INTERVIEW : TAIWAN MC
Interview by : Sébastien Jobart
Pictures by : BOBY
on Tuesday, March 17th 2015 - 9 912 views
As much at ease in London clubs as in Jamaican sound systems, Taiwan MC blends these worlds together. Meeting Chinese Man changed a lot for Taiwan MC. The Marseille collective first asked him to sing on a track (Miss Chang), then invited him to join them on tour, then signed him to the label Chinese Man Records. After a first EP, "Heavy This Year" in 2013, then a second, "Diskodub", at the end of 2014, it was time we went to meet Taiwan MC.
Reggaefrance / What was life like before Chinese Man?
Taiwan MC / I used to do Cool & Deadly parties with my collective (parties in Paris that hosted Jahtari, Mungo's, and many others, ed.). I was an MC, a bit of a selector. I've always listened to reggae and also a lot of drum n bass, I came to the scene a bit through that free party world. I quickly got interested in the groovier turn of techno, that is, drum and bass and everything coming out of England, then dubstep when it arrived in France.
So you actually belong to the electro scene as much as the reggae scene?
When I arrived in Paris at the end of the 90s, I went to the Espace Massena or the Espace des Peupliers. I went to sound systems as much as to rave parties. For me, drum and bass nights were what brought together everything I loved, with the big dub basslines, the dancehall, and the madness of electronic music and techno. I've always liked that mix and in what I do today you can find a bit of that spirit. I came to the UK dub nights later, only to realise that there was as much bass, if not more, than at drum and bass nights. I saw Iration Steppas, Blackboard Jungle, and they really floored me with their sound systems that couldn't care less about decibel limits. Another moment that left its mark on me was when I saw Conscious Sounds, with the singer King General.
In 2013, your first EP “Heavy This Year”, very varied, showed precisely all these facets.
It was deliberate. I've always sung reggae, but rarely over reggae instrumentals. More over hip-hop, drum and bass, funk instrumentals… I loved reggae, but I wasn't good enough to allow myself to make roots reggae. My aim was to draw inspiration from it by transposing it onto other styles of music. With “Heavy This Year”, the idea was a bit to make a demo, to show the full extent of my palette. Also, the first tracks I offered didn't go down too well with the label. We had to make choices, there was a conscious approach of making a particular object. For “Diskodub”, it was much freer, I wanted to make a digital reggae album.
 Le reggae est l’une des musiques qui a le plus recyclé, réutilisé, remixé… Les versions dub, les versions alternatives, c’est dans le reggae depuis longtemps. 
And you can hear it, notably in the borrowing from the great classics: the Tempo, Sleng Teng and Rumours riddims…
They are influences, digital reggae. There's also funk and disco on the track Diskodub. That was the second guiding line of the album. When you consider electronic music production in the 80s, you see that the same sounds, the same synths, almost the same elements are used in both funk and proto-house, in the electronic music that was emerging and would lead to techno in the 90s. They used the same samples, the same sirens, the same slightly odd effects on the vocals… I was interested in highlighting this blend between reggae and funk and disco. That's what gave the title Diskodub and, a bit, the production of Pon Di Road.
On Pon Di Road precisely, you can recognise the guitar from Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash…
Those notes are played on a guitar detuned to two strings! I was thinking of the Skatalites (who take up the melody with horns on Occupation, ed.), but it's true that it's a Johnny Cash song! That's also what I wanted to show in my record: it's a round trip between Jamaica, England, Europe, Belgium for techno, and it comes back… Major Lazer, for example, you could cite 80 different influences from micro-styles coming from all over the world. When you go too far, you plagiarise. But involuntary or semi-voluntary plagiarism has existed since the dawn of time. I was thinking of that with the Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke story (recently found guilty of plagiarising a Marvin Gaye track, ed.). In reggae, if every artist who draws on a classic track got sued, they'd be in court every day! Reggae is one of the musics that has recycled, reused, remixed the most… Dub versions, alternative versions, that's been in reggae for a long time.
On “Diskodub”, you sign your first compositions…
On the first EP, I composed the base of the riddim for Gunshot Again, which SOAP completely reworked. So I did work a little on the EP, but it was still light. I have three compositions on "Diskodub", which were also reworked by SOAP. I've wanted to get into production for years, but I'm very lazy and very badly organised when it comes to kitting myself out properly. Even now, I have a really old computer! The aim is to set up a little studio at home. I think I prefer making music to singing, but for now I'm not good enough to be a beatmaker. But that's my goal, to be independent and self-sufficient, making my own beats and my own vocals.
Live, you see SOAP bouncing all over the place, switching from machines to melodica…
At the start, when we thought about the live show, we had grandiose ideas. But for financial reasons, there are only two of us on stage. We couldn't settle for him playing the instrumentals while I sang for an hour and a half. We wanted to bring something live, so we have keyboards, all sorts of machines, a melodica and a little theremin, which reacts to magnetic waves: if you bring your hand closer, it produces a sound that rises as your hand gets nearer. It's very visual. It also shows SOAP's personality: he plays all kinds of instruments and wears several hats.
Both EPs are available on vinyl.
I've been collecting vinyl for years. Besides, Chinese Man Records have been putting out vinyl since their first records. It made sense for us to release it that way. And with that sleeve, there was every reason to show it off. Funny thing: when "Diskodub" came out, I sold more vinyl than CDs or mp3s. I thought people bought mp3s, but actually no, they buy a vinyl, pirate the mp3, and come to see you in concert. The CD is mostly for the media, otherwise nobody cares! So big up to my fans, who aren't fooled! (laughs)
Is Chinese Man Records very involved in the production?
It's a family thing, we make decisions together. There's no pressure or hierarchy. There's a lot of freedom. But when they don't like a riddim, they tell me. I remember that at the start, when I submitted my demos for "Heavy This Year", they weren't very keen. I thank them for it today, because it pushes you to go further, to be better. Total freedom can also be dangerous in the creative process. We have a good balance: they step in on the important points and suggest solutions, and there are artists who have worked with them for a long time, like Fred and Annabelle for the Roll It Up video or Julien Lois for the visuals. He does the Chinese Man sleeves and I really wanted him for "Heavy This Year" because I love his style of drawing.
It's a good platform for showcasing your projects. If I tell them tomorrow about something I want to do, they're open to any proposal. For example, they've got involved in organising a festival, the Aubagne International Film Festival, which part of the group and the label work on. We're going to throw a big party with DJ Vadim and quite a few artists. It's a fairly all-encompassing thing, between music, video, graphic design… We've been present on every front for ten years!
Are you working on an album?
That's every journalist's question! Have you noticed that people listen to music differently now? (laughs) I'm very hard on myself, which is why I've released so little for my age. I've always been very critical, and I've made plenty of tracks that never came out. To release an album, I'd have to make 25 tracks to keep half of them… And on top of that I'm lazy! (laughs) With the digital format and people listening to music online, I find the album format a bit long. I don't even listen to many albums all the way through myself, I skip between tracks. That's not the format that interests me. I still want to make several different EPs before releasing an album. For me it's an intense work of art, it needs a concept. It's not for right now, but one day I'll make one!
|
|
© 1999-2026
RSS
