ANDRU DONALDS

Andru Donalds came on vacation to Rio de Janeiro in 2014, (just after the World Cup),  to visit his friend Sérgio Martins. At the time Andru was going through a transition in his musical life, searching for something different. Brazil always brought him an important moment of his life, a place where he had a huge success in the middle 1990's, with three #1 records ("Mishale", "Save Me Now" & "Loving You") on his first 2 albums. 

The song "Save Me Now",  was the music theme on the soap opera "Cara e Coroa" from TV Globo, and it was a huge sucess, being among the most played radios all over the country. As he says..."The brazilian culture has so much of my home Jamaica in many ways, both countries are very rich with so many different mixes of color and race & full of music..."

Returning to 2014, while Andru was hanging out with a couple friends in Santa Teresa, he eventually ended up at the Studio 496, on Lapa, and met two young, vibrant and talented musicians, Daniel Tot (drums) and Pedro Mamede (bass). They were working on the produce of songs that mixes reggae, rock , afro jazz, etc,...

While there, as muscians, they obviously started a Jam together and the fusion came so natural that they all felt an intense and instant connection. Andru traveled back to Germany, and the project, which had no name at the time, kept sharing ideas via Skype and Mp3, combining the naked tracks coming from the guys in Brazil, with the knowledge and experience of Andru Donalds and his amazing voice.

So the jamaican singer came again to Brazil in september 2015, and they all agreed that the name of the project should be called "KARMA FREE", defined as Afro Fusion, the project mixes english and portuguese languages with african percussion, influenced by Rage Agains The Machine, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Sly & Robbie, Bob Marley, Black Alien, etc... This combination of Rock, Reggae, Samba, Afoxé, Côco, Carimbó, create something fresh and different, yet with a pop sense. The group was definitively formed with the entrance of Jr. Ramos, as the brazilian singer, and Renato Machado, an incredible guitar player. They rehearsed full time on studio for 3 weeks, living together at Lapa, and the main part of the job was created during this period!

The song "Awere", that means the word "Amen", was chosen as the first working song, which is a tribute to Chico Mendes & Dorothy Stang, in the fight to save the Amazon and its people! It's a thrilling intense track, which depicts the agricultural and environmental situation in the Amazon region, highlighting the martyrs, as fundamental pieces in defense of peoples and forest minorities.

The live performance is the key, as the recordings are all done in real time, with live instruments, total live!! Which would make the live show fantastic, the combination of playing the new KARMA FREE songs, along with the fresh and new versions of Andru Donalds classic "Mishale" and "Save Me Now".