INTERVIEW : META DIA
Interview by : Sébastien Jobart
Pictures by : Abby Ross
on Monday, October 31st 2011 - 15 435 views
Meta Dia took his first steps in France on the big stage of the Zénith in St Etienne, as opening act for Dub Incorporation. A Senegalese based in New York, Meta Dia began his career in the Dakar hip-hop scene, with the outfit Yalaa Surenn. It was on arriving in the United States that he fell for reggae. After a first album, "Forward Music", in 2008, Meta went to Tuff Gong studio to record his new album, with the help of Sydney Mills (Steel Pulse). A new stage in the promising career of Meta Dia. A discovery.
Reggaefrance / French audiences discovered you as the opening act for Dub Incorporation. For your first stage in France, the crowd welcomed you very warmly...
Meta Dia / It was truly magnificent. It was a pleasure to connect with Dub Incorporation, who invited us to open for them at this concert. I was very impressed by the crowd, there must have been 7,000 people... It was really beautiful, and a wonderful experience. With Dub Incorporation, we met in New York, we played together at the 92Y, a concert hall in Tribeca. We said to ourselves we should do a little tour.
Before reggae, you first started out rapping, in Dakar.
When I was in Senegal, I started with hip-hop. But when I settled in the United States, I understood that the reality of hip-hop is not at all the same in New York as in Dakar. To write lyrics, the context is completely different. In the USA, if you try to be a conscious hip-hop artist or to write lyrics as you would in Senegal, you'll sound weak. The moods, the reality is different. For me, the most important thing in music is the message. So I wanted to see where I could place myself. I knew how to play guitar, I learned to sing with the accent... A friend lent me some Buju Banton albums and from then on I never let go of reggae.
You recorded a first album in 2008, "Forward Music", reggae full of influences.
In Senegal, people listen to many kinds of music: salsa, French chanson, hip-hop... It's that diversity that influenced me, it's in me. It's not as if I had thought it all through. The most important thing for me is the message. In hip-hop, you write pages and pages, so you're bound to be redundant, you repeat rhymes. That form is very beautiful. In reggae, on the other hand, you can't write four pages, the tempo is slower. You have to simplify, get straight to the point.
 C'était comme un pèlerinage de me rendre sur l'île de Bob Marley. 
You've recorded your new album in Kingston. How did that come about?
I met Larry McDonald, a Jamaican percussionist who played with Gil Scott-Heron (with whom he recorded three albums, ed.), Bob Marley, and many others. He came to see my concerts, I went to see his with his group Dub is a Weapon... One day he came to my place, and I played him the tracks I'd put together with ProTools. He was amazed to learn that I'd done it all by myself. He said to me: "I have to introduce you to someone" and he introduced me to Sydney Mills (keyboardist of Steel Pulse since 1988, ed.).
Is that where things got serious?
Sidney Mills told me he wanted us to work together. I was delighted! I'm hungry to learn, to watch and learn from people who know. I wanted to go to Tuff Gong, to feel the vibe. The day after I arrived, I got a phone call from the Tuff Gong sound engineer, calling to tell me that Damian "Junior Gong" Marley was at the studio, that he wanted to meet me and that I'd better get over there! At first I thought it was a joke... I went, the vibe was good, and I found myself meeting all these great artists: Capleton, Damian Marley, Julian Marley, U-Roy... There were also lots of Jamaican musicians, C-Sharp the drummer of Steel Pulse (since 2005, ed.), Axeman, Dean Fraser... It was a dream! The session was really beautiful, and the result will be on my album.
So the album isn't played by the Cornerstones, your band?
I went to Jamaica with my two guitarists and my keyboardist. But you should know that bass and drums are essential in reggae, and I wanted the flavour of a purely Jamaican rhythm section. On the album, Julian Marley plays drums on two tracks. My bassist also plays on the album, but I wanted to have a Jamaican bassist as well.
I had written the lyrics of the songs before going to Jamaica, and I had also worked on the compositions at home. I brought my universe to Jamaica... On the spot, we reworked the tracks, changed a bassline, slowed down a tempo... We re-cooked the songs, in a way.
What were your impressions of your trip to Jamaica?
It's a magnificent country. It was a trip I had prepared a thousand times in my head. For me, going to Bob Marley's island was like a pilgrimage. The people there are wonderful. Everyone I met at the studio was incredibly kind. I particularly remember Mr Chow, who inspired me a lot. He's Malaysian, he's been there for years, I think it was Bob Marley who introduced him. He told me incredible stories about Tuff Gong, before the studio bore that name.
And the remix of Somewhere in Africa, with Peter Morgan?
When we did that remix with Peter Morgan, his brother Gramps Morgan was with us in the studio, he was motivating us... We would have liked to add that remix to the album, but it looks like it won't be on it. There are 18 tracks, and that's already too many!
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