Believe it or not, Novalima has been around for over 10 years. While they gained the respect of global audiences with their 2006 release of Afro, the four Peruvian producers had already released their debut album, and through curious means I must add, to a Peruvian audience. With 10 years of a career under their belt, the band has traveled the world, put Peruvian music on the map, bridged gaps between older and younger musical generations, merged barriers between world music audiences and popular ones, have been featured in a soundtrack, and have scored a Grammy nomination. While this all sounds exhausting, they've managed to pull it all off as gracefully as their music. Their latest effort lies in Karimba, where they’ve dug deeper into world electronic sounds and incorporated even more Afro-Peruvian rhythmic beats. Being Peruvian myself, I can personally say that they've introduced me further into my own culture.
Fresh off their latest U.S. tour, Ramon Perez took the time to chat with us.
You guys just finished wrapping a tour around the U.S., how did it go and what was the reception with the new sounds?
We were in Le Poisson Rouge in NYC and we played to a packed house; it was a total hit. We featured Rob Garza from Thievery Corporation as a guest DJ, and it harnessed an incredible party. We also had three dates in Washington DC, where we played at the 9:30 Club. We opened for Thievery Corporation all three nights and the reception that we received was a true surprise for us. We've played D.C. before but these gigs introduced us to a whole new range of an audience. The last date was in Miami, where we have a steady following so it was another packed house, the energy was incredible.
Your sound combines traditional Peruvian African beats with electronic backgrounds, I can picture your Peruvian audience dancing with the classic Afro moves they learned when they were kids, but how does your international audience react in your shows?
Whenever we're in Europe we play to an audience that isn't familiar with Afro-Peruvian dancing, but since the beat and rhythm of the music is so contagious the audience just moves their feet and dance as they occur. The American audience is more uninhibited, they dance whichever way. They don't care how they look they just express how they feel. That's the great thing about our African beats, that they're very contagious and they infect the audience to dance.
Novalima formed over 10 years ago, in a time where Peruvian patriotism and pride was at its lowest point. When you guys debuted, were you received as the next Peruvian hit, or did you have better recognition from the international market?
The answer to this is pretty peculiar. The first album that Novalima released gained a lot of popularity in Lima; in fact, it wasn't even released worldwide, we only released it in Peru. We actually relied on the black market to get the word out. We pirated our own music and it helped us gain success, which in return helped us move forward with the project. The first album combined Latin rhythms with Peruvian percussion so it was something new and distinct and electronica was already gaining more and more following around the years 2000 - 2003, so I think that this reeled in our local fans. However, when we launched our second album, Afro, which we released worldwide, we explored further into Afro-Peruvian rhythms; it really didn't really have relative success in Peru like it did overseas. Afro helped us get the attention of the international audience. In time we released Koba Koba, we got the Grammy nomination, and now we have our latest album called Karimba released with ESL Music, which has helped us achieve a following in Peru and we're now well known. Of course, there are still some people that haven't heard of us yet. For the most part the Peruvian mentality has changed a lot from our military past in the 70s and 80s and terrorism. I think that the pride of the Peruvian people had been lacking self-esteem in general. In the past 10 years, with all the changes that have occurred with our gastronomy and our improving economy, Peruvians have become more proud of their culture and I think this change has aided in the success of Novalima. I think we came in at the right time, it was perfect timing.
You've already had a chance to work with incredible artists and Peruvian music masters. Do you still have names left in your list of artists that you want to work with and further collaborate?
We're constantly working with diverse musicians when we do our live sets, such as Juan Medrano Cotito, Marcos Mosquera, Milagro Guerrero, and Mangue Vasquez. Apart from them we do look for new talents and icons of Peruvian music and world musicians that we've met while touring and invited to play with us. In the end, the goal of Novalima has always been to create experimental music, a music laboratory of sorts, and we love to try new sounds, new vocals, and in that sense every time we do something new we look for collaborations with other artists. It gives our records more color, more energy, and musically speaking working with other musicians is great.
In Karimba you have added new styles of Afro-Peruvian music and expanded into different branches. What is your composing and recording process like when you get together to define the sound of the new album?
At the core there's the four of us producing and each of us brings a few songs to the table for the next album. Once we have them all structured and we have vision of what line to take, that is when we each take the songs so that we can each add our grain of sand and combine all our tastes to create something that we all like. The idea to bring about new rhythms such as zamacueca, tondero, and panalivio into Karimba comes from previously experimenting with other Afro-Peruvian rhythms such as festejo and alcatraz. We wanted to bring new rhythms and combine them with the essence of electronica. The process from beginning to end varied a lot. As you go along recording percussion and voices, the sound that you originally had in mind transforms and ends up with something that has input not only from us but from the recording musicians and other producers and they finally end the way you hear them on the album.
You originally started in 4 separately cities, do you still live apart?
In 2008, Grimaldo, Rafael, and Carlos moved back to Lima. I was always in Lima, but then in 2008 I started traveling a lot to Miami so I'm back and forth between both Lima and Miami. Since we're now all living in the same city, the composing and recording process has become a lot easier.
You've already been nominated for a Latin Grammy and have recently been featured in a film by director Robert Rodriguez. What expectations does Novalima have for the band with the release of Karimba?
With every record we look to evolve. I think that our fans and newer audiences will find an album that has a new sound. Something fresher and they'll be able to hear a definite change of sound from our earlier albums. And well, we think that they'll like it because, as always, we've added a lot of color to the album never sticking to a single genre. We are always exploring new rhythms and mixing them with diverse global sounds which helps us expand to a wider and diverse audience, whether it be those that listen to jazz, electronica, Latin, dub, or reggae. So I think Karimba will help mark a step in the evolution of Novalima, and if we score another Grammy nomination then we'll welcome that too! Ojala. (Peruvian slang of "hopefully")
The very excellent Karimba is out now; make sure to check out our review to hear more.
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