Interview with DJ and Music producer duo Sparrow & Barbossa

DJ and Music producer duo Sparrow & Barbossa had formed by the Swiss Bryan Coletta and the Uruguayan Emiliano Haberli. They are most known for their track Yeke that charted number 1 on Beatport afro house together with Enzo Siffredi’s remix.

Bryan is a pianist and comes from a musical family, his father is the legendary guitarist Francis Coletta who worked with artists like Whitney Houston, Quincy Jones, and Frank Sinatra among others. Emiliano was born and raised in a region of Uruguay dominated by African colonials and got widely influenced by what’s called “The Culture Of Candombe”, pure African tribal rhythm coming from colonialism.

Tell us about your earliest musical memory?

For both of us, music has been present since our early childhood. We both come from musical families.

At what point in your life did you have that moment where you said to yourself “This is it. This is the type of music I want to create?”

3 years ago, when we met, we mixed our influences and Afro-house, is really what felt right. Sparrow had a more progressive melodic background while Barbossa was more focused on organic rhythmic music. Sparrow & Barbossa is the combination of both worlds.

What key pieces of gear/software are you using to define your sound?

We work with all common DAW on the market with a preference for Logic. On the percussion side, we try to record as much as we can with Roland HPD20 hardware, which is the same we use live.

What inspires you outside of music? What do you turn to when the creative well runs a little low?

The essence of our music are lost cultures. We try to give those lost cultures a second life throughout music, and this is where we always try to inspire.

Studio work and music creation or performing and interacting with a live audience, what do you prefer?

I think we love both. We like being producing and exploring new influences during the week, and then go share it with our public on weekends. We’ve been working lately on our live performance that gives a plus to the gigs.

As a music artist, it becomes apparent that there is a huge difference between the art and the business. Is there anything about the music scene that you would personally change?

Sometimes it is true that even in the underground scene, it is really hard to be recognized for talent. Often it is more about contacts, pushes, premieres, etc. Still, we think Afro House scene is the less influenced genre to buy business until today.

Any new or upcoming artists on your radar? Who shouldn’t the world sleep on?

Apart from being a good friend, Pablo Fierro is a real inspiration for us, he always supported us in what we do and we really respect his work.

What can we expect from you in the near future? Any upcoming projects or gigs in the pipeline that you would like to tell us about?

We have a lot of collabs and releases on the way, among them an EP on Madoras In The House and another one on Cacao (Berlin).