11. King Sunny AdéSynchro System
My dad used to prefer Fela Kuti, because he was a mainstream Nigerian rockstar, but at the same time, Sunny Adé was blowing up in a different way, in a more psychedelic direction. He was also touring around the same period Fela was active, so they’re like two sides of the same coin. I like King Sunny because he reminds me of all the psychedelic stuff I listen to. It’s very experimental, improvised live, it’s jamming. I come from a very serious band background because I used to live with my band in the same house. We would jam every day, so I know how it is. And my former band The Seeds Of Datura used to do psychedelic sounds.
King Sunny Adé is crazy. I saw his live shows on YouTube; for me, it was so inspiring to see him playing in Japan and Berlin in the 70s, they had 12 guys playing and the music was so beautiful and it didn’t sound like anything else. People worship King Crimson and Jimi Hendrix, but these guys on the other side were pushing it with sliders and effects and these weird riffs – they’re sometimes offbeat, they’re sometimes not, then they melt together. It’s an experience, and I love that about them. They didn’t use any traditional ways of writing music like in the West, they were playful and feeling.
