INTERVIEW : KHALIFA
Interview by : François-Xavier Rougeot et Sébastien Jobart
Pictures by : François-Xavier Rougeot
on Friday, April 05th 2013 - 8 597 views
Khalifa has teamed up with Sly & Robbie again to make his new album, "(G)Riot.13". Revealed within Positive Radical Sound, Khalifa released his first solo album in 2008 with the Riddim Twins. "I'm happy and proud of it, he tells us today, but it didn't match who I am. Without my even knowing it at the time, it was an introduction."
An introduction to this "(G)Riot.13" (out on 19 April), recorded between Kingston and Caen with the Taxi Gang and Robbie Shakespeare as producer. But talking to Khalifa also means talking about his commitment and his thirst for sharing, in Normandy, in Kingston and even in Palestine.
Reggaefrance / "(G)Riot.13" was due out last year, under the title "(G)Riot. 12". Why this title?
Khalifa / I always find it hard to give titles to songs or albums. This title came naturally. This album was written over three years; I wrote about what I was living. The songs pass through the prism of my emotions, and it was a good period for me personally, through those around me, my family and my friends. I was in something positive. Spiritually, in my relationship with the world, I was experiencing something peaceful. There was a contrast between what I was living and what I saw in the media, the world around me: the political scene, international events, geopolitics... The title completes the overall mood. It takes in the movements in the Arab countries, the Indignados in Greece or Spain...
How did the recording of the album go?
Robbie invited me to come and record after a concert in Morocco, at the Mawazine festival. An unforgettable experience: I spent a week in residence with Sly & Robbie, which brought us closer. For this new album, we worked in Kingston. In fact, I know nothing of Kingston or Jamaica; I spent all my time in the studio or asleep. From the outset, Robbie was the album's producer. As far as arrangements go, he wanted a stripped-back album. I had to insist to get horns, which I managed to impose on one track (Où sont les bandits with Sugar Minott, produced by Isaac Azoulay in Caen, ed.).
And by the way, according to him, the album is still not stripped-back enough! For me it was a great school. Often, we want to hide behind lots of arrangements or instruments... Sly & Robbie have a CV as long as your arm, but their modesty is just as great. An interesting anecdote: I want to play Robbie a demo on my computer. He refuses and wants to hear me sing, the melody only. It was the first time anyone had asked me that! Except that my melodies weren't finished, and on one that was a bit shaky, I start to bluff. He lends an ear, fiddles with his bass, then says to me: "A song is a melody, and it has to stand up on its own. Come back when your melodies are ready." All this with kindness and gentleness.
Did working with them put you under particular pressure?
I come from a band culture, with Positive Radical Sound, for 17 years. It's made of consensus, of false democracy (laughs), with lots of debates, discussions... Here, you turn up with people you don't know, individuals, with whom you have to work. The pressure is being ready, because they won't mess up. But thanks to their kindness and humility, very soon all that was left was the desire to do good work.
 Je n'imagine pas deux secondes travailler la musique sans transmettre ce que j'ai appris 
A word on the track with Sugar Minott, Où sont les bandits...
When we arrived in Kingston, we went to Anchor studio. I got there for the first time and discovered this universe. I'm in the yard, where I run into Anthony B, Gregory Isaacs and Sugar Minott... Between two sessions, we eat a mango, we chat... He listens to what I'm doing and asks me what the song is about. When I answer politics and social problems, it speaks to him. I'm shy and reserved, whereas in those situations you have to go for it... I ask him, and he agrees. In three takes, it was all done.
Does your solo career put Positive Radical Sound on hold?
We released an album in 2009. Right now, we are a bit of a "sleeper cell". As soon as there is a gig, we get called on and we get back together, but there is no reunion as such. Everyone is caught up in projects, and we come back on request. So the band still exists, with a horn section, and we will soon start recording again.
Is the urge to go solo due to the false democracy you were talking about earlier?
I had never tested what I could do on my own, in composition and writing. It was a big question, a risk, and sometimes moments of depression too... For me, writing and making music means going down paths you don't know; travels and encounters feed you. When I perform live, it is Positive Radical Sound who back me; they are an outstanding backing band.
In 2006, you got a lot of people talking with the track Ségolène et Nicolas.
One morning in September 2006, I was reading the papers in a café. The elections were only in May, but already, all anyone talked about was those two. We were already in a final... another false democracy, a media one this time. So I let off steam: there are other ideas, other programmes that you never hear about... With a mate, we picked up a little camera. We hoped to appear on the local France 3 news, in Ouest France, have a good laugh and get people talking about us... But the AFP picked it up, and that's where the misfortune struck (laughs).
You say "misfortune"; how do you look back on that episode?
That track gave me a platform. It allowed me to present my artistic work in the big media. Of course, this phenomenon is a flash in the pan, and you have to own that completely. It lasted a month, we did loads of TV and radio, it was the grand tour... I didn't even have an album to promote at that point, which shows how disorganised we were!
There is also this unusual symphonic reggae project. How did it come about?
It came from a chance meeting in a café with Norbert Genvrin, the conductor from Hérouville Saint-Clair. I slip him my album, and later I learn that he likes the result. He is the one who suggested doing this symphonic reggae. We got the budget, we adapted almost the whole album, we rearranged it, and we met only twice in all with the full orchestra... It was an unforgettable experience, but there was nobody to carry the project and develop it. We arrived with this project in a period when everyone is looking for three-piece formulas. There were twenty of us musicians, from a classical background, and that costs a lot... We did a single performance, and I was stunned even though it was the small version of a symphony orchestra. But the advantage is that we can do it again: everything is written down.
You take part in songwriting workshops in prisons in Normandy, and you found yourself alongside Nambo Robinson, who does the same in Kingston...
I can't imagine for a second working in music without passing on what I have learned. I wanted to organise workshops. I was asked to work in prisons. I can't imagine taking an artistic path without sharing. These are moments that aren't meant to promote anything at all. It's about exchange. It keeps me grounded in reality.
I met Nambo Robinson through Sly & Robbie. He invited me to take part in a music workshop he started, the Idren Workshop. He helps pupils and students in Kingston who are struggling. The aim is to bring them together around music, raise funds and help them with their studies. I went back to Jamaica to run this workshop, with Positive Radical Sound (bass, drums, keyboard). My dearest wish is to bring him over soon so that we can perform together (the interview was conducted before two concerts in France were organised with Nambo Robinson, on 19 and 24 April in Caen and Paris, ed.).
In December 2012, you also went to Palestine to run a workshop.
Once again, it's a personal venture. I got in touch with an association, Akura, in Jenin. I wanted to go alone, as a free agent, just with my artistic project, but then there was the attack on the flotillas heading for Gaza (in May 2010, ed.). In the end the project was cancelled, and I was very disappointed. Two years later, the opportunity came up again, as part of a documentary with the director Jean-Jacques Lion. I was offered the chance to run a writing workshop with children in Nablus. We found ourselves in the Askar camp for 10 days with children aged 9 to 15. It quickly turned into a video workshop, because they wanted to handle my camera and Jean-Jacques's camera. All the kids were overexcited. I had with me a Sly & Robbie riddim, taken from my next album. I change the chorus and it becomes "Salaam (peace)". We record choruses together, and we help them shoot the footage. In 48 hours, we had a film. And then we organise a snack, and we screen it... At that point, it makes you want to cry. It's a unique object.
Does going to do this work in Palestine also have a political meaning for you?
If tomorrow I have the contacts to go to the Amazon and do something with the Indians, I'm off straight away. Same for Chechnya... There is also a fantasy of Palestine, seen from afar, because of my origins. The personal desire to go was to see with my own eyes. To answer your question, there is of course a political commitment, which is to modestly relieve people who are suffering. You don't have to spend much time in Palestine to see that there are double standards. There are Israelis who work hand in hand with Palestinian associations, who are for peace, and not the peace of the strongest. I wanted to do something, quite simply, far from any religious discourse.
Your trip came just as Palestine was getting a seat at the UN.
We were there for the announcement of Palestine's seat at the UN, on Thursday the 29th, in Nablus. It was an incredible moment, a sort of connection between our work and this international event... I felt I was witnessing the birth certificate of Palestine. There, it goes beyond your approach as an artist and you are swept up in a wave, in History. It is important to me to do this.
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