{"id":41048,"date":"2020-01-17T11:59:48","date_gmt":"2020-01-17T10:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/gafacci-electronic-storyteller\/"},"modified":"2020-05-16T14:13:12","modified_gmt":"2020-05-16T13:13:12","slug":"gafacci-electronic-storyteller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/gafacci-electronic-storyteller\/","title":{"rendered":"Gafacci, electronic storyteller"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"gafacci<\/h4>\n

If the afrobeats phenomenon is spreading extensively in the West African music industry, some artists have chosen to offer something different. Gafacci, Ghanaian producer, is part of the package.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

His music, asokpor, is an explosive cocktail of ingredients harvested from different musical zones. The artist prepares his product on ultra-fast bpms clocked to West African electronic rhythms, enhanced by the musicality of his mother tongue, Ga. The philosophy is simple: <\/span>Jowaaa<\/span><\/i>, “dance hard”. As his EP <\/span>Face The Wall<\/span><\/i>\u00a0is out now, the producer gave PAM some of his time in his Labadi district, from where he draws his inspiration daily.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n


You started professionally in 2010, right before the azonto phenomenon to which you contributed, notably with the hit Kpo Kpo o Body. How do you recall of this period?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

It was surreal when it happened. I started with doing club-oriented sounds and when the whole Azonto movement started, it was right timing. I love how the music expanded from just Accra to the globe. The experience was great, and I was actually just doing this music from an internet caf\u00e9, because I had no laptop or PC. I made all the beats of someone\u2019s album in that same internet caf\u00e9. It gave me the confidence that I could do something at home and it could reach different corners of the world. But at that time, I already wanted to do what I do now: the bpm on Kpo Kpo o Body was already close to the ones I use on my current projects! But I was working with a rapper so I was making a lot of Atlanta hip-hop type beats, I couldn\u2019t be at liberty to do the stuff I really liked. I also didn\u2019t know about Soundcloud and I didn\u2019t have a sufficient clout on my own to make people listen to what I was doing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n


When we look for Gafacci online, you are described as a techno producer, azonto, afrobeats, electro\u2026 how do you describe your own sound?\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

I make asokpor music. It\u2019s a local term in Ghana. I began this asokpor thing around 2016. At that time, I was trying to make a shift from the mainstream scene to create my own community around electronic sounds, and I realized that there is an alternative live musician scene here but no prominent electronic artists. With my team, we are trying to set up a platform for electronic artists who feel marginalized. We organize events, electronic-oriented parties with DJs from Europe who come and play with the local DJs. It\u2019s mainly about establishing a community. From the beginning I just wanted to have a voice so that I could put other people up. My music also has a message, it speaks about things that inspire me in my community every day. I want people to listen to my music and say \u201cwow, this guy is telling us a story\u201d.\u00a0
\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Gafacci<\/p>\n


Your music has some resemblance with the Angolan kuduro or the South African Gqom. Is that an influence in your sound?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Yes! I\u2019m highly influenced by those Southern African genres. I listen a lot to Angolan music: Tarraxo, Tarraxinha\u2026 Buraka Som Sistema! This is what gave me a different perspective and a direction to what I want to do. I love Lusophone stuff: Angola, Portugal, Cabo Verde, Mozambique\u2026 I also feel like there are certain similarities between kuduro and our own asokpor. Their music has (<\/span>Gafacci mimes a rhythm<\/span><\/i>) <\/span>pa pa pa pa-pa pa<\/span><\/i>, and we have <\/span>pa pa pa pa-pa<\/span><\/i>, you get it? The beat\u2019s rhythm has the same swing. And about South Africa, when I went there in 2010, I came back with Kpo o Body. I was heavily inspired by this trip and everything I saw there. The dances for example: around that time the Gwara Gwara dance was crazy, you had to be there to believe it. I was also inspired by the way they produce their music there, like the way they use their local elements with foreign influences. I was studying their sequence and the phonetics they use in their sounds. Sometimes I used to make music speaking my Ga language, but I would mimic how a South African or an Angolan guy would sing on a song.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n


You talk a lot about the lower masses and their impact on music. If you want to touch them with your sound, why did you choose to shift away from mainstream music?\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

I want to touch the masses but I stopped doing the mainstream thing because of the structure. We don\u2019t have a proper structure in this country for artists in general, and it was difficult for me to explore certain areas of my talent. I want to set a blueprint. I\u2019m from the mass. I grew up in Labadi and my family stays in Labadi still. I resonate and relate more with the mass than with anyone. I\u2019m doing my music almost like an activist: to be independent of the system so that in the future, if a guy from Labadi wants to be like Gafacci, there is a blueprint for him and he doesn\u2019t need to knock on anybody\u2019s door.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n


Two years ago, in an interview for Ransom Notes you said that \u201cthere is no scene\u201d for the music you do in Accra. Has that changed?\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

No, and it is so disappointing that you are asking that same question again and I have to give you the same answer\u2026 It means I haven\u2019t done a good job. Maybe there is an underground scene in Accra that I don\u2019t know about and that I would want to know about, so to anyone reading this interview, if there is something I should know, please reach out to me. From what I know, I can say boldly that there is no place for us at the table.\u00a0
\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Gafacci\"<\/p>\n


An important step for artists in the Ghanaian music industry is apparently to put their songs on the radio. How does an artist like you gain attention with your music?\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Social media, events I organize\u2026 Some good DJs play my songs once in a while, but with the stuff I do now, I don\u2019t think radio would benefit me. I enjoy the underground nature of what I do. I am building a foundation and I\u2019m doing all the dirty stuff right now, so it is not the good timing to be too much exposed. I care about the music; I don\u2019t want to do music just because I know people can make a living of it. My dad was a musician and I saw all the experiences he went through. For now, I can work with the radio but I won\u2019t die for it. The internet is my radio.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n


Something that comes back often in your work is your close relationship with Accra and Labadi: in your upcoming EP, the title of your tracks are Ghanaian concepts that are truly authentic to Accra. Tell us about it.\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

I have a very strong tie with Labadi because I\u2019ve lived here over 20 years. I have history here, I have my family here and if the world rejects me I can run to them. This is also where I learned how to make music. Labadi means a lot to me, and music is the one thing that keeps me grounded to my roots: without it, I wouldn\u2019t care about anything. I don\u2019t have activities ot any communal engagement at the moment but it\u2019s something that I look up to do in the future. I\u2019m gaining a bit of prominence and with time I really want to give everything back to my community. The people don\u2019t even know it but I do my music for the people. It\u2019s not about me. I want people in the world to know when they listen to my sound that this guy is from Labadi \u2013 Accra.<\/p>\n

The <\/span><\/i>Face The Wall<\/span> EP\u00a0is out now and Gafacci will be touring Europe next summer.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n