Addicted to Soca: English Traveller ‘Zoe’ shares her love for T&T

Known for her line “No man, no stress” and her need to “zess”, solo traveller and vlogger Zoe Reeve has been taking over the local social media scene in recent times. 

With her most recent collaboration and subsequent music video with local artist ‘Big P’ showcasing the braver side of her, Zoe as she is known to by many is now more popular than ever.

Loop News caught up with Zoe on Thursday for an exclusive interview—check it out here—and insight into what drives her bubbly personality and how she deals with commentators and critics.

The 31-year-old English-born traveller first visited Trinidad in 2009, inspired by her love for Soca music and Carnival. She’s been here at least 10 times since then.

But what keeps bringing her back to our shores?

Zoe explained that on her first trip here, she stayed with a family in Moruga and got involved with their daily activities, including selling in the market—something she thoroughly enjoyed.

She said eventually she made a lot of friends.

“Then it turned out that I had a really big social life here and I didn’t want to miss out on the things my friends were talking about and I kept coming back. Of course, there is doubles… I love Soca so much, I love obviously that Trinidad has a deep culture with (East) Indians and Africans, there’s something cultural always happening,” she said.

Zoe explained when her first collaboration ‘Single’ with Local Artist Aaron Duncan became popular last month, everything changed. She said since then she’s been booked by various groups and organisers to perform her lines “No man, no stress…no man I just wanna zess.”

“I don’t mind. People are still asking for collabs and I’m still enjoying it so to me it’s why should I stop enjoying something if it’s there.”

Obviously criticism comes with the territory of being popular, so how does Zoe deal with that?

“I try not to read all of the comments because I don’t think it’s my job…I don’t think that it’s healthy to read everything that people have to say about you. If they’re saying ‘I don’t like this song’ then it’s not for you then, it’s for the people who like it. And for people who are making whole videos about me, I don’t watch them because I have more fun things to do with my life,” the budding artist said.

Revealing that she’s also autistic, Zoe said this has contributed to her not thinking with too many emotions.

She said: “I think my autism actually helps me with deal with these things.”

The vlogger noted further that she’s also very much interested in doing future collaborations with other local artistes as well. 

“I would love to collab with Tempo…that would be funny. Obviously I would love to collab with Yung Bredda, can you imagine, it would be a dream come true. If I ever get the chance to do things like that I’d take it,” she beamed.

Asked whether she plans on making her trips to Trinidad a good habit, Zoe said she actually wishes that she could be a ‘part-time Trini’.

She said: “I would love to find a way…because I could only visit for three months. I know that I could just marry someone but I don’t want to do that. But I would love that at some point along the way I could get some other status here,” she said.