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VENTS recently had the pleasure of interviewing Baba Jenkins about their brand new “Wild” music video. You can read the interview below!
How did Baba Jenkins come about their band name? How does it aptly represent its members and its music?
Coming up with a band name that fits us was difficult. At first, we did it old school, put a bunch of names on a list but none of them stuck.
Then we considered our similarities. Every member in the band is a father, so the word Baba fit nicely for us. We also all have an appreciation for historical blues music, thus came the name Jenkins, last name of 1970s’ blues musician, Bobo Jenkins.
Baba Jenkins not only describes us, but it gives tribute to the little known but great blues musician Bobo Jenkins.
When and how did the members of Baba Jenkins meet and join forces? Talk about your experience playing and making music together for the first time.
Baba Jenkins started with Guy Keefer’s vision to make music that has an impact on the world. It was during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when Guy set out for a vocalist for the band. That’s when he got in contact with Rone Worthen through the online site BandMix. At first Rone wasn’t so in Guy’s vision. Rone claimed that he retired from pursuing music and he didn’t want to commit to a project he wasn’t interested in. But Guy convinced Rone that that this pursuit of music would be different. Guy and Rone then met in person at PA Rehearsal Studios in Reseda for the first jam session. The music flowed naturally, the inspiration was in sync, and the chemistry was effortless. Then came drummer Ekko Gaha the drummer that Guy met a few months prior, again through BandMix. After came Kerwin “Skooter” Williams, bassist and producer that Rone knew from his prior music pursuits. Together Guy, Rone, Ekko and Skooter wrote all the songs that are on their debut album COPPER dropping on October 7th.
What is Baba Jenkins’ approach to blending genres, and how does the soul, rock, and blues fusion in “Wild” demonstrate the creative process for the group’s music?
Baba Jenkins has a wide variety of musical influences so when we write music, we don’t restrict ourselves to genre. We focus on the emotion of the songs we write so the genre flows unhinged to category.
“Wild” is a great example. We wrote the beginning of that song in Studio 2 at Sunset Sound in between shooting the music video for “Rendezvous”. Skooter dropped a fat baseline, Guy joined in with classic rock guitar notes, Ekko jumped in and kept the pace and locked in the rhythm with the drums. Rone recorded the jam on his phone and captured the lyric melody. A few weeks later we revisited the jam and wrote “Wild”.
Can you touch on the songwriting component and the delivery of such passionately affectionate and romantic lyrics? How does “Wild” convey this love story so vividly?
The lyrics for “Wild” were written by Rone. Having taken a trip to a cabin in the woods Rone wanted to capture the feelings of instinct, lust and love.
What was it like shooting the music video for “Wild”? What is the story being conveyed in the visual?
The video shoot was like a party. Being around family, friends and people that enjoy our music made it easy to capture the let-loose vibes of “Wild”. The visual story is about Jared and Jenna making a decision to purchase a club during times of economic hardship. The decision is influenced by the two’s imagination of what could happen and how much fun it would bring to themselves and their community.
Baba Jenkins’ debut album, Copper, is coming soon. What do you want fans to know going into that release after listening and falling in love with “Wild”?
We’d like to encourage our fans to listen without preconceptions of genre. Our mission is to convey raw emotion into sound without limiting it to genre. We’d hope our fans enjoy the roller coaster as they experience stories of life from Baba Jenkin’s perspective.
Follow Baba Jenkins:
http://babajenkins.com
https://www.facebook.com/BabaJenkinsOfficial
http://instagram.com/babajenkinsofficial
