Biography

Lingua Funqa has been a long time in the making, as creator Axel Roland had to take many detours to realize that this must be his creative outlet. After a few half-hearted stabs at a respectable career in journalism and political science, Axel dove into music. This led him from his native Cologne first to Boston’s Berklee College of Music, then to New York where he became involved in jazz as a pianist, teacher, and composer, releasing two albums of instrumental jazz/fusion (@Axel’s Axiom). His latest project is a return to the pop that inspired his youth, a series of funky, politically-infused tracks that will make listeners both dance and think. A self-admitted obsessive who approaches his diverse interests with a single-minded focus, Axel felt a growing desire to master his creative ADHD and put all his energies into one major project: Lingua Funqa, derived from ‘lingua franca’, reflecting Axel’s conviction that funky music can be a unifying language everyone understands. Featuring long-time musician companions, it echoes the work of Axel’s musical heroes Jamiroquai, with musically and lyrically complex songs that exude an optimistic worldview and call for courage and action in the face of life’s destructive inertia. “I think this is what I should have been doing all along,” says Axel, and those intertwined themes of urgency and inevitability are present throughout the songs. It’s groove-oriented pop for a jagged, offbeat world. A positive rhythm for uncertain times.