He started performing at age nine for family and friends and by the time he was 15 Marlon Webster was singing lead vocals for a Guyanese band in the Caribbean.

Malo as he calls himself is now grown up. Now 21, he launched his solo career last Tuesday, at a time when Guyanese artistes are once again beginning to find their groove in this land.

At the event designed for the media to give Malo that initial recognition as a solo artiste it was revealed the artiste would once again be jumping into the Soca monarch fray, the road march bacchanal as well as working toward the Trinidad and Tobago soca monarchy to further spread his wings.

With tracks such as "Wine Baby Wine" and "One Big Family" Malo has already begun to forge a path for himself as one of Guyana's more popular performing artistes.

Malo's story started in Norton Street, Werk-en-Rust, when at the tender age of nine he found himself singing for the pleasure of those close to him. At that point, Malo told The Scene he realized this was the career he wanted to pursue in life.

With his interest in the genre of soca music Malo at 15 was working with the father of the famed 'rubber-waist' Jomo of X2 and Byron Lee and the Dragonnaires, on a part-time basis. As it turned out Jomo's father learnt that a friend of his who was starting a band was looking for a vocalist.

Malo, seeing an opportunity to get himself in the groove, dropped everything and began performing with the band called Pinnacle. Then, according to Jonathan Beepat his new manager who has now come on board to guide Malo's career, David Hooper, the man who manages Barbadian star artiste Rupee, saw Malo and Pinnacle perform and invited them to play in Barbados.

The band disbanded in Barbados, but Malo stayed on for two years working under the supervision of Hooper. During this period he gained valuable exposure opening shows for Allison Hinds and Square One, Machel Montano and other popular Barbadian and Caribbean artistes.

Upon his return to Guyana he copped a gig singing lead with Mike Fung's Mingles Sound Machine, where he remained for the next three years, bringing him to another milestone where he felt it was time to break out.

After talking with influential persons in the local industry Malo decided that he needed further backing to carry his career to the next level. He and Beepat then came together to form the new promotional team to give him that push forward. "The thing backing most of us [artistes] is finance," Malo said as he explained why he never made it to the top of the local soca monarch competition.

Now with that necessary financial element and guidance in place he said, "I think I'm going to do it next year, I'll go out and do my best."

In the beginning, Malo said, he was trying to work with one studio exclusively but then later on he has realized that it did not make sense to be confined to one space. "I needed to try other things."

He has done songs with several producers already including, "New Girl" on the Dreaded rhythm created by Spida Man and the Fire Clan band; "Wine Baby Wine" on Kross Kolours Coction rhythm; "Still Be" and "Jouvert", also with KK; and "I Lied" on the Everready rhythm, which is a Platinum studio creation.

Malo has also done collaborations with other artistes such as DJs Kerwin and Dwight on "Independent Ladies"; with Vanilla and Lil Man on a remix of "Boy" as well as with 'Arrowhead' singer Courtney Noel early on in his musical sojourn.

The artiste has put together new tracks, which he will be doing for next year's soca events including "Focus on the Back", "Jookie Jam" and "Rugged and Tough". He also announced that he would be working on a video to promote one of his new tracks this month.

This year also saw Malo who is aiming to be "an international artiste well known around the world," been doing a series of school concerts at Tutorial High, St John's High, Brickdam High, Richard Ishmael High and St Mary's High.

According to Malo, so far the industry has been more "socially profitable than financially" for him so The Scene asked Beepat what was his inspiration to join the project. He said Malo found him and he saw it as an opportunity for both of them to get ahead as entrepreneur and artiste respectively.

Malo, beepat said, was familiar with performing, has some international exposure and is focused in the right direction. Frankly, he said, the young artiste has the looks and musical talent and just needs the connection to get him out there.

One of the new exciting avenues they would be working on is to get Malo's songs on Iwer George's T&T radio station so that the wider Caribbean can be introduced to the work of yet another talented Guyanese.