Dave Okumu represents sonic London in its highest echelons. From Kenyan heritage, to London living, by way of being born in Austria, he both sips from the cauldron and adds to the potion of this unique multicultural melting pot. With his role as founder of Mercury-nominated band The Invisible, and his ‘invisible’ role as producer for many artists, including on Jessie Ware’s Mercury winning album, he adds flavour to every musical endeavour. Who better to team up with one of the most vibrant, distinctive voices of the British music scene – Shingai Shoniwa of The Noisettes – for a commissioned show exploring their African roots, to be premiered at this year’s Norfok and Norwich Festival.


We’re doing this interview ahead of your Norfolk and Norwich Festival gig, ‘Stars Align’ with Shingai Shoniwa, from the Noisettes. What can you tell us about it? It’s really exciting. It just feels like a really amazing opportunity to collaborate with Shingai. We’ve known each other for years, but we’ve just never worked together. I’ve been a fan of hers, particularly as a performer, for a number of years, so it’s great to finally have a chance to work with her. It’s also an amazing opportunity to write and arrange for a choir in a collaborative way. It ties in with the incredible occasion of the Commonwealth Games 2014 as well, so yeah, it’s just a really exciting proposition all the way round. In terms of the piece of music, I suppose what I can tell you is that we’ve sort of spoken about making something that reflects our shared heritage, in a way, as two creative people who come from the continent of Africa, but who are also influenced by a lot of music that’s made over here.


Dave, to me you embody the London sound, even though you were born in Austria, and your parents were from Kenya, because that’s kind of the London way, isn’t it? To produce something that’s greater than the sum of its multicultural parts. Yeah, it’s really what makes it so exciting for me. Tere’s that sense constant cross-pollination; so many cultures coming together and speaking to each other, in a way. To me, it’s incredibly exciting, what that produces. I feel that all the music and literature


16 / May 2014/outlineonline.co.uk


and art that I’ve been inspired by has that quality to it. Tere’s that sense that there’s an individual, or a collective, and it’s how they filter their several influences in a really, really personal way. It’s about how many threads can still have a kind of universal quality about them. I love, for example, listening to contemporary dance music or electronic music, and I often hear rhythms that I recognise from traditional African music, you know?


I know you’ve had really limited time with Shingai now she’s living in LA. Is ‘Stars Align’ something you’ve had to improvise with when you’re together, or have you been laying some stuff down ready to pounce on when she comes over? Well, it’s kind of been a combination of the two things; we talked about how we might like to approach a composition and we looked at the various points of inspiration for us, like what we’re into at the moment. It also felt very important to us, even though it’s a unique opportunity, that it felt like it was part of a pre-existing thread of creativity. It’s quite a long piece of music; it’s about 15 minutes, so I’ve been looking at ways of expanding that and arranging that for 20 voices! Ultimately this piece, in the first instance, will be performed with two different choirs, so you’re trying to envisage how that might work. I suppose for me, when I’m writing music, I always want it to serve the people I’m writing it for, so you know, I really want it to be an enjoyable thing for the choir to sing. Tere’s an aspect that you kind of have to use your


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