INTERVIEW : DADDY MORY
Interview by : Sébastien Jobart
Pictures by : Benoit Collin
on Monday, May 28th 2007 - 36 425 views
It had been almost four years since he had been heard anywhere other than on 45s and compilations. The reggae side of Raggasonic has had its share of hardships and frustrations. After the modest success of "Ma voix résonne", we find a fired-up Daddy Mory just as his new album "Reality" has come out.
Reggaefrance / "Ma voix résonne" goes back to 2003, how do you feel now that your new album is about to come out?
Daddy Mory / I should be feeling the pressure but I'm not. I went to Jamaica to make the album: a bloody bomb, frankly. I've rarely been so sure of myself. So I'm not feeling the pressure because I know I've got something that can hurt very badly. I'm super-confident, 200%.
Why did we have to wait so long?
When I was signed to BMG and made "Ma voix résonne", it didn't go very well. In the meantime, I took the contract back and I spent a while without a label. I carried on working, putting out compilations, 7-inch singles. I started really working on the album in 2005. I did it with a clear head. It's not just my album, it's a team album: it's Dan's album, Rudy Dread's, Anka's, the Showsky Family's. I worked with Mad Killah, Leevayah B, Mister Face, Apache, Harry Toddler. There are quite a few tracks we wrote together. Even for solo projects it's always teamwork: we meet up at Face's place, and we write lyrics.
It's a new family. I feel a bit of what we felt at the start of Raggasonic, that vibration. It's also a very cosmopolitan crew in its origins and its styles. Mister Face writes a lot of lyrics about women, he's very funny; Mad Killah is more our national Bounty Killer; Leevayah B is more R'n'B dancehall; Apache is the Madinina side of the crew, and Toddler the yardie side. It's a crew that's going to last a long time and I'm proud of this album where they've all put their touch. I dedicate it to them, it's our album, all of us.
Did you want to work with all these different profiles?
It's important to me that everyone finds themselves in this album. I especially didn't want to fall into the trap of making an album only for West Indians. I'm West Indian, you see, but I was born in Paris, I grew up in the 94, my mates were Portuguese, Arabs… My lyrics have to be cosmopolitan, like France. I have to sing for everybody. For a while, I did quite a few One Riddim compilations which were aimed at the West Indian community, and I played quite a lot at West Indian parties. Some people held that against me a bit, because in the Raggasonic days, we were truly cosmopolitan. Afterwards, I went really deep into West Indian dancehall. But I also needed to put forward that identity I have in me, as much as my Malian identity. I don't have a choice to make, I have to take both on the same level. When you've managed to speak to everybody, you've won.
Did you write the lyrics?
I wrote some lyrics on my own, and others with the help of the Showky Family. Quite a few lyrics are co-written with Levvayah B, Face and Mad Killah. I wrote a few lyrics alone, like Seigneur de Guerre.
It's been a long time since we heard you on such a serious, such a political subject…
The subject is original. I won't lie to you, I knew about the situation over there, but it was when I saw the film "Lord of War" that I wrote the lyrics as soon as I got home. The film shows you things you need to know, things that hurt. I had to write a song on this subject. I'm basically a militant guy, even if I'm here first of all to make people dance, and make them forget their problems. I was the militant part of Raggasonic, we denounced things and dressed up the subject with a pretty melody so as not to make the track too gloomy. That's what I try to get across in "Reality". Quite a few tracks will remind people of Raggasonic, if only in the riddims, in the way I sit on them… There are several tracks that make you think of the sequel to Raggasonic. I'm proud of that.
The Raggasonic adventure remains exceptional in French reggae.
I'm aware that we lulled a generation with Raggasonic, and I don't want to let it down. I want to honour it with "Reality", it's an album I made first and foremost for that generation. I really want to win them all back. The new generation knows me through the compilations, but the Raggasonic generation, the thirty- and forty-year-olds, I want to win them back. And I think I'm going to do it with this album, I swear.
Are you nostalgic for the Raggasonic years?
No, not nostalgic, because I regret nothing about Raggasonic, it made me who I am today. I learned everything: what a tour is, recording in a studio, professionalism like turning up on time for appointments (laughs)… I can't disown that period. Big Red taught me a lot. Before working with him, he was someone I appreciated a lot musically speaking. When I picked up the mic for the first time in Soundjata in 1990 and they liked my style and invited me to join them, I was very honoured. It's as if today you were walking into David House (Capleton) or the Alliance (Bounty Killer). In those days, the French deejays were extra-terrestrials. Saï-Saï, for me, were big stars. Those are the artists who made me want to do dancehall: Saï Saï, Little Dany, Saxo, the toothbrush man, Pablo Master… I only knew Jamaican dancehall, and they made me understand that you could do French dancehall, with the same vibration. They proved to me that it was doable.
We know about your problems at the time that hastened the end of Raggasonic. But was there already a musical split?
I'm going to tell you something I've never said in an interview: even the first Raggasonic album nearly never saw the light of day. We were working in 1994 in London, with Alexis Lazare, who was part of Xpensive Crew. He and Big Red had a dispute, and Big Red refused to keep working with him. I wasn't involved in their business, I wanted to carry on. That's where the split happened. I was 17-18, and I planned to stay in London. Seb Farran came to fetch me to tell me we had to make up, that I should come back to Paris, but I didn't want to follow him. In the end it was my brother who said to me "Mory, go and see what's happening in Paris". That's when we started making demos, and the first album came out in 1995.
And the second album?
It was a bit the same. I've never talked about it because I'm not the type to tell my life story, but there were internal problems. Those two albums nearly didn't come out, I swear. In those conditions, it would have been hard to put out a third album. Especially as Big Red and Sébastien Farran wanted to do a totally crossover project.
Did that interest you less?
It didn't interest me. I wanted to stay in the Raggasonic mindset, we had already given people the image of a reggae group. If we had made a drum and bass album or a West Coast album, it wouldn't have worked. I didn't agree.
We regularly hear talk of a possible reunion…
I don't believe in it any more. Big Red showed me his true colours. And anyway it's not a problem, life goes on and music goes on. "Reality" is coming out soon, and it's the sequel to Raggasonic!
For a long time people said Mad Killah had a style very similar to yours, and now I get the impression that you have styles that resemble Mad Killah's. The exchange feeds itself… (he cuts in)
Mad Killah and I work together, we write together. Like with Leevayah B, with whom I co-wrote most of the lyrics on the album. In Jamaica, they've always worked like that. It's the producers who are at the origin of it. Clive Hunt told me that when he made I can see clearly now with Jimmy Cliff, he already had the riddim and the lyrics, and he thought of Jimmy Cliff as the best interpreter. And look at the hit it became. Unity is strength.
It's something we don't really have in France, we like the idea of the author more than the interpreter.
In variété they have it. In hip hop we're starting to have it. But in French-language dancehall, a bit less. Me, I'm a very good interpreter. I've been writing my own lyrics all by myself for a long time. Co-writing my lyrics is an exercise I started at the end of 2005, beginning of 2006. For me it's new.
It's a sign of artistic maturity…
Before, for me it was a matter of pride. You insist on writing your own words. The guys from the Showky Family know me by heart. When I tell you we co-write the lyrics, it means we're all sitting together, I find my flow, my melody, and then we look for the words. Everyone brings their stone to the edifice. We did the same with Face, who is preparing his album. We're all there around the sheet of paper looking for rhymes. We're a real crew, and I'm proud of the Showsky Family. Having a family is very important. That's why I'll be grateful to them all my life.
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