FEATURE: Interview with DJ Bobby Brazuka Of LatinAotearoa

As previously reported, LatinAotearoa are touring New Zealand over December and January. We fire a few questions at DJ Bobby Brazuka about how it all started and what the future holds for Latin Aotearoa.

How did you Jennifer and Isaac meet and form LatinAotearoa?

I have been dj'ing for about 8 years, and hosting Latin and Brazilian gigs for a while. Jennifer's originally from Venezuela, she was traveling around the world, before living in Melborne for a period. Following her husband she moved to New Zealand and when she hit it our shores she came up to my radio show on George FM and played me some of her work.

I was stunned because even though she is from Venezuela and speaks spanish she showed me some beautiful work of Bossa Nova which is originally from Brazil and is sung in portuguese.

I started to book her for gigs.

Jennifer wanted to some stuff together and I wanted to take my djing to a next level so we decided to join forces.

It was a bit hard in the beginning as I never played with a vocalist and she never sung with a Dj. I decided to get some of my favourite tunes of Hip Hop, Soul, Funk, Reggae and of course Latin bea and show her.

She really liked it, took the tunes home and came back with different versions of Ladi 6 " Walk Right Up", J.Dilla "Running", Erykah Badu " Soldier",  Notorious BIG " Hypnotize" , House of Shem " Keep Rising", then we started doing gigs, people started to give us awesome feedbacks and we were loving it.

We having being jamming together for one year now and it was just natural that we begin to look for different elements to our outfit.

I have been friends of Isaac Aesili for many years and really love his energy, good vibes and of course Im a mad fan of his music and talent. Jennifer and I asked him to join us plying percussion, trumpet, singing and also djing.

This multi-talented brother is just what we needed for our thing.

Who and What are your main influences?

We are influenced by some many artists and producers that make what we love...Latin, Soul, Funk, Hip Hop. Names such as J.Dilla, Jay Electronic, Erykah Badu, Cut Chemist,  Dj Vadim, Nickodemus, Freddie Crugger, Bronx River Parkway, Sa-Ra, Dam Funk...and the list goes on.

How do your live performances compare to your recorded work?

Well. we are truly a live performance outfit. I usually start djing with Isaac on percussion and after a while Jennifer jumps on and we jam Latin Party styles, mixing all those flavours I have been telling you about it. Although Im really keen to take to another level and gonna start getting some Ableton live lessons with Christiaan from House of Downtown. Until I get there I better leave for Isaac with his wicked beats he makes and Jennifer to combine their lovely talents on a record studio.

Which gig on the Road To Rio tour are you most looking forward to and why?

All of them. We are very excited about travelling around the country showing a bit of our cultures and putting some wicked parties. When we first came out with the idea we wanted to go everywhere, Gisborne, Mount Maunganui, Hokianga, even Tokoroa, Stuart Island, haha..

But the logistics of putting up a tour is not that easy and we were really happy to go to beautiful places like Whitianga, Mangawhai, Raglan and show a bit of the Latino styles to all locals and to people holidaying. And also to swim at the beach, drink some beer and have lots of fun.

What does 2011 hold for you?

Next year we want to make it even bigger and busier. We want to keep educating New Zealand about Latin Culture, bringing our flavours wherever we go, and later try to take across the ditch and abroad.

I read once that in 2025 the Latin Community will be 1.5% of New Zealand population. Our people are here to stay and we are definitely going to be assets to this country.

We think that through music we can bring all of us together and we can do this job good.

Lets start from now and make 2011 even bigger.