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<\/p>\nWhen the band began touring in 2005, Asheville-based Toubab Krewe quickly established itself as a formidable hybrid of African and Western musical traditions. High demand and seemingly boundless energy kept Toubab Krewe on tour almost nonstop for nearly a decade. But something had to give, and the group went on indefinite hiatus in 2014. After an extended break, Toubab Krewe has returned to touring, and has a new album being readied for release.<\/p>\n
The six-piece group came together formally after several of its musicians had played together for some time. Guitarist Drew Heller says that he and Toubab Krewe’s kora (a West African 21-string instrument) player Justin Perkins grew up in the same neighborhood in Asheville. \u201cIn our elementary school days, we’d skateboard to each other’s houses and jam in the basement,\u201d he recalls. They met percussionist Luke Quaranta when studying at Warren Wilson College. \u201cWe also met lots of fellow musicians and dancers who were interested in getting together and playing West African drumming and melodic music,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
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It was during that time that Heller, Perkins, Quaranta and some other friends first started traveling to West Africa, learning and playing music. The music they made bridged African styles with rock ‘n roll, but Heller says that the two forms aren’t as different as some might think. \u201cSome of the heaviest rock and roll I’ve ever heard in my life was in clubs in Bamako, Mali,\u201d he says. And Toubab Krewe, the band they would form, \u201cfelt like a seamless continuation of the path we’d been on since we were little.\u201d<\/p>\n
In October 2004, Heller and Perkins had just returned from a four-month excursion to Mali. \u201cLuke picked us up from JFK International Airport,\u201d Heller says. \u201cWe were fired up and just ready to keep playing music; we started touring almost immediately after that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those early tours were exciting, successful and shambolic. \u201cWe had no idea what we were doing,\u201d says Heller with a laugh. \u201cWe were all piled into our original bassist’s Silverado, just zigzagging around the Northeast. But it was really euphoric to continue traveling and playing music. We were at the right time in our lives to start touring. And for a long time, we never stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heller has few regrets about spending a significant portion of his adult life as a touring musician, but admits that the band eventually grew weary of nonstop life on the road. \u201cThe only thing you’re doing most of the time is driving or waiting in line in the airport,\u201d he says. \u201cNot that it’s terrible or anything, but you’re spending your time just getting through the travel day.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that life wasn’t conducive to putting down roots. \u201cBeing on tour for too many years in a row, it started feeling like our roots were sparking and catching on fire as they dragged down the highway behind us,\u201d Heller says. The members of Toubab Krewe wanted to be playing and writing new music, but they decided collectively to, as Heller says, \u201ctake a moment to get centered.\u201d Bassist Justin Kimmel headed home to Brooklyn; Quaranta and drummer Terrence Houston returned to New Orleans, while Perkins and Heller came back to Asheville.<\/p>\n
Heller says he has cherished his three years off the road and back in Asheville. But like his band mates\u2014Toubab Krewe never \u201cbroke up,\u201d so to speak\u2014he’s remained quite busy musically here at home. \u201cI like to play at 5 Walnut every Wednesday night,\u201d Heller says, and he’s involved in Black Mountain-based band Floating Action as well as the Stephanie Morgan Band. Heller says he’s also been immersed \u201cin a full range of projects\u201d with his father, composer-producer Steven Heller.<\/p>\n
But after time spent at home starting a family, Heller began to miss the road. His band mates felt the same. So this year Toubab Krewe eased itself back into action, first with some theme music for NPR’s Milk Street<\/i>, a 15-date fall tour, and a new album due out in 2018. The band’s approach to touring has changed from the old days, however.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing away from touring has helped give us some good perspective,\u201d Heller says. \u201cWe’re definitely planning on touring countrywide\u2014and then worldwide\u2014 but not necessarily for six or eight weeks at a time.\u201d He readily admits that the band had received advice years ago to tour in moderation. \u201cBut you can’t really hear that kind of advice when you’re younger,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Heller says that fans of Toubab Krewe’s previous releases are in for some surprises with the new Stylo<\/em> album. He notes that the leadoff single, \u201cThat Damn Squash\u201d doesn’t sound like the rest of the album. \u201cWe’re definitely not picking up where we left off,\u201d he says. \u201cThe band has continually changed throughout our history. But the approach [on the new album] is the same in that we try to keep ourselves open for change, both in the moment and in longer-form change that occurs gradually.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When the band began touring in 2005, Asheville-based Toubab Krewe quickly established itself as a formidable hybrid of African and Western musical traditions. High demand and seemingly boundless energy kept […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13856,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,49,76],"tags":[237,3292],"class_list":["post-13855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-new-release","category-world","tag-asheville","tag-toubab-krewe","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","cat-76-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13855"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13860,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13855\/revisions\/13860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}