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DemBiez spread feel-good vibes ... with a little help from Johnny Barnes

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DemBiez, including Trae Cannonier, entertained motorists with Johnny Barnes at the Foot of the Lane yesterday morning. Pictured left to right are Trae Cannonier, Jumar Hayward, Johnny Barnes and Cahlii Smith.

Feel-good local musicians DemBiez need no encouragement to start singing: so far in their short career they’ve serenaded traffic officers and the cats at the SPCA.The musical producers set up their company in December and have been spontaneously improvising music every since — just because they can.Trae Cannonier, Jumar Hayward and Cahlii Smith got up early yesterday and took to the street to sing alongside Hamilton’s well-wisher Johnny Barnes.“We called it ‘Waving My Hands’,” said Mr Hayward of the trio’s impromptu song for morning commuters.“We went and told Johnny we wanted to play guitar and piano out there, and the first thing he said was, ‘Do you have an amp?’”The offhand performance began at 7.15am and continued through to 9.30am.Said Mr Smith: “We had to get up seriously early for that one. The funny thing about it was a lot of people recognised us.”The group’s videos, which they publicise through their Facebook page, are garnering hits on YouTube.“We just felt nobody’s doing public music in Bermuda any more,” Mr Cannonier explained. “Music is what we do and we want to get out there and do it. Enough talk.”Eager for entertainment, the group — who perform also with drummer Shomari Warner, among others — hinted at a new upcoming tactic for bringing music to the people.“We were thinking we could knock around people’s houses and just start playing when they open the door,” Mr Hayward told The Royal Gazette.“We’ve been jamming for years. Our production company, DemBiez, was set up in December. We’ve got all these instruments, we’ve got our bikes — we can just turn up and play anyplace.”The group offers studio recordings for musicians, and has an arsenal of instruments and styles to provide.Mostly, said Mr Smith, they wanted to provide upbeat public entertainment.“We all play instruments so we figured we could be a band as well,” he said.Pulled over recently for speeding, they improvised a song for the police officer. Yesterday’s performance was also well-received by early morning traffic.“We just got up there and had some fun,” Mr Cannonier said. “They loved it. People were pulling over to take pictures of it. It was worth getting up early.”

DemBiez, including Trae Cannonier, entertained motorists with Johnny Barnes at the Foot of the Lane yesterday morning. Pictured left to right are Trae Cannonier, Jumar Hayward, Johnny Barnes and Cahlii Smith.