Songhoy Blues

Bamako, 2012

Songhoy Blues formed in Bamako from musicians who came from the north of Mali, from Gao, Timbuktu and Diré. When armed groups took the north in 2012 and music was banned they fled south, a 15-hour bus ride per The Quietus, and the band began when Aliou Touré was asked to play a wedding and invited Garba and Oumar. The three Tourés are not related; Garba's father played guitar and then percussion in Ali Farka Touré's band, and Garba studied with Ali Farka Touré. Aliou and Oumar had played in a band called Lassaliz and met Garba in Diré. Their manager is Marc-Antoine Moreau.

In autumn 2013, at Africa Express in Bamako, Moreau, on a sound engineer's tip, saw them in a bar and paired them with Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The Maison des Jeunes record, made in about a week at a youth club on the Niger River, launched at Oval Space in Hackney on December 9, 2013, the band's first UK appearance. Music in Exile was recorded in Bamako in April 2014, tracked live with overdubs, with guitars and bass direct because the amps would overload the power, then reamped in Paris over a week; Zinner said he did not want to change the essence of the songs at all. It came out on February 23, 2015 on Transgressive, and in North America on Atlantic and Cult in March 2015; Atlantic signed them on March 5, 2015, and Billboard, via Okayafrica, noted they were the first African act the label had signed since 1972.

Résistance followed on June 16, 2017 (Fat Possum, producer Neil Comber, with Iggy Pop on "Sahara" and Elf Kid on "Mali Nord"), Optimisme on October 23, 2020 (Matt Sweeney producing) and Héritage in 2025 on Transgressive, an acoustic record with balafon, ngoni and peul flute and guests Afel Bocoum and Madou Diabaté. The documentary They Will Have to Kill Us First premiered at SXSW in spring 2015. They played Glastonbury, Bonnaroo, Latitude, Roskilde and Green Man in 2015, supported Alabama Shakes, Julian Casablancas and Damon Albarn, and were nominated for Q's Best New Act and the AIM Independent Breakthrough in 2015. They cite Ali Farka Touré, Tinariwen, the Beatles, Hendrix, John Lee Hooker and hip hop. Setlist.fm lists 188 setlists, the busiest years 2017 (54) and 2015 (49).