Extra Golden on African music, obstacles and Obama

While Vampire Weekend and the Dirty Projectors have replaced Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel as chief American ambassadors of African music, the reality of pop-savvy transliterators often overshadowing their source material hasn't shifted in the last 25 years. So while Ezra Koenig and Dave Longstreth are celebrated from Cape Cod to the Cape of Good Hope, the half-Kenyan, half-American quartet Extra Golden have yet to have their faces plastered on the cover of Spin, despite a story ripe for an episode of PBS’ "Frontline/World."

Formed in Nairobi while guitarist Ian Eagleson, formerly of the band Golden, was conducting research for a PhD dissertation on Kenyan Benga music, Extra Golden have endured a litany of challenges in their five-year existence, including co-founder Otieno Jagwasi’s death at 34 due to liver disease, a Sisyphean struggle to obtain passports during the dog days of the Bush administration, and most recently, the riots that broke out in the wake of Kenya’s disputed election, trapping singer Onyango Jagwasi in closed quarters for a week, and impeding his ability to earn a living.

In spite of this, Extra Golden has thrived with their Thrill Jockey-released third album, ”Thank You Very Quickly,” a gorgeous blend of East African guitars, polyrhythmic drums and vocals sung in both English and Luo.

Download: Extra Golden "Anyango"

In town to play Dub Club on Wednesday night at the Echo alongside legendary reggae band the Meditations, guitarist Alex Minoff spoke to Pop & Hiss about African music, overcoming obstacles and President Obama.

Two American musicians forming a band with Nairobi natives still living in Africa isn’t the most common arrangement. How did you guys meet and decide to form a group?

Ian [Eagleson] was studying for his PhD in musicology and had visited Kenya four or five times over an eight-year period. In 2004, he visited for a full year and I went out there to visit him. We’d been in Golden for the previous 10 years, but we’d stopped playing. However, Ian and I continued writing songs together, even though we had no way to present them.

He was already working with other Kenyan musicians, including Otieno. I came in, we started working and by the time I was ready to leave we had several songs. We called in Onyango, who was suggested by [his brother] Otieno, and we recorded the debut album in an afternoon in

Nairobi. The intent wasn’t necessarily to release it, but more to document the experience. We had no idea that it would ever be an album or that we’d ever be a band. We finished the songs and it was released but we still never thought of ourselves as a band — not until the Chicago World Music Festival invited us to play. That was when we started to take it seriously.

I know there was quite a bit of trouble with the band getting passports, ultimately leading to [then-Sen.] Barack Obama’s office becoming involved. What was the story there?

When we got invited to play in Chicago, the Kenyan members of the band didn’t have passports, which meant they couldn’t apply for visas. Finally, six weeks before the festival, they got their passports and could apply, but usually it takes months to get a visa. So we had to expedite them through Homeland Security. Unfortunately, Homeland Security told us they wanted more information, including letters of recommendation. Ian and I had been trying to contact Obama’s office for a while, because the festival was in Illinois and there was the Kenyan connection, but now we were running out of time. Thankfully, they were extremely helpful. We had a letter of recommendation from him that day and the visas were approved.

Of course, there were many steps after that, including an interview at the U.S.embassy in Nairobi, which there was an eight-week waiting period for and you can’t talk to anyone because it’s all handled online. Obama’s office arranged an earlier interview on the day the band was supposed to fly to Chicago, which meant someone went into the office at midnight to speak to the Kenyan embassy the moment it opened in the morning. It all worked out -- they did the interview, went home and packed and left immediately.

How was the band impacted by the recent post-election riots in Kenya?

Onyango was in Kenya touring with another band and they were slated to play some post-election shows that never happened. He ended up getting stuck in a room for several days, while his family was in Nairobi, which was a pretty dangerous place at the time. By the time he made it back to town, his home had been looted.

Basically, the guy had to move a couple of different times to areas that were more calm, which meant they incurred huge expenses. But we organized a fund drive and we asked for $5 donations from our fans. We managed to get a lot of response from that and they were able to get money for food. It was an extremely tough time for them; they’re musicians and couldn’t work because everything was closed and there was a strict curfew. It was difficult; they both have big families.

What’s the current situation like?

Things have relaxed and gone back to normal to an extent. A lot of the tensions that had existed beneath the surface came out after the election, and now they’re more on the surface. It depends on where you are in the country. Like everywhere else, the economy has soured in the last year. Things there are pretty difficult for musicians. They used to play five nights a week; now they’re lucky to play three.

Obviously, you guys live in opposite parts of the world and come from fairly disparate upbringings. Was it initially difficult to develop a bond between the band members, or was it something that just came naturally?

There are a lot of similarities between what we’d done, even though we were doing it in the U.S. and they were doing it in Kenya -- it wasn’t as far-fetched as it might seem. We started trying to explore similarities and see what we could pull together from our two styles. Ian and I had been playing for about 10 years, and we were both heavily into African music. There were definitely African guitar elements in our Golden songs but we were slightly more of a rock band. Each of our albums has actually had at least one song written for Golden that never made it onto the finished LP but they’ve lent themselves well to the added Kenyan influence.

What do you think about the recent surge in popularity for African-inspired bands, a trend that Vampire Weekend and Dirty Projectors helped jump-start?

I really don’t see us as being similar-type bands because after all, half of our band is Kenyan. But it will be interesting to see if this trend has any legs. I haven't really listened to any of those bands but I’m all for people trying to expand their range of inspiration.

-- Jeff Weiss

Extra Golden plays tonight at The Echo, 1822 W. Sunset Blvd. 9 p.m. $15 ($10 before 10 p.m.)

Photo credit: G.A. Minoff