Kobo Town

The story so far.

Written and edited by Smokiller

Kobo Town is a band led by singer and songwriter Drew Gonsalves that blends calypso with ska, reggae, dub, rapso, zouk and hip hop. Gonsalves grew up in Diego Martin in Trinidad and Tobago, where he was born, then moved to Ottawa with his mother at 13 and later studied history and political science at Carleton University. He settled in Toronto in the early 2000s and formed the group there in 2004. The debut album Independence arrived in 2007. Jumbie in the Jukebox followed in 2013, recorded mostly in Belize, and it made the Polaris Music Prize longlist and earned a Juno nomination. Gonsalves then co-wrote and helped produce Calypso Rose's album Far From Home, which won a Victoire de la Musique in France in 2017, and Calypso Rose also features on the band's Scarborough Girl. Where the Galleon Sank, released in 2017, won World Group of the Year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards and World Music Album of the Year at the 2018 Junos.