What It’s Like To…Be a Heavy Metal Band in Togo
Arka’n Asrafokor pioneered a heavy metal genre infused with local Togolese flavor, and they’ve taken their sound across West and North Africa, and Europe.
Rock — the founder and leader of the only heavy metal band in Togo, Arka’n Asrafokor — spent much of his early years certain he was the only person who truly loved rock and roll in his country. Growing up, he listened to the genre all the time, falling in love with that spirited and high-powered approach to music.
It wasn’t until he moved to Lome, Togo’s capital city and cultural center, that he met other people who loved rock and roll, as well as heavy metal music, as much as he did. In 2009, those people would come to be members of his band. Since its founding, the band has managed to maintain a strong cultural presence despite being the only known band making heavy metal music, a genre that lies far out on the fringe in the landscape of Togolese music. They sing in Ewe, English and sometimes in French, and in their music, explore the state of humanity and the need to return to being humane. In Togo, genres and fusions of hip-hop and Afropop are some of the more prevalent sounds in the country, and folk songs are sung in local languages including Ewe, Kabye, Fon or Yoruba.
A genre like heavy metal is not as famous in neighboring countries like Ghana or Nigeria — places with more liberal and dynamic musical landscapes, yet the band has managed to make a name for themselves. They’ve played shows across West and North Africa, as well as in Europe. They regularly organize concerts that are well attended, and best of all, they are creating an alternate community for people with diverse musical tastes — the kind of community Rock would have appreciated growing up.
Below, Rock tells OkayAfrica what it’s like to run a heavy metal band in Togo, the complexities of self-funding and spreading the word, their musical process, and how they keep the music grounded in local Togolese flavor. The interview segments below have been lightly editted for length and clarity.
Rock for Arka’N Asrafokor: When I was young, I used to listen to rock and roll by artists like Little Richard and others. As I got older, I began getting into different kinds of rock music, including heavy metal. When I went to university in Lome, where we had internet, I began to go on YouTube and discover more about the music, which was how I realized that rock could be taken to a different level. I used to think there was nobody else loving the genre as I did, but in Lome, I met who liked it too and we would often exchange cassette tapes and also listen to great records together. Everyone has their own job, we don’t rehearse every day, but we sometimes do twice a week. We try to give our music a strong Togolese local flavor. We play our traditional drum sets like tumtum, African castanets and bells. We blend them together so it forms a whole thing. African percussion is a style of the kind of heavy metal music we do.The main challenge we face being the only band in Togo, is being alone in everything. There is no industry for metal in Togo or West Africa. So we have to do it by ourselves. Like when we have a show, because sound engineers here are not really into metal, so we have to be our own sound engineers. Sometimes we spend hours just on soundcheck because we want to have a great sound. Metal music needs a kind of accurate sound system, but we don't have it, so we just adapt to what we have. We also can’t go just anywhere to record, so we have to record and produce ourselves. We also have to [do the marketing] by ourselves, but things have gotten a little easier with marketing now that we are signed to Rising Phoenix Music, a German metal label.
We used to play shows in Togo once a month or thereabout, but since we began working on our album which is set to be out June 21, we haven’t played as much. But we have toured many countries in Africa, including Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Morocco and Ghana, and we were billed to play in Nigeria but that fell through. Although the audience here is not that big, it is growing fast. Through publicity, social media and word of mouth, we have been able to get metal music lovers who didn’t know about us to attend our shows. We also get people of different ages who attend our shows, because our music is a blend of African culture and metal, so it talks to people from all over the world, both young and old.
In terms of what the future looks like, there is no precise goal to achieve because it’s a lifetime story. We will keep writing songs, we will keep touring and releasing albums. We just want to go further, explore the world and bring joy to who we can.
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