Straight Up Random

T.G.I.F. Featured Band: Shaka Ponk

This week’s T.G.I.F. Featured Band is a band hailing from France called Shaka Ponk. To learn more about Shaka Ponk, read the mini-interview below and be sure to check out their music for yourself by listening to their songs on MySpace!

INTERVIEW:

How did the band come together?
We were a few artists living in Paris in 2003 and decided to move to Berlin to experiment new …things….
We are big fans of sound and video production, so in Germany we created the Shaka Ponk project: A cynical monkey describing the decadent  human  world … Singing on a screen with 5 punks jumping all around.
 
How’d you come up with your name?
We stole that name to another band … So they had to come up with  “U2”…

What bands/artists are you influenced by?
We listen to everything from ABBA to Cypress Hill !!! But we are more inspired by experiences and people we meet during our trips than by bands… The real inspiration comes from fear, happiness, exploring new countries … Starting from zero…. living all together in squats …. extremes sensations … and meeting crazy artists… Berlin is perfect for that !

How would you describe your music for people who have never heard it before?
Happy Ape Rock …
 
What makes your band different from all the other ones out there?
Every band is different from another no? Not true? What’s weird in Shaka:
- We have this crazy monkey
- We do everything by ourselves (that’s one of the concepts): songs, production, videos, animation, 3D, FX, clothes, website, flash, Monkey TV (http://www.tv.shakaponk.com/)….
- We’re a kind of nomads … moving from one town to another…
- We don’t write our lyrics … but ask people we meet or our friends to write about their thoughts … like shrinks … and everything ends up in Mr. GOZ’s mouth… most of the time in monkey-English :)