Out of Africa
The Nelson Mail | Thursday, 14 December 2006
The release of Nelson musician Ras Judah's new album is the latest step in an international musical journey. He talks with Nick Ward.
Judah Seomeng sits on his porch at Mahana with a cup of tea, watching the sun set. He's just returned from Wellington and a gig at the famous Bar Bodega with his reggae band OneVibe, and is still buzzing over the warm reception in the capital.
"It was a great crowd. It was a pleasure to play for them."
Positive words are something you hear a lot from Seomeng, a slight, soft-spoken fellow with a radiant smile beaming out from between his dreadlocks.
Plenty of talented new arrivals have spiced up Nelson's music scene over the years, but when Seomeng arrived here from Botswana just over two years ago, he had a swag of songs ready to help whet the Kiwi appetite for reggae. Since then, he has become a familiar face, both as a solo artist and as the frontman of OneVibe.
Ras Judah (ras, the Ethiopian word for duke or chief, is a common title among reggae musicians) recently cemented his arrival with the release of the album Jah Warrior. It's been a long time coming - the songs were recorded in Africa four years ago - but the wait has been worth it.
Seomeng, 36, has been playing music since he was a child. Growing up, he played traditional instruments - the segaba, a musical bow; and the setinkane or mbira thumb piano, a rhythmic instrument made of tuned lengths of metal.
The thumb piano is usually played by groups, with some players creating a rhythm and others improvising melodies. When this happens, Seomeng says, "you can hear them almost talk".
His biggest influence was his grandfather, who also made musical instruments - "he was the one who made me play, because he always had them lying around". Seomeng also sang in choirs, which are popular in Botswana.
He became a Rastafarian as a result of studying history in high school, and Rasta ceremonies, with their emphasis on drumming and chanting, became another influence.
"The thing that put me into reggae was Rasta. I was Rasta before I was reggae."
Seomeng started performing in public about 1992, as guitarist with a roots reggae band called The Artists. After it split up, he passed through another band, Crucial, before joining Botswana's top reggae band, Stepping Razor.
"By that time, I was singing and writing lots of songs," including the title track for the band's album, African Children.
In 1998, Seomeng visited Greece, England, Scotland and Ireland, playing gigs and jamming with local musicians wherever he could.
"It was a great time ... a journey of musical discovery."
By 2001, he was ready to leave his homeland.
"We had played everywhere in Botswana, and I wanted new sounds and experiences."
The solution lay over the border - he formed the Africa Oneness band with South African musicians, and regular gigs followed, including one where visiting Jamaican reggae star Chaka Demus joined the band on stage.
While staying with Botswanan students in South Africa, Seomeng was given a chance to have more of his songs recorded.
"There were a couple of guys who were studying sound engineering, and they were doing projects for their end-of-year examination, and they needed some music."
He ended up giving eight students a song each, and kept a copy of the demo recordings, including the first versions of songs that would end up on Jah Warrior.
"That gave me more inspiration - `Okay, now I have a demo, I can find some musicians and record these properly'."
Seomeng headed to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe in July 2002 to record the songs for Jah Warrior with a band that included musicians from Botswana, South Africa, Malawi and Zimbabwe.
The recording and mixing was done in a 15-hour stint one weekend. "There was a lot of pressure because I didn't have a big budget.
"It was meant to be a final recording, but I was never happy with the results. The equipment we used was older equipment, and we weren't able to mix it properly."
An attempt to master the album at a Johannesburg studio produced little improvement, because the $120-an-hour cost meant the job was rushed.
Seomeng brought the recordings with him when he moved to Nelson with his Kiwi partner and their son in 2004. A previous visit, during which he played several gigs and recorded two songs at the Artery (now the Hub), had convinced him of the musical opportunities on offer here.
He originally wanted to work with local reggae band Wicked Draw, but a chat with that band's bass player, Aubrey Toko, piqued his interest in Toko and drummer George Mill's plans for a band called OneVibe.
"It fit well with Africa Oneness - it was the same concept I had, of being one."
Thanks largely to Seomeng's songs and upbeat stage presence, OneVibe has become a popular live act, venturing to Christchurch, Wellington and the West Coast.
Seomeng has also been busy playing solo gigs, and holding storytelling sessions for children, based on African folk tales from his childhood - another talent he learned from his grandfather.
Meanwhile, Nelson sound engineer Rhys Clark began remixing the Jah Warrior tracks earlier this year, with help from other local musicians. Producer Ryan Beehre of Minuit fame did the final mastering, and the album was finally released last month.
Seomeng is "very pleased" with the results, as he had seen the album as unfinished business that was holding up his other plans.
"Now I can carry on. Sometimes you have to let something go after you have been working on it for a long time.
"He wants to do more recording in the new year, including OneVibe songs, solo work and a collaboration with Harry Bretherton, aka DJ Fiction, of Nelson drum'n'bass crew Organikismness.
His other plans for the year include studying at the Nelson School of Music, further touring and a visit to Botswana to play with his old friends in Stepping Razor to celebrate the band's 10th anniversary.
He is constantly writing new songs, especially about social and political issues. Some start out as poems, some as rhythms, "sometimes stories, sometimes feelings, sometimes experiences".
"Normally, I just sit down somewhere and then it comes.
"Every song that I come across, or exciting new rhythm I learn, it teaches me something.
"New Zealand music, I'm hearing a lot of it, and it gives me inspiration, and I want to try new things, to mix my African roots with New Zealand roots and see what happens."
He likes Kiwi audiences and the strength of dub here, but laments the fact that world and folk music are not as strong here as they are elsewhere.
"The people are the same; it's just, sometimes, the music is slightly different.
"Nelson is a very good place for a creative mind," he laughs. "It's a place that God made for the artist."
