IT is all about the offbeat rhythms of life for Kwame Daniels who is taking listeners on a musical tour down the 'side streets' in his new Inna Rhythm radio show.
Music really does matter for the Ghana-born DJ who landed in Derry in dreadlocks almost 25 years ago, quickly creating a new black music vibe like nothing the city had ever heard - or seen - before.
Now Daniels is pressing 'play' in a six-week series on BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Sounds as part of the Music Matters strand of programmes curated by local talent with a passion for music, with past presenters including Gary Lightbody, Cara Dillon and Peter Cunnah.
For the 'Bounce Culture' creator, though, the focus is more on the 'after party' rather than the main event - or, as he puts it, "recovering on the beach after the night before".
The series is all about the "second room", the B-sides, "the tunes that kept you out on a school night", explains the DJ in dulcet tones that sound so laid back you imagine he could lull his listeners to sleep - were it not for his energetic track selection, that is.
Daniels' playlist itself, though, is a vibrant mix of boogie, electronica, jazz, gospel and Afrobeat – a lively soundtrack reflecting all the "positive feelings" he instils in his Bounce Culture brand; he founded it in 1999 and now it facilitates a range of DJ and video production workshops, courses and international, educational projects.
Reflecting on his move to radio, the ardent vinyl collector says he wants Inna Rhythm to engage different emotions in listeners, but "predominantly happiness".
"I don't want to force anyone to be happy," he quips; "That's alright, if you don't really feel like it... but as long as I can entice you into a place of calm, then yeah, I'm alright with that.
"The music chimes with my own upbringing, listening to my parents play James Brown, Nat King Cole and Aretha Franklin in Ghana, but it is going to go down different paths, from nostalgia to jazz-influenced stuff, to gospel or disco - it could go in any direction, really."
At heart, Daniels also wants to shine a brighter light on sub-cultures of black music made by and performed by various communities in Northern Ireland, starting with home-grown artists and "working outwards, on to the international stage".
"I know the talent is here, so I am excited to play a local act next to someone who is absolutely blazing it on the international stage," says the history graduate credited with re-energising Derry's dance scene in the late 90s, teasing it out of the mainstream towards an alternative African-American beat.
"I was a collector first – I always collected music, was always recording radio onto tape and listening in and trying to mix between my record deck and tape deck," Daniels recalls.
"I first came to Northern Ireland to study a studio sound recording course that would have cost me £8,000 a year in London but was free in Derry.
"Around the same time, I was offered a residency in a local bar and even though Derry people thought me a bit strange – a 6ft 3in black man with dreadlocks kinda stood out - they embraced the 'club' culture of what I was doing.
"It took me three or four years, to be honest, to find my confidence with all the staring, but mostly people were just being inquisitive. DJing definitely helped in that I was interacting with people, but generally, I just like being in the corner playing music."
He chats easily these days – and has long given up the dreadlocks - so is not too worried about encountering the feared 'dead air' on radio.
"I was chatting to someone the other day about the new radio show and they said, 'Well, you are really good at talking, so it will be fine.' I have never been aware of that before; maybe the older I've got, the more I have to say," says Daniels.
"With Bounce Culture I do podcasts and I've been a guest on other people's radio shows, but this will be a whole new discipline – combining DJ skills while presenting to an invisible audience. I'm excited to bring them together, but I will mostly let the music do the talking."
Inna Rhythm continues on BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Sounds on Sunday at 4pm.
