INTERVIEW : K2R RIDDIM
Interview by : Sébastien Jobart
Pictures by : DR (haut) - Benoit Collin
on Thursday, October 05th 2006 - 12 961 views
With a reshaped line-up after the departures of Justin and Ange and the arrival of Lord Bitum (ex Lokos), K2R Riddim are back on the road. After the highly elaborate "Décaphonik" made under the aegis of Tyrone Downie, out go the big studios and back to a more homespun production for "K2aiRlines". A conversation with part of the crew, Loïc, Dorothée and Bitum.
Reggaefrance / ''K2Rlines'' is the first album since the line-up change. What was the frame of mind at the time of recording?
K2R Riddim / Loïc: ''Décaphonik'' was a sort of stepping-stone album where we had to prove ourselves. ''K2Rlines'' is the result of all our previous experience, after trying out different kinds of studios and recording methods. That was what put the pressure on us a bit. The atmosphere was very good for writing, with this new line-up. Bitum arrived, we also had a few changes on keyboards, and a new trombonist. We decided to go back to recording “roots style”, to drop the big studios we had booked and do it at a friend’s place, our former sound engineer. To work in a more relaxed way, without asking for the help of a producer again (like Tyrone Downie on ''Décaphonik'', ed.).
Dorothée: ''Décaphonik'' came from a period when we felt the need to be guided, chaperoned by someone experienced. Whereas for ''K2Rlines'', we did a lot of demos beforehand, so we didn’t feel the need for a producer. You mentioned the frame of mind; we started from the idea of the crew because we felt a new lease of life. That’s what we tried to put into the album too, a new energy. Incidentally, it’s the first album where you see us from the front on the sleeve. I don’t think that’s by chance, we wanted it. It isn’t to push ourselves forward, but we wanted people to identify K2R. Because there was an image with Ange and Justin that had been established and that today, with Bitum’s arrival, is no longer the face of K2R.
It allows you, in a way, to wipe the slate clean.
Dorothée: Exactly. There hasn’t been a break either, but we feel a new energy, including on stage. I’m getting ahead of myself with the coming tour, but we want to offer people something different: not just a reggae gig where the songs follow one another, but with some staging around it. We tried to think things through a bit.
Loïc: For the album, the idea was to go back to the home studio and take the time to work on the writing. We didn’t want to redo what we did at the very beginning; we have evolved with each album, wanting to try something else, drawing on Jamaican music or on our personal inspirations. It was a response to what the public wanted. To rediscover the spontaneity of those days, to have a blast, to show that we are still tight: old style as well as new style, with the maturity we have now.
How did the transition go, particularly as far as writing is concerned, between Ange and Justin leaving and Bitum arriving?
Bitum: It happened really naturally. When I joined K2R on the ''Décaphonik'' tour, it was temporary: go a little way down the road together, have fun, play gigs. And then in the end I officially joined the band. For the work on the album, we laid the lyrics out flat with everyone, so that all the members of the band would stand behind what is said. A great deal of discussion went into making sure everybody agreed.
Loïc: Which isn’t always easy in a band. The singer has his ego and his way of expressing things. And if someone asks him to say things another way, he feels his idea is no longer being defended. With Bitum, there was no problem at all.
So, Bitum, have you put your band Lokos on hold?
Bitum: In several brackets, even (laughs). I’m originally from Lille, now I live in Cergy-Pontoise with K2R, while Lokos stayed up there. There were three of us in that band, now the other two are doing their own things.
On the album, Homoriginal deals with homophobic lyrics in dancehall. That’s rare enough to be worth pointing out.
Dorothée: We’re glad we made that track. We’re among those who take a stand on this debate, which has been a big debate in France. And inside the band too, we discussed it a lot, whether to do it or not, and then how we would go about it.
But the debate has been little addressed by French artists.
Dorothée: I don’t know why they struggle to take a position. Or else they do it on a side that isn’t ours. It’s certain that we won’t make friends, but we don’t want to renounce our convictions. We wanted to take a position by explaining that reggae has a tradition of defending the oppressed. That in the same way that we would defend an African minority, for example, we believe that tastes in matters of sexuality are a private matter. Reggae sometimes takes a turn towards calls for violence that doesn’t suit us. The idea isn’t to go and lecture Jamaicans on how to live: they have their culture and their history, and we have to respect that. But it’s different when they come to Europe and to France in particular. Above all we wanted to take a stand for the young people who come to gigs. These days there is a lot of talk about conscious reggae. Well, let’s be conscious all the way, let’s listen to the lyrics and translate them. Everyone has their own opinion, of course, but everybody must be aware of what they are listening to. Just as we wouldn’t tolerate a Le Pen supporter singing that all Arabs should be burned, we can’t accept homophobic lyrics. You have this sort of folklore of Jamaican reggae that we are supposed to accept in France because that’s just how it is. But there are plenty of words ending in “-ism” that need to be fought. We can’t accept these excesses, and just because we play reggae doesn’t mean we’re going to start singing that kind of lyric.
Bitum: There are so many other subjects to tackle. When you see certain artists put out twenty tracks on this subject, it’s unbelievable. All the more so because these artists would have much more to say about their own country.
There are also more “classic” themes on the album, such as child soldiers, or the political class (Maître du jeu). How do you feel about the political news in France?
Dorothée: Personally I find it rather funny. When you see Ségolène Royal being pulled down by her own camp, it’s really like a soap opera. And on top of that the American-style campaign of Sarkozy… Election campaigns are getting more and more Americanised, by the way. Our commitment as artists is to join a collective called Tous aux urnes, which groups like Marcel et son Orchestre or Les Ogres de Barback have already joined. The aim is to encourage young people to go and vote, a bit like what the hip hop movement is doing more and more, with Diam’s for example. Today, we have a way of expressing ourselves through voting, and we must use it.
This text also deals with the lack of access to generic medicines in Third World countries.
Loïc: It was important to put that forward, the lack of investment by French politics on this subject. It’s frightening to see the ravages of this inaction, it’s almost a genocide. What the track explains is the abnormality of a system that sees guys from the World Trade Organization dealing with something that should be done by the World Health Organization. It’s about money matters when we’re talking about health and humanism.
Dorothée: There are a billion things to denounce on an album, you only have to switch on the TV. We tried to see what was shared by the whole band. There are also more personal tracks like T’es parti, which Bitum wrote, but which touches everyone and is shared by the whole band.
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