Eighteen-piece Afrobeat band The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra is ready to get you up out of your seat.
“Lots of colour, lots of noise, lots of smiles, lots of fun.”
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Ethan Hill, aka DJ Manchild, was describing a particularly raucous street party. In fact, he’s talking about one of the Melbourne group’s live shows, a phenomenon that has to be experienced firsthand to be believed.
“There's singing and dancing, there's percussion everywhere, people trying to lock into the groove. The big thing about it's a show for dancing, not a show to watch, everything is about trying to bring everyone together and have everyone get down on the dancefloor.”
Incorporating the talents of salsa musicians, South African Zvi Belling on bass and Hill’s own background in hip hop, the dancefloor is hard to resist, although Hill does admit that organising an 18-strong group of musicians can get a little complicated.
“It's a massive chore trying to organise 18 people to come to a rehearsal or even to get together at the same time.
“Before you do it, it seems like way too much effort but once you're doing it, you think, ‘Oh that's right, this is why we do it’.
“When you've got 18 musicians all locked in together, it's a beautiful thing.”
Ethan also puts the POAO’s unique sound is down to its unconventional size.
“Everyone was from the local music scene, and as a hip hop DJ, I knew a lot of these guys so it's great having all these different areas of musicians and being able to bring them all together.”
Despite being rooted in the Melbourne music community, POAO has also forged links further afield.
“Three of us went to Lagos as well as South Africa and worked with local rappers and formed the basis of our first album.”
Their eight-track digital only release, ‘Do Anything Go Anywhere’, was featured on Triple J and was nominated for an ARIA award, something Hill puts down to the collective's shared musical passion.
“The music is the weapon. We're all passionate strong people and we like to express that in our music.”
The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra perform The Hi-Fi November 17, which is part of the Australasian Worldwide Music Expo that takes place November 14-17 at the Arts Centre Melbourne.
