What is Steam Down? The creator behind Steam Down, Ahnansé (aka Wayne Francis) describes it best. “It’s a sub-cultural movement, centred around a collective of musicians, writers and creators with a weekly event on Wednesday, and a touring band and orchestra in the process of making a record. It’s multiple things but definitely a space to develop creativity.”
Around the age of 14, Ahnansé heard a pianist in his GCSE class improvising. “I remember hearing him improvise over Herbie Hancock’s Chameleon and also Giant Steps at that age. I was just inspired by that and the improvisatory nature of it. I didn’t quite understand it but I understood that it was really free- flowing. That was what really ignited it for me. Improvisation is what got me into music.”
From there Ahnansé learned the saxophone, stating “I just enjoyed the physicality of it. In terms of the instruments I play, saxophone is the first thing and piano goes along with that as a composing tool of course, and then there’s a lot of electronic stuff as well. But I would see myself more as a music conceptualist. I think that Steam Down and the other things that I do all relate to that. It’s not just about myself as a saxophone player.”
After formal training at Trinity College of Music, Ahnansé stayed in South East London. “After Trinity my learning continued and I played a lot of music from West Africa. That was an informal training which taught me a lot about music from another perspective.”
West African music and culture also influenced his conception of Steam Down. “My idea for Steam Down and the inspiration behind it comes from the West African griot music family where music is used as a tool for education and for solving problems, and telling the stories and the history of the people around them. For me there’s also something important for us as musicians to take those things and bring them into our music, so it’s not just entertainment. That’s a big part of the ethos of Steam Down, every song should
have a message and a meaning to it, more so a meaning than just a message. It doesn’t have to be just for entertainment. You can approach it from that angle, and take all the good vibes from it but you can also go deeper into it. The combination of the emotional power of music with words can open up our perspective to new things. That’s one of the core goals for me.”
Helping to create the friendly, inclusive and energetic atmosphere at Steam Down’s performances is the fundamental ethos that lies behind it, and Ahnansé sees that as being multi-layered. “One aspect is to bring people together. Music has that power to bring people together so it’s important to use it as a positive thing, and to encourage more than just fans. My theory is that if people like your music then some of them will like each other too, and they might be into the same things that they can end up doing together. The music should be inspiration and it should allow people to connect through that inspiration into each other and create what I would call an ‘abundance through creativity’. I would say Steam Down is a catalyst, a connection.”