Stand Together: The Power of the Collective

“Scientists are talking now about how energy emanates out of your heart and how that connects people to each other.” Steam Down founder Ahnanse is telling me about the collective process of creating and experiencing music. “There’s an energetic field that happens between people; you can't really replicate that,” he adds.

Those familiar with the pioneering South London jazz crew Ahnanse founded in 2017 will recognise the energy and fire he describes between people. Right now, the collective approach seems more vital than ever to new UK music – one that’s driving it forward with force – and the heartbeat of this is Steam Down.

The multi-disciplinary group, born out of a weekly South East London jazz session, are known as much for their soulful, positive vibes and communal, high-octane jams, as they are an innovative melding of spiritual jazz, West African rhythms and UK bass music. The relationship between the artists – beat-makers, MCs, musicians, DJs, singers, writers and artists – and their audience is central to Steam Down, often blurring the lines between the two.

“I feel like everybody has a unique energy that comes through with everything we create. When I started Steam Down, I picked people with the right feeling, as well as the right ideas that would fit together,” he explains. “It was the idea of having that spectrum; that hyper, fiery intense energy, and having a contrast - having more meditative stuff too.”

A collective with these qualities has the capacity for spontaneity, creating space in which unexpected things can happen at their weekly sessions, on tour or in the studio. Ahnanse feels “it’s about leaving room for what you can't plan for. The freedom for everyone to express themselves spontaneously is probably what makes us different to a band playing a structured song.” Steam Down can do that of course, Ahnanse states, but they can also “strip it apart, strip it back, and let it form into something else – we're comfortable doing that as a group.”

Fellow Steam Down member Dominic Canning – keyboardist, producer and composer – says the energy of their regular shows inspires the collective to constantly up their game. “It forces you to think on the spot,” he says, “so when it comes to improvising I know I've got different chords and different versions. It keeps you on your toes - you can’t leave stuff till later, you've got to do it now."

This fluid, impromptu approach also applies to the relationship between the collective’s artists and their audience. Nadeem Din-Gabisi – Steam Down vocalist and DJ – cites the Malian tradition of griot jali as something the group are bringing to London. “Griots were part of the community, not just entertainers who lived outside and came in to play music,” he explains. “And the audience wasn’t an 'audience' – it was just your community.”

For Nadeem this is what makes Steam Down so special. “It’s a community as opposed to a transactional concept where people come in to be fulfilled and then leave,” he states.

This relationship is truly cyclical, the energy of the audience feeding back to Steam Down’s musicians and informing the music they make. “The music is definitely inspired by the dialogue of us as musicians as well as the community at the weekly event,” says Ahnanse. “That dialogue inspires things, when you feel the reactions to what you're putting out there and then bounce off that response.” This shapes their creative process, how they put things together.

Steam Down also take a fluid approach to sound, flexing barriers between genres in the same way they do between the stage and the dance floor. "If I'm honest I think we've brought a diversity of languages and different ways of approaching musicality,” Nadeem states.

“Often people think in a binary way when it comes to music and art,” he continues, offering a hypothetical collaboration between Pharoah Sanders and D Double E as an example. “Lots of people would think that's ridiculous…but they're both humans, both making music. What’s so difficult about that?” For Nadeem, Steam Down is one of the few instances in the UK of regular function that’s “not binary or linear, but infinite and cyclical.”

Other collectives are harnessing this energy that comes from working in a communal way. Multi-disciplinary groups like NiNE8 Collective, BBZ and gal-Dem are producing magazines, mixtapes and album artwork, throwing LGBTQ+ friendly raves, supporting female-identifying creatives and hosting radio shows, all powered by working together.

Master Peace – MC and member of South London rap collective Ammi Boyz – cites this approach as being supportive in both a practical and psychological sense. He sees Ammi Boyz as a form of creative comradeship. “Working with a crew is so sick in the sense it’s like a brotherhood,” he explains. “We’re always there for each other, no matter what, but we also learn new things,” explaining fellow Ammi Boyz MC Nigz helped him improve his flow. “Learning how to play live elements and being surrounded by good energy makes it worth it.”

The energy of the collective makes them stronger together, but also individually, Master Peace explains. “We all got our own careers, but everything we do represents Ammi Boyz and just brings more light to us. That’s my family. I’d do anything for them and vice versa, we’re always supporting each other’s work.”

Touching Bass are another curatorial platform and community making things happen. Describing themselves as “a family of soul disciples”, their dances, DJ sets and shows are, much like Steam Down, led by mood, creating a soulful vibe for both members and those joining them. Led by selectors Errol Anderson and Alex Rita, it’s relationships that ignite the energy for their work.

“Touching Bass is like a support network more than anything. Everyone has their own thing going on but when it makes sense, we call on each other,” explains Errol. “That could be someone shooting some quick visuals, sound technician wizardry or just as friends.

“Naturally, the relationships between people in the group differs; we see some people more than we do others, but there's a kinship which is based on a shared feeling about certain things. It's nice to have that.”

Errol says despite the practical support, the vital part about working as a community is the basic inspiration it brings: “Looking to your left and right and seeing people that are into similar things do cool things.”

For Ahnanse, the energy of the collective is at this very human level too, one that’s unique to just being part of a group, coming together. “You can never capture what it’s like to be around other people,” he says with a smile. “Nothing can ever really mimic that.”

Written by Emma Finamore
Steam Down photos courtesy of Dan Billinghurst
Touching Bass photos courtesy of Adama Jalloh and Alex Rita

A part of ENERGY, a new series of live performances of signature tracks by the artists we’re excited about. Our vision is to capture live moments with the unique energy that exists between artist and people.