About the same time that a teenage Nathaniel Braddock was skateboarding and listening to punk rock in a small town in central Michigan, a singer and drummer halfway around the world were ripping things up in a band that would become among the hottest in Africa.

Nearly two decades later, the three are part of one of world music’s more unlikely success stories, the Occidental Brothers Dance Band International.

“No, I didn’t expect this to happen,” said percussionist Daniel “Rambo” Asamoah , who performs Tuesday with the Occidentals at Great Scott in Allston.

“Nathaniel said he wanted me to join the group to play drums,” Asamoah said from the Windy City. “I knew they played rock ’n’ roll, but the first time I listened to them it was amazing because they were playing the music of my homeland.”

Asamoah and Cromwell hail from Ghana, where the buoyant, guitar-driven highlife music they played with the group Western Diamonds earned them rave reviews and a slew of awards.

Guitarist Braddock - who grew up a fan of the Smiths and Sonic Youth - learned about highlife by listening to records, turning himself into a self-taught expert on the genre, including its more esoteric styles such as palm-wine andsikyi.

“I was still making arty rock ’n’ roll and indie rock, but what I was listening to more than anything else was highlife by Dr. Nico and Rocofil Jazz and others,” Braddock said. “I was teaching a guitar class in that style at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago and my students encouraged me to start a band.”

His band’s first iteration mixed in other Central and West African dance styles, including soukous and rumba. Once Cromwell and Asamoah joined - and once Braddock actually visited and studied in Ghana - the Occidental Brothers became a highlife machine, putting their own twist on songs from Nigeria, Ghana and the Congo.

Their second album, “Odo Sanbra” captures the full range of their influences, from traditional songs to Afropop classics by Nico, Oliver de Coque and Franco. There’s even a cover of the 1986 New Order song “Bizarre Love Triangle,” chosen because it follows a similar chord progression used in highlife.

Some tracks are in English, but most are in the Ghanaian dialects Fanti or Twi.

“As an American doing this music, I try to be respectful of where everything’s coming from,” Braddock said. “We’re trying to build intensely on the roots and have an authentic sound. We didn’t get together with the idea that we were going to make killer fusion. That never works out. It’s not like I’m playing Dinosaur Jr. in this style.”

Occidental Brothers Dance Band International, Tuesday at Great Scott, Allston. Tickets: $8; 617-566-9014.