“We just came back from Byron Bay Bluesfest, where we played right before Seun Kuti and Egypt 80; they are such an incredible, tight band,” Hill says, clearly excited. “The son of the creator of Afro-beat fronting his father’s original band – we are talking about guys that have been playing together for 40 plus years! Doing our thing in front of Afro-beat royalty was both daunting and inspiring – an amazing experience.”
The political collides proudly with the joyful in TPOAO and Hill explains the symbiosis is inevitable. “Well Afro-beat is inherently political music, he says. “Fela Kuti, who essentially created Afro-beat, was a huge political figure in Nigeria in the ‘70s and it’s really ingrained in the music. I really like the idea of being able to introduce different themes and ideas whilst still getting people dancing, and it’s not like the current climate of political negligence and corporate greed doesn’t provide us with plenty of inspiration too. We may have a slight social bent and wear our politics on our sleeves but we are definitely a party band first and foremost, make no mistake.”
As with reggae or dub, Afro-beat can be a victim of its own appeal, trapped by its own genre boundaries, but Hill explains that the sheer size of the band makes for eclectic influences.
“The whole African and tropical sound is really on the up all around the world at the moment and we dig on a lot of those sounds as older stuff as well,” he explains. “It’s great to see how artists like Antibalas, The Souljazz Orchestra and Blitz The Ambassador are really taking a traditional music in new directions. It’s something that is really important to us. No-one wants to sound like a Fela cover band.
“It’s interesting with so many different cultures mixing in our band, the sounds that each person listens to and brings to the table is incredibly diverse,” he continues. “Our rapper, MC 1/6, brings a raw hip hop element to the band; Dave Marama our guitarist from Tanzania is known for his blues and African highlife playing; the Belling’s (Zvi and Fem) are noted jazz musicians. With players from myriad local bands such as Bombay Royale, Melbourne Ska Orchestra and Royal Swazi Spa we never have to look far for great music to have an impact on us.
“I myself DJ a lot of Caribbean disco, Afro-funk and tropical beats around town and on PBS radio at the moment and those sounds have always been an inspiration on the band. I’m actually travelling to Africa soon to go on a record digging mission so no doubt I’ll uncover a bunch of new stuff that will hopefully see the band continue to develop our style.”
What plans do the band have for future releases? “We’ve done a bunch or recordings – it’s now just a matter of finding the time to polish them up and get them out to the people,” he says. “Tristan [Ludowyk], our trumpet player amongst other instruments, is the main man behind Hope Street Recordings and has a lot on his plate over there (putting out records by our label mates Bombay Royale, The Cactus Channel and heaps of others) so we will have to wait until the last half of the year to get them out. We are big fans of vinyl so we’ll definitely be doing some releases on wax. We have a few big collaborations in the pipeline too, nothing I can talk about too much yet but our fans will definitely dig.”
BY KRISSI WEISS
