 When we started this year, we didn't, like, never in our wildest imagination did we think we're going to be where we are right now. Wow. Because of COVID, because the borders were closed, so we couldn't see further ahead. Yeah. So we were still, like, trying to run our other events, like our Sunday events, and our, like, the night shift events we do at Metro City. And then we did, on the night of the first show, because while we were backstage, I looked at the crowd. I looked at all the levels of Metro City, and I'm like, this is a dream. Yeah. Like, to me, that just felt so good. And seeing people jumping and having fun just made me feel like we're here, bro. Let's go. Welcome to the Sevo show. We have Afro Beats Fusion in the studio today. Couple of lads who have made it in the Afro Beats scene. I'm not going to lie. It's something that I haven't embraced myself in yet. There's been a couple of times where I've heard it, and it's a vibe, but I'm still yet to be in the club where everyone's vibing. That's insane. So I've listened to it, and it's something that I'm just like, all right, cool. Something that isn't just throwaway rap music. Yes. Yes. So tell me about yourselves. Who are you and how did you get to know each other? I'll let him start. My name is Yemi, one of the co-founders of Afro Beats Fusion. We started in 2019. I sent a message to my friend here, Shola, asking if he's interested in doing a promotion for Afro Beats artists. And he's like, yeah, let's do it. Nice. Basically, everything started from basically text. Actually, a WhatsApp message. I think you posted a photo of that text a while ago. Yeah, yeah, and he was on his way to vacation in Europe. So he was actually in Dubai when he got the message. And then he was like, let's do it. Let's do it. And then boom, that's it. And what made you go? Yeah, let's do it. Interestingly, I'd always been interested in Afro Beats. I just didn't know, bringing artists and doing things I just didn't know how to do. I didn't know where to start from. So when he sent me that message, I'm like, damn it. That's what I need. OK, let's go. Let's do it. Like, I didn't even, I think if you check the times, I'll reply immediately saying that. I mean, yeah, because I've always been thinking about it. Like you were straight away, I was like, whoa, OK. You up? You up? What are you doing? Yeah. In fact, I think I also wrote that, oh my God, I've been thinking of this for a while. Yeah, yeah. Cool, cool. And then boom. So what is it exactly for anybody that doesn't know? Um, do you want me to? Yeah, you go with that one. All right, cool. So the name itself Afrobeat, obviously, from the genre Afrobeat music, which I would say is actually part of our roots coming from Nigeria, something we literally grew up listening to. And then coming to Australia, we just thought that the genre needs a bit more audience than it has at the moment. Over in the UK and America, it's already a household name. Like when you say Afrobeat, everybody just knows what you're talking about. But in Australia, it's starting to pick up. And then diffusion just means that we are going to, we're doing Afrobeat and other genres. So we're fusing other genres with Afrobeat. That's, that's cool. And how did that come about? We just thought about it. And then actually it was supposed to be, the name was supposed to be Afro, or the ink. And when we tried to register that, we found out that we couldn't because it was already existing. And we're just like, well, since we're going to be promoting Afrobeat, why don't you just go with Afrobeat fusion? We kind of think Afrobeat somehow flows into everything at the moment. So that's a fusion anyway. That's a better name. No, no hate to Australia. The name Australia for Afrobeat fusion sounds more universal. And it sounds like you can take it overseas as well. Exactly. So in terms of how it came about, and in terms of now where it's at, what overseas, let's start with that. When did it first go, okay, this is the thing, obviously from the Nigerian culture. But now it's on the main scene. Is there like a person that just brought it out, like made it, like this is a thing now? Do you remember? Do you know? I think the band was the first artist that went international. I think it was Too Faced when his song African Queen was featured in that Monique's comedy, that movie. And then after that, we started having people exporting the song to the UK. Actually, I would, in my own opinion, the UK actually made Afrobeat a global phenomenon. Because even back in Nigeria, back in the early 2000s, we didn't used to listen to Afrobeat songs. We used to listen to hip hop and dance or reggaeton. We used to call it Nigerian music. Yeah. So when Afrobeat started, when all these guys started popping up, we used to actually call it Nigerian music. And then it became Niger Jams and it became Niger Hip Hop. That's cool. Yeah, because most of it back then was just hip hop people rapping and with the local dialect, to the pigeon English. And then I think from 2005, 2003 there about, was when it actually started really becoming deep. The rest of the world started listening. When we had the likes of the band P-square doing collabs with people like Acorn, people like Mary J Blige and all of that. And then all of a sudden, from 2010, it just became something that everyone just had to listen to. And now Australia is embracing it. Yes. Who has been the front runner so far in Australia for this? Wow. I think in Australia, everything has been on the promoter level to be honest with you. In different states, we have promoters who are just pushing this by way of playing it at their own nightclubs and bringing like one artist or the other. But I think since the pandemic, since the borders open, it's become a thing where Australia is now where everyone just wants to come to. I wouldn't say that was our making, to be honest with you. Because I mean, there have been people who have been playing in that space. But I would say that we actually give it more visibility. That's cool. I think there's also a collaborative effort which you have people who teach Afro beats dancing. And that's huge there. I need to get on to that. Yeah, I definitely need to get on to that. I'll give you a playlist after. There's that. And then there are people who like this, all the TikToks and all the other things. But dancing in itself was driven has actually been also a huge driving force for Afro beats in Australia. Amazing. Amazing. Oh, I guess you could say you're the front runners now. All right. But that's the goal. That's the goal. But yeah. So what are you doing before this? Do you want to go first? What are we doing? So look, we both have a day job where we do 8 to 5 and stuff. I mean, IT, I work in projects. So that's my 8 to 5 stuff that I do. But I also find that that knowledge is transferable into Afro beats because I deal with a lot of projects, project management. So anytime we have any project coming up, like bringing an analysis, it's a project that we can kind of sit together and kind of design. So I can use that knowledge to help out the company. I'll let you tell him, he'll tell you about what he does. So I am more, sometimes when people ask me what I do, I don't even know where to start because I do so much. So I moved to Australia 10 years ago. I'm a vet by training, veterinary doctor. So I got here. I just didn't really feel interested in practicing vet anymore. And then I started doing so many things. I've done door-to-door sales, like I've done face-to-face. I did face-to-face marketing for seven years. So I think that's basically what got me really exposed to the Australian culture. And then I run a mobile car detailing business as well on the side. And then right now, Afrobeat is just seems to be the thing that is taking all my time. I love that. And you obviously love it. I absolutely love it. Absolutely, like this. So that's why he's in charge of all our marketing. Because he knows that stuff. So when it comes to the AfroBates itself, what do you guys actually do to deliver that? What is it? Like you play the music? Yep. And then you teach the music to others? So what we do, like where we I would say we contribute more is by making sure that first of all, most of the artists we bring to Australia are Afrobeat artists. We run events where it's I would say it's 80 to 90 percent Afrobeat music being played. And then we just want to see ourselves as people who like once you think of Afrobeat, you think about us. That's the goal. That is the goal. Cool. And how you found how are you finding marketing that on socials? It's actually very easy now. It's very easy now with the because TikTok has just made the genre itself very global. So and these Afrobeat songs go viral so quickly. So it's very, very easy for you to catch on to. So as soon as you catch on to a song, you want to know what are the songs that particular artist has released. It's like a rabbit hole. You just start going down and down and then before you know it, you and then we have superstars now like Burnaboy, Whisky, Davido, who are playing the game on a bigger scale in the world as well. So that's awesome. That's awesome. As a TikTok person, I'm not really pushing any trending songs on my channel. It is actually a wave of copyright infringements coming along where like Jack Harlow's first class, for example, that was on for a minute. But you can use a minute clip and they've cut it back down to 30 seconds. So all the videos that had that track that went over 30 seconds, they were all muted. And I'm just like, what's going on? You know, that's not helpful. But with 30 seconds, I mean, you could do a dance in 15 seconds. And I imagine that's probably a good way to do it. Absolutely. But if I was a young and up and coming Afro Beats composer, what's your biggest tip for me? How do I get into the game? Just listen to as many Afro Beats songs as possible. The good thing about the current period we're in right now is that it's actually very easy to learn because everything is in your face. Going out of the days when you actually need to go and search. But right now you don't need to do any more, any like searching per se. You've got like a lot of songs out there that actually go viral. You just need to pick which is your style and which is not. And then just basically copy and paste. That's the way I see it. Nice. Nice. And any upcoming Australian Afro Beats people that you're kind of recognising and onboarding to these events? What's your process with that? He does the supporting arts recruitment. Anytime we're bringing an Afro Beats artist, we also try, we make sure we have a local talent that we try to promote with that show. Just to give them a wider audience. Because we get a crowd of a thousand and upwards at our events. Wow. Yeah. So the last one we brought, Rema, we was almost a sold out event at Metro City. We filled up all the three levels. The next one who's coming on the 27th of October is actually a bigger artist. His song, you mentioned Jack Hallow. His song Booga was competing with Jack Hallow's song for the most shazam song in the world for a while, like five weeks. For like five weeks. So what goes into promoting or setting up promoting and executing a successful night at Metro City? A lot. Because he does the project management side. So I'll let him handle that. A lot. So you basically think of the venue. There's a lot that goes into the venue, production, sound, special effects. Then you think of the artist, the artist of hospitality, which is a completely different bogey mentality. Then you think of security. There's so much to get done. And then everything always goes wrong every time. So if you have an event on Friday, that Friday, everything that could possibly go wrong will go wrong. So you have to be always on your game. Problem solving. Yes. I remember like the last one we sat, the whole of Friday, the last one we had, we sat at Crown and were just killing fires throughout. And I said to him, well, I'm like, dude, I'm getting hired from this stuff. And he's like, me too. But you enjoy that? Yeah. How good is that? I enjoy that stuff. Yeah, but there's a lot of background process that goes into it. He does a lot of the artists, like the supporting arts recruitment and all those that and even that, also, we have a few requirements that you need to kind of need to meet to be able to be a supporting art on any of our shows. Because we just don't want to just have anybody there. So there's a few things we look at. We look at the song itself, if it's Afro beat in nature, because I mean, anyone can just say their song is Afro beat. But there's a few things we look out for, like the rhythm, the sound itself, and the acceptability. We have a guy, am I, can I mention names? Yeah. Yeah. So we've got a guy, a very talented guy coming out of Perth, right? And his name is Bless. He did an Afro beat song called Local. And straight away, that song got onto the Afroswari playlist in Australia on Spotify. Cool. Over a 100,000 streams on that song. Wow. And he's a Perth boy, right? Well, that's the game, isn't it, these days? You've got to get on a playlist. I don't know if SoundCloud is as relevant. SoundCloud is really relevant for the DJs as well. Yeah. So for people like that, we just try to make sure that we just give them just a wider coverage. Yeah. Just so like Afro beat is a worldwide phenomenon now. So it doesn't matter where you are, you can create it from anywhere. So we try to help people like that with a wider coverage. And then even talking about the DJs as well, we are more interested in open coming DJs because the DJ market is very saturated. Yeah. Very, very saturated. So but when we see a young DJ who's got a talent and really wants to go for that, we try to make sure that we get them on our events as well. That's awesome. Okay. So if I was to compose my first Afro beat song, where do I start? How do I go about it? Get to a studio. When it comes to song composition, to be honest, I can't read normal expertise, so I can't really say much about that. But I'm guessing, like I said earlier, this process is a lot easier these days. There are producers left, right and center. Yeah. Yeah. Even in Parthia, we've got local producers that can help. Yeah. I'm just trying to figure out what constitutes a banger. A banger Afro beats a tune, you know? And I'm into it because I've heard it all on TikTok. And I'm like, yeah, this is a vibe. Yeah. This is a vibe. And then I'm like, because I've got like, I want to get into sound eventually. You know, podcasting, I guess counts, but music producing sounds really cool. The story of Dr. Dre always, always like my favorite story. And then how he and Eminem collaborated that first time. From DJing to becoming a producer. It's so good. So good. So going back to the Metro city events, what has been your most memorable night? For me, I think maybe we might have different nights. For me, I think it was our first event after that was in April, when after they opened the borders. Because when we started this year, we didn't like never in our wildest imagination, did we think we're going to be where we are right now? Wow. Because of COVID, because the borders were closed. So we couldn't see further ahead. So we were still like trying to run our other events, like our Sunday events and our like the night shift events we do at Metro city. And then we did on the night of the first show. Because while we were backstage, I looked at the crowd. I looked at all the levels of Metro city. And I'm like, this is a dream. Yeah. Like, to me, that just felt so good. And seeing people jumping and having fun just made me feel like we're here, bro. Let's go. I love that. I love that. That's amazing. So how many months has it been? Less than six months. That's crazy. It is. By the way, if you're listening and you can hear the tapping and stuff, there's very heavy rain outside. So yeah, apologies for that. If it comes through, I don't even know. We don't wear headphones on the show. We like to keep our hair nice and cool. Yeah. But going back to this hustle in the last six months, what's next? Obviously, we have our next artist coming in October, but next year is going to be a very busy year. So we've been busy this year, but next year is going to be a lot busier. The things that we have not ever done before that we will do next year, particularly in March. So I'll tell people to keep an eye out in March. There's something happening. We haven't announced yet, but we will eventually. Yeah. But yeah, there are a few things we have planned up for next year that they're going to be big. They're going to be different. It's very exciting. Sometimes when I think of it, I'm a little bit nervous, but that's been the entire year anyway. Usually when it comes up like, let's do this. Because in the group, he's the one that just goes, oh, we have 20%, let's go. I'm like, but let's have 99.2%. So we go. He's like, no, we go. So usually it drags me kicking and screaming. I'm like, fine. Let's just do it anyway. But it's all on you. I love that. It's more interesting though. We've never like, you know, it's always been, we've just thrown our sevens to it. You asked him what are like the biggest, what's he called, about the biggest event or biggest thing that stood out for us is, for me, something was the Omani event, the one we had. And the reason being, when we announced it, we were on lockdown, I think. Yeah, it was like limited capacity. Yeah, and borders were still closed. When we announced the show, borders were still closed. I remind, I remember my younger brother was like, okay, this is interesting. Like how are you going to do this? I'm like, honestly, we're just going to trust that I see everything is going to work out fine. Yeah. Like we're already in it now. So let's just do it. We've already spent the money already. Let's go. And like he said, that day when I stood behind the stage, like, you know, on the backstage and I looked at the crowd and I saw people dancing, singing along with Omani and stuff. And I was like, wow. You did that. Yeah. Oh my God. What a feeling. Yeah. I think I have to tap it. Yeah. Like, this is awesome. I'm like, yeah, man. That's incredible. I definitely want to feel that vibe. That's nothing, you can't put a price on that. Money can't buy that experience. Not at all. You know, your vision and your hustle and your drive to make it happen and believe it. And when it comes off, oh, it's the best feeling, eh? I know. It's amazing. Like there's this just, I don't know how to describe it. It just feels so good, like. Yeah, it gets addictive. So now that it's growing, how are your full-time jobs going? Are you thinking about eventually kicking the bucket and going to do this all in? I'll tell you something funny, eh? We send messages to each other, like, anytime I send a message to him, 2 a.m., any time of the day. Yeah. Generally. Yeah. It doesn't seem to me I respond. Yeah. So long story short is that even though we have 85 jobs, the moment we're done, we get home, we start on AfroBits. Even during the day, like, is that work? And I see something on Instagram. I send it to my brother, bro. What do you think about that? Oh, cool. Let's do it. Like, I just remember we, like for us, with AfroBits Fusion, there's actually no break. It's actually full-time for us right now. Yeah. Oh, wow. Like in the middle of the night. Like, if I think of anything, like, at 1 a.m. up here, bro. This is what I'm doing. What's something that you think about at 1 a.m.? Am I allowed to open my phone? Do you want, can I open my phone? Yeah, go for it. It's my phone, actually. Sorry, it's over there. Anyway. That's right. I'll get it. On, on, on Saturday, was it Saturday or Friday night? Just, that's my jacket over there. Just, the big one. What's that? Yeah, the big one. All right. So Saturday night? So on Saturday night, I, so this is how I always start. I just sent him, I just sent him a message, bro. I have an idea. I remember that. And he goes, I'm listening. That's how I always start. So, so like on, on Saturday around, this was actually very... So we sent so many messages. It's for life, it's great. Sometimes my wife goes, um, what's going on? Like, she goes through my call log and it's just him, him, him. I'm like... She goes through a call log. When she sees that, she goes, what's going on? And I'm like, that's alphabets for you. She was a bit suspicious at the start. Now I'm just like, you gotta... So yeah, um, so I, I, I, I thought about an idea. And then, um, I just, I just sent it to him. Like, I don't, 1 a.m. And he's like, yeah, I'm listening. And then, um, yeah, I just told him what he was. And then straight away, we fixed the meeting for the next day. We saw each other the next day and hashed it out. And then, yeah. That's amazing. That idea of, it does that as well. Like, he sees something very interesting at 4 a.m. in the morning. And he sends it to me. He's just like, on the internet, just scrolling. Yeah, just scrolling. Because we're always so into the, the, like Afrovis Fusion, like the whole thing. So anything you see, you can kind of relate it back to Afrovis Fusion. And you're like, oh my God, this is good. Yeah. Have there been any ideas that have already happened that you can talk about? So even, even the, the O'Malley event, it was someone that sent me the, around 9 p.m., someone sent me the, the flyer and goes, um, is this really happening? And I was like, um, I don't know. And then straight away, I sensed, I'll actually open the message right now. I'll open the message right now. So straight away, I just sensed that, that screenshot to him. Because when they announced the event, because we use an agency in the East, Prince Entertainment. So when they announced the event, they, there was no date for Perth yet. So one of my DJs saw the flyer and then DMed me the flyer and just to find out if this is really happening. And I was like, uh, yeah, cool. And then I was like, I don't know. I'll find out. And straight away, I just sent the flyer to him. I was like, bro, what do you think about this? O'Malley is actually coming to Australia. We had no money in our bank account. No dime in our bank account. When I sent him the flyer and he's like, let's do it. So how did you, how did you secure him with no money in the bank? Yeah. Do you want to talk about that? We, um, so we have a few sponsors that help us out. Honestly, we also have very, we also both have very good jobs, like very good incomes anyway. We guarantee sometimes if we need a huge chunk of money and we cannot immediately get it from our sites, they, people who work with us are like family members and brothers and people who we know. So we guarantee that they know that we were good for it and we can actually pay back if it needs to be. But yeah, occasionally. And I mean, mostly people trust us because they know us and they know that we would never, we would never cheat anybody, particularly even in like in the industry. We try as much as possible because alphabet promoters had a bad rep. But when we started, so we tried, we wanted to be different. We decided we're going to pay everybody. We're not going to cheat anybody. And we have this thing about, but good energy that we both of us always talk about. We don't love one to take advantage of anybody because we believe that it will come back to us. Yeah, of course. So it's, um, but yeah, people know that we were good for, we're good for it. It's a good philosophy. It's a winning one. Yeah, no matter what. Absolutely. No matter what. So let's, let's go right back to the background here. Let's go right back to your, your background from when you, you guys, you guys migrate here? Yep. Yep. How long ago was that? For me it was exactly 10 years ago. I came in August 2012. I came on, because I came on a marriage visa because my wife's been here since 2003. She came here to study and then- She's Nigerian also? She's Nigerian. Yeah. I stayed back and then yeah. So I came on a marriage visa and he's been here for- 17 years. I came in 2005, November. Excellent. Excellent. It's interesting that the first time he came to Perth, I too came out clubbing. Yep. Was it? Yeah. Tell me the story. Yeah. There you go. I know. Where did you go first? Where did we go? Ah, Yoruba. Yoruba. Oh, Yoruba. In Ludbridge. Because that was the only club I played around in. Yeah, and Afrobeat, and a bit of Afrobeat. Yeah. So took him to Yoruba. Yeah. Yoruba. It's so funny that we've kind of suckered back. Yeah. It's crazy, man. Have you done an event there? No, it's gone. It's closed down. Oh. Like a long time ago. Oh, shit. Yeah. Shows how much I go out. I remember Yoruba. Yeah, closed down a long time ago. Yeah. Yeah. So where's, so Metro, there's Metro City. What other clubs am I expecting Afrobeats going, going out tonight or Saturday night? Where am I guaranteed Afrobeats? Or decent music in general? With Afrobeats, it's always, a lot of the Afrobeats clubbing nights are usually pop-ups. So we, in our, in our case, we don't run club nights, per se. We only just run like one of events here and there. So, but if you really want to go out on a Friday night or Saturday night, look out for library. They have an Afrobeats event there at the library. I think the Republic has got one as well. And then sometimes Kahuna. Yeah, Goldbuy and Subiaco. Yeah. Yeah, they have one. And then we, I think the best thing is just to follow some of these promoters on social media, on Instagram, because they all have, every week, there's something happening with Afrobeats. And then you just go to that venue. Nice, nice. So after you've, after you've been to the first, first night out at the Yoruba, and you've settled into Australian way of life, how has that been for you over the last 10, over 10 years? Are you enjoying it? You're obviously making something of yourselves. What's it like compared to back home? Look, it's different. It's very different. It's completely different. There are things I like about Australia. There are some things I don't like about it. There are things I like about Nigeria, as long as I don't like about it. So it's, yeah, it depends on, I guess, I think we just kind of focus on the good parts of both places. I, in saying that, though, I am grateful. I think running something like this, it's, I feel, and this is completely my opinion, I feel like it's a little bit more straightforward. Yeah. You know, Australia. I agree with that. That it will be back home. I agree with that. Yeah, that's what I think. Yeah. Because back home, the system, there's not as organized as it is here. So there's a lot of cutting off corners. There is, it's just, it's just really stressful to be honest with you. Very stressful. Because I did, like what we are doing right now, I did it back in uni, so that I think that's where most of my experience came from. Yeah, back in uni, I used to run club nights with my friends, bring artists, do shows, run events, run award shows and all of that. And this is way back even before social media, before online ticketing and all of that. So it used to be all ticketed at the door. Marketing was face to face. We were on pamphlets and stuff. Pamphlets and stuff. Yeah, yeah, we run, run like big rallies with cars and distribute pamphlets and all of that. That's what we used to do back then. And like, there was no system at all. It was just, everything was just off the cuff. And then on the nights, you are so tensed because you really don't have anything to measure if people actually receive the message. So you are so tensed that, oh my God, I hope people actually really turn up. Or like now, I mean, everything is online. You can see your tickets in the way it's doing. You know, who's, how many people are turning up. So like you don't have that tension there. Yeah. I've always like, I've always wanted to do like something from every single industry and like promoting an event like that would be so fun. But that stress of going, oh, how many tickets? Yeah. Like I've hosted an event of 120 people and it was just walking around the city taking photos. And I started three months prior to that. I was doing it just one person a night. So hey, on Instagram stories, hey, anybody want to come out and take photos? Yeah. But then two weeks I had every night booked out. And then my wife said, what about me? You know, can we have a night together? And then I was like, you know, I should just group sessions, you know, and then it evolved into like three months big thing. I can't imagine like doing that in a club. I've got friends in the industry doing it like, like, Thurman, Thurman, he's got the, the humble club humble. Okay. Yeah. Killing it with that dope. And then there's a few others. I've got, I've got some friends in Capital Corp. Okay. They're killing it there, you know, but what, what do you think, apart from the music, what do you think brings people to the venue? I think for me, I think also the the, the trust people have in the brand. Yeah. And then your marketing, it's, it's basically your marketing because we've seen situations where like the artist, like for us with the shows, it's not enough for it to announce an artist and expect people to turn up. Yeah. There's so much that you still have to do. Um, reaching out to influencers, doing your social media ads. We still do face to face. We still point cards and flyers. Like just every opportunity you get, just telling people about your show. So I think that's a, that's a, that's a major, it's a major, major influence for us. Yeah. Marketing. Yeah. We also focus on the customer experience of the person, the people who come to our event, we want them to have an experience. There's some events you go to and you, when you leave, you're like, oh my God, that was amazing. There was something, it necessarily probably wasn't even the artist or something, but there was something that gave you a good experience. Yeah. But so that's one thing also we focus on. And we always try to look for ways to improve it and make sure that if you come to everyone who comes for any of our events has an experience there. And that's one thing we are constantly working on. So if you have any good ideas, let us know. Yeah. There's so many things I can take from different cultures. When we were in Thailand back in 2017, there was a football trip with the boys. And there was a bar we would go to. It was called the Ruba. And we would go there every night at the start. We'd have dinner and then we'd go to the Ruba to start, you know, pre-drinks. Yeah. And then we would see where the night takes us. We would go to the bigger club, I think it's called illusions or something. And it was a vibe there. They had platforms and stuff and everyone was vibing. There was always a specific time in the night where it just became real seedy. But me and some mates would just like muck around, go out on the street because it was vibing all night, you know, until about three o'clock. And then as you're walking down the road back to the hotel, you just get cut off by the women of the night. I mean, it's, you know, they're trying to hustle as well. But like, I remember me, because I stand out like a sore thumb being 6'10". They're just like, they would like grab on to me. Like, just just go, okay, we go. And I'm like, where are we going? Like, what's going on? Where are we going? I'm a bit of a culture shock for you. Get some pad thai or something. You know, here you just get, here, you're hoping not to get King here, you know? But, and where I'm from, I'm from Kyrgyzstan, former Soviet Union. Former Soviet Union. I don't even know it. There's any clubs at all. It's all real religious night. 80% of it's a Muslim. You're a Muslim, yeah. Yeah. And yeah, everyone's just doing their thing. Actually, what I like about my country, the culture is the food. The food, that's my favorite thing. That always gets me to the place, you know? Everyone's having a good time talking about the food. You know, a couple of, couple of vodka's. Yeah, definitely, yeah. But my experience in Vegas, another fully trip in Vegas. This was like 11 years ago, we would go to the VIP section and they'd have like VIP like boots and stuff. And then there would be bottle service. And I'll give you a whole gray goose bottle. Big bottle and stuff, far out. That was an experience. That's what gets people kind of interested. See, notice you remember that, that exclusivity. But that's like coming here and going back to my original question, what are you finding different between Nigeria and Australia? I figure, I find that bringing different cultures and mixing them together, bringing, you know, you say, you like the good things and the bad things from each culture. Being multicultural, I think, is one of the biggest advantages. It's a big advantage. Because you can take the best of all worlds, bring them together and it's like a hybrid sort of thing. And people go, oh, and you know, Afro beats fusion. You fuse two different, it's a vibe. So you got to do the same thing with the vibe within the club. The music brings them in, gets them interested, gets them hyped because it's a very trending genre. Hopefully for decades to come. But what else, you know? So from Vegas, I'd be like, okay, VIP boots, roped off, gray goose or whatever. It's not that Smirnoff shit. And you know, something cool that gives them a little bit of like a status. A bit of vanity, yeah. A bit of vanity. What else is there? Every 20-year-old white girl in the country wants to be with the DJ boost guy, you know? Like, so you know, I guess, right? But what else is there? In Thailand, it was the buckets. It was the buckets. I mean, there's obviously alcohol licensing. You can't do specific shit. But there was one club, I remember. Forget the name. For three hours from nine to 12, you would get like half price drinks. For three hours. Wow. And it got everybody in there. And I remember 2015 when we went there, that was, we always went there because it was just cheap, good alcohol. We'd get Jack Daniels and Coke for like two, three dollars. And it was legit, it was legit. It was like just fake stuff. And I remember two years later, we went there. We were like so excited. We got in there and we paid, because you had to pay at the door for that. You get a wristband to get the half price drinks. And then you drink enough to warrant the costs of the door, right? We went up there. The whole team, there's no one up there. Like it changes so quickly within two years. So that's the other thing. It's like, you're doing so well now, but you have to keep ahead of the curve. Yes. You have to keep paying attention. Yeah. Because one thing we also try to focus on a lot is the repeat customer experience. Because see how you went back to that place? Yeah. Was because of the first experience you had. So we make sure that when you come to our events, you want to come to the next one. Because we always try to recreate things and reinvent things and just make you feel like you're getting value for your money. Yeah. Yeah. So talking about, you know how you talked about the VIP boots and stuff. We do that at our events as well. So we actually have two types of VIPs. Yeah. We've got the VVIP and the VIP boots. So the VVIP, we put them upstairs. They've got their own access to the toilets at that level. No one else uses it, apart from them. The Champignon arrival. Red carpet entry. And then we get a canapes made by a chef. Made by a chef as well. I'll promote that. Just stick me up there, boy. Yeah. Yeah. So and then we put them in a place where it's elevated and you can just see everything on stage. Yeah. You feel like the queen. Oh, sorry, the king. The king, yeah. And they also have hostesses. Yeah, you've got hostesses for that. Wow. If you have a product and ask, you can call someone and ask them. Yeah. You know, so it's a full experience. That's so cool. And that's a metro? Yeah, a metro city. Yeah, and that works there too, because it's all leveled. Yeah, it's all leveled. And then with the VIP boots downstairs as well, it comes with a drink package. So when you get it, you're getting a drink package with it as well. So which comes with the hostesses and then, yeah. Yeah, that's so good. With that, metro city is, I mean, back in my day, early 20s, it was the place to go. And now I go past and it's still the place to go. Yeah. Different genres, different demographics. You know, it has changed over time, obviously, depending on the event. Yeah. My favorite thing was outside when there was like a big night, when there was a big performer coming in. Yeah. And the lines are huge. The crowd's walking up. There's always a couple of buskers who are playing like something cool. And they would clean up with money. And now I'm like, man, it's harder because no one has cash anymore. So it sucks. So I'm just like iPhones releasing the tap. You can pay each other by tapping each other's phones. I could just see them just going like, like having their phone. They have to pay tax on that now though. But yeah, going to that, that was the vibe. And the tiered exclusivity things. I always loved being at the very front of the crowd. Yeah, where the fun is. Where the fun is, you know. But it was always good to know someone that, you know, you knew a bartender or the owner or something. And you can kind of have that. Yeah, you know. But everybody else having a good time, obviously the safety. What is it like there during that time? Is there much drama within the patrons? To be honest, we actually envisage that a lot. So we try to control it even before it starts. At our events, we always have more securities than people. Jesus. Yeah. Like it's crazy. We have a security company that we work with. So at sites, the security that Metro City provides, we provide our own security as well. This is an extra call. Extra. So like our securities are always double the amount of people. So let's say we have an event where we need to have, where the standard is 12 securities, we'll have 20 securities. Oh, okay. So if you have 1,000 people, you have 2,000 securities? Yeah. No. Nah, I don't know. Which I wish you would say that. But the securities. Yeah. And the securities aren't bad. So yeah, we have security in the crowd. So like we nip everything in the board before it actually becomes something. And then we notify the police about that event as well. So it's usually police outside. It's like a hotspot. Yeah. So once before you start anything, you will get... I just get a sense of safety just knowing that. Because like, I mean, I don't get any dramas. I'm probably harder to pick on. I mean, it's pretty obvious. But you get those hotheads that come in and just want to cause trouble. And you can pick them off really easily. Yeah, easily. Like, I mean, for me, I'm extra as it is. Alcohol, I don't get blind drunk and get angry and all that stuff. I just get extra, extra. So, but when people see that sometimes, like on my Bucks party, I remember, they dressed me up as Big Bird. Yeah. And we went play golf, you know, Holy Moly. Yeah, Holy Moly. And they had those big beers. Yeah. And I was drinking mine. I won golf, by the way. And I was well on my way, on my Bucks night. And I was just, I was just vibing. And they cut me off. They cut me off the drinks. They're like, Sev, you're cut off. It's over. This is your last drink. I'm like, what do you mean? I'm having a good time, you know? And they're like, you're just a bit loud. I'm like, I am loud. That's me. What are you talking about? Do you want to come in, guns blazing? You probably think I'm drunk. You won't let me in the first place. Just crap. But yeah. Okay. Dream venue to host at. Let's start in Perth, Metro City. Or is there a, I mean, I don't want you to, you know, talk shit about Metro City. No, no, we're not talking shit. Like it's a, the venue thing comes with the amount of crowd we're expecting. Yeah. For the shows we're doing right now, I think Metro City is the perfect place for us. Like it's a concert club. They have all the production requirement needed for a good show. That's not so big. But we'll eventually get to a stage where we will be needing places like the RAC Arena, which is very soon to be honest with you. The RAC Arena, the HBF Stadium. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. HBF Stadium and all of that. So yeah, it just depends on the crowd we're expecting to be honest with you. Crowd drives. Yeah, the venue. RAC Arena. Metro is half fat. Yeah. How close are you for RAC Arena? Very close. Very close. Is this the March announcement? I'm figuring it out. You heard it here first. Exclusive Sebo show. Okay, so RAC Arena, Dream Performer. All time. We've had a meeting with them already. We like. You're Dream Performer. Dream Performer. Yeah. What's he gonna say? Oh man. Who meets Burner Boy? Oh, it's Burner. It's Burner Boy. It's the first time I've seen him before. Just for you. It's like to have a Burner Boy concert in Perth. It's the dream right now. Burner Boy. Yeah. I've not heard of this. So he won the Grammy three years ago. So he's actually, I would say he's probably one of the biggest exports out of Africa in terms of Afro beats. Yeah. Damn, I need to get cultured hard. Yeah. I'll actually, I'll send a link to his latest album. He's actually in Sydney next. His headline in Promised Land in October. Oh yeah. Yeah. So he's in Sydney 30th as well. His live nation is bringing him. So he's done collaborations with Ed Sheeran, Bill Balvin, Khalid. Good fusions. Oh, Khalid. Oh. He came to origin a few years ago before COVID-19. I love Khalid. Pop can. So yeah, I'll send a link to you after this. You listen, it's a very good album. Wow. And they're all on that album. Yeah. So the song that is believed to be the song of the summer right now in the U.S., last, last, if it's his song, he did a cover on Tony Braxton's Not Man Enough, Wasn't Man Enough. Yeah. OK. It's, it's. I've probably heard it. Yeah, it's so catchy. You probably would have heard it. Yeah, yeah. I've heard it. Definitely would have heard it. I send it to someone and they're like, oh, so he signed this album. Yeah, sure. Yo. Yo. Yeah. Yeah, that's it. Oh, shit. There it is. People want Shio. Yeah, that's it, that's it. That's it. I just listen to music now. I don't, I don't go, oh, who's that? I just, I just listen. Like my world is full of podcasts and audio books. I'm not really as into it as I used to be. Like I only learnt what drill music was the other day. Yeah. And I'm just like, the fuck. I know. It's like when Trap came out and went, whatever the kids are into, you know, whatever the kids are into the, you got the essays and the road man and the young men's. But yeah, in terms of like the crowd, the demographics of the crowd, are you finding you're bringing more of the, the majority of the African community in, or are you finding that some of the Australians are also getting into it? I think some Australians are getting into it. We, of course, at the moment, still have a huge African. Yeah. And we love it. Yeah. But that we also looking at ways, because, again, we're trying to present Afro beats, not just to Africans, to everybody. Yeah. So we're also looking for ways to get a lot more people into it. But yeah, look, we love, we love the guys that come around. We love the guys that support us. They, we're literally nothing without those people. Yeah. We're also looking to expand and see if we can get a few more people to come in. But at the moment, majority, a lot of a huge percentage of our crowd. Africans and South Americans actually. Oh, the Colombians and the Brazilians. The Latinas. Yeah, Latinas. Yeah. They're good at twerking, so they're good. And of course, you know, their rhythm is kind of close to similar to Afro beats. So it doesn't take them, it's so easy for them to dance to Afro beats because they already know how to dance to rhythm and all of that. So yeah. Get that rhythm. Yeah. So now your dream venue in the world. Where would you like to play? Do you see yourselves in Vegas promoting? We've not talked about that far yet. You've got to manifest it. Oh, yeah. We'll come back in 12 months and say, see? Yeah. How easy is that? I think for now, the dream basically for now is to, is to host a festival for Asia Pacific. Yeah. In Bali. In Bali. So an Afro beats festival. Whoa, that would go off. Combinations cheap. Yeah. Bites are cheap. Yeah, so I hope. So very soon we hope we get there. Like that's the dream. Yeah. That's the dream. Yeah. And is there anything else in the pipelines? So have you got your detailing in business? You've got your IT business. Anything else in mind? Any other shiny objects on the horizon? I think anything else would be too much at the moment. I think for now, Afro beat, there's a lot. There's actually a lot that we're still planning on planning to do. I think we drew a plan on a piece of tissue paper on the kebab store. At 2 a.m. It was actually around midnight. We went for an event and we found out that we got there and were too early. And then we just went to a kebab shop and then bought kebab and then, yeah, we got a pen from them. And then just drew a plan on a tissue paper, the kebab tissue paper. We've only done about 20% of what we wrote down. So there's still so much more to do. You still have the tissue paper? Yeah, we have a photo of it. You've got to frame it. Yeah, I know. Aconic shit. I know, so yeah, there's so much to do. So much, so much more to do. Love it. I love it. All right. So finally, in summary, where do we find you? How do we get amongst it? So we've got our socials, Afrobeatfusion. It's just Afrobeatfusion. We're lucky to be, we were the first to get that name. So there's no dots. There's no hyphen. It's just Afrobeatfusion on Instagram, on Facebook. And then you can find us at Afrobeatfusion.com online. So it's not dot com dot a, it's just Afrobeatfusion.com. Because you're going worldwide? Yeah, we're going worldwide. That's the goal. And if you had one piece of advice for anyone about anything, what would it be? Your personal just life message? For me, just do it. Just do it? Yeah. For me, it's patience. Patience? Be patient. But just do it, though. Yeah, yeah, just do it. Yeah, do it, but be very patient for the show. Yeah, be patient for the result. Because we're in an era where it's very easy to see other people's glory. And that sort of blinds people from how much work people are actually putting into their stuff. Like it's easy to see, like to see the shiny object right now on Instagram and stuff. But the work that goes behind the scenes, no one sees. So that tricks people into thinking it's actually very easy to get there. Well, it takes a lot of patience and hard work. Yeah, absolutely. I love that. Thanks for joining. Thanks for the chat. Thanks for having us, man. I've learned a lot and hope everybody at home listening in the car, in the shower, on the toilet, in the club. Get around Afro beats. I'm really inspired and I'm keen to come in and check it out. Metro City, RSE Arena, some club in Vegas, somewhere in Thailand, a nice big ass resort in Bali. I'm keen to follow the journey along. Absolutely. We'll send you tickets for the 27th event, the kids' annual event. It's actually the biggest artist so far this year that we're going to bring. Excellent. Yeah. So like, yeah, his production is going to be ridiculous. VVIP, right? Yeah, VVIP. Definitely. I mean, definitely, man. I mean, definitely VVIP. Or Flex. So yeah, we'll get you in there so you have a feel of what it's like. Hit them up and join them. And when you see them, say hello. They're probably putting out fires though, so just a fist bump and away you go. All right. Good thanks. Thank you very much.