Interview Boy Azooga: fast as lightning

When Boy Azooga mastermind Davey Newington talks about the music and artists that he loves, he’s filled to the brim with enthusiasm. Yet it wasn’t inspirations like the Beach Boys, Caribou, OutKast or Ty Segall who initially spurred him on to chase his musical dreams. It was Jack Black. “It sounds really daft,” he says, “but I saw ‘School of Rock’ when I was 12 or 13 and that was a bit of an epiphany moment when I was like ‘right, this is what I have to do’.”

Jack Black’s oeuvre is hardly where Davey’s musical story begins though. His parents met playing in the BBC Orchestra of Wales, he’d started learning to play drums as a child and participated in numerous orchestras and bands in his youth (“I just always really like staying on after school and doing all of that kind of stuff”). He admits though that, despite being surrounded by all kinds of sounds, his musical palette as a teenager was a little more limited. “I only really listened to Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Run DMC and Queen and that was about it,” Davey explains. It was an inspirational teacher that helped him expand his horizons, suggesting he seek out the krautrock rhythms of Can. “It did totally blow my mind,” he says. “It sounded like aliens were making the music. Then I just discovered a load of bands around that period.”

His now expansive list of influences are evident on Boy Azooga’s debut single, ‘Face Behind Her Cigarette.’ Psychedelic and dynamic, it’s built on propulsive percussive elements inspired by Nigerian funklord William Onyeabor, showing off his affinity for the drums. “I kind of think in drums. I think drums are really vital to a song having a groove,” he says.

The drum beats that once floated around in his head have also become an upcoming debut album. He’s played every instrument on the record (with the exception of the strings, for which he enlisted his dad), heading to the living room of producer Eddie El Shakarchie to lay down the tracks. “I really like the thing of being able to sit on your friend’s couch,” he explains, “I think it really informs how you record and how you play when you know that you’re not bound down time-wise.”