Sinkane’s Ahmed Gallab is making universal music
Sinkane’s uplifting, multifaceted grooves are unrestrained by genre and geography. The melodies on the new Life & Livin’ It include elements drawn from country music, jazz, funk, reggae, rock, African psychedelia and Cuban dance rhythms. In the hands of Ahmed Gallab, the group’s main songwriter and bandleader, they blend together seamlessly, giving a joyful boost to lyrics that deal with people wandering through the world longing for some kind of emotional or spiritual connection.
“I’m an optimistic person,” says Gallab. “So I want to talk about the problems of the world in a positive way. Artists like Funkadelic and Bob Marley were grounded in reality, but their music always made you feel better. This album is about my experiences of coming from Sudan and growing up in America. I never felt at home in either place. The songs are about those identity issues.”
Gallab was born in London to Sudanese parents. The family traveled frequently between Sudan and the United States, absorbing the music and culture of both countries. “My father listened to jazz and Sudanese, Middle Eastern and African music. I took those elements, as well as sounds drawn from country music, and boiled them down to their essence. African and Cuban rhythms, reggae and the sound of the pedal-steel guitar put me in touch with a profound feeling of connection. Poor folks created reggae, country music and a lot of African music to express a sense of immediacy and struggle. I related to that and wanted to see what would happen if I brought all those elements together.”
Life & Livin’ It evolved over a busy six-year period. Gallab was constantly touring with Sinkane and spinning records in clubs as a DJ. He was also the musical director for the Atomic Bomb Band!, a group that played the music of Nigerian funk innovator William Onyeabor, with a large cast of famous musicians, including David Byrne and Pharoah Sanders.
“Playing with my heroes taught me how to lead a band and put on a show,” says Gallab. “I learned how to bridge the gap between a live performance and a studio recording. When I started working on this album, I spent three months alone in my studio, laying down guitar, drums, percussion and ambient sounds. Then the boys in the band came in. We learned the songs and went on tour. When we got into the studio, we played almost everything live.”
The album’s soul searching, largely autobiographical lyrics were written by Gallab’s longtime collaborator Greg Lofaro. “We spent a lot of time talking about what we were trying to say,” says Gallab. “I need to feel something to be creative, but Greg’s incredibly thoughtful. He kept asking me to explain my feelings and get deeper into them. He was like a therapist, with an amazing gift for making personal feelings universal. He won’t let me give up when I get stuck, which is important in a writing partnership.”
—j. poet
