Kurla's kind choir boy

Dwayne Leroy Gamree outside Holy Cross High School Church, where he started singing in the choir at the age of seven. Pics/ Sayed Sameer Abedi

He was seven when he joined the children's choir at his Kurla parish Holy Cross High School Church. His mother was part of the adult choir while his grandfather, Ayres Remos Pinto, also a jive dancer, was hooked on to Kenny Rogers and Ray Charles.

Armed with the training in harmony and pitch that singing in a choir can teach you, plus the ear training his mother played a key role in developing, Dwayne Leroy Gamree, at 28, is launching his first original and its video in Andheri this Sunday, with Arko Ganguly (drums), Kamran Raza (bass), Morris Tixeira (keys) and Shannon Ponnoth (guitar). "My mother would make me sing along at home, pointing my mistakes," Gamree quips. The roles reversed soon, when he started doing music full time at 21. "She would ask me if she was singing in the right pitch," he recalls, adding, "I wasn't doing mainstream Bollywood, which isn't great financially."

But things fell into place when he was spotted by a judge in a college competition at St Andrew's College in Bandra, and his friend Vernon Noronha helped him get acoustic gigs. A project with Ranjit Barot also worked out and Gamree started covering his personal expenses.

It's this kindness he received from his friends that got him to write his single, Sprinkle That. "Some incidents made me realise it doesn't cost a thing to be kind. I was travelling on a highway and some people had got into a fight, not paying heed to the blaring ambulance behind them. I shoved my bike in the middle to attract their attention and let it pass," he narrates. The song talks about how when you don't understand your emotions you end up flaring up. The video shot and directed by Amit Batra features dancer Eden Pereira.

The bank of 20-odd songs he has lined up for release as singles over the next few months have been inspired by Sting, Bryan Adams, Stevie Wonder and The Script, covers of whose songs he will also be playing at the gig.

And talent does indeed run in the family, for Gamree's three-year-old daughter, Faye, is also into singing and dancing, though she's more of a fan of Katy Perry, Ed Sheeran and Maroon 5.

On November 17, 9 pm
At Hard Rock Cafe, Sharyans Audeu, Andheri West.
Log on to bookmyshow.com
Cost Rs 500

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