Just A Band: Building The New Sound Of Kenya

Just A Band is an Kenyan band/arts collective whose music defies categorization.

They blend electronica, funk, jazz and African rhythms to create music that is completely unique.

Dan Muli recently wrote in to discuss their fusion of styles, their approach to art and the biggest misconceptions about Kenya. They are playing SXSW 2012.

For more info on Just A Band, check out http://www.just-a-band.com/.

You mix so many different styles of music together. Your music goes beyond labels. How do you feel your sound has evolved since you first started out?
The music’s become louder and less noodly… That’s probably the big difference between the first two albums. It probably has to do with all the live experience we had in between the albums; the first one was a real bedroom-musician project, built off of ideas that we had been experimenting with for a while, and the great response to that album led to us actually getting out and playing our songs and DJing and getting a feel for how stuff works on stage, and the second album ended up different because of that. The new music we’re working on feels like more of a marriage of the two mentalities.

How does your songwriting process work?
We used to jam in person a lot more, but nowadays it’s all shifted to everyone being on their computers and putting down ideas, presenting it to everyone else and then the files being passed around and having things added that way, up until songs feel complete.

What do you love most about the music scene in Kenya?
The current scene hasn’t become tied down to any fixed rules on how to do things, yet, which makes for an interesting freewheeling environment. It’s fun to participate in building something new.

What do you feel are the biggest misconceptions about Kenya?
That every story coming from our country is a sad one. There is a lot of difficulty, but there’s a lot more to the country than that. Kenya is as complicated and interesting a place as you might find.

What have been some of your favorite shows you’ve played?
We did a street party outside the Goethe Institute to open our “Kudishnyao!” exhibition here in Nairobi, that was nuts; even the drizzle started at the perfect time in our set! The OkaySummer party in New York was also lots of fun, the crowd was so live we threw out a lot of what we’d planned and just went with the vibe.

What are some of your favorite places to play outside of Kenya and why?
We’ve only played in a couple of places outside our home country… The New York crowd was very hype!

How would you describe a Just A Band concert?
It’s a trip… We do a bunch of different things on stage; DJing, electronic shenanigans, and sometimes we whip out guitars and more live instrumentation, and we might also have cans of silly string with us on stage so the whole thing starts to feel more like a party than a gig… So, in a word, Fun. :D

What do you feel it is about your music that relates to so many people?
We don’t really know! Haha… We just try to make stuff that we like, and we’re excited that people like it…  Our thinking is that it should be something moving, whether it’s groovy or atmospheric, and we try to say stuff in an interesting way in the music, and have some fun with it. Maybe the combination of all that is what people gravitate towards…

What artists do you always find yourself listening to?
Our wildly divergent tastes range from Bjork and N*E*R*D to Daft Punk and Jamiroquai via J Dilla and The White Stripes. We also keep going back to the early music of the Ogopa DJs, who are Kenyan producers, and South African artists like DJ Cleo.

You also create visual art and videos. How do you approach creating visual arts differently than music?
Jim was reminding us recently about how it’s only music that hits people in a way that gets as visceral a response from someone as dancing, or bobbing your head. So, in a way, we just rely a lot less on thinking than on feeling when we’re doing music, and for the visuals they tend to be thought out a lot more. Although, we do think about the music, and feel out the visuals, but the emphasis is a bit different.

Do you have a quote or motto that you live by?
The dog that chases its tail… will be dizzy. -George Clinton.