By SussexEveryDay
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26 Feb, 2020
Chris, how long has Samaki been running? How did all start? Samaki was formed a year and half ago. Living in Hastings as a musician, it’s impossible to ignore how much people love music here and how eclectic the live scene is genre wise. It seemed right that there should be an afrobeat group added to the local lineup of bands. With that in mind I went around getting like minded musicians together and the rest is history. I have fond memories of playing songs from the afrobeat lexicon at school in New Zealand where I grew up. One day there, an English band called Moire Music fronted by Trevor Watts visited our school and introduced us kids to the world of afrojazz. Something I’d never forgotten and it was a huge influence on me musically. Just a few decades later I found myself living in Hastings and discovered that Trevor actually lived there. It seemed like a sign. And how did you decide on the name Samaki? Samaki is the Swahili word for fish. As we’re Hastings based we wanted there to be some sort of reference to our geographic location. Could you try to sum up your sound in just three words? Soaring Melodic Groove Some of your influences include Fela Kuti, Tony Allen and Oscar Sulley. How can their influence be heard in some of your music? The 3 names you mention are intrinsically part of the genre of music we call afrobeat. If you perform their tunes or perform like them stylistically, you’re in a way carrying on their musical legacy. It’s unavoidable. We play a Fela Kuti song in our set - Water Get No Enemy, and it’s in this song that it becomes obvious that the combination of relentless groove and highly melodic hooks make afrobeat what it is.