THE emails about Silva Dee and the Grasshoppers bombarding my computer were relentless—and I suspected they were from his mum.

“They’re AWESOME. The music is a pleasure to the ears and you forget where you are,” someone called Abelle Wards wrote, urging the Herald to review the band.

Turns out the Rockingham local isn’t family, just a huge fan who never misses Silva Dee’s Sunday performance at the Fremantle Markets.

“Abelle comes in a wheelchair, her daughter pushes her,” the performer tells the Herald.

The Indian-born son of Portuguese, English and Burmese parentage describes
himself as a “citizen of the world”.

For some years now he’s been strutting his stuff around the port city but his eyes could be on wider horizons with his CD Burning Away discovered by US audiences in 2014, and selling well.

Dee wrote it as a protest song and to raise concerns about climate change.

“It’s caught on in the states because the US is against using coal,” the Hamilton Hill local says. “Australia has to find a different way of generating its energy.”

Dee’s music raises issues close to his heart—both environmental and social—and his latest centres around methamphetamine use: “And the drama and death it causes.”

Although he’s happy to do covers when called for, he prefers writing his own music, and his style has evolved to include more rap and reggae: “To get young people in.”

One of nine kids, a social conscience was a large part of his upbringing.

“I came from a big family, and a poor family, but even giving a little bit helps,” says Dee, who’s done a couple of shows to raise money for the homeless, and is planning another in coming months.

Band members include big brother Junior D’ Silva (bass and vocals), John Towell (keyboard), and Reggie D’Souza (drum).

They came up with the name Grasshoppers while sitting around the kitchen table.

“I saw a grasshopper and, according to the Chinese, it’s good luck so we thought we would go along with that,” Dee says.

A new album is still a few months off but you can catch them at the National Hotel, Fremantle Friday nights, the Fremantle Markets Sunday 2–4pm, or at the Australia Day festivities on the Fremantle Esplanade. Tell them Abelle sent you.

by JENNY D’ANGER