Andres 'Drukas' Fonseca
Where are you from/Where are you now?
I was born and raised in Bogota, Colombia. I moved to Boston, MA to study at Berklee College of Music. I’m now living in Brooklyn NYC.
What is your current musical project and how did it come about?
My current project is KUYE. It’s a band I started with some friends in the Fall of 2018. It’s 4 of us, we are three Colombians and one Sudanese. We all met here in the US and the band is our playground where we can converge all of our different styles and interests from ancestral traditional music to more modern sounds. It’s been a very cool project that’s just getting started.
Also, I’m starting to develop another project called DRUKAS. This would be a ‘solo’ project, where I’m pretty much writing and arranging everything on my own. In it, I am combining all the rhythms I’ve been studying from the traditions of Colombia but also different traditional styles from elsewhere. I’m also a part of a collective called Bulla en el Barrio. We are committed to studying and supporting an ancestral Afro-Colombian tradition called Bullerengue.
What is the driving force behind your Bulla en Barrio?
I feel that we have all heard the call of the drum and of the ancestral chants. The root of this music is the resistance of the African communities in what is now known as Colombia. We have been able to bring some of those masters - Emilsen Pacheco and Darlina Saenz - here to NYC to share not only their music, but also, the culture and legacy they carry.
Where does your inspiration to pursue music come from?
The driving force behind the music for me is that ‘music is the form of magic more evident’ as my friend Kiko Villamizar wrote in one of his songs. Music is our way of manifesting the divine beyond our understanding. The influence music has over us is so powerful and deep. The fact that I can take part of that and create my own music, to put in my little grain of sand is very exciting.
What musical artists inspire you and why?
The artists that inspire me the most are the ones that, I feel, are more honest with their voice and their expression. It’s hard to put into words, but they are the ones who bring forth their vision and sound from a deep place within themselves. Those artists create with more in mind besides profits, ‘likes’, or any type of mainstream measure. Which is why their impact is so beyond measure. All of the traditional music usually gets to me because it comes from a simpler deep cultural root. It can be from anywhere in the world. Blues and jazz in the US. In Colombia, bullerengue, gaitas, music from the pacific coast. Traditional music from DR like Salve Dominicano, or Bomba from Puerto Rico. Afro-Cuban Rumba and batás are also incredible. All the rara from Haiti.
More modern artists I like: Kombilesa Mi, a group of AfroColombians who make hiphop in their traditional language of Palenquero. From the pacific coast, Nidia Gongora, the late Diego Obregon, Meridian Brothers, Sistema Solar, Edson Velandia, Mitu. I also like jazz: Miles, Coltrane, Stan Getz, Jobim, Tony Williams, Max Roach, Horace Silver, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, and many more.
Was there a specific moment while recording that you knew your music had a ‘magical effect’ on others?
Last year, when we were recording the new songs for KUYE, we got some moments like that. The air felt crisp and the energy was so hot. It felt like we were playing a group sport, like soccer or basketball and we were crushing! It was like our hearts were beating at the same time, our brain waves were traveling at the same rate. It was pretty crazy. The engineer & assistants were all very excited about what we had just recorded.
Did the quarantine inspire you creatively?
The whole Covid situation has been very hard and definitely a test for nerves and anxiety. At first, especially, I was very anxious about my health and for everyone’s health. Later on, it was fear of the cancellation of basically all of my work. I eventually started getting creative but it was more out of necessity - as a way to cope with all the free time I had on my hands and the fear that was being felt in the whole world. I collaborated with a group of musicians that started a label called Stuck At Home Records. We also did a ‘KUYE from home’ show for a festival in Chicago called Mole de Mayo, where we were supposed to play.
What struggle/opposition did you experience when creating & pursuing your musical projects?
I haven’t personally experienced opposition other than maybe my own and my own self-doubt. I’m proud of the way Bulla operates. Bulla has been able to play a few shows since June. All the money (earned) has gone straight to our masters back home in Colombia. They live in communities that were already very poor and (existing) with basically no help from the government even before the pandemic. So, to be able to give back to them directly is really something I’m very proud of Bulla for doing so.
What would be a dream collaboration for you?
I would love to collaborate with musicians from other parts of the world who are studying their traditions, tracing them as much as possible back to the roots, but building on them using their own voices. Thinking of people like Karim Ziad, Bombino, Mayra Andrade, Mitu, Fatoumata Diawara, Tinariwen, Aca Seca Trio, Hermeto Pascoal. And the list goes on and on and on.
What advice would you give to a young person from the diaspora who wants to do what you do?
This is the hardest question because I am a white looking Latino from Bogotá. And even though I have felt discrimination for not being ‘more white’ or for being Latino or Colombian (Colombia = cocaine in the US), I also have been blessed with more opportunities and privilege.
However, not to leave the question unanswered, and if someone definitely wanted my advice, I would say: Stay true to YOU. To who YOU are deep inside. To what moves your spirit and makes you feel more alive. Let that shine, care for it, and shape it with that same intention. Something that is done with pure intentions will gravitate towards and care for who you REALLY are.