Australian act, SELVE is the first Aboriginal-led band to record at Abbey Road Studios in London. The band recently released their second record, Breaking Into Heaven. KEXP Contributor, Celine Teo-Blockey spoke to frontman Loki Liddle about the strong Indigenous themes on the album and how returning to Country and speaking to his elders helped shape the writing process for this expansive pop-rock album.

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Fela Kuti: Fear No Man is a 12-part podcast honoring the life and legacy of the inventor of Afrobeat, Fela Kuti. The show spotlights stories and perspectives from people highly influenced by Fela Kuti’s art and politics, including David Byrne, Brian Eno, Santigold, Questlove, Paul McCartney, and so many others.

KEXP’s Roddy Nikpour spoke with the host of the podcast — someone with a very distinct flavor of storytelling — Jad Abumrad. He’s best known as the founder and original host of the public radio show, Radiolab, as well as other music-oriented podcasts like Dolly Parton's America. Abumrad is also a composer himself.

“It's a really clever thing he's doing,” Abumrad says in the interview. “He moves you into a trance, wakes you up, then into politics — and then you're dancing at that point. So, your body's already in action. It's taking this political message and turning it into movement that then actually makes you want to do something.”

The story of Fela Kuti goes beyond his lifetime, though.

“The power of music is it'll outlive us,” Jad continues. “I think that's what Fela meant when he said ‘music is the weapon of the future.’ It's going to outlive the enemies. It will do something beyond us. And I hope he's right.”

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Photo by: Leon Morris

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KEXP DJ and Sounds of Survivance co-host Kevin Sur gives a history lesson on the Native Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders who influenced the genres of jazz, blues and rock.

photo by Carlos Cruz

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