On a quest for ‘positive vibrations’ | Tribali

How would you describe Tribali in a sentence?

Tribali are a group of Maltese musicians who came together to celebrate their love of world music through ethnic rhythms and sounds from the orient and incorporating other styles such as Psychedelic, Reggae, Dub, Ska and Up-tempo beats.

What are some of the most important musical developments in The Traveller?

It's another chapter in the musical journey of Tribali. A continuation, or rather an evolution of our previous two albums. We have adapted our sound similarly to how we sound live, with more use of drums rather than a layer of percussions. Besides keeping instruments which where synonyms with our music from the very start - such as the sitar, didgeridoo, electric guitars, and morchunga - we've also added other elements such as the hang, nylon and 12 string guitars, trumpet, synth and made more use of vocals.

Seeing as you play world music, do you feel Maltese at all? What inspires you to write original material when the genre/s you work within are so vast and varied?

Yes, we still feel Maltese, we absolutely love Malta as here, we live like one big community. We are inspired by many things that happen around us. Being a good observer and sensitive to the surroundings really helps in this process. Expressing this through music and lyrics comes quite naturally to us, although we do admit that it can be tough at times!

Apart from keeping the concert crowds happy and bouncing, is there any underlying message to your music?

Our message is simple - we promote hope, love, freedom, compassion, tolerance and happiness. We share positive vibrations through our music.

What are some of your most memorable concerts?

We are happy to note that there are many memorable Tribali concerts that we will treasure for life. To mention a few - Hagar Qim in 2006 which was our first ever concert as Tribali, Birgu in 2009 which had a unique set up and also all our performances at the Blues & Roots Festival in Australia in 2008, 2010 and 2012 as there we get the opportunity to share our music with the foreign crowd and experience the great festival environment.

Any plans for the future?

Our main focus at the moment is on our biggest live performance in Malta for this year the National Park. The venue will be especially decorated for this event and will include an ethnic market, a chill out area, food stalls and much more. We are looking forward to play all songs from the new album and also favourites from the previous two albums. We also welcome families to bring their children, as under 12 years of age will be allowed in for free. We are also looking forward for the outcome of the world wide distribution of Tribali music through Sony UK, which we hope will lead us to more performances around the globe.

For more information search for Tribali on Facebook. The concert will be taking place at the National Park in Ta' Qali. Doors open at 20:00.