Brazz Ankh is a music producer and composer who has turned the worldwide hardships of 2020 into a international musical collection of positive vibes. The project comes in the form of her collaborative album, “Positive Lockdown.” She describes the record as “a love declaration to the diversity of music and positive vibes.”
The artists on the record are from all over the world. As the title suggests the record was recorded entirely in lockdown. The performers were never in the same room, or even the same country as one another. Hip-Hop, Classical, Pop, House, Gospel and Jazz musicians all contributed. Each recorded their own parts at home and then sent them digitally to Brazz. It is a beautiful mix of sounds, styles and cultures.
“If I Change the World” is a mellow Afro-Jazz track by Brazz Ankh with vocalist Sarena K. It is a perfect introduction to this beautiful work of hope and optimism. You can hear the song on the Deep Indie Chill playlist. Below, we discuss the song, the album and what it means to change the world with Brazz Ankh.
8 Questions With Brazz Ankh
The Static Dive: Where are you from?
Brazz Ankh: I am a French-Citizen, native from Congo-Brazzaville in Africa and living for years in London, UK. All simple.
SD: How long have you been making music?
BA: Very good question. I learnt to play the piano at 12 years old but was not really involved into real music making process until 2005 when I wrote the gospel song “Nzambe Ke Kuna” – meaning ‘God is There’ in kikongo my African language and the first version of the afro-house track “Jack The System” (currently in my album Positive Lockdown). However I released late my two first singles in 2018 including the afro-house track Nzambe Ke Kuna (Wakanda Mix) inspired by the movie Black Panthers then my EP MetamorphIsis in 2019.
SD: Who are the musicians involved in your project?
BA: For the music and the lyrics it’s me, myself and I hahaha! A pen, a keyboard, Ableton and here we go! The current single I have released “If I Change the World” is featuring the talented Sarena K. who is taking part in several songs of my album Positive Lockdown. In this album I had the opportunity to work during lockdown and a zest of social distancing with Jessica Carter, Federica Basile and Mark Anthony (UK), Nadia Harvey (USA), Margarita Bakker (Netherlands), Chikwanga ( Congo-Brazzaville) and Alejandra “ALEGRA’ Granados (Mexico)
SD: Who are your biggest musical influences?
BA: I will not be very original on saying that Michael Jackson inspired me a lot ! He is definitely a king in music! I gave my small contribution to Michael Jackson Diamonds Celebration with the shooting and the music production of ‘Onomatopoeia – MJ is live’ , an original music with MJ typical sounds!
I also love house music DJ and producers (I love house music especially afro-house), Linkin Park, U2 and countless Hip-hop artists!
SD: What is your greatest non-musical influence?
BA: Difficult because I listen to everything! That is the reason why my sets on Twitch TV are so diverse !
SD: What inspired you to create this project?
BA: For the lyrics, it’s just a big dream to change the world for the better: the structure is a bit like a poem, there is a lot of metaphor. For example the song said “More blue in the sky, I will paint with more blue in the sky!” For the music I wanted something that is transporting you in another world when you listen to it so Afro-Jazz was perfect for this song!
SD: What are your plans for the future (musically)?
BA: Going back to play live! I did open-mics in 2019 but could not continue in 2020 because of lockdowns. Secondly it’s more artistic than only about music but I have a project – Test phase – of a website for people musicians, artists and arts lovers to be together and think about what can we thrive post-pandemic! Stay Tuned ^^
SD: Is there anything else you would like to say?
BA: We are all lights in this world! But sometimes we don’t know how to switch the button haha. Stay All Safe!