Interview & pictures : Benoit Collin
on Friday, May 05th 2006 - 21 188 views
After multiplying his appearances behind the mic and even in front of the camera, Admiral T returns with a much-awaited new album, "Toucher l'horizon", released a few days ago. Insatiable, the leader of French-language dancehall has also begun a tour on ... which will be punctuated by a concert on the stage of the Olympia in Paris. A conversation with the most serious of our dancehall representatives.
Reggaefrance / Three years and a signing with AZ have passed since your first album. Can you tell us about that period?
Admiral T / I did quite a few things. There was the film "Nèg Maron", which stayed in cinemas for quite a while in France, the Antilles and Guyana. I had a short break during which I had my children. And then there was Saël’s album, on which I did the track Met nous à l’aise. I worked with Dominique Coco and the KSS on their compilation for the commemoration of the abolition of slavery (Caribbean Sessions, ed.). I had loads of projects, in fact. I did a track on a compilation to raise awareness of the scourge of AIDS, Unisson…
You haven’t really rested…
(Laughs) No, not really. With the kids and the job, you can’t say I’ve rested.
Did working with AZ change anything in terms of artistic freedom, or did you bring them a finished product?
It’s a finished product, since it’s a licence deal. So I kept my artistic freedom. Personally I prefer it that way. Anyway, for them, when they signed the licence, I already had a track record as an independent, with Don Miguel. We were able to bring a finished product. As with all artists signed on a licence, you sign with a major for plenty of reasons: more financial means, the chance to reach certain media that were out of reach until then, like television.
You surrounded yourself with several producers, some we know well, others a bit less. How did you make your choices?
My choices were made according to the quality of the sounds. I get asked that question often, but I don’t especially work with the biggest producers. I also work with small composers nobody knows, who are just starting out but have a good sound. As soon as I feel it, I go for it. I worked with Phantom, who isn’t known; he’s very underground.
There’s also Bost & Bim, Blastar, Stanisky…
Blastar are youngsters just starting out. We did seven tracks together, half the album (laughs). There was also DJ Chin, who works more here in France, and Chris Allman, who comes from Barbados and is already better known. There are both known and unknown people.
How do you work with the producers: do you give them a theme, do you adapt to the instrumentals, do you work side by side?
A bit of all that at once. Let’s say we work things out together. With Scorblaz, it went like that: I gave them my ideas, my themes. We did it remotely because he was in Paris and I was in Guadeloupe, so it was a bit difficult to really work together, as with Phantom.
I worked that way with the producers I couldn’t meet in person. I had riddims sent over, and on the ones I liked I wrote lyrics. With Chris Allman I went to Barbados to really work with him. It depends on the vibe, you know.
You did a very good track with Special Delivery, Mizik; we’re surprised not to find it on the album…
I did that at one point. For the album, I work in a certain direction. I like what I write for the album to be listenable only on the album, and nowhere else.
That was my next question: when you work on an album, do you think about it as a whole, or is each track made independently?
It depends. I try to work globally but I also let inspiration speak. If I feel I have to write on a particular theme, I do it, and then I look at it in relation to the whole. I question the concept of the album. There are two ways of working.
You tackle different themes on the album: music, Guadeloupe with the return to the homeland, the neighbourhoods, time passing…
It’s down to inspiration. For example, I was here when I wrote the track with Diam’s. There were those problems in the suburbs, the riots, and I wanted to write about them. I’m not from the suburbs, but I’m still a child of the ghetto, somewhat considered a marginal. We share the same realities in parallel. I really wanted to collaborate with Diam’s to have, side by side, the view of the guy from the Guadeloupe ghetto and that of the girl from the banlieue. To talk about the malaise of young people, the conditions some people live in. And to give them strength, to say that even if the government in place doesn’t help these people, you have to stay ambitious, try to go as far as possible, to touch the horizon. In whatever field.
Was the choice to work with Rohff and Diam’s about reaching the widest audience?
When I come here, I listen to a lot of hip hop. I was saying that to my wife a few days ago: it’s really when I go back to Guadeloupe that I realise that in France, I’m immersed in the hip hop universe. Even if dancehall is still there, when I’m here I really listen to a lot of hip hop. I like the way the artists write their lyrics. Diam’s and Rohff are two artists I like. I wanted to broaden my music, to lay a lyric over a hip hop instrumental to see what it gives. Just try it, you know.
A great many of your fans joined you before your first album, notably with tracks like Battyboy dead. Would you sing a lyric like that again today?
Batty Boy dead was a very popular track; people liked it a lot. I also got quite a lot of feedback from people telling me the song was violent. I have always been very authentic. I am against homosexuality, but everyone does what they want. I wrote that track within the dancehall universe. In that universe, you say you’re going to burn a sound boy, for example, but it’s just “lyrical”; in the lyrics, nobody is going to burn anybody. But after seeing on television that people had really burned homosexuals, I told myself that those who don’t know the dancehall universe take these lyrics literally. Now, I’m more careful about what I say; even if I have my convictions, I’m careful about how I put them.
You also suffered from the controversy last year, with the cancellation of the Garance show where you were booked. Now that you’re with Universal, you’ve toned down what you say; is that down to personal development or to instructions?
No, not especially. It depends what you mean by “toning down what I say”. I’m an authentic person; what I have to say, I say. All the themes I tackle are quite committed and I don’t hold back from saying things. On the artistic side, Universal only had to approve our project or not. We arrived with a finished product; they like it or they don’t. This time, they liked it.
Today, do you consider yourself an accomplished artist?
For me, you’re never accomplished, whatever the field. As long as you’re alive, you have to try to go further. That’s why the album is called “Toucher l’horizon” (Touching the Horizon).
How do you see yourself in the future; what are your plans?
Touching the horizon… (laughs) It’s imagery, but with regard to this album, I would have liked to go further with my music, which is so-called “cultural” music. We’re in the age of the Internet, and I find it abnormal that there should be a supremacy of one culture. For me, all cultures are rich. I want my West Indian culture to go further, for people to know it. When I do combinations with TOK, or with Diam’s… what makes me strong? We share something together, I bring my identity, my culture… And they have their own too. We share something and that’s what I want to do. Go further with my identity, as far as possible.
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