We are VERY delighted to bring you this blog post – the first update from our team in Uganda filming the Kickstarter-funded documentary featuring the bands The Polyphonic Spree and The Very Best, with frequent collaborator Seye. Invisible Children Music is partnering with La Blogothèque to craft a film about a cultural interchange of music, and it’s all supporter-funded.
The crew only recently landed, but they’re straight to work. We’ve been stalking like madpeople the social media of everyone on the trip, so it’s nice to get an actual update from project leader Kenny Laubbacher about the progress of the collaborations.
He provides the words, and the photos come via Sarah Schutzki with La Blogothèque.
From Kenny:
After 27 hours of travel time (LA – NYC – LON – EBB) we finally arrived in Uganda.
The team clicked immediately and is already a giant family.
We have people here from across the States, London, Sweden, France and Malawi.
Together, we visited an Invisible Children microfinance community (VSLA) where we were greeted with singing and dancing. The local people called out the bands saying that they sang 3 songs and now it’s the Polyphonic Spree and The Very Best’s turn… they passed out maracas and shakers and the whole place turned into a giant, singing dance party… it was magical.
The Spree have been working with the Gulu High School choir where the kids are ambitious and excited to collaborate. They are insanely talented and all of us have been taken aback by how quickly they learn. They’re already adding to the Spree’s songs and it’s BEAUTIFUL.
The Very Best just started work today with a prominent local musician named Tam Noffy. Johan was in the zone and just started throwing down some simple beats that Seye, Esau, and Tam immediately started singing over. They took the mic out into the street to record percussion with some ambient street sounds and locals started joining in the chorus as soon as they heard it. The song is still being developed, but is well on it’s way.
We’ve run out of water tonight, but electricity has been good to us (knock on wood) which is a HUGE blessing because that means we can have fans at night to bat off this 90+ degree weather.
The team all have ideas for more take away shows and we’re really hitting our stride.
Thanks so much for your love and support. We all can’t wait to bring you this film.
LOVE
Kenny, Invisible Children and the La Blogothèque team
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More photos on Invisible Children Music Facebook [HERE].
Follow Invisible Children Music on Twitter for more updates [HERE].
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