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About
The island boy – even in his young years, Bodea has seen a lot. Being born and raised at the tropical shores of Zanzibar/Tanzania the singer and songwriter embraced the beauty of a simple and natural lifestyle in the very first place. Not only causing a deep and lasting desire for this human Utopia but also making him inherit the specific aura of that little charming island. Leaving the mangos and coconuts behind he started his boyhood world tour at the age of five: first from Yemen to Islamabad/Pakistan where he started taking classical music lessons and therefore set the fundament for his present skills. Next stop: Beijing/China. In his early teenager years Bodea began to teach himself the guitar in the capital of the „Middle Kingdom“, wrote his first lyrics and started rapping. To finish High-School he made it to Germany, where he founded his first band and initiated performing his songs.
From tanzanian easy living to german accuracy – he made his way!
Concentrating on his musical mastery Bodea made the transition from rapping to singing and began to develop his unique style. At that time he met Patrice and the Silly Walks Movement, both being of great influence for the young singer. After recording a few tracks in Germany and performing with the likes of Brother's Keepers, Bodea decided to go back to his roots: Zanzibar.
In the two following years he recorded two albums in Swahili. „Tuka Pamoja“ (We Stand Together) and „Kume Kucha“ (The Break Of Dawn) – both in the Bongo Flava style (tanzanian Rap music) – included several number one hits in Tanzania and gained high respect in the east african music scene. The second album was produced in Tanzania's #1 Studio „Bongo Records“ with famous producer „P.Funk“.
After promoting his own concerts by sticking posters to walls with glue made of flour and water Bodea decided to leave Tanzania behind and finalize his musical skills by studying Jazz Performance and Composition at the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle (USA).
While studying he put together the „Drop Beat Band“ and performed his tunes in clubs and bars in the Seattle area. He now merged his natural charme with a cosmopolitan idea of the world to a singular style of tropical Soul music. Neither the classical Singer-Songwriter genre nor Reggae describe his music sufficiently. Other influences like Dancehall, Dub, Soul or Soca have their room in his repertoire – making it a beautiful and fresh variety to the trash-flooded music market.
By coincidence Bodea met Felix Haaksman and Andreas Schoenrock in Berlin/Gemany. The two producers had the joy to listen to Bodea live and unplugged on his guitar under a perfect summer nights sky and immediately fell in love with his music. No sooner said than done the three started to work on a full length album. Putting together a band with top-notch Berlin and Copenhagen based musicians and transcribing Bodea's songs from the acoustic guitar to full band instrumentation the album started to grow and glow. Under the proposition to produce an album as natural as Bodea himself the live-character played a major role in the process and consequently became a dominant element of the album.
Completing his degree with high honours in 2009 Bodea decided to move his residency to Berlin to finish up the work on the album in late 2010. With his style between tropical Songwriting, Soul, Reggae and Dancehall the charming island boy has a bright future to come.
