Interview with Tone Rich
In this interview, Tone Rich talks transformation, travel, and how a year on the dancefloor shaped Axé Ilê (Home Within).
Last Updated: December 31, 2025 (31.12.2025)
“A year ago, Tone Rich was standing behind the DJ booth at DGTL Amsterdam, unaware that the night would quietly reroute his entire life.”
Tone Rich discusses his musical inspirations, healing through sound, and artistic journey to date in this exclusive Q&A interview about his transformation from fan to creator.
A producer, artist & sound engineer who fuses an array of global rhythms that touch the soul – his sonic storytelling traverses across a seamless blend of soundscapes, loaded with Afro-Brazilian percussion, Hindi chants & where Yorùbá spirituality embraces Japanese textures.
Taking listeners through a journey of revelation & renewal, Tone Rich moves the mind, body & soul and Axé Ilê (Home Within) is shaped by a transformative year – spanning 110k miles & across four continents, with the LP reflecting both profound personal rebirth & spiritual awakening.
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- How’s the Winter season taking shape for you, Tone Rich?
“It’s going well. Quite busy lately writing and producing new music for the coming year.”
- Congratulations on the release of Axé Ilê (Home Within), when did you begin work on the LP?
“Thank you! In a way it’s been a work in progress over the past year as I collected experiences and influences from global travel following a major life reset a little more than a year ago. If I really think about exact dates, “Tone Rich” was likely born in the crowd behind the booth at DGTL Amsterdam in April – just two days after my actual birthday – during Honey Dijon’s closing set that fateful Easter Sunday night. It was a moment of euphoric joy and profound clarity that ultimately led to Axé Ilê (Home Within).”
- Can you explain a little about the overall production process of the album?
“I’d say the overall process went something like this: Inspiration > Vision > Creation > Refinement > Production. I was moved by so many songs collected through my global travels – many in languages I didn’t know. But I was still impacted profoundly. Even more after transcribing, translating, and interpreting the lyrics. That’s why I say music is medicine. It’s healing. It can have a deep impact regardless of genre, culture, or language. I’ve healed through music this past year. I took my problems to the dance floor and came back renewed. So I wanted to give that back to the community. I started Axé Ilê with intention and vision – the intention of healing listeners and the vision of taking them with me as I recounted my healing journey around the world through sound. To paraphrase the lyrics of Axé Rising, the drum breathed me so now I’m breathing the drum back to others.”
@tonerichmusic Deep in the water I hear a song. Sweetest rhythm that pulls me along. Power in the Wind. Power in the Tide. #ocean #travel #puertorico #afrohouse #pov ♬ Maré Do Ilê (Ancestral Flow MIX) – Tone Rich
- Having travelled extensively in the last year, what’s been a personal highlight for you?
“A lot of the travel was centred around music – going to festivals, gigs, and concerts. One personal highlight was finally coming to the realization afterwards that I had been surrounded by DJs and industry people while closing out DGTL Amsterdam as a crowd member behind the booth. I think I must have absorbed some kind of powerful energy that has propelled me from fan to creator since then. I got my entire life that night.”
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- In three words, how would you describe your sound?
“Spiritual. Transportive. Cathartic.”
- Finally, what’s next for Tone Rich beyond Axé Ilê (Home Within)?
“What’s next is stretching my creativity in new ways – bridging multiple genres to produce sounds that enrich lives. And continuing to learn. I think people will be surprised at the breadth of the catalog I’m creating and the versatility of music across soundscapes and languages. I’m developing works designed to have profound and unexpected impacts on the world. This is only the beginning. I’m just getting started.”
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