STEP 1. BECOME A PRO
Daniele is a talented guy, musically talented to be precise. He started playing music at the age
of 6. First played the piano for few years until he discovered Jimi Hendrix. He fell in love with his
music when he was 9 and picked up electric bass guitar to later be inspired by Joe Zawinul and
Jaco Pastorius of Weather Report, Bernie Worrel and Bootsy Collins of Parliamnet Funkadelic. Fast
forward to today, he is a professional musician playing electric bass and a synthesizer freak.
STEP 2. GET AN IDEA AND THE RIGHT PEOPLE
One day he spoke to Bas Bouma (the drummer) ‘hey Bas, wouldn’t it be nice to mix Afrobeat and
Rave sounds? Like all live performed! It is something I haven’t heard yet!’
Daniele loves electronic music, synths and music machines and feels a deep love for Afrobeat.
As a bass player he knows the needed approach towards the variety of beats in the Afrobeat
universe. Bouma and Jos de Haas (New cool collective) on the other hand, know all the names
and grooves of this afro-universe. The combination was just there and easy to put together.
STEP 3. THINK LONG ABOUT THE CONCEPT
The Music:
It is about mixing the two different worlds Afro and Electro, finding the balance between the two
of them and making the beat go together with the synths or the other way around but never just
put things on each other hoping something will come out. Some songs sound pretty overwhelming
because of the variety of percussive instruments and rhythms in combination with the wobbly
basses, arpeggiators and drum machines and it was meant to be that way. Their album is mixed
by Arno Goldstein Aka The Dub Creator, Daniele likes to say “the all mighty” Dub Creator. A dub
legend that took this project as personal challenge with the professionalism and utility that only
true, big musicians have. The name of the band is “ Umeme Afrorave” where Umeme means
electricity or lightning in Swahili.
The Vocalists:
The vocalists are nice and various! They come from Togo (Koko Lawson), Ethiopia (Minyeshu)
& Ghana (King Ayisoba). The lyrics are all in different languages and they sound totally different
from each other which suggests a different atmosphere of each song. Even though sometimes the
music might get a little heavy, the message of the songs stays the same. It’s about positivity and
embracement, for instance Koko is really good in writing lyrics that speak about embracing and
respecting the nature and about working together and never against each other for no reason.
The Image:
The masks they use on stage are designed and hand made by Ronja Andersen. They use the
masks because it has a certain impact on the crowd - a crossover of African tradition and electro
mystical-nastyness. The masks represent animals from Africa: hyena, baboon, flamingo and hare.
Downfall: they sweat a lot in these masks!
Denisa Kollarova is the designer of the band’s logo, album cover, merchandise and download
codes, which fans can buy online. He says it is a pleasure to work with such a talented designer
and a friend, a person you learn a lot from.