The Congo Faith Healers

The Congo Faith Healers - Top 10 Gigs to see in London..more coming soon - The Independent

Today, America, we are going to London and meeting up with the Congo Faith Healers!  The band has credits of working with industry producers such as Chris Kimsey (who has recorded albums for the Rolling Stones, the Gypsy Kings ,Jimmy Cliff, New Model Army) and also with Grammy Award winner Cameron Craig (who has worked with Tina Turner, Robbie Williams, Amy Winehouse). The band is creating quite a buzz in the European markets and is currently setting their eyes across the big pond to America. They wanted me to share they are currently reviewing potential working relationships for here in the US. So, please use their contact information, if you are interested in their music! The Congo Faith Healers consists of Guitars, Harmonica and Vocals - Sonny West, Bass - Tomislav Benzon, Trumpet - Si Lips Taylor, and Drums - Jay Tubsman.   Sonny West speaks of this experience plus a whole lot more!

Monica:  How did you come about your name, The Congo Faith Healers?

Sonny West:  The name Congo Faith Healers came about as an acknowledgement to the famous New Orleans Congo Square, where at the turn of the last century, slaves gathered on a Sunday, that being the only free day a week, to worship their Gods (mainly Voodoo as many were Haitian), and to celebrate and play music. This place was a big melting pot, and is said to be the birthplace of Jazz. So Congo being Congo Square, Faith as in “we all have to believe in something”, and Healers as we all have to heal sometime and music helps us do this on a daily basis.

M:  Where does the band get their inspiration from?

SW:  The band gets their inspiration from each others musical diversity – a melting pot of different directions and different cultural influences, which when put together are stronger than a single individual influence.

Obviously the Blues, Jazz, Latin, Gypsy – anything that is not derivative.

Music from the soul and the root, complex or simple.

Lyrically I like to try and tell a story of a place and a time that can't be pinned down, but people can use the descriptions to make up their own picture in their mind.

M:  Tell me a bit about your band, what makes this partnership work?

SW:  What makes it work is the fact that everybody is having their freedom and input, but never straying from the original concept. We all are not driven or controlled by the pressures of media success or controlled by the power of money. This gives us complete creative freedom.

M:  What subjects do your songs address?

SW:  All subjects of life and all streams of consciousness and sub-consciousness. I like to write mainly as a story in narratives and metaphors, letting the listener use their own imagination when they read the lyrics to take them somewhere else. This is the reason why we printed the lyrics on our album cover. I see us as a live band, as a live experience when many of the lyrics will move by so fast they go unnoticed, whereas to listen to a CD in your own privacy it is a different experience when you are able to reach and read the lyrics of the CD cover, bringing another dimension to the music.


M:  Which song is the bands favorite and which song is the fan’s favorite?

SW:  It continually changes and it seems to be different for each person. As a songwriter I am usually quite excited with a new piece of work that goes into the rehearsal room for the band to hear, if it gets past the boys it usually goes into the repertoire. I find things in everyday life and inspiration. Hopefully this will continue to inspire my writing and keep it fresh for the fans.

M:  Tell me what it is like to work with people such as Chris Kimsey (who has recorded albums for the Rolling Stones, the Gypsy Kings ,Jimmy Cliff, New Model Army) and also with Grammy Award winner Cameron Craig (who has worked with Tina Turner, Robbie Williams, Amy Winehouse). Is it easy to let yourself be guided.? Do you lose any of your artistic freedom?

SW:  It's been a great learning curve and a pleasure to work with these top producers, especially the ones mentioned, as they all saw the band live first before we went into the studio, and appreciated us all as musicians and a tight outfit of people that had mastered their craft, and we were encouraged in the studio to capture a live no nonsense rough edged powerful performance, rather than a polished pop record. Working with Chris Kimsey on his recordings and subsequently our album Ju Ju Mix, we did everything in a very unconventional manner. Most bands will go in and record bass and drums and a guide vocal and build up from there to get a perfect performance, which can loose an energy of a performance from a band, and once that’s done, which is a lengthy process, everybody will go in again individually and replay each part to perfection, and then the whole thing is stuck together. This process usually takes months, in some cases years before you have a finished record.


This usually is done as a band will have a - American Blues News

The Congo Faith Healers - Top 10 Gigs to see in London..more coming soon - The Independent