Name: Ngwaka Son Systéme
Members: Dieu Merci Caméléon (bass), Jonas Steroy (percussion), Bom's Bomolo (guitar), Bijoux Losokola (vocals, chants), Love Lokombe (lead vocals, director), Bebe Boomastyl (MC, vocals), Héritier Lakala (MC, vocals), Yves Mbonda (percussion)
Interviewee: Love Lokombe
Nationality: Congolese
Current release: Ngwaka Son Systéme's Iboto Ngenge is out February 23rd 2024 via Eck Echo.
Recommendations: The music of my previous project KOKOKO.

If you enjoyed this Ngwaka Son Systéme interview and would like to keep up to date with the band and their music, visit them on Instagram.



What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you also visualize the music in shapes and colours?

I feel the vibrations and the positive energy every time.

I sometimes see colours and I try to imagine a shape but it remains elusive.

What were your very first steps in music like and how would you rate the gains made through experience?

I was in the choir of the protestant church when I was a kid. While being there it became clear to me that music is my calling, the environment gave it a sort of spiritual component.

From there on I had the clarity to always drive forward.

It is said that we make our deepest musical experiences when we are little.What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

At that age music was nothing special for me. It is part of our daily routines growing up here.

With time what changed was the professional approach to it and the need to become resourceful in order to provide for a living.

How would you describe your own relationship with your instrument, tools or equipment?

They are like family to me because I spend most of my time with them.

More specifically, I feel like taking the role of a father since we literally create those instruments. Them being like children, I keep learning from them and getting feedback on how to improve this relationship through sound.

Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

When it comes to creating our own instruments, the first order is of a very pragmatic nature: to avoid renting or buying. Once we have this covered, the magic arises.

The instrument speaks for itself. Kinshasa is surrounded by plastic everywhere and the instruments we craft are for us also a way to give a voice to our urban environment.

Are you acting out parts of your personality in your music which you couldn't or wouldn't in your daily life? If so, which are these? What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music?

My entire lifeline is informed by music. This is not something that we hear on the radio or on records but it is part of our family, our lineage, our heritage. It runs in our blood.

In this sense our approach to music is an extension of this family tree. We don't think of specific concepts, we get together to jam and the ideas arise naturally.

If music is a language, what can we communicate with it? How do you deal with misunderstandings?

I visualise music a language of melodies and beats and its messages are the energy that expands from them.

In our own family we may have verbal misunderstandings but musically I have never experienced them. The message is clear and unambiguous.

Making music, in the beginning, is often playful and about discovery. How do you retain a sense of playfulness and how do you still draw surprises from tools, approaches and musical forms you may be very familiar with?  

Music, as you pointed out, leaves a profound imprint when we are little. We discover that by making music as a vocation, we are able to remain children in our hearts somehow. Much like kids play with toys, we interact with the instruments that we craft ourselves in the same ways.

Everyday in the workshop, a surprise is awaiting us. You tune a bottle or a metal rod, you let it drop on the floor, you hear the sound it makes until it sounds just about right.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

Our environment is filled with non-human sound but these are not made by animals, even when our country is blessed with a lot of biodiversity.

In the city, the only natural sound you hear comes from the stream of the Congo river, and I think this its cadence is what drives many of the rhythms we play naturally.

Do you use harmonic relations when composing music or is it the rhythm that takes precedence? How is the creative process in the band?

Sometimes it is the rhythm that takes precedence, sometimes it is the lyrics. The creative process evolves independently. Anyone in the group can spontaneously propose something, and the others add their own elements organically.

We do not compose in terms of carefully studied harmonic relationships. Boms will strum the chords on the guitar and Camaleón knows what goes along with it. None of us is taught in music theory.

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

Music making as part of our daily live in Kinshasa. And music making as energy, the energy of our family and people.

The lessons are not clear to me yet, we learn everyday and we do not ask questions, maybe the answers will arise one day.

We can surround ourselves with sound every second of the day. How do you see that yourself and what importance does silence hold?

There is a a time for every thing. Silence is really important because it allows us to reflect and rest.

I don't think we really know what it means to be in absolute silence. But we learn to cancel out the background noises, get some sleep and prepare for another day of rehearsal.

Do you see music making as part of everyday life or something separate from mundane tasks? How do you link both of these together?

Speaking for myself, it is  the definite element of everyday life. There is an obvious link.

People make music while working on a construction site or while they are out in the field. It is a collective output.

If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

I  hear people talk about our music scene as if it were futurism. But in here this music is more like right here, right now.

There are also a lot of computer beats being made in our country, for instance Afrobeats, but in our family, the energy is created with the hands, feet and mouths of the musicians.