National Geographic Music (National Geographic)

An hour before their first—and to date, only—show in America, the four founders of Afro-Peruvian band Novalima are lounging on the couch in the basement of New York nightspot S.O.B.'s, drinking whiskey and smoking cigarettes and laughing. Despite dealing with visa issues on their travels from Lima to JFK Airport that morning (not to mention a morning flight to Europe the following day), they have many reasons to be smiling—not the least of them being their latest album, Coba Coba (Cumbancha).

Catapulting into the North American consciousness after their second record, Afro, redefined centuries-old slave songs of their homelland, this quartet of life-long friends and musicians—keyboardist Ramon Perez Prieto, bassist Carlos Li Carrillo, guitarist Rafael Morales, and drummer Grimaldo del Solar—formed a nine-piece live band to complement the electronic-based music they conjured in their respective studios. Having met in high school in Peru's capital city of Lima, they disbanded after many years of performing together to pursue varied lifestyles in four countries. But the music brought them back: a chance album, the self-released Novalima, became an underground hit at home. They returned to focus on what brought them international acclaim: their inventive, beat-driven renderings of Peruvian folk music.

Led by the weightless and dusky vocal styles of Milagros Guerrero and Juan Medrano-Cotito, Novalima has become globally renowned for their tasteful digitalism—deservedly so, considering the heated, sweaty, and percussively exquisite performance that night inside S.O.B.'s.. An hour before set time, Nat Geo Music joined them in the basement to muse over their past and present.

Nat Geo Music: When did you come up with the idea of taking Afro-Peruvian slave songs and reinterpreting them in an electronic context?

Ramon: It started with the first project, which began in 2003. We started experimenting with electronica …

Carlos: 2001.

Ramon: Right, 2001. We started working with Latin grooves, but with Peruvian percussionists. We had a song called "Con Palo No," which was one of the first Afro-Peruvian songs that we made as Novalima.

Carlos: It was a cover …

Ramon: Yes, it was a cover of … Oh, no it wasn't. From there, we decided to come up with another album based only on Afro-Peruvian culture. We saw it more as research than anything.

Carlos: In reality, since we were all living in different countries, we started listening to every kind of music—to tango and African, to jazz and salsa. Within that context, we were mixing our own influences, and the common ground we shared was the Afro-Peruvian sound. When we look back we can trace it all, but when it happened, it just came in front of our eyes and we couldn't see anything else.

Rafael: Also, after our first album, we started building our relationships with Milagros and Juan, as well as other Peruvian musicians. We knew we had a very strong lean towards the Afro-Peruvian sound. That's when we decided to put out Afro.

Ramon: The interesting part for us is not just that we are taking this music and adding our own modern influences with it. Since we are playing with these other musicians, it's coming out with a very Afro-Peruvian sound.

Being that four of you create all this music, how do you approach songwriting?

Ramon: Each of us comes up with an idea, then we build a structure together. From there we go into the studio and make it. Every person has some feedback.

Carlos: Each song features a different style, because we have all been influenced by different things. The life of our record involves an entire world of sounds. I like Afrobeat, reggae, and jazz, so that finds its way into the songs too.

There is a tremendous leap between your first album, Novalima, and Afro. What do you attribute that to?

Rafael: The first album was just an experiment. We've been musicians since we were sixteen years old, and then we were all at home with our computers and we started experimenting. We shared what we made with each other and liked what we were doing, so we started creating actual songs from it.

Ramon: We all came from a live music background. Since that first project, we were exposed to new technologies that offered us a better quality sound, and we were able to make a more ambitious project than the one before. The one before was a sort of release …

Carlos: … a liberation …

Ramon: … since we had been making music all of our lives, and everybody wanted to live someplace else. Everyone had their own studio at home, and we still wanted to keep making music together. That was the drive to continue making music. From there it started evolving.

Grimaldo: This was the first time we were getting our hands into the digital way of making music. Then we met very good people on the way that helped us with their comments, and with sound tools.

Your debut was good, but to be honest, it sounded like many other electronica albums coming out at the time. Afro, on the other hand, is unlike anything I've heard, then or since.

Rafael: Yes, I agree. People liked it in Peru a lot, though. When we brought it to labels in England, for example, they liked more the African rhythms behind it. They have a lot of bands that do straight electronica, but in Peru, people are not so aware of this sound, so they really enjoyed it. Actually, I think a lot of people liked that first album more than Afro, even if we know we evolved after that.

Ramon: Novalima was just putting the Afro sound into the context of world sounds. With the second one, we just wanted to focus on the Afro-Peruvian tradition. You meet someone like Milagros, and you just want to do a sound with her.

Carlos: The novel thing for the world was the Afro-Peruvian sounds, and that introduced us to new producers, new musicians, and so on.

Rafael: On the first, we had some Indian sounds and tablas, and Cuban son, as well as the Peruvian sound.

Ramon: And we didn't actually release it. We made a few thousand copies and passed them out, and it got onto the black market. It was something new for the local market. They thought we were starting a new thing, even if the rest of the world was aware of what was going on.

Coba Coba, in contrast, shares many qualities with Afro, but features a much fuller, richer live band sound.

Ramon: One or two years after Afro came out, we decided to put together a live show. We called musicians, and we figured out how to play all the songs live over the next two or three years. Coba Coba reflects that time we spent together.

You've already mentioned how well Novalima did at home. How was Afro received there?

Rafael: In Peru, most people have a relationship to these songs in the traditional way. After a few months, people started embracing it more and more. We've sold more than 10,000 albums there, which in Peru is a lot. Afro-Peruvian folk music already has a beat, which lends itself to electronica. That's African music.

Ramon: In Peru, the thing about Afro and now Coba Coba, is that we've helped bring this folk music to younger audiences, whereas they wouldn't have heard before in the traditional sense. In that way, I figure that's made a positive impact on the culture, because we are listening to our own stuff, you know? It's been there all the time, but they did not appreciate it—they were looking outside the culture.

Grimaldo: It had been isolated from the rest of the world styles. Afro-Peruvians listen to samba or reggae or blues. These are communities living outside their traditions of music. Even the instruments—donkey bones, and jaws, and wood—are isolated from a lot of the culture. For us, it's a hidden treasure that nobody has touched for many years. We had the chance to come in with some reggae, some rock, and add to it.

Rafael: It made it interesting for a lot of people in the world. Most Peruvians were only aware of these songs from people like Susana Baca, who is great, but very different.

Yes, she has always been very global-minded, hoping to expose both Peruvians and foreigners to Peru's rich history. She even did a Bjork cover song, didn't she?

Rafael: Did she?

Ramon: I didn't know that.

Rafael: Did you like it?

No.

[Laughter all around.]

I like her music a lot, but she just didn't nail that one.

Carlos: Juan played with Susana Baca, let me ask him if he liked it.

[He translates into Spanish. He shakes his head "no." More laughter.]