Go Behind the Scenes with Santana for the Making of 'Africa Speaks'

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The guitarist discusses his new album and shares first single "Breaking Down the Door."

Santana will issue Africa Speaks, a new album "inspired by the melodies, sounds and rhythms of Africa," on June 7 via Concord Records. In advance of the release, Carlos Santana has shared a behind-the-scenes video on the making of the record.

“I’m deeply invested emotionally with joy to learning something and then becoming it,” Santana explains in the video above. “So when I play in Africa, [people] say ‘Damn, Santana how do you know my music?’ I go, ‘ ‘Cause I love it!’ ”

Produced by Rick Rubin, Africa Speaks features Santana backed by an eight-piece band (which includes vocalist Buika and Santana’s wife, Cindy Blackman Santana, on drums). The album was recorded at Rubin’s Shangri La Studios in Malibu over a 10-day period. You can listen to the first single, “Breaking Down the Door,” below.

To pre-order Africa Speaks, head here. 

Richard Bienstock
Richard Bienstock

Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.