A children’s playing field may not quite be everyone’s idea for a live music venue, but this didn’t stop upcoming young band Kultural from transforming one in Għargħur for their CD launch gig last month.
The connection being that they spent many an afternoon jamming in the gazebo conveniently located in this particular playing field.
Despite being relative newcomers to the Maltese music scene, the four young men collectively known as Kultural have already attracted a sizeable following (including that of Chasing Pandora’s Keith Anthony, who produced their EP and manages the band) and a lot of media attention, thanks in part to their fascinating blend of musical elements as well as their engaging live performances.
Apart from the crossover tendencies that underline Kultural’s music, the diversity that exists on an individual level – rap to post-rock to classical and world music – is equally essential to the end product, which begs the question of just how did a band so young come up with such a fascinating sound?
“There was never any plan to form a band,” explains Bertu Aquilina who plays the digeridoo and other percussion instruments. He started out playing guitar but “picked up the didg because it was an unusual instrument and could also play it on (his) own to pass the time”. Eventually, he got bored of playing alone, so he called up childhood friend Gabriel Gauci in the hope of having someone to jam with.
“Music has always been present in my life… I started learning to play the piano at six, but I didn’t quite get into it, so I switched to violin,” says Gauci. “I really got into it, and besides studying, I looked for every opportunity where I could adapt my playing in different environments.” Playing in church, with school rock bands, orchestras and pop bands, he did the lot, so Aquilina’s call to jam with violin and digeridoo was really too good to pass up.
Amid jamming with various musicians, somewhere down the line (though not too long ago given the present line-up only turned one year old this month) Aquilina’s brother suggested they should meet a rapper called Ru-Boo on account of his knack for seamlessly reeling out Maltese verses and beatboxing.
Tall, long-haired and enamoured of hiphop’s strong sense of expression, Ru-Boo says he started to write down his thoughts and poems, which led him to start rapping and beatboxing.
His streetwise savvy injected another aspect to the jam sessions and they recorded rough demos to get an idea of what it all sounded like. Gauci remembers their initial reactions:
“Despite the low sound quality, it sounded fine; we looked at each other with a smile on our faces, pleasantly surprised at how this unusual mixture of musical and vocal elements seemed to gel together so well.”
The last to join was guitarist and occasional singer Aaron Debattista. “I’ve only been singing since I joined in the band,” he says.
He started out learning classical guitar aged 13. He played in a couple of rock bands but much prefers playing acoustic guitar. While the three other members seemed to gravitate via jam sessions to being in a band together, Debattista’s recruitment was more spontaneous, particularly since he didn’t know them that well.
Together, the four young musicians – at 22, Ru-Boo is the oldest – started to meet up wherever they found available space, which was usually either the garage at Aquilina’s or Gauci’s home or the gazebo.
Inspired by the multi-cultural blend in their sound, Ru-Boo came up with the band name, and from then on they became Kultural. As the four-man line-up developed a stronger bond, so did the music, with Aquilina eventually also taking on the role of percussionist further to his didgeridoo and Debattista involving himself more vocally, supplying an unusual melodic layer underpinning Ru-Boo’s rough-edged rap and giving the songs an intriguing contrast.
Certainly one of the main characteristics about Kultural that has attracted the attention of many is that their songs are in Maltese, regardless of the fact that this may automatically disqualify them from garnering any airplay on some radio stations.
Ru-Boo, who writes and raps the words says: “I definitely feel I can express myself better in Maltese. And besides, I believe that despite the popularity of much foreign music here, a lot of Maltese like to hear contemporary songs in their own language.”
Debattista says there’s an element of patriotism too, while Gauci believes our native tongue’s very origin and chequered history captures what the band is about perfectly.
“There have been many foreign influences in the way the Maltese language has evolved, and that mixture appeals to us.”
Phonetics, he says, are another appealing factor. “The sound of our language also has something special; we realised that when we were playing to a foreign audience, and though they didn’t understand a word Ru-Boo was saying, they still felt the emotion the song was transmitting.”
Having heard both their EP and their live performance, the songs – in both musical and (especially) lyrical terms – reach out in a way that makes it difficult to come away unimpressed.
Where did the inspiration behind L-Għanja tal-Imgħallaq – a song that is not on the EP but seems to be a live favourite – come from?
Gauci tenders an explanation: “We were going to play at a literary event and thought it would be interesting to set some literature to music… by pure chance, my father gave me a rare book of poetry by Kilin and L-Għanja tal-Imgħallaq caught our attention.”
A footnote in the book revealed Kilin had intended to have the poem set to music, presumably għana, but nobody had done it yet. Kultural’s rendition of it may not be strictly folk but the result remains a captivating song that is indelibly stamped with their vibrant timbre to the point that they’ve made it their own.
Alongside striking songs such as Il-Bidu, Irmied u Ġmied, the band’s anthem Nirrapreżenta l-Kultural and others, the song has played an important part in building the band’s audience as well as endearing them to fans of world music, hiphop and even folk.
“The response has been encouraging,” they agree. “It’s all been very exciting but there’s still a lot of work to be done. We’re looking forward to writing more songs and performing more gigs.”
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