The music of A Good House | Five minutes with Femi Temowo
16 Feb 2025
Femi Temowo is a MOBO Award nominated musician who was raised listening to West African pioneers such as Fela Kuti, Sunny Ade and Ebenezer Obey. He is a celebrated Jazz guitarist, Musical Director, Broadcaster and Producer. We're lucky to have welcomed him to Bristol Old Vic, firstly for Choir Boy, then The Little Mermaid, and now as composer on A Good House.
We asked him about his work, what it's like being back in Bristol and the inspiration behind A Good House.
It’s good to have you back in Bristol! How does it feel to be working with Nancy again?
It’s awesome to be back. Bristol is fast becoming one of my favourite places in the UK. Working with Nancy is always a joy because she’s a stickler for detail and I like that because I’m the same. She’s always questions what else is there in the layers of the script and the characters. As a composer who likes to make music inspired by story and the characters it’s really helpful to have that.
When you’re composing for a show where do you start? What’s the process?
I usually like to spend a fair bit of time in the room with the actors as they discover the characters. Because often for me a lot of what I want to contribute is inspired not just by the story but how the characters relate to each other. Also how the actors perceive the characters. Trying to figure out things like what kind of music the characters are into.
Not to say that music will become music for the characters themselves, but that it may inform the musical landscape.
What were the aims for A Good House? What did you and Nancy want to achieve?
It’s always a bit of give and take between the director’s vision and your own vision. When we spoke initially we were on the same page about the fact we wanted this kind of township sound – called Township Jazz – which is a type of Jazz that developed in South Africa through the late 50s, 60s into the 70s and it became the sound of anti-Apartheid protest movement in South Africa for many years, spearheaded by people like the singer Miriam Makeba and the trumpet player Hugh Masekela.
How does location influence you?
The play is set in South Africa and we wanted to evoke a feeling of that based on the subject matter of the play. Because we agreed on that, it was easy to build off that platform and discover what else relates to that.
The Township Jazz sound forms the centre of the work from a musical perspective and then it branches out from there to a few more modern sounds. Those branches are influenced by what we think the characters would like.
For example one of the characters - Sihle – In my mind he loves that kind of new Amapiana type sound. He’s come from quite a poor background, Black South Africa and in the same way, that sound has come out of places like Jo'Burg, in the inner city from people who maybe don’t have as much, and often that music is quite powerful as it’s people doing what they can with what they have.
I feel Sihle listens to that, especially when he’s on his own – so there’s a bit of that in there too.
Did anything surprise you when you were researching the show?
It’s not exactly a surprise but it did come up that, even now, in this modern age and in this struggle to find answers about why we treat each other the way we do,.
It’s crazy that often we act against our own best interest. It’s really not our fault often, you’re coerces and manipulated by lots of diff things – things like capitalism, and the need to find a voice for yourself, Not a surprise but still shocks that we’re still there. The story touches on that in a very loving but direct way.
What were the challenges?
One of the big challenges for me was to make the music in a way that it's present but also out of the way. It’s always difficult and I find that with working with a director like Nancy – that’s one of the challenges she poses. How can we make the music in such a way that it helps tell the story and navigate the audience through the story without pulling focus? I think we did pretty well on this.
With the help of my trusted friend Elena Peña who did the sound design, she has a magical way of making things sit in a space so you feel them, but you don’t necessary feel like you have to focus on them, when we don’t want you to. She’s very good at that so props to Elena.
Anything else you want to say?
Go watch a good house because it's in as much as it's funny, it's educational, but it also it kind of it kind of allows you to see into a world that we might not ordinarily think about day to day and that's important..
