IF Rhys Thompson and Modupe Onilu are listed to perform at a party, expect an energetic set filled with infectious rhythms that will keep you moving. And although they are a duo, they make it their duty to give the audience as much energy as a full band would. With a history in music stemming from childhood, the 38-year-old percussionists welcome you to the BoomBoomRoom.

A family affair

Onilu hails from Laventille and Thompson, Diego Martin. Seemingly destined to work together, the two first met as children through their musician fathers. Onilu’s father is the late legendary percussionist Jajah Oga Onilu, and Thompson’s father, Michael Thompson, is a guitarist .

“So both our dads played in the late, great (musician/composer/producer) Andre Tanker’s band,” Thompson said. “My father used to actually visit their house a lot because of that band link too.”

[caption id="attachment_1136559" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Percussion duo Modupe Onilu (left) and Rhys Thompson aka BoomBoomRoom. - Photo by Rondell Paul[/caption]

Proud of his father’s legacy, Onilu said his dad is responsible for several folk rhythms and was a prominent figure in the Orisha community of drummers. He was also a pioneer for organic/handmade percussive instruments.

“They used to roll a lot with Lancelot Layne, a pioneer in rapso and poetry … Dad was on Sesame Street, many David Rudder and SuperBlue recordings…”

And because of this, he said, “There was nothing else on my radar but to be a musician.”

Thompson tried to follow in his father’s footsteps and started guitar lessons around age nine in Port of Spain.

“It was a little difficult but I wanted to do it because my dad was doing it … But then there was a drum set at a church that was next door and I started fiddling with that.”

And because of this interest and his curiosity, along with some mischievousness, he tried practising at home.

“I just started to set up pots and pans and just mash up all my mother’s pot covers,” he said, laughing.

“I would play along to songs on the radio using wooden spoons.”

His father eventually bought him a drum kit so this would stop happening.

Onilu said performing with his father at a young age helped him become acquainted with being on stage.

“I just remember my father bringing me an (African) shaker from his store and I just played in time. All these people were there watching me but I was in my own zone.”

Thompson, on the other hand, started playing for audiences through church.

He recalled a particular church having no drums but he had recently bought “this little machine that looked almost like a big iPad.

“So I started playing drums on that with the church band every Sunday for the worship service.”

He also worked with John Thomas’s Eastern Youth Chorale in Arima.

“I think that was my first professional involvement in music, which really honed my listening skills as a drummer.”

Entering the BoomBoomRoom

The two struggled to remember how and when they reconnected decades later to create what would eventually b