Volvo Owner Customizes Open-Door Chime to Play Toto’s ‘Africa’
Toto's "Africa" long ago became a pop culture totem. Incredibly, the fervor for the band's 1983 No. 1 hit shows no sign of slowing down.
Self-proclaimed "Volvo enthusiast for life" Chris Ng decided to swap out his beloved car's boring old monotone open-door sound with something a bit more exciting: an 8-bit version of "Africa." The Austin-based tinkerer, who's actually president of the Texas chapter of the Volvo Club of America, posted a YouTube video detailing how he modified his Volvo 240. The transformation is a delight: After Ng puts his keys in the ignition, the calming strains of the song immediately start playing, and continue until he starts the car.
According to Jalopnik, modifying the Volvo's sound is shockingly easy. "The door chime in the Volvo is controlled by a plug-in sound module under the dash, so all it took to install was a quick swap of the stock version for the modified one," he said in an interview. Ng added that people can even replace this module themselves if they know how to solder; in fact, he recorded the 8-bit "Africa" himself directly into a new module.
On March 12, Ng launched a Kickstarter campaign for a mass-produced version of this module, a project he dubbed "Chopstick Door Chimes." As of this writing, the campaign had raised more than $10,000 -- double Ng's initial goal.
Toto are also having a busy 2018. The band recently issued 40 Trips Around the Sun, a hits collection with three new songs, and is on an extensive 40th anniversary tour. In the fall, Toto will release a deluxe box set, All In.