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THE CAROUSEL is the musical experience & band led by expressionist composer & glamazon troubadour okanomodé aka SoulChilde. He has played the hottest spots in Seattle including Crocodile Café, Triple Door, Neumos, Nectar & Bumbershoot Festival.

Equal parts Prince, Nina Simone & Grace Jones, he melds composition, style & genre with the skill of Basquiat blending color, spins song into frenzy, & makes magic with his tongue. As the grandson of a pastor, raised & crucified in the belly of the baptist church & reborn at the jook joint, his performance is both ceremony & revival.

In addition to fronting THE CAROUSEL he spent 3 years as "Minister Of Harmony" for band Forgotten Sol & recorded a c.d. with them entitled 'Contradiction'. He is a regularly featured vocalist for deep-house diva Nadirah Shakoor & has shared the stage with artists Choklate, Yahzarah, Ursula Rucker & Osunlade.

okanomodé is also the writer, producer & star of what he calls the one-soul, two-spirit show entitled, 'With Warrior's Tongue:Rebirthe Of The Rising Sun'.

He is currently featured vocalist with free jazz ensemble, 'Threat Of Beauty', featured vocalist with Funk/Afro-Carribean band Big World Breaks, & the leader of his band THE CAROUSEL.

It is indeed your privilege & blessing to witness the grit, gut & holy fire of okanomodé & THE CAROUSEL.......

www.myspace.com/soulchilde

www.myspace.com/paganfire

okanomodé is a force to be reckoned with.  Like lightnening.  A hurricane.  Marvin Gaye.  The Holy Ghost.

okanomodé, also known as SoulChilde is one of the hottest performers on Seattle's art & music scene.   He is the ring leader of The Carousel, a band & stage experience that upon seeing it for the first time on February 22nd 2008 at Nectar Lounge in Fremont, took me back to the first time I experienced the Grunge Rock of Nirvana at Seattle's now defunct Crocodile Café.  I left my first okanomodé show drenched in sweat, elated, & in need of a cigarette.

Frontman okanomodé is a half mad Dionysus, whipping around the stage in a fury, making love to the audience & vanishing before eyes - an apparition in the night.  Those who have yet to be graced by the magic that is okanomodé are in for a visual & aural experience to rival the first time the world witnessed Jimi Hendrix, Prince or Erykah Badu.   In his songs he loves tenderly & though some may want to  pass him off the next neo-soul crooner, his message is more complex.  Shape-shifting in the songs he takes on an array of colorful characters, & like musician-warrior Tori Amos is not one to shy away from bloodletting.  In "Prom Night" he is the Goddess Pelé taking man to task for the degradation of women.  In "Luci's Lamb" he is the Griot telling the untold story of Jesus & Lucifer as lovers.  The power of the music is undeniable, provocative, soul stirring & poetic.

Galaxies beyond the undercooked, over-worked robo voice & car siren pop of the day; okanomodé spits poetry like Stevie Wonder, flips gender like Me'shell Ndegeocello, funks hard like Joi & rocks Glam like Grace Jones.  With his essential elements - a keyboard, bass, drums & one gorgeous mistress of harmony at his side, okanomodé is born of all the sex, sin & funk that made some fear, & many lust our "royal badness."  We may be missing Prince & The Revolution, but unto us a childe is born - okanomodé & The Carousel.

-Aurelius Styles (writer & music lover)

okanomodé & THE CAROUSEL performing 'Strange Relationship' written by Prince okanomodé & THE CAROUSEL performing 'Fire-Fly' composed by okanomodé aka SoulChilde okanomodé with Big World Breaks performing 'Damn Right' @ Neumos Emerald City, Washington