The Word Café Podcast with Amax

S4 Ep. 268 How A Bold Artist Turns Culture Into Music You Can Feel

• Amachree Isoboye Afanyaa • Season 4 • Episode 268

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What if jazz didn’t just borrow from culture but stood inside it, breathing in real stories and rhythms from across the Sahara? We sit down with The Salako—musician, festival founder, and fearless improviser—to map the living space between Yoruba folk, Afro jazz, and the kind of stage magic that turns a crowd into an instrument.

We talk about identity and clarity—why he embraced “The Salako” to guide listeners to the right artist—and then get into the core of his craft. He shares how Bobby McFerrin’s approach unlocked a mindset of freedom: starting from a spark, building songs with the room, and letting rhythm, audience voices, and raw texture find their form. That same spirit led him to create the Abuja International Afro Jazz Festival, a truly global platform where artists bring their culture into jazz, not the other way around. From South African mentors to Norwegian partners and a Senegalese groove, the festival gives Abuja a front-row seat to the world’s musical dialects.

We challenge assumptions about attention spans and “easy music,” and discuss why depth still wins when presented with honesty. The Salako writes long-form pieces, then crafts radio edits for entry points, trusting listeners to seek the full journey. That faith pays off: Gen Z showed up and stayed to the last note at the most recent festival. He also teases Pirates of the Sahara, dropping alongside his April tour, with themes that look beyond love to real issues—discipline, social strain, traffic impatience—carried by bold meters, brass, and storytelling arcs. A highlight, Dagunro, reframes a Yoruba warning tale as a cinematic, 7/8 surge that feels both ancient and new.

Underneath it all sits a generous belief: everyone is musical. The Salako loves turning audiences into choirs because creativity isn’t a niche—it’s human. If you’re curious about African jazz, cultural storytelling, improvisation, and how legacy-minded work can still thrill a modern crowd, this conversation is your map. Listen, subscribe, and share with a friend who needs a fresh spark in their playlist. Then tell us: what sound from your city deserves a global stage?

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SPEAKER_01:

Hello there. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. Good everything. Everything. Someone will say, Why do you always do it that way? Because I don't know. I started the show, the very first record that I did greeting like that. And somehow it just stuck with me because we have multiple, you know, channels, people across the globe watching, listening to me. So some of them might be sleeping, some of them might be awake, some of them will catch up with us. So I need to greet everybody and put it in perspective. How are you? I'm fine. Welcome to the World Cafe Live Show. You know how we do it. This is that space where we come in to lean on one another's experience to forge a positive path. It's been an amazing season, and I'm grateful to God about it. The city of Abuja, where I reside, I mean, of late has been experiencing a very, very good weather. If you understand what I mean by that, hot weather. And the Hamatan is coming in what we call our own winter. Okay, what are we going to be doing today? All right. Let me tell you what we'll be doing today. I have an amazing personality on set with me. The first time I met him, he's a musician, a unique musician, very unique. I think the first time I saw him was in church when he came to minister, you know, to bless to bless us. And very unique. And I looked at him, don't worry. When when I bring him fully and we start talking, you will appreciate what I'm talking about. Before we came on said, he was trying to tell me how to call his name now because there are two people bearing that name, so we need to differentiate it. But I'll allow him to do that. He's a wonderful personality. I call him because that's his name, but this is what I want to do. I will allow him to introduce himself, then let us know how we should call him. That he's the one and only Salako.

SPEAKER_04:

That's where do I pick it up from? You're welcome. Thank you so much for having me. How are you? I'm fine. How are you fine? I'm very fine, actually. Very fine. Thank you for having me here.

SPEAKER_01:

Pleasure. So let's let's start with you know, before we came on, you were trying to tell me how there is a toast in Salako. Yes. So if we go online, because honestly, I did go online because I know you anyway. Yeah. Searching for the uh toast in Salako, I know the face I'm looking for. Yes. So I wasn't confused, but for the purpose of clarity, who or how do we refer to you? Let's get to this.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay, um, okay, hello everybody. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. I think I'll stand on that protocol. Yes, um, I am the Salako. I used to be, I used to love, I used to love the enigma of the word Salako, you know, just say Salako. Oh, the guy performing is Salako. Yeah. And I realized that um many times a lot of people tell me that, oh, I was listening to your song, and you tell me the title of the song, and I'm like, no. I don't have any songs by that title. Or much more recently, someone said um, um, I had a showcase, and um, someone said after the showcase, she just went online to make research about me and um listen to my music. That she had gone four songs into the journey, and she realized that I know Salako can do a lot of things, but this doesn't sound like the person I watched live. So she had to, when she now saw the face, oh no, no wonder. So I I think that was where the branding came. I said, Okay, um, toastin, I have a friend, is Tosin Salako. He does music, plays guitar, fantastic, amazing guy. We are friends. Um, but he's been he's been in the space way before before I came on. And um, so I just said, okay, Tosin, don't worry. I I leave you to that name. I will go with the Salako. So um uh so that's where that came from. Amazing. Uh T-H-E-S-A-L-A-K-O.

SPEAKER_01:

The Salarak Salako. Guys, don't confuse it. So he is the Salako. So whenever you want to listen uh to his sound, remember that. But he's gonna tell us he has a unique, I'll call it a unique way of singing, and I'll make one or two references as in as we go on. But I see you're in that space, the jazz space.

SPEAKER_05:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

A little bit of Afrobeat and uh Afro jazz, more or less. Tell us, how did it come about your sound?

SPEAKER_04:

Okay, um, so yes, years back, I used to be a jazz artist. Okay. Ah, yes, I used to I used to do a lot of a lot of jazz things, you know. And um I grew over time. And when I was at that point of deciding what do I want to be known for. Yeah. Now, if you drop me in the midst of um a million jazz artists from the States, from the UK, from South Africa, I'm just gonna be one of one of the jazz guys, you know. I realized that one thing that could stand me out is um to use my culture to take my knowledge of jazz music and infuse it with my own culture. Okay. So that stands me out. And um, for a while I tried it. I pick traditional folk Yoruba songs, then bring my knowledge of jazz and put it into it. And it sounds like, oh, okay, this is unique, this is strange. You know, I played, I played the music for jazz guys. I'm like, oh, this is not jazz, it's not African. It's just it's just floating in between. Then I realized that I found the place I wanted to be. Okay. The space between African traditional music and jazz music. So I'm just that bridge between the two worlds. Okay. Yeah. So, you know, you hear things that we do in jazz, we do scats. In Africa, you don't find that. You find storytelling, more of storytelling in our own music. So bringing that and bringing this all online strong, onsline brack session with um the percussion of African music, you know, merging that together, I now found out that okay, this is unique to me.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Um as I then, as I then it was unique to me. But now a lot of people have caught on. I'm like, okay. But I'm so happy that, okay, in this city of Abuja, I erraded something new, and um they make reference to me. Oh, that jazz guy, that guy that does African jazz, African jazz. Um, I said, okay, yeah, that's that's that's how I found, that's how I got to this point. I started as a jazz musician and I needed to differentiate myself. I needed to be in that space where I do things and people wonder, like, oh, you're gifted, you're creative, you all my years of research, all my years of hard work should um should put me out there. And that's how that's how I got I got to this point. How long have you been in this space? I've been in music professionally for for 14 years. Yeah, I remember my first my first concert was in 2020. Okay. Yeah, that was my first concert. And um, this is 2025, and now I have this international jazz festival I host yearly. So from that small concert in my church back in Ibadon to hosting an international jazz festival.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay.

SPEAKER_04:

It's been it's been 14 years. 14 years. But before, of course, before before you host the concert, there are some years you've been working on.

SPEAKER_01:

True. You know, listening to you, the first time I I I I mean, heard your song and uh listened, paid attention, what I saw was uh Bob McFarren. Oh, you know him. Yeah. Bob McFarren. And the other day, uh my younger one after the Christmas choral, yeah, he was looking at like this guy, he's unique. He was just talking, I said, yes, he sings. There's a piece, there's a piece of Bob McFarren I see each time he comes on. Definitely. And it was like, ah, who is Bob McFarren? I said, the guy that did don't worry, be happy, be happy. So, you know, a lot of people don't know his name. The guy that did Don't worry, be happy. So that's what the first thing I saw when you were singing.

SPEAKER_04:

It's definitely gonna be obvious because I just I researched him for years. Really? Like tell us. I take a lot of his material. So tell us. Ah, okay. So a huge influence in my in my sound is Bobby. And um, I I like the fact that his approach to music is quite different from what um a lot of other people. Very. He is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, um, writer, and um, I think for me, what I learned mostly is the freedom with which he does what he does. There's this peace. He just sits there, and whatever sound comes to his head, it bursts it out and brings it to life. Like, I see that every time I'm like, how do you turn the sound of a bird into music? How do you turn like it inspires me, he inspires me a lot. So I still I still check out his material. I go back to his 1970s concerts. Yeah, I sit down, ah, listening to how are you so so talented? But I know it's not just it's it's years of hard work. Yeah. So I I binge a lot on um Bobby McFarland. So once you hear me in that space, once you see me on stage, like I said, on that caro, I I had nothing in mind, but I was so sure that by the time I get on stage, I didn't want, I could, I could have prepared. Yeah, I could have um had a skeletal work, but I wanted to be on that stage and make the music with the audience. I think that was what I wanted to achieve. So I wanted you to give me the word. I wanted to give me the rhythm, then we make it together, and you're seeing the process.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

No, it hits differently when you're seeing someone making the music, and at the end of it, after five minutes, like, oh, we have a song here.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, we do.

SPEAKER_04:

We, you know, you know. So that was what I wanted to achieve. Why when I said that I don't know until I step on the stage, yeah. I do, I don't want to know what I want to do. I think that's what I don't want to know what I want to do. When I get there, I will know. So Bobby Maffari uh taught me all this, all this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

TY Bello will say this way. Uh she calls it the spark.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And someone was asked her once, how do you how do you do what you do? Like photography, you get these amazing images and all of that. And she said, the person was like, You get inspired. She said, It's not really inspiration. I just get a spark.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Like, I don't know what is going to happen between now and when you come for your photo shoot. I don't. But the minute you walk in, I try to get what will happen. And it always comes with this spark. And the minute I get the spark, you know, just like uh the Transformers will call it the all spark. Yeah. It just comes and all of that. So that's what you're explaining. Now, how do people accept your your your style of singing, your style of music?

SPEAKER_04:

There are two different um salacos. There's a salacon stage. Okay. That's the salacon stage. The what the what spark for me, I would say, is switch. Now, if you see me five minutes before I go on stage, you would know I would recognize who I would see five minutes afterwards. Once I get on stage, it's as if um I just I just turn something on and I'm a different person. Yeah. But before then, I'm this person. I I try so much to explain what comes over me when I get on stage. Once I get the microphone, the acceptance of my music was in the audacity with which I do the music. So I was I was I was at home a few days ago, and my daughter came with um a can of spice. She was playing with it and brought it, and I picked it and I started shaking it. I said, Oh, this is a sound. I went to the kitchen, I got pan. So I in my head, I'd like I need to have a kitchen concert with things only from the kitchen. From that, from the fact that I held it, I wanted to return it. I said, Okay, oh hold on, let me see what makes how this how this will come alive. So I started having ideas. So that's how the ideas come. And when those ideas come, I'm bold enough to call people and say, Okay, you know what? Listen to this. It's different, it's new. Yeah. I tried something last week. It's called Freeform Jazz. Okay. First time ever. I listened to Freeform Jazz when I was in France earlier this year, and I saw these guys playing. I I I tell myself this level of excellence, this level of uh expertise should be what should be common in Nigeria. Should be a lot of people do music, they need to have that level of groundedness. They need to be grounded in this music. So I told myself that okay, I will try free form jazz. So at the event last week, I said, guys, I know, in case you are meeting jazz for the first time, you have to pardon me because this is the extreme, this is the extreme form of jazz. And you might have edict at the end of the day. So I I gave the word and I tried it out. They couldn't understand, but they said that this guy seems like you're doing science and music. That's the word. Science and music. Acceptance of me do what I do is in the boldness and my vulnerability. I tell you that this is what this is. I want to try this out with this music. You would enjoy it. You might not understand it, but I think you would enjoy it, and I think you would appreciate it. If you are a purist, if you are an arts purist, you would love what you see. So from there, I gained more confidence to push out what I do. Okay. I push it out, and everybody comes to accept, like, oh, okay, that guy is crazy. I think I think that's the word the user. Oh, is that it's crazy? Salako, is he's crazy. You know, there's this there's this community. Anytime they they want they want to see me, they say, is that a crazy guy? Ah, he's a crazy guy. Is that a crazy guy? So it didn't come. Um, I didn't push it to people. I it was it was in the boldness and in my vulnerability and say, guys, this is what I'm thinking of. Can I express what I'm thinking out in songs? Would you like, would you like to listen to something different? Of course, if you want Afro Beats, you there are a lot of people that would do it. If you want reggae, there are a lot of artists. But if you if you crave something different, I think I can offer something different. So that's the first, that's the entry point. I tell you, I'm offering something different. So you are prepared. And when you listen to it, oh, this is excellent. You love it more. Yeah. Now can I get more? So that was how we started. That's how we started.

SPEAKER_01:

I I hear you, I hear you clearly about experimenting. Like you've done a lot of experimentation. And somehow, because we don't have this actual word for it, we'll call it chance. But actually, it's not chance. You've been experimenting, and somehow you just came upon it. Even if it has been there. Yes, yes, it has. It's just okay, I've discovered a new genre, if you want to call it, or something within the genre. You know, like you have different layers, yes, yes, subgenre. Subgenre and all of that. So, and those who are eclectic in nature, those who are open to new ideas, courageous enough to embrace change, it's like, why not? If not, yes, you know, why not go for it? It's just like when you listen to uh Lu Armstrong. That is hostile voice. Yes, the way he plays the trumpet, and the way he brings the that playful artist into it. He's like, wow, he's doing what he's doing. And before we, before the world came to grapple and all of that, they call it the Sashmo guy. Yes, yes, yes. That's what they call it, the Sashmo guy. And Sashmo all of a sudden became a thing. A thing. It's like, okay, ah, Lou Armstrong, Sashmo, and all of that. Beautiful. Now, your concert in Abuja, how often you have it? The festival is once in a year. Once in a year. December? November. November. Oh, you've had it already. Yes. So tell us about it.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay, like I said, the Abuja International Afro Jazz Festival. Okay. We're in our third year. How did this start? Okay, I worked, I I worked on myself to a point where I realized that okay, my markets, my primary markets, from the survey here, my primary market was Europe. I do a lot of concert here, and majorly Europeans in Abuja are the ones that come. They are the ones that tell their other friends that oh there's this, there's this particular guy in Abuja. And I realized that okay, the acceptance was more than the acceptance of our own people. My own people would say, What is he doing? Like, what's they find it strange? Yeah, they find it so strange. So I realized that, okay, I might have, I might have found something here. So I said, okay. That's if that's my market, the acceptance, I didn't do, I didn't have to do so much to break into the market. I said, I was gonna do I was gonna do something proper with it. So I've been looking at, okay, I need to get into Europe. I've been I've been performing internationally for years, but immediately it's been, oh, I call my friends up in this city. Um, are you in Milan? How many guys can you get me? Can you get me a show promoter? I get there. So we put one or two together, Dubai and all that. But I said, wait, that's not the way to go. If you want to get to that point where they book you globally, take your time. You don't have to rush it. So I said, of course, Europe, market, I'm coming. But let me do it in Africa first. Let me do that thing. Let Africa taste have a taste. And a lot of people, if you don't have, if if you can't travel out to watch festivals, you can you should be able to get that same quality here. I think that was where it started from.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay.

SPEAKER_04:

The same quality I go watch out in France, in Germany. Can we have something like that here where people from different parts of the world bring their music and you are just wild? And that was how the Abuja International Afrojazz Festival started. The first day was with the South African and and a Nigerian band. They call themselves the Afrofour.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay.

SPEAKER_04:

They are my mentors in Afrojazz. The youngest, I mean 50, maybe 50 or so.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_04:

Old OGs, like in jazz music. Oh no. They they they set now. They came to Abuja for my festival and afterwards they went to Europe. I said, Oh, is are you trying to walk the path? They they are individuals, but I think I think they are at this stage of their career and life. They feel like we don't have so much so much time anymore. Can we all come together and give it a last a last push? So my the bass player is my own jazz mentor, my jazz professor. And when they came, it was it was as if Abuja found light. And it was so good. Everybody kept on talking about it. The next year, I had partnership with Norway, the Embassy of Norway, got got a jazz guitarist from Norway. So he felt like, okay, I think we are going international actually. The third year, I'm in partnership with uh Togo, Togo Jazz Festival, Kutonokolia Jazz Festival, the French. So a lot of a lot of partners are now jumping on board. Like what you have in Abuja is actually truly international. Truly, truly international. And um, so we have this festival of I now said, I don't just want jazz, I want cultural music. I don't want you to play the Western jazz for me. I want the jazz. If you're a Chinese coming to my festival, can I listen to your culture? You are playing jazz music, but I want to listen to that, and that makes you unique. So if you're from Congo and you're playing Makosa and you're playing jazz, can we have? So I want I wanted that. I said that Afro would not leave. It's African. It has to show that this is a celebration of African music. So wherever it is you are coming from, show your culture in your jazz. That's what we want to listen to in this place. So the third year, um, we had this Senegalese guy um based in France. Oh God, you know, do a everybody was having good move. Like that growth sound, you know? And I I saw the reaction in the audience, like, yes, people can actually be in Abuja and experience the world. So it feels like um I think my the the objective of having this festival is now coming into to bear. Like I got somebody from Kotonu, my friend, oh Lord. I I, as a performer, I sat down listening to them backstage. I'm like, ah, okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Now this is something everybody should listen to. This is something I want to continue doing. I want to celebrate good music. I want to celebrate, I want people to come and enjoy good music. Yeah. We all deserve it. We do. Yeah, we all deserve it.

SPEAKER_01:

I hear you, I hear you. And you know, the storytelling aspect of singing, you know, I mean, jazz is an amazing genre of music. But when you now look at the storytelling, because from what you're saying are the culture, the different aspects of culture, people from different places expressing themselves, you know, and you can relate with what they are saying. Yes. That's another way of saying that this is a universal language. You don't have to understand their words, but you connect with the music. Exactly. You connect with it perfectly well. And so one other thing, again, one will ask, why are my people, in quote, not appreciating this style of music? But Europeans or people from other climes, you know, so I it's a question we need to ask, not necessarily because we want the answer, but because we are on a journey. Journey. Because again, if you look at our society, Africa, I mean Abuja, Nigeria, we're giving to what I say, easy style of music. Music. Easy style of music, you know, you just I think we didn't get we didn't get to this point um uh at the time.

SPEAKER_04:

I I I would say over the years, it it kept dropping. Okay. Before we got to this easy, everybody accepts the barest minimum. You know, just give me a line, and it kept on, it kept on dropping. And um, I would say that a lot of people didn't did not did not step up. You know, a lot of people in the in the music space, people who are gifted, people who are talented, did not step up, and some other people filled the space. So the the threshold, listening threshold kept on dropping. I I I write songs, and um when I record my songs, I have eight-minute songs, I have ten-minute songs, and they tell me that Salako, nobody will listen to your music. It's too long. I understand you, I hear you, I I know, I know. What how do you how do you how do you think, how do you reason music? That's the question. That's that's the first thing I'm asking you. I want to take, I want to use this music to take you on a journey.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Even during the intro, two minutes I'm not even done. Yeah because I'm birthing so many things at the introductory part of the music before I get into the story.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

And I'm telling you a story of Torties and Dog. I can't just do it. It's not a verse and chorus, verse and chorus, and it's done. No. But I realize that over yeah, over time, people's attention span, social media, he kept he kept dropping. But I think I'm just I'm just that stubborn guy. So I what I do, what I do right now is I do my I do my full song. Yeah, then I now have a radio edit. I say, okay, because for for for radio's sake, for other people's sake, yeah. And now I cut out some parts. But if you really want to listen to the song, you go look for it and enjoy the length, and it the music will take you on a journey. Yeah, you need to experience that journey. I met I met an Indian lady in my last tour, and um, I was she performed. I was star, I was starstruck. She's a jazz, Indian, a jazz, uh, jazz artist. I was standing in front of the stage workshop. Afterwards, I stood there till she finished. I did not leave. Everybody left. I was waiting for her to come out on backstage. I started chatting with her. I said, I listened to your song. She was, I said, I said I'm from Nigeria. She'd never believed that somebody from Nigeria, I was singing her song. I didn't understand the language, but I was like, she kept screaming like. So that's that's what music does to you. You are in India, doing your thing. I'm in Nigeria, and I'm saying, this lady is excellent. She is so good at what can I learn from her music? So I started listening to her music. The day I now finally saw her and she heard that somebody from Nigeria is listening to one Indian song. She almost she was almost shedding tears, and she's a Grammy award winner. Wow. Yeah, so those are the those are those are the those are the footsteps I am following. Those are people who are who are excellent with their craft, who are not just um are not, how do I put it, who are not conforming. Yes, not conforming to yeah, they standout. So I think for me, that's that's that's a major thing for me, standing out, being different. Yeah. If I was, if I was, if I was usual, if I was if I was basic, I wouldn't be having this conversation with you. True. I would just be among one of the other millions of artists.

SPEAKER_01:

The listening, would I say time or span really has fallen. Has fallen. You see a lot of this generation, you see a lot of people going for sound bites and all that. Now, when uh The Queens, uh Mercury and his team. Mercury, yes, and guys, when they started Freddie Mercury. Freddie Mercury and his team, when they started the Raph Suddy of Reality, when they that song. That song. Yeah, the Raph. You know, uh the first time they did it, the studio told them, nobody will listen to your song. It's too long.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And they said, So what do you want us to do? So no, you have to, you have to say, no. Freddie told them up front, if you don't want to produce it, that's not a problem. But this is the song. And it took they did that bohemian rhapsody in the countryside. They went to the village, as we'll describe it, all alone. They used an orthodox space and method to produce and till tomorrow. If you play Bohemian Raspberry, people will listen to it end to end. They've done a lot of there's a jazz piece of Bohemian Rhass, there's classy, there's uh piano version, there's a violin version, there's choir versions and all of that. So it speaks to you standing out. Who will listen to you? So let me ask you who is your audience?

SPEAKER_04:

For every kind of music you do, there's an audience. Yeah. No matter how the worst of the worst, I don't want to mention a name. Someone that we consider uh like was the was what nonsense is this guy singing? He has audience. So when when I told myself that even if the worst of the worst, people that don't understand anything about music, they don't understand keys, they don't understand tempo, can have audience, then that means for everything you do, there's an audience. So the question is who is my audience? Everyone is my audience. Okay. If you appreciate the arts, you'd appreciate what I do. If you appreciate um craziness, yeah. If if you appreciate someone who does music out of nothing, I make music with my own. We are in traffic and I'm hearing somebody um on on the with with the on, I'm like, what key is that? Okay, that's B flat. Okay, what key is mine? I I press on mine. Okay, if it does, I okay, can we those those are the kind of strange things I think about musically, you know? So if you appreciate those kind of things, you would appreciate my kind of music. And I found out that even the Gen Z's, the last festival we had a lot, a lot of young people. Yeah. And I was surprised. I was surprised at um at the turn at their turnout because I assumed in my head that it's only the millennials and older ones that would enjoy African jazz music. But I now saw them in their number. They they were the ones that they stayed to the end. They jumped on the stage, they came on stage singing with the last artist. So it showed me that maybe it's not as niche as I was thinking. Maybe it's not. Offer it, people would respond. Yeah. So everyone is the audience.

SPEAKER_01:

I I like that. Like I encourage people in the art, whatever you're doing, if you know your audience, it feeds you. Yes. You know, I understand the commercial nature. Some of us were driven by the commercial nature and nature, I beg your pardon. But when you come to see your audience, like you're serving them. They're feeding off you. It gives that oxygen to what you do. It does. So, what's your next project?

SPEAKER_04:

Pirates of the Sahara.

SPEAKER_01:

Pirates of the Sahara.

SPEAKER_04:

That sounds dangerous. That's the album.

SPEAKER_01:

Sounds dangerous, like Michael Jackson's dangerous. That's that's the album of the Sahara. What was he about?

SPEAKER_04:

Um Pirates of the Caribbean. Someone was just out on the sea alone, you know, doing making making waves on the sea and, you know, facing different battles and coming out on top. So I think um the story of the Pirates of the Sahara has has a lot a lot to do in that light. Telling myself about um the struggles I've had to overcome from the sub-Sahara Africa, you know, and um overcoming and telling my journey, my story in this project. So I think that's the that's that's where it came from. Okay. The last one was um three fathers, one child. Three fathers, one child. That's as an EP. But this one is a full, full album, The Pirates of the Sahara.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, when are we expecting it?

SPEAKER_04:

April 2026.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, wow. That's Easter package for us. Yes. So what's your favorite thought then?

SPEAKER_04:

The favorite of the of of is Dagonro. Okay. Okay. Dagunro is is is an eight minutes, eight-minute long song. But I think I'm gonna cut it into four minutes. I'm gonna try drag out. The time signature is not the regular 4-4-6, it's a proper jazz 7-8 time signature with a lot of yanny. So you see, you listen to a lot of yanni effects inside it. Um, somebody from from Northern Europe played the guitar. Okay. So to take off on that yanni feel, to get me that yanni feel. And by the time you're listening to the time signature and the brass section, so for me, I think that song, I could give myself a crown, like, okay, Tosin. You this you did well on this song because it took a lot from me creatively. Okay. I I I thought out of the blues, I could um it's everything in in a song. It's everything, and it this song is a story of um Dagunro in Yoruba land. So there's a saying, it's a warning call that okay, if you if you mess with someone, mess with other people, don't try that with me. I think I'm just I'm just different. Um that's if you abused this person, don't think you can get away with it when you come to me. So that's the story behind Dagonro. And I interpreted that song to be like a war, a war cry, okay, a war-like warning. So if you know the if it's not a song, if you know the story of Dagon Roy, and you now listen to my interpretation of that, you realize that okay, I'm actually, I give life to that folklore. I gave life to it. So for me, I think Dagon Ro stands out. What's your expectation for it? What's my expectation? That's the thing. Do I do music for expectation? No, I don't know what you mean by that question. Hold on, hold on, hold on. The way I do music, I 2028, I told myself I want to do an album and I'll play a thousand instruments. I'm going to travel the world, get local instruments from all around the world. A thousand instruments will be played into an album. I'm not thinking who's listening to it. I'm thinking, what am I doing for legacy? I'm thinking, what am I doing that would outlive? I'm thinking, I don't know if you if you understand where I drive. So I do music because I enjoy doing music. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

Why I asked that question, expectation. Okay. So that's piggying back on what I said earlier about commercialization. Oh, okay. So a good number of us who are within the art creative space, the commercial thing has taken the oxygen out of what we do. What we do. You get me? So, but when you have an expectation, what's that expectation? I want to play a thousand instruments. So whoever comes upon this piece or production or whatever will be blown away. That's my expectation. Not necessarily, I want to sell a thousand albums or something. That may come on the back of it. Okay, yeah. You get me? But I'm looking at producing. Just like when you listen to Han Zima.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Now, when you listen to Han Zima, nobody can place Han Zima. You can't place him. It's just if you come to scoring of music, uh movies, movies, then when you come to Han Zima on stage, so you like ask yourself, who is this guy? So practically his expectation is, uh okay, take for example, you listen to Han Zima Resurrection. Okay. The Christ. Yeah, that's the Christ, yes. And you laugh, is this the same person that did that other one? His expectation is he's breaking ceilings everywhere. So Hanzima can come to Nigeria now and tell you Pirates of the Caribbean. No, no, pirates of the Sahara. And say, okay, can I work with you on it? And you'll be amazed what he's going to do. Yeah. So that's what I'm referring to as your expectation. So it's not necessarily one million outcome, one million views.

SPEAKER_02:

No. I'm trying to tell you that can I define this?

SPEAKER_01:

Like, this is music. You take it to this stage, they say, this is music. You take it to your nationality, say, this is music. And then I ask, who is this guy that he has never been taught to Senegal, he's not been to Dubai, but somehow he understands music. You know, so I think, like I said, the first time I heard you sing or your pr your performance, I just told myself, this is different. Very unique, different. And this is somebody who has decided or told himself, I want to do something different. And I'm going to like do it. So now, this project, April, we're all looking out for it now. Tell my audience what you want them to prepare for.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay, so in April, this the I won't say I won't say unfortunate, but it's fortunate. I'll be on tour in April. I'll be on tour in April. And um, so I'm tying the release to the tour. Yeah. So it's gonna be the tour of the pirates of the Sahara. Yeah. So what she should expect, I think what everybody should expect from that project is unique, a unique project. Something that would um that would cover a wide range of Afrocentric topics. I realize that a lot of people, the only thing we sing about is love. It feels like we don't have any other problem in Africa. Because everybody's singing about love, my darling. Most songs are just love themed. And I'm wondering, there are other issues. There are other issues we can talk about, there are other things. There's um traffic impatience. There are so many, there's so many things. There's um high-handedness, there's indiscipline, there's divorce rates, as and there are so many things we could, you know, make music out of. And so for me, I think um one of the other things I'm doing with the project is to show that there are other wider issues that we could use music to address. Yeah, so in the project, also you you get to listen to different things that that's unique to us in this part of the world, is the the global south. I'm not limiting it to just Nigeria, that's why I say Pirates of the Sahara, and you get music that has influences from Senegal, like you mentioned, and other parts, other parts of Africa. So it's just gonna make your earbuds heal, come alive, you know. So that's it.

SPEAKER_01:

So you you you know, another aspect that we miss as a people is our disconnectedness. Because when you say Sahara, Sub-Sahara, Sahara is very broad. Broad. You know, then you have Sub-Sahara, which cuts within West Africa and all that. But when you go and check the cultural nuances of the people along the Sahara, they're the same. Very the same. I I I'll tell you something. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_04:

I was I was I was I was coming, I don't know where I was coming from. And we were around um, I think after Morocco, I was just checking the flight, the flights are map. And I kept on zooming to see. I wanted to know the the towns, the country, the cities before I get to Abuja. So I was writing it down. Okay, I saw this um Timbuktu.

SPEAKER_03:

Timbook two.

SPEAKER_04:

Timbook two. Oh, I wrote it down. I saw I wrote about seven of them leading me to Abuja. Now I went to make research on their music to see just the exact thing you said. Yeah. You still find that connection. Connectedness, yeah. Even though they are different tribes, but there's still a common thing. Yeah. There is very true.

SPEAKER_01:

So that that that's the thing that you have to appreciate as a human being or someone within this spectrum. This spectrum. Yes. If I must use that word. So that's why appreciating music, you must appreciate culture. Culture. Because I hear it. Culture. You know, you walk in the streets of Paris, Milan, New York, as the case may be, and you turn. Why are you turning? So I just heard something.

SPEAKER_00:

Ah, when did you hear? I said, I just heard something. And I can relate with that sound very well. You know? Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Guys, we've been with the Salako. Yes. Don't miss that name. He's tossing Salako, but he is the Salako. So whenever you want to listen to good music, please go listen to him. He's this amazing, he's not just jazzy. He's Afro. He's um Eurasian, if you want to use that. He's uh he's global in his fearless.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes. I use the word fearless.

SPEAKER_01:

Fearless, exactly. So when you listen to him, you you see you hear a lot of you hear a lot of things, just like what the scripture describes as the running of many waters. You hear so many things there. You hear you, if you understand what I mean by that. Before I let him go, I'd like him to tell us what we should know and appreciate about music.

SPEAKER_04:

What you should know and appreciate about music, I think um, I would say this anyone can do music. I've um I've seen it happen over and over again. People who have nothing, who have no idea. Music and they're in the audience, and I turn them into a choir. And afterwards, they're saying, I never knew I could sing. I never knew I could do music. You're not doing it professionally, but because you are in the audience, and I'm saying, okay, guys, can you just say, ah and from the ad they said, I'm taking them, ah, ah, ah, and the excitement. Oh, I love seeing that joy, the excitement. I see a lot of people jumping, like, wow, you made us sing. So anybody can sing. Anybody, creativity is in every human God made. God puts that seed of creativity. But not everyone is called to be a musician, not everybody is called to be an artist, but everybody is gifted in that that creative creative gift is in everybody. So find it out, find it out and use it.

SPEAKER_01:

Amazing. Amazing, guys. You've heard it. We are not all musicians, but we're all musical in nature. Yeah, yes. We're not all uh you know an artist, but we're artistic in nature. But you need to search in words, find it, express it, be you, leave you, embrace you. All right, guys. This is what we came to do on the show today. Uh I I mean, I felt like calling these alako to sit with him and for us to talk, share. You will agree with me, it has been an amazing time, you know. So let's look forward to that. Uh Pirates of the Sahara. I'm looking forward to it myself, you know. And again, go look for his work. You know, he's there. We're in the digital age, is there, so go look for his work, listen to him, and make the best of it. All right, guys. You know how we say it on the show. This is the space where we come in to lean on one another's experience to forge a positive path. Yes, before we go, is our culture here. You know, whoever visits us and sits within this space, we have something for you. And this is from us to you at the World Cafe Podcast.

SPEAKER_04:

Thank you. The World Cafe Podcast, the World Cafe Podcast, the Bad Cat, beautiful.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you so much. Thank you so much. You're welcome. So, guys, that is it from us today. Uh, what do I have to say? Yes, before I go, you know we're available on all the social media platforms. X, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram. The idea, I I I say this all the time, not because it's rhetorical, it's the truth. Part of the reason why we are here is because you're there. Yeah, listening to us. That's why we're here. So go uh follow us. We have a YouTube channel. Yep, look for us, subscribe, hit that notification button so that when episodes like this drop, you'll be the first to uh binge on it, listen to it. Alright, guys, I have to run. I'm not going away. I'm going to put something together for the next episode. Till I come your way again. You know how we say it. My name is Amakri. Amakri, so boy. Bye for now. Peace Alako.

unknown:

Bye.

SPEAKER_01:

See you some other time. I'm sure about that.