INTERVIEW : GROUNDATION
Interview by : Sébastien Jobart
Pictures by : Sébastien Jobart & Benoit Collin
on Friday, March 30th 2012 - 8 971 views
France is a bit like a second home for Groundation. Regularly booked, the Californians play to sold-out houses in venues across the Hexagon. With the release of their new album, "Building An Ark", naturally followed by a tour (news of 06/01/2012
) Marcus Urani (keyboards) and Harrison Stafford (vocals) give us the keys to it.
Reggaefrance / Every album has its story, and even more so with Groundation. What is the story of "Building An Ark"?
Groundation / Harrison Stafford: It's said right at the start of the album: "You know what's good, you've known it for a long time..." We are here right now, we are each learning from one another, sharing cultures... We are ready to move forward, and on a positive path. We believe that this positive energy will come from the people, and we need a place to keep this energy safe. That's why we are building an ark (Building an Ark, Ed.). With Groundation's music, we are trying to create this environment of prosperity for the future, and of hope for good people.
It starts from a rather dark point of view, in the end.
Marcus Urani: It's not pessimistic, but realistic. We are in 2012, things are happening, and the world is changing. It has been going on for a while: nothing new under the sun, as they say. Things have been happening for thousands of years. But I think it all combines, and we have evolved this way up to today. Decisions made by humans over the last 200 years affect the future of generations. We feel that. We travel a lot all over the world, meet a lot of people, and it's in people's minds, it's very serious. The best we can do is represent that with our music.
Harrison Stafford: This change could be very difficult, take your energy and your strength away... The challenges are ahead of us, that's for sure. It's not pessimistic but we have to focus because it's going to be hard.
How does "Building an Ark" fit into the narrative of your discography?
Harrison Stafford: It's something else altogether now. It's obviously linked to the previous albums. "Upon the bridge" is the end of something, and "Here I Am" is the beginning of something else. These individuals, who grow up, learn good from evil, the dragon wars, these battles that take place, make a decision and move towards a new pattern of thought. That's what "Here I Am" tells, and it starts with what we see around us at present. "Building An Ark" is 2012. The story moves forward, but it's no longer a narrative about an individual. It's about what is happening now, about "us". People have joined us on our journey. From now on, we are witnesses to what is happening.
 A chaque album, nous essayons de nouvelles choses, nous prenons des risques 
How do you get back on track for a seventh album?
Harrison Stafford: We evolve, and progress... With each album, we try new things, we take risks. We draw lessons from it, which we apply to the next album. We are then two years older, we have had new encounters, made new journeys... We play, improvise, write, and try to move forward. We take risks, as we always have. "Hebron Gate", for example, opened up a new world of polyrhythm. It was a step forward, and people liked it. We took a lot of risks with "We Free Again": Cultural Wars, Fourth Dimension... Things you won't hear on another reggae album. Same for "Upon the bridge" and "Here I Am".
Marcus Urani: That's the beauty of music, it never stays the same. We're lucky to be able to explore, and our audience knows we won't be content with redoing what we've already done in the past. We explore things, it's an evolution.
Harrison, when you presented the album to us last year, you told us about guests who in the end don't appear...
Harrison Stafford: That's true, where did those guests go? (laughs) Unfortunately, it wasn't possible. With our schedule, our tours, their tours...
Marcus Urani: We really tried, believe it or not.
Are you keeping the idea for the next album?
Harrison Stafford: We want to do it. Invite artists you wouldn't expect on our music, and also people who have inspired us a lot. We always look to the "old generation"... Expect something wild. Always! If you listen to "Building An Ark", you'll see something wild. For example, the album's intro sounds like nothing by Groundation, with just the double bass, the piano, the guitar...
Kerry and Kim have taken on more importance. Do you really need guests?
Harrison Stafford: They are part of the band. Everyone is valued, that's how we are strongest. They have such beautiful voices!
Marcus Urani: There are no guests, but in a way, we invited each other. As Harrison says, they have superb voices, and they've been with us for a long time. It was time for us to write things for them. The idea of inviting other artists influenced the tracks: there were parts we had imagined for certain people, and they took us in other directions. Even if it didn't happen, it had an impact on the music.
The album ends on very strong words: "What if what we call History was just an endless fight between wolves and sheep? And that worries me."
Harrison Stafford: It's serious, indeed. I'm setting myself a challenge, and I'm setting a challenge for you, the listener: What will the future be like? Will it come true or not? It's time to decide on these things. We are the generation that has to put this on the table. It's a defining era. But it's not pessimistic, in fact it's quite the opposite. It can be very positive if it's the starting point for change.
Marcus Urani: It sums up the album, it's a bit like an epilogue. The whole album tackles this subject, and its different facets. But I don't think it's pessimistic either.
Harrison Stafford: These are powerful, emotional words, I'm aware of that. I like the intro and the end of the album, which answer each other.
Marcus Urani: If you don't think about all this, if you just want to make money and have a good time, these concepts are a bit hard to take and can seem pessimistic. But all of this is happening before our eyes, it's already here, you can't ignore it. One of the missions of music is to bring this awareness.
What is the symbol of the shell on the sleeve?
Harrison Stafford: It symbolises a lot of things: the march of time, the time it takes a shell to take that shape, that is to say millions of years. It's very ancient!
I wanted to symbolise this spirit of people coming together, because on the islands, shells also served as horns to warn and gather the population: whether for a war, a storm, a party, a celebration... Also, an ark is a place where you protect yourself. And the first thing an animal ever used as a shelter was the shell. It's our first home, our first protected place. And in the background, there's this starry panorama, to underline that although it's small, it's infinite...
You are constantly on the road. Don't you feel like strangers in your own country when you come back to the USA?
Marcus Urani: Yes, in a way. There's a culture shock when we get home... It's the strange side of this life we lead, which nobody really talks about... I try to explain that to people, but they only see the schedule of the cities we go to, and envy us. But we spend our time on a bus or a plane, travelling every day! It's hard and very tiring. When you get home, it's different, things have changed: people have aged, been through hardships, like with the subprime crisis where many people lost their homes, can't find work... You realise your friends have money troubles... It's very special. And you're only there to see all of it, things changed while you were away.
Harrison Stafford: People have split up, divorced... Since we have been to all these places, our perspective is different: we are aware of what is happening in the Middle East, North Africa, Greece, South America... All those places where we have friends and people we love... It concerns us and we are very aware of what is going on. Conversely, our friends and families know what is happening in California, but we don't.
When will we get Groundation's first live DVD?
Marcus Urani: It came out last year, didn't you get it? (laughs) Actually, we're working on it.
Harrison Stafford: You have to pick the right place, the right moment... We could record it in South America, who knows?
Marcus Urani: Actually, we don't really know where we'll be playing next month... That partly explains why we still haven't done it. The band has changed a bit, we wanted to wait for it to stabilise. Now it's time we did it.
Harrison Stafford: It's a real project: after recording, you have to produce it, mix it... And we only have a few weeks between each tour... We're short of time, but we'll do it, don't worry! The next time we see each other, we'll have recorded it.
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