DJ Marfox (São Tomé & Príncipe) music

DJ MARFOX (Príncipe) talks about his LusAfro experience

.„Bringing like-minded creative people together who share a positive vibe.“

DJ and producer Marlon Silva aka DJ Marfox is the figurehead of the Lisbon label Principe Discos. The son of immigrants from Sao Tomé, he grew up in Quinta do Mocho (Portugal).

Influenced by musical styles like Kuduro which came to the suburbs of the Portuguese capital with the migrants, DJ Marfox develops his own personal style somewhere between African rhythms and European sounds.

You have been part of LUSAFRO since the first encounter in Praia in April, what could you personally take back home from that experience?

LusAfro has been a great experience for me. As an artist you always have to reinvent yourself, mainly if you want to propose something different and something new. That was exactly what LusAfro did to me. I got the opportunity to develop personally, to be someone I’m not during the whole year. I could set something up together with artist like Tony Amado or Gato Preto. Regardless of the result, the project was all about to get the artists out of their habitual comfort-zones. And that’s what the LusAfro project definitely achieved.

How important was the exchange factor for yourself?

Through the project I recognized that it’s not always about ourselves, but about how we can do something together. Especially music is something that’s meant to be shared. Working with Carmen from Gato Preto was something really special as she was highly pregnant in Praia. So we had to figure out a the right tactic for her on stage at our show we set up with Tony Amado. That was something totally new to me. We had very little time to prepare for the showcase so we improvised in our hotel-rooms, also a new situation I experienced.

Generally it was very good to visit Cabo Verde and see where the Funana music comes from and how people celebrate it. Also to observe how we, let’s say: the African people living Europe – see this music and culture from our own perspective. But even more interesting was it to find out what the people of Cabo Verde think about us and our music.

It was the LusAfro project that produced this situation of exchange and encounter and I’m really happy that I was able to learn new things like e.g. where is Funana going? Where is this whole Crioul Rap – scene around artists like Helio Batalha going?

Without LusAfro I would never got to know the wonderful singer Fattú Djakité. I fell in love with her voice and I still dream of her. I would love to bring her to Lisbon. Also I had the chance to work with Dino D’Santiago. He lives in the South of Portugal and I’m in the capital, but now we established a tighter relation for the future which is good. I did’nt know DJ Buruntuma before and now we chat a lot. All this is LusAfro! Bringing like-minded creative people together who share a positive vibe.

DJ Marfox with our artistic director Francis Gay & moderator & artist manager Daniel Wahl (Cosmo / WDR) in Cologne

November 25th there will be the next LusAfro event at the Gretchen Club in Berlin. How excited are you?

For me this event will be the cherry on the cake. There is going to be a unique music mixture of the lusphone world. It’s going to be something very emotional for the LusAfro people, because it’s kind of the closing event of the project. But in fact, this is just the beginning of something new. We are all connected now and want to exchange a lot more.

For those who have not experienced a LusAfro showcase yet, that mix of people and music, it’s a great opportunity in Berlin to get involved. It’s going to be a night for the books.


**********DON´T MISS IT  „BIG UP! LusAfro – 25 NOVEMBER – GRETCHEN BERLIN********** 

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