Hi i need help transfering Hi 8 to digital
im working on a music video for Aphrodesia
it will air all over west africa in about a month
thank you



Aphrodesia’s West African Bio-diesel Tour
When much of America last heard of Aphrodesia, the explosive 11-piece afrobeat-inspired
band from San Francisco, the band was fueling their bus with recycled vegetable
oil and driving cross-country on their self-proclaimed “Just Vote Tour”. The group
visited swing states to register voters in advance of the 2004 presidential elections,
and to preach the virtues of alternative fuel. Apparently, the group hasn’t learned
to think small since.
This February, Aphrodesia will once again take their high-energy show on the road
in a bus that runs on bio-diesel. But it’s not a road that they (or indeed any other
American afrobeat or West African-inspired band) have before traveled: Aphrodesia
will be touring Ghana and parts of West Africa for one month. The tour kicks off
with the band performing as part of the Africa Unite Festival in Kumasi, Ghana,
on February 4th and Accra, Ghana on February 6th. The Festival celebrates Bob Marley’s
61st birthday, produced in part by Rita Marley and the Marley family. After the
Festival, Aphrodesia’s tour will be booked by Alliance Francais, and will include
tour dates throughout the rest of Ghana, Togo, Benin, and perhaps Burkina Faso.
What’s more, the band will be traveling in a bio-diesel-powered bus donated by the
Ghanaian Ministry of the Environment, which soon plans to integrate bio-diesel into
the country’s transportation system. The Ministry is eager to use Aphrodesia’s
visit to promote this method of alternative fuel.
For much of the tour, Aphrodesia will co-bill with the African Showboyz, a group
of five brothers from Ghana who Aphrodesia met last summer in the United States.
Both groups participated in the High Sierra Music Festival, the Sierra Nevada World
Music Festival, and the Joshua Tree Music Festival. By the end of the summer, the
two groups had formed such a close friendship that they performed a joint set together
at the Earthdance Festival, an ambitious cross-cultural performance that laid the
groundwork for Aphodesia’s West African tour.
“We had been talking about visiting Ghana as a band for a while--since we started
the band, actually” says Ezra Gale, the 34-year old co-founder and bassist. “But
it wasn’t until we met the Showboyz this summer and performed with them at Earthdance
that we started thinking that this could really happen.” Aphrodesia isn’t a complete
stranger to Ghana. Lara Maykovich, the band’s lead singer and co-founder, lived
in Ghana in 1997 and 1998. Indeed, much of the band’s first album, the acclaimed
“Shackrobeat Vol. 1”, contains traditional Ghanaian melodies arranged by Maykovich,
with original music composed by the group.
Aphrodesia’s involvement with bio-diesel and alternative fuel came about when guitarist
David Sartore, 26, joined the group in 2004. Sartore, a co-founder of the Clean
Fuel Caravan Coalition, a Bay Area-based collective of bio-diesel mechanics and
resources, introduced the band to the wonders of traveling on vegetable oil and
bio-diesel fuel. Sartore notes that helping promote alternative fuel in West Africa
fits with the band’s vision of a healthier, more independent and sustainable future.
“This part of the world has been devastated environmentally by the effects of the
oil industry. We felt that if we were going over there we had to at least try to
bring attention to an alternative,” he says.
To arrange an interview, contact HannahArthur@WanderlustPromotions.com
Sound files available @ www.aphrodesia.org