"Shake your walewale and gologolo". Do you know who is behind this song? There have only been a few Ghanaian musicians who've featured on Channel O's radio countdown lately. They are Okyeame Kwame, Ghana's reigning musician of the year and Echo, an Afro-pop group who is a past winner of the Nescafe African Revelations contest in Ghana. We caught up with them to ask about their music, references about being a 'Nigerian' group, and their plans for their future. Below is the transcript of the interview.

Museke.com: How are you doing?
Echo: Everything is all blissful.

Museke.com: Can you tell us about your background and family?
Echo: Well, Echo comprises of two young energetic guys Charles and Elijah. Charles hails from the Eastern region and Elijah hails from Guan in the Volta region of Ghana. Charles happens to be the only child of his mum and Elijah is the last amongst 4 children. Elijah is a graduate from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi and Charles did radio and television courses and is hoping to enter into Meridian University in Accra.

Museke.com: How did you all get interested in music and how did you come together?
Echo: Echo’s interest in music started way back in the church room where Elijah and Charles happened to be in the same choir group so basically music has been a part of us since child birth. We came together in 2004 when we heard of a competition called Nescafe African Revelation (NAR) since it demanded that people must be in groups…. But we have known ourselves as solo artists for 10 yrs in a village known as Akyem - Asafo where it all started

Museke.com: What is the story behind the name Echo?
Echo: We chose the name Echo because we felt that our music had to be heard across board thus you have to get a name that a person in South Africa or Nigeria can mention. Secondly we felt that music is a very good medium of communication so it was only prudent that we chose a name that in itself is ‘reverbial’ (echoes out) so that the sentiment of the people will be brought to bear through us as Echo and the kind of songs and music we do and we write.

Museke.com: What made you take part in the NESCAFE African Revelations contest? How was that experience?
Echo: The only way for a person to get employed in a company is to have a good working experience and if that is attained then way to go……. N A R gave ECHO the platform to exhibit our innate talent given to us by GOD…and through that we have been able to do songs that have crossed boundaries…so the experience in the manifest sense has been to do good music and in the latent sense to get popular in the whole of Africa

Museke.com: Which musicians (African and foreign) did you listen to growing up?
Echo: Hahahahahhaha. Well erm due to the Nescafe African revelations we grew up listening to groups that had made it through that so we listened to PRAYE……………. WUTAH and Elijah loved to listen to Samini

Museke.com: Most of your singles have been in English. Is this intentional?
Echo: It's not a single, it's an album but you know we have to take time in making the world enjoy what we have individually. We believe that if manna is thrown from the sky and you pick this and leave that you wouldn’t know which one you will fall in love with. Now to the question of our songs being in English…we have the conviction that if you want the world to hear what you have you have to do it in a language that every body will get used to so why not we have to go international and that’s why we had a Californian rapper (ETAN) flying down to Ghana just to do a collaboration with us

Museke.com: Recently, on the Channel O radio countdown, you were introduced as being from Nigeria. How do you feel about this?
Echo: Well it's so painful that we were introduced as from Nigeria but hey it's because our style cuts across and also we believe that when the people get to find out that we are from Ghana then they will know that yes of course Ghanaians are also good at what we do

Museke.com: What’s the name of your album and where can we get the music to buy?
Echo: The album title is Golo golo and you can get some on itunes and all music shops in the world

Museke.com: What are some of the highlights of your career so far?
Echo: We have achieved a lot in this short time while haven to be the champions of Nescafe and representing Ghana in Ivory coast and performing at the Ghana Music Awards pre-jam in Kumasi and the biggest of all performing at Otumfour’s 10 yrs, so marvelous.

Museke.com: Golo golo is a great party song and it has been followed with Zoji zoji. You guys just really like to have a good time huh?
Echo: Hahahahahhaha, well certainly young guys would love to party and all that but hey wait until you hear a single we are working on now with Iwan, Shokoli, so crazy..Aside that we have patriotic songs we have shot a video on which will start been aired soon.

Museke.com: Where do you get inspiration for your lyrics?
Echo: We get our inspiration from the things we see around us and what we have experienced as young adults.

Museke.com: Which African musicians do you admire (presently)?
Echo: Wutah,,,Samini,,,P square,,, 2 face,,,faze

Museke.com: Which musicians would you like to collaborate with?
Echo: Akon, faze neyo Usher and the grand papa R Kelly

Museke.com: Do you consider yourselves hiplife artistes? What kind of music does Echo do?
Echo: Echo is not a hiplife group Echo does music coz at every point in time we do different genres so we cant limit ourselves to a particular genre so basically we do good music so far as it serves the people right.

Museke: Do you think hiplife (as we knew it) is dying? What is your opinion on the different types of hiplife these days?
Echo: Hiplife is never dying how can a foundation die? It's untrue because it's out of that we are getting more genres in Ghana so its never dying..

Museke.com: Do you think the need for a record label is disappearing due to new channels of distribution and independence of musicians?
Echo: Well it depends on the angle you wanna look at it from but yes record labels are disappearing due to that but we hope that some people will now see the vision that the young ones have and cling on to it.

Museke.com: What is the deal with NESCAFE? Are they still involved in your career?
Echo: Yes, they are it will be done in January next year then life goes on from there..

Museke.com: What challenges do you face in the Ghanaian music industry?
Echo: Well now the problem of payola is going down so the remaining stumbling block that we have is piracy.

Museke.com: How is it balancing school with the music business?
Echo: We are graduates now so everything is ok but initially it was very tiring

Museke.com: Have you performed outside the country since the NAR experience? Are there any plans?
Echo: No, not really but we are hoping to have couple of performances out there but we believe with the kind of style we have and the songs we are doing we will soon but hey don’t hesitate to call if any show…..hahahahahhaha

Museke.com: What are your future plans?
Echo: Our future plans hmmm. A lot you know still wanna project Ghana music on and on and on and we hope to do more international shows and do more international collaborations with the big boys out there.

Echo: No…….. Echo is the company and good music is the product so we are into music full time and selling our talents cos we believe that talent fetches more than anything in this world

Museke.com: What is one interesting thing about you that some of us fans don't know?
Echo: We crack a lot of jokes to make ourselves and the people around us happy.. We are as well good Christians.

Museke.com: What are your hobbies and pastimes?
Echo: Football, music, movies, and sleeping

Museke.com: Do you have a website?
Echo: Not yet but we hope to cos this just our first year of entry into the music world yet we have achieved a lot through God, so yes soon

Museke.com: Do you have any messages for fans, family, etc?
Echo: All that we wanna say is that we love everybody around the world who is making sure that Echo gets to the top God bless them all….TO EVERY BODY OUT THERE KNOW THAT THE DEPTH OF YOUR STRUGGLE DETERMINES THE HEIGHT OF YOUR SUCCESS ….WHT YOU HAVE BEEN THROUGH CREATES A PASSION FOR WHAT YOU PREPARE YOURSELF FOR…….

Museke.com: Thank you for your time.
Always for Museke..and thanks for the opportunity you have given to get close to our fans