Stefaan, Steven, being former members of Belgian Afrobeat Association, you're both well acquainted with the afrobeat genre. When did you first start thinking of putting an afrobeat band together again?
Stefaan Blancke (saxophone, trombone): "That all happened rather by accident. For the past few years, Mark (Meeuwissen, red.), the trombone player in the band, has been organizing a kind of street party in his back garden, commonly known as the Brialmontlei-feesten. Mark is also a former member of Belgian Afrobeat Association and for the fifth edition of his garden party he proposed getting the whole band back together again for a unique reunion concert. I liked the idea, but for various reasons it proved impossible to get all musicians to agree. Remember that Belgian Afrobeat Association was a band with around twenty-five musicians on stage! With those who showed themselves willing, we decided to go ahead anyway, and that first time we played together we mainly focused on Fela Kuti covers and a few tracks from the Belgian Afrobeat Association era. We still did a few more concerts after that, but I didn't feel like repeating something I'd already experienced, so we decided on a fresh start. A few musicians decided to call it a day at that point and some others, like Steven (Vangool, red.) joined up. With this line-up we've now been playing for almost a year."
I suppose one of the reasons Belgian Afrobeat Association split was because of the sheer size of the band, but even in this new line-up I still counted around ten musicians on stage. Is that still viable in the current economic climate?
Steven Vangool (bass): "Well, ten musicians still aren't twenty-five of course, but you don't have to join a band like this for the money that's for sure! (laughs)"
Stefaan Blancke: "Eleven is still a viable number, and even Belgian Afrobeat Association lasted for a number of years, so I guess it just depends on the energy you want to put in. Of course Belgium remains a small country, so it's no use dreaming about hundreds of concerts a year, but I think, with the kind of music we play, we should also be able to get some bookings abroad. There's definitely an audience for our music and it's been a few years since Belgium had its own afrobeat ensemble."
We're talking about afrobeat now, but you guys also play some songs with a distinctive South-African township jive vibe.
Stefaan Blancke: "That's something our drummer brought to the mix. Jelle (Van Giel, red.) visited South-Africa quite recently and returned invigorated by the sounds he discovered there. At this moment we're still trying to decide in which direction we want to see this project evolve, but I guess as long as it's fun anything goes. To refer to your previous question, if you want to keep a project like this economically viable, it's best not to focus too rigorously on one genre."
What's the story behind the Shakara United band name?
Steven Vangool: "It just sounds like the name of a cool soccer team! (laughs) We're eleven musicians on stage, it doesn't need much of an explanation. (laughs)"
Stefaan Blancke: "What Steven is saying is absolutely right, but there's also a more profound reason why we chose that name. To me it's quite important that a band name makes some kind of sense. In pidgin-English, a kind of patois spoken all over Nigeria, "shakara" means something like "braggadocio" or "arrogance" and being a bunch of white crackers daring to play afrobeat at least takes a bit of guts, right? The word "united" has a very different meaning among African musicians than it does over here. When we want to schedule a rehearsal, a lot of agenda's have to be synchronized, but in countries like Ghana and Nigeria, a lot of musicians share one living space and have an almost commune-like living style with rehearsals taking place day and night. By adding that part to our band name, we're making a bit of a statement: we'll never play afrobeat like true African musicians will play it, for the simple fact we're not Africans, but also because our lifestyle really differs from theirs."
Coming September you guys will be recording a live album at Zuiderpershuis. Is Shakara United rather a live band than a studio project?
Steven Vangool: "That might well be the case, yes, but the great thing about these African rhythms is the fact they are very organic; Babs (Jobo, percussion, red.) always describes them as "communication" and that's something that's far easier to evoke live than in a studio."
Stefaan Blancke: "Apart from that, it's also a very cheap way to record an album and still end up with a good quality record. We really need a good recording to promote ourselves as a band, because even though album sales might have plummeted, a record is still the ideal calling card if you want to get booked in the club circuit. Personally, I also think we're not quite ready to record in a studio yet and doing a live recording offers an ideal substitute."
Both Zuiderpershuis and the Sfinks festival have lost their government grants. Has world music gone out of fashion again?
Steven Vangool: "A lot of European countries have seen a political shift to the right the past few years and more recently that's also starting to reflect in policy. As musicians we can only do what we do best and in our case that's playing "world music"."
Stefaan Blancke: "Personally I've never really understood why "world music" should automatically be linked to a leftwing political vision. Everything comes and goes, so in times of strife and tribulation it's important to persist in what you are doing. It's definitely sad that established institutions like the Sfinks festival or Zuiderpershuis are tossed aside like that, but on the other hand maybe we've been spoiled by the overload of world music the past few years."