The Trailer is an EP full of positive healing energies and self-uplifting vibes that can boost the spirit and cheer up the soul irrespective of what time of the day, where er are, or what wavelength we are threading through as individual beings of a diverse nature.
The music in this EP is a creative utilization of the positive energy of music especially good traditional Afrobeats beat music to explore the nature of life and the madness of the world around us and how we can learn from the wise experiences of a Four-Dimension philosophy (Body, mind, spirit, and soul) to navigate and make the best opportunities out of a complex life of interconnected complications and endless solutions to the numerous problems facing the world.
Each of the five songs in this EP takes a particular interest in an everyday reality of life that affects real people and how we can connect, react, adjust, and find our own little or big space as single individual grains of sand in a vast ocean of desert!
Wonderful Life:
Wonderful Life is the opening track in the Trailer EP. This track is about the unlimited opportunity to celebrate life as an unbelievably fascinating gift of nature, irrespective of the challenges of life and all the horrible experiences we have been through. The song emphasizes the need to be thankful for being there. It is a constant reminder that every day we wake up and can breathe, there are often so many people who wake up dead and without breath.
Asibiri:
Asibiri is about true love and the triumphs and tribulations surrounding two people from different ethnic, tribal, or cultural backgrounds falling in love with each other. This song is about how challenging true love can be, especially, when love is complicated or suffocated by tribal and ethnic or cultural differences which are often made much worse by religious intoxication and intolerance, family indoctrination, and religious hatred. The song explores the positive reality that no matter how hard and impossible it may seem sometimes; intercultural relationships can work and outlive and outperform everybody’s expectations…
Kasa:
Kasa in the Akan Language means, talk. This song is about how difficult and sometimes impossible it can be to say what is in one’s mind. What do you do if you know something either good or bad about someone you love but for fear of their reaction you feel uncomfortable telling them? In a post-truth world, is saying the truth about anything matter anymore? Is it wise to say the truth and be free or wiser to say very little or nothing sometimes because of the fear of other’s reactions to the truth? What are we allowed to say and what are we not allowed to say in a cutthroat social media world?
Ambatayala
Ambatayala in the Dagati language means who does not have problems? This song is about the healing and caring power of village wisdom in a world where intelligence is fast replacing the wisdom of nature. The song reawakens the realization that no matter how hard your life is and no matter how bad you feel on any day of the week, there are always others who feel as bad as you are or even worse than you in this world. This song encourages us to take time out from all the struggles of everyday life and celebrate through laughter, singing, and dancing and when we come together there is a greater healing energy that can help us get rid of some of the stress and the demonic energies the world throws at us. Even if we are sad because life is unfair to us, we may still be in a better position because we have good health which others with money sometimes don’t have. In other words, no matter how bad you think your situation is at any point in this life, there are always many others who would happily swap places with you so that you can experience
P-Governments
P-Governments is about the insane reality of political corruption in Africa which is the major reason why although Africa is a wealthy continent, so many Africans still live in unbearable degrees of material and immaterial poverty in the middle of the 21st century. An Africa which has the best agricultural land and yet too many Africans are starving every day. An Africa that is the land of gold and diamonds and yet so many young Africans are left with little opportunity or realistic hope of fulfilling their dreams in their homeland and are therefore forced to flee their natural paradise to go on perilous journeys around the world with far too many innocent lives lost in the sea as they try to get to the so-called land of greener pastures in Europe and America where they are made to believe there is an endless opportunity of happiness and an unlimited amount of resources available to all!
What is the inspiration behind Chebe’s debut EP, Trailer?
“An inspiration is an insight. Insights breed opportunities, that is why inspiration is the key to creative innovation in music and most probably in every other sphere of life…
Trailer is my debut EP and the inspiration behind it came to me in October 2023 after I recorded two full albums with my band the Glasgow African Balafon Orchestra (GABO). In the previous year 2022, I travelled with GABO and performed in many Scottish and UK festivals including a memorable performance at the famous Rabbit Hole stage at Glastonbury Festival. I also performed with GABO at the Latitude Festival in 2022.
Before this point, I had produced several solo singles, EPs, and even a couple of albums but none of which has ever been formally released by myself as an independent artist, among other things. Although I have formally released one album with GABO (Jungle Fever,” and also just created two amazing albums with GABO (Lift and Lift UP), I came to the realisation that had so many opportunities to record and perform music in diverse settings both as a collaborative and independent artist and that was why the journey of Trailer began.
P-Governments was the first track to be produced in the Trailer EP and I initially planned to release it as a single in December 2023. I soon realized P-Government was too serious of a song to start my solo career as an artist. P-Governments was recorded in a small self-help studio on the outskirts of Edinburgh and later remixed and mastered in Ghana.
I went to Ghana from October 2023 until February 2024 where I produced Ambatayala, Kasa, Wonderful Life, and Asibiri was the final track in the Trailer EP. All the production was done in a tiny room studio where three people had to cramp on one seat with only enough space left for the recording engineer.
The rest of the mixing and remixing have taken place between Glasgow/Edinburgh and Accra, and I have enjoyed the process so much that I hope you also enjoy the creative joy and amazing banter in the Trailer EP. I hope you can feel the amount of energy invested in this Trailer EP when you have had the opportunity to listen to the music and hopefully, you will enjoy it!
Any feedback is greatly appreciated, and it will help me shape and tailor my future releases to you and all the other great audiences on digital distribution and download platforms including, Soundcloud: Your tracks on SoundCloud
Happy listening and respect from Cheef Chebe!
