Tommy Wà: The Folkloric Coastal Boy

As the Abuja night lights change, roads being rewired and reworked, we are slowly losing the stars.

Tommy Wa is an Independent Musician, Photographer, Travel Expert and curator of Sofar in Accra.

His secret to a rich blend of sound is to listen and breathe. Lately, being by the beach is an integral part of his writing process.

However, it is not always the beach, sometimes it’s the river. Water has a rhythmic influence on sound, the waves, the currents, the hard slap of water on the ocean are amongst the many ways this Coastal boy creates music.

In a pre covid world of late 2017, at the Sarius Palmetum botanical Garden, my eyes were drawn to the flash lights from the lens of a young brooding dark photographer.

This happened over the course of a runway at the Tamerri festival, which encompassed artisan booths, music concerts, fashion shows, yoga and a host of others.

The next day I learned, this mysterious figure could strum a guitar and croon with the haunted impact of Len Roberts words. At the time he was called Tommy Maverick, with a notable hit ‘’Atlas’’ a song which portrayed a helplessness so overwhelming, an atlas pinned for a divine touch.

It was a refreshing change in the heavily dominated world of afro pop and rap music, a  beatific representation of a body but more accurately a portrayal of prayer by one with faith.

Early on Tommy embraced the folkloric style of music inducing the feel of a ballad or an ode, making him the ideal performer at bonfires, rooftops, backyards,  beaches, open air theaters and festivals. 

As a teenager he lived in Abuja, volunteering with Non Governmental Organizations like GHIEF. While working with GHIEF he took pictures, documenting the storiof the underserved. He explored street photography in Abuja capturing cityscapes and hiked, climbing rocks in the trusted company of a guitar.

The bohemian sound soul searcher spent 2023 finalizing his Roadman and folks project.

There are three (3) things to take with you from the Roadman and folks EP;

1. It takes you on a journey.
2. It is for Souls struggling with romantic longings.
3. It is an unpretentious expression of the reality of an African who loves to make indie music.

The early stages of this project marked the birth of the Familiar folks, a project which largely contributed to the success of the hit ‘Come and go’. 

My favorite sound from this EP is Yakoyo, which is brilliantly designed to tell listeners about the power of community and remind us that we are all on this journey of life together.

A second favorite is the advisory ‘Come and Go’ which credits conversations with his father to an inspiring philosophy on love. 

As a boy he spent a lot of time gardening, goofing around and coming up with creative ways to stay entertained in Oyo. This was a period where there were no mobile phones or high speed internet which provided a blissful childhood innocence.

He wandered off to Ghana to school at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

The four (4) years at KNUST would ultimately inform his decision to remain in Ghana as a nomad.

Long settled in the coastal plains of West Africa as a nomad, he performs locally and primarily across Adenta, Kokrobite, Kumasi and Accra.  

While this EP was recorded primarily in Ghana he was still able to work with an old friend, the Nigerian producer Monlee, (a member of the Isomer band) who infuses the soul of the old Abuja. Also two (2) producers to note on this EP are Lucas Muller and Obed.

For Tomiwa, a redeeming quality of Ghana is the ability to still move freely. Nothing beats the fact that you can wake up anytime and move on the road without fear for your life, which was pivotal to the development of the Roadman and folks Project.

A little while after the hardest of Covid, he began a living room tour to help bring a bit of soul to small families as the world slowly recovered from the pandemic. 

Having further morphed into Tommy Wa, his soul sings to identity, loss and community.

In light of this, this old friend made a short stop in Abuja at the tail end of 2023. For one night he sang to performing artists, new acquaintances and long standing fans. With our hearts bare we listened as a Sub Saharan bohemian with different words captured the very essence of ‘Auld lang Syne’.

His much appreciated style of Musical folklore garnered him some recognition in Berlin, Oxford and Stone town Zanzibar in 2022.

Although well versed with a guitar he still wishes he could play the trumpet.

When he is not performing he could be found listening to ‘Skinny love’ by Bon iver (Live on jools holland) , ‘I wish it was me’ by Obongjayar or ‘Beautiful life’ by Michael Ki wanuka.

After seeing a good deal of Europe and Africa he still has a vision board of places he would not only love to visit but to play at, they are; Brazil, Mexico, Kenya, US and France.

He is often found on stage in white, off white or beige, advocating that Love is a miracle.

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