruckus, ashe perfected his art and took his first steps towards becoming one of thefinest percussionists in Goa.
“My beginnings sum up my beliefs. Anything can be apercussive tool; even your cheek and jaw. This is a belief that I try to impartto upcoming musicians too,” Carlos says with a smile. Today, a musician ofinternational repute, Carlos prefers to let his instruments do the talking,which sums up the only branding he has - Talking Drums. And it is this venture,along with several interested parties in Sri Lanka, that saw collaborativeefforts help numerous children that may never have been able to otherwiseexpand on their musical dreams.
Having already been in Sri Lanka, for the purpose ofcheering ‘Team India’ on through his Talking Drums at the T20 World Cup, Carloswas at Angulana, as an integral part of the ‘Beat for a Change’ program. “Itwas a very interactive session with children from Angulana, where they wereable to watch and learn on a first hand basis. I was able to teach them to workwithin their means, by utilising the sounds available to them by playing onbarrels, buckets, rocks, tins and bottles,” the maestro says.
This was just the beginning as he then moved on to anotherplatform for education, socialisation, opportunity and creativity. The Horanaworkshop held at Madurawala Maha Vidhalaya, a local school, included meditationsessions that helped children focus along with drumming sessions where Carlostaught them how to create beats.
Having concluded his tour with the Indian Cricket Team,Carlos is back in his hometown of Mapusa and has interesting plans for thefuture. Being a musician that can play across genres, he is someone who aims tomake percussion the focus of music, with other instruments providing thebacking for his work, instead of the conventional ‘other way around’ approach.“I want the concept of ‘Talking Drums’ to make it on to an album, and I thinkthat the concept can work. It is an instrument just like any other and deservesits due amount of importance,” he says.
Armed with djembe, bottle, spoon, and anything else that hecan generate a beat from, who is to say he is far from making that dream areality?
