INTERVIEW : THE DYNAMICS

Interview by : Benoit Collin & Sébastien Jobart Pictures by : DR on Tuesday, November 27th 2007 - 6 467 views    Listen Whole lotta lov...        Print        Reactions  (0)    With "Version Excursion", a debut album made up exclusively of covers, the Lyon band Dynamics have hit the jackpot. It must be said that they did not merely cover soul standards, the classic path for reggae artists, but dipped deeply into an eclectic rock repertoire: the Rolling Stones, White Stripes, Prince, Led Zeppelin, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan… Surprising, original and often successful reggae reinterpretations. An interview with three of the five members of Dynamics: Mounam and Stevie Levi, singers, and Bruno "Patchworks", producer and musician. Reggaefrance / You all come from different musical backgrounds, so that makes for as many influences in the band. The Dynamics / Bruno: The band's music reflects the musicians who make it up. Three continents are represented among five people. And there are as many musical influences as there are profiles. It comes from everywhere and nowhere, and you can hear that in our music, just like our neighbourhood, the Croix-Rousse in Lyon. You each have a musical past; is it the neighbourhood that brought you together around this project? Mounam: The neighbourhood above all. It's a very lively, very cosmopolitan neighbourhood. Artistic encounters come easily, because there's a huge amount of exchange in the parties, the jams, and the different projects being developed. Bruno: There's a real open-mindedness in this neighbourhood, good exchanges, meetings in the bars, in the studios, on the stages. It's a neighbourhood really conducive to meeting people and creating. How did the Dynamics project, playing only covers, come about? Bruno: We adopted a Jamaican tradition, like in the rocksteady days. Jamaican music is open to the rest of the world, and there are lots of covers. We're completely in that logic and, alongside our own compositions and remixes, we decided that for the first album we would only do covers. Why? By taking tracks that people know, we perhaps put off the question of writing and composing until later, but the way we do it says who we are. It's a good calling card for the band: it shows the diversity and richness of the band in terms of musical influences. It's a sort of set exercise. So can we expect original compositions on the next album? Bruno: A large part of the second album is already written and already recorded. It will be mostly composition. Is it inevitable in France to do covers in order to succeed? Bruno: You have to look at it the other way round, understand that it's been done in Jamaica forever. In jazz too, for example. For a musician, doing a cover is something enjoyable. It's a bit fashionable today, but it has always existed. The biggest hit of the 80s, Tainted Love by Soft Cell, was a cover of a Northern Soul track. It's normal: music is only the reinterpretation of what has already been done. That's what moves music forward. A cover is a logical and normal exercise for a musician, whoever they are. It's natural. After that, choosing only covers on an album is a deliberate choice, we agree on that. You took on a few monuments. How did you make your choice? Were they tracks that caught your attention, or the artists? Mounam: The tracks. A good bassline, good lyrics or a good melody... Bruno: For example Led Zeppelin: we cover Whole Lotta Love, but we're not going to cover Since I've been loving you. What was your approach? Was the tracklist thought through? Bruno: There's no strategy, the tracklist is completely random. We didn't tell ourselves that a rock track was missing, for instance. We aren't capable of that. We make music, we're not here to think (laughs). This project has been in the pipeline since 2003. Why so long before the album? Mounam: Not that long, actually. We first released tracks on 45s. Bruno: And then we're a live band at heart. It was the success of the 45s that made us want to push further and release an album. So the desire to please yourselves? Bruno: Yes, completely. It's an exercise for five of us on territory that isn't necessarily our natural territory to begin with, namely reggae. It's taken a long time because we didn't set ourselves goals or deadlines. We didn't tell ourselves: in six months, we have to become stars with the Dynamics. Because otherwise we would have gone faster! (laughs). We made four 45s before thinking about the album. All of that takes time. Alongside Dynamics, do you keep working on your solo projects? Mounam : Yes, absolutely. My solo project isn't easy to define because it brings together all my influences: Afro, electronic music, breakbeat, jazz, soul… It's a blend of all of that. Steve : I do a bit of sound system work in Lyon as an MC, and I have a sound in England too. Bruno : I produce my solo projects under the name Patchworks, in a rather funky vein. I also produce the record of Mr. Day (singer with the Dynamics, absent today, editor's note) as well as jazz projects. And a lot of underground reggae stuff too, which decency and honesty forbid me to go into any further (laughs).    Listen Whole lotta lov...        Print       Reactions (0)

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