Jokkoo Collective was set up “to explore and disseminate the most contemporary electronic sound and the avant-garde scene from the African continent and its diaspora.” As explained by Babasy in our previous interview with them, ‘jokkoo’ is a Wolof word meaning ‘a connection with something that is greater than you’. For example, if you have a shared interest with someone, it is called a ‘jokkoo’. As such, the Barcelona-based collective strives to forge connections between those that need it most through their contemporary electronic melodies.
Their mission is set to expand even further as they have recently been selected as the recipient of £10,000 from Ballantine’s 2023 True Music Fund. The fund supports grassroots organisations and collectives in their mission to promote diversity and equality in the music scene, and so Jokkoo was the perfect choice. Today we speak with them about the importance of connecting the global sound community, the importance of education, and their next steps in changing the world.
Congratulations on being selected as the recipients of the Ballantine’s 2023 True Music Fund! Could you tell us a bit more about what that’s about? How has it impacted the collective?
The fund is a way for Ballantine’s to show support for young people collectively trying to create music and events. As recipients this year, the fund has allowed Jokkoo to produce our first completely free workshops and share skills, knowledge and the creative process with our communities.
I know you’ve been involved in a series of workshops for members of the music industry to create a safer nightlife event. Could you give us some more details about this? Safer for who, and from whom/what? And how will you achieve such an important goal?
Safer for everyone, both for the artists and the people who work in cultural spaces, and for the public who attend such events. Raising awareness about the behaviours that are not right in the space and taking care of the people who inhabit it in each event is fundamental so that there are no situations in which no one is disrespected. Communicating this and putting a certain energy into what we do are some of the resources we use to create a healthy atmosphere at our events.
I’m not sure if that’s what you used the True Music Fund reward with entirely. Are there any other actions you could explain to us?
We decided to create two courses with the fund. One was focused on event production as previously
mentioned, and the other focused on music production for beginners. The second part of the workshops breaks down not just software and technical skills but also introduces the listening habits and musical ideas that can help us to begin having fun creating electronic music.
In our previous interview, you spoke about how Barcelona isn’t the most transgressive of cities with regard to the music scene, that it focuses more perhaps on commercial value. Do you think the city has changed in the last few years? If so, how? Is it crossing boundaries that it would previously shy away from?
From our perspective, looking at the music and nightlife on offer in Barcelona, very little has changed. It’s like the scene is frozen in time. The same clubs and festivals dominate and it seems no one in the mainstream is prepared to take any risk with regard to creating bookings or pushing to create safe spaces to enjoy music in the centre. We are lucky to be part of a network of alternative spaces and collectives, and it’s here that boundaries, rather than being pushed, are created. We need boundaries to be able to create safer and more equitable spaces that resist the consumerist drive and patriarchal whitewashed culture of the centre, both artistically and politically.
As a grassroots collective, you work closely in support within the community of Barcelona. Can you tell us a bit about the work you are doing in the city’s creative space? Whose voices do you want to raise up?
In the space where cohabit with other collectives, called FOC, we prioritise events produced by local collectives with similar values and political vision to ours, such as self-management, collective work, anti-racism, pro LGTBQ+, etc. This last collective as well as racialised/migrant people are the voices that we want to be more present, as historically they have been the ones that have had the hardest time accessing the music scene.
Tell us more about the underground scene. Do you aspire to raise it above ground, or is there a clandestine attraction in that which lies beneath?
We believe it would be a mistake to bring the underground into the mainstream, it would probably be co-opted by the nightlife companies and would lose the essence of the underground.
I know that you draw inspiration from Afro-diasporic sounds as well as reverberations from Latin America and Asia. What other dimensions are you introducing to the music scene in Barcelona?
We are bringing a multidimensional approach to sound which explores connections between artists beyond borders, and outside of genres and expectations. We share tendencies towards politically charged music, DIY instruments and technological innovation, improvisation, interdisciplinary performance, and a nostalgic kind of futurism that is not only about going harder and faster, or darker – and yes, we do go harder, faster and darker –, but about reaching outer space.
I’m interested in the music you guys make. Mbodj mentioned previously that “if you don’t remove people from their comfort zones, how are they going to know what they like or dislike.” Do you find yourselves being pushed out of your own individual comfort zones by the Jokkoo Collective?
Yes, consistently. We collectively face projects and practices or situations outside of all of our comfort zones, and when collaborating we are inspired by each other constantly to learn new skills and take creative risks.
So what lies ahead? What have you got in store for us? Where do you see the collective in five years?
We will be cooking up music, and events, travelling and connecting, amplifying the collective as individuals and as a shared project. Oh, and trying to change the world, ya tu sabes!
