AQUILINA were formed when Brixton bred singer/guitarist Joseph Aquilina was at studying at Wimbledon College of Art. A fellow student introduced him double bass player Paul Baker, while Paul was studying at the Royal College of Music. The Loot news paper was where a lot of people would advertise to other musicians about collaborations, that was how maverick violinist Samy Bishai joined, and the duo became a Trio.

After a stint of working with some great drummers and percussionist (including Martin Pyne and Nikolaj Bjerre), eventually an old friend of Joseph’s, Lenin Alegria joined and the three became four. They have gone on to perform around London and the UK for the last year picking up plaudits for their intense and unique sound.

Aquilina’s music style pretty much reflects their mix of backgrounds. Joseph’s family originates from Malta was but brought up in Brixton, London. Growing up with a melting pot of sounds around him ranging from Reggae, Hip Hop and Afro-Beat definitely installed an interest in making things groove. All that as well as having a heavy Southern Mediterranean influence in your life would only heighten your awareness to things that are not “Western”. Samy was born in Alexandria, Egypt, amongst the heady mélange of sounds of the North African countries that border the Sahara. Paul is a true stiff upper-lipped Brit, with the rarefied up bringing of a classical trained music prodigy. Lenin is a true Latin American rebel. Hailing from Chile, he has an equally firey temperament and grooves like all latino drummers should. Four more diverse backgrounds would be hard to find. That they have come together in the cosmopolitan melting pot that is London Town is maybe not such a surprise.

Their music is very much song based and has been described as melodic, emotive and infectious. They have already been compared with the likes of Jeff Buckley, Nick Drake, Seal, Chris Cornell and the Dave Matthews Band. A diverse set of comparisons, with all these artists having their own highly individualistic sounds. But then, so does Aquilina. Joseph has featured on a BBC documentary about singer songwriter Nick Drake, whilst Samy is very much in demand for sessions, having worked with Gwen Stefani and many World musicians including Natasha Atlas, Shakira, Sekou Keita and Yasmin Levy.