Opened My World to Global Music, Artists
Led by its CEO, Sammy Sodeke, Aristos Band appears to be the band of choice for corporate, social, and high-profile events, possessing a wide repertoire of old, current and classic tunes that appeal to both young and old folks. A versatile musician, Sodeke relieves his experience in the industry, his days with the masked Afrobeat musician Lagbaja. An adept saxophonist, “Sammy Sho” as he is well known, shares his brand uniqueness, why his 35-man ensemble stands out, and his love for jazz. Ferdinand Ekechukwu brings the excerpts
When did you start your career and how long have you launched your brand?
Well, I started from the church as a young drummer then I started playing keyboards. After I left secondary school I joined Lagbaja (veteran Nigerian Afrobeat musician) to play as a keyboardist for seven years. While I was in the university, I’m a graduate of Microbiology, Lagos State University. At the point along the line while I was still there at the time, I started the band in 2006-2007, that’s how Aristos Band started. At the same time we had Aristos Entertainment that was doing artist management and all of that. We were managing a couple of guys, I wouldn’t want to mention names, some of the great guys that you know today in the live band industry passed through Aristos management. And by the Grace of God the number has been growing since then till now.
To put you on record, when exactly did you launch your band professionally?
I would say 2008.
Can you tell us some of the places you have performed over the years since 2008 till now?
By the grace of God we have performed almost everywhere, even outside the country. We have done several cooperate events, social events, we have played for governors, we have played for top cooperate bodies and individuals, and then a few years ago we started performing outside the country. We’ve done our UK concert, we did a couple of stuff in Canada and we are planning our US tour as well. So God has helped us.
Since you started, what are the challenges you faced knowing Nigeria and considering the youth (young ones) who could be considered as digital consumers or so and averse to live band performances?
Well the challenges would be the same challenges you face as an individual when you are starting new. It can take a while for people to accept it you know. Like any other business starting from the scratch. But if you are consistent, and if you know what you want, for me, I’ve always known what I wanted. And with my experience playing, even before I played for Lagbaja I played different other music; I played juju; I played in almost every churches you can think of, every denomination. So I have that vast experience and working with Lagbaja for that number of years exposed me in all over the world travelling, touring with him and I met different artists. So starting the band I knew what I wanted. Going the other route, like putting a band together is serious business, its serious work, playing serious music. So, but you see people know what they want. And after a while we keep changing our sound, defining our music to suit our target audience. We may primarily not be for everybody. Even the digital sound you talked about we play at event and the young crowd love our music because of the way we merge sounds. But what is actually peculiar in our sounds is the heavy percussion. But we fused into the modern music, take the oldies, foreign, hip-hop, everything, then put together sound appeal to the crowd. So what we do is we study the crowd at an event and give them what they want. If it’s cooperate gathering we give them what they want, even if it’s wedding we have the old folks, we have the young folks. And then the Nigerian hip-hop music today is not only for the young folks alone. Even the old folks want to dance to what they want to dance to. So we find a way to put those sounds together. By the Grace of God today we are one of the best in the country today.
Do you have some of your works on digital platforms?
Yes we do… we do. So we do some recordings in the studio, aside from our live performances; we do recordings then we put it on the open market. We have ‘The Live of the Party’ from the days of Covid. We had 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and then up to 9.0. And then last year (December) we had our first music concert it was huge. I was the very first band to put together an 80 man band on stage full orchestra. And that has also put us on another stage entirely. Shortly after that we played at AFRIMMA Awards (January 2026) because they loved that concept. We just like to do things so that we set the pace. And gradually everybody is accepting the brand.
How would you describe your sound what you are giving out to the audience, how would you describe it?
I love the African percussion a lot. So everything we do we try to infuse that into it to make a very interesting sound. Bottom line is whether you are 20, or you are 30, you are 40, you are 80 we have something for you. But when you hear that sound – you know the blend of that percussion and saxophone and everything, you will know it’s the Aristos. It’s unique. So we can sing R&B you know it’s the Aristos, we can sing highlife, we can sing hip-hop, we can even do rap you know its Aristos Band.
So what’s your relationship with your former boss, Lagbaja and what are the things you learnt from him?
My relationship with him was very good. I learnt quite a lot. He’s a much disciplined artist, so I learnt that. He made me understand that you can’t really go far without discipline, dedication, passion for what you do. So Music is a serious business. My experience of him he is a fantastic musician.
Recent times have seen the live band music evolve, how have you been able to sustain the whole tempo been able to be in competition?
We don’t see it as competition, the only competition we have is ourselves to get better at every show, so we keep making sound. So for us it’s not a competition. We understand that its business. So we keep getting better and we keep strategizing, we keep making good music, that’s our strategy, that’s our style. The sky is the limit for us, we just created a sound and people love it.
With the current economic pressure, what is the management doing to ensuring the band remains affordable to private clients?
So like I said, by God’s grace we are a premium brand. But then we are flexible. It takes a lot to maintain a band like buying equipment, setting it up. They don’t come cheap. So the band cannot come cheap as well. But there’s a balance. We have to find a balance. We have our target audience. We also have things for everybody. That’s why we do things for our fans via our social media handles.
What should we expect from you this year in terms of shows, performances and celebrations?
This year we have our second edition of our concert which is going to be bigger by God’s grace. Before then there will be series of pre event that would lead to that I wouldn’t want to mention now but as time goes on. But the main one ‘Life of the Party 2.0’ is scheduled for December 17, 2026. We have music projects coming up and tours outside the country. I can say we are the first Nigerian live band to have a concert.
Is there a figure to your band ensemble?
The entire structure we have 35 members including technical crew, engineers, administrators and all that but on stage is 15 man band depending the event and gathering. There are no songs we can’t play. Music is a language.
Your band plays or should one say has a large repertoire, personally what genre of music appeal to you?
Jazz… I love jazz.
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