Northern Thorns is my take on classic 70’s Congolese hard soukous, cavacha and rumba rock. I blend African rhythmic devices with English lyrics and my background as a jazz and rock composer.
I fell in love with these music genres when I discovered Orchestre Kiam on the Awesome Tapes From Africa blog in 2014, and I haven’t honestly listened to much else since. There’s a very deep well of music from 70’s Kinshasa and Brazzaville; the scene was amazingly rich. For countless months now I’ve fallen further into that well every time I go back, and I’ve discovered so much great music and so many great bands.
“Northern Thorns uses Cavacha sounds with an indie-pop twist.” (Vanguard Seattle)
The music is almost all in lingala, or French of course, Congo having been a Belgian colony at one time. I speak neither, and I was surprised to find that my new favorite music was unintelligible to me. So, I wanted some rumba rock in English. I also saw a number of elements in Congo music that I had been gravitating toward for some time: ensemble vocals, highly syncopated rhythms as a source of melody, danceability, patience and repetition.
So, I decided I’d make my own version of it, in English. Its for myself, and it’s a new audience that was likely cheated out of such great music by simple proximity.