Out Creepin'

As a lover of Afropop, I long ago accepted that to listen to my favourite music, I was going to need to accept music in languages I didn't speak. As a result I think I'm somewhat ambivalent on the issue of lyrical content. There are lots of songs the lyrics of which are absolutely essential and inspiring and all the rest. But there is just as much music which is every bit as essential to me and even after all this time and an Internet of information at my disposal, I neither know nor especially value the lyric content.

So when it started to become the case that I found myself writing a drum ensemble piece that was inspired by Babtundi Olatunji's Drums of Passion album, I realized that the best tribute I could pay was to write lyrics the content of which was not the focus. I wanted to capture the energy and vitality of those amazing old albums, I needed lyrics to chant along with the vibe I was creation, and I didn't want to let interpretation get in the way.

All of which is to say that the lyrics of this song literally mean nothing. I reached for the language of the sacred, but not the meaning. The result is something that sounds oddly reminiscent of Doctor John's more psychedelic stuff on Gris Gris.

There are approximately 16 tracks of my performance in this one song. The instruments run the gammut of about everything I've got in the studio, including djembe, darbuka, cymbals, cowbells and woodblocks. Hell, there's even some sleigh bells in there. The vocal performances are separate from the drum tracks. It probably took about a week of takes to get this right, with enough narrative to feel like a complete song.