Joey Garande's new soul night is built to be shared
From 6 November, the singer takes up a monthly residency at Drinkhall on Oranienstraße, and he plans to keep giving the stage away.
Most residencies exist to build one artist's crowd. Joey Garande has designed his to do the opposite.
From Friday, 6 November, Garande will play one night a month at Drinkhall Venue in Kreuzberg, in a series presented by the Berlin promoter Afroheist. Each month he will bring other Berlin musicians onto the stage with him: singers, players, people who have the material but not yet the audience. "Sharing the stage so everyone gets a chance to shine," he says.
The opening night shows how that works. Garande shares the stage with Steppers Division and Dareel Marley, and the singer Dalee joins as special guest on the day her new album comes out. One room, two firsts: her release night and his residency's opening.
Garande sings soul in the manner of the 1960s records he draws on. The songs are slow enough to let the voice do the work, and the production stays out of its way. His range lets him drop to an almost spoken verse and then open up fully for the chorus. That makes it a different proposition from the DJ-led nights that fill most of Oranienstraße on a Friday.
Afroheist was founded in 2021 by Kundai Chirunga to bring African and diaspora music to German stages. With Garande, it is trying something harder than a good gig: a fixed date that Berlin's African and Afro-diasporic musicians can count on, month after month. "Berlin has so much talent that never gets a second night," Chirunga says. "This residency gives artists a home they can come back to, and that's what excites me most. Every month the room will grow, the music will grow, and the audience will grow with it." The city is not short of one-off concerts. What it lacks is rooms where the same artists can return, develop and be heard by an audience that comes back too.
That is what a residency offers when it works. For anyone visiting Berlin, it is also one of the most direct ways to hear what the city's diaspora musicians are making now, up close and for the price of a drink or two.
Details
Friday, 6 November, then monthly Drinkhall Venue, Oranienstraße 36, 10999 Berlin-Kreuzberg Doors 19:00 · €10 on the door Get there early. SAT Members get 25% off their ticket
