Kobo Town

Based in Toronto since 2004, Kobo Town is centered on singer-songwriter Drew Gonsalves, who was born in Diego Martin, Trinidad and Tobago, and moved to Canada as a teenager. The collective situates its music at a Caribbean crossroads with calypso as the central axis, intersected by ska, reggae, dub, rapso, zouk and shades of hip‑hop. Kobo Town’s sound blends brass, guitars, percussion and a narrative songwriting that links social chronicle, diasporic memory and carnival rhythms while remaining within the song format. After Independence in 2007, Kobo Town released Jumbie in the Jukebox in 2013, an album largely recorded in Belize, followed by Where the Galleon Sank in 2017. Over the years Kobo Town has toured North America and Europe, with festival appearances in the Caribbean, Asia and Latin America. Drew Gonsalves also contributed to the writing and production of Calypso Rose’s Far From Home, with participation from several Kobo Town members, placing the group between the Toronto scene, Trinidadian traditions and the broader circulation of Caribbean music.