Interview K2R Riddim (2004)

Interview by : Sébastien Jobart
on Saturday, May 15th 2004 - 11 641 views

After four albums and more than ten years of wandering the roads of France, K2R Riddim has settled among the essential names in French reggae, championing music that is both festive and committed. An interview with two voices: Thibault (guitar) and Loïc (trombone, vocals).

Reggaefrance / How did K2R Riddim come about?
K2R Riddim / Thibault: K2R Riddim started in 1991. There are still 3 of us from the core of the band. It's 3 friends, at secondary school, who were fans of ska, the Specials, reggae. We discovered Jamaican ska and original reggae. We decided to buy instruments and form a ska and reggae band. It took us 2-3 years to know how to get things going and to master the instruments at a basic level. Little by little, the family grew, the current line-up hasn't changed in 8 years.

Why the name K2R Riddim?
Loïc: It's really anecdotal. One day, we played a gig for a friend's birthday in a hall. It was a bit like a talent contest, there were lots of little-known bands. And we were asked for a name. We had an old friend, older than us, who used to play us loads of sounds, and we listened to him closely. He told us that if he ever had to form a band, he'd call it K2R, for various reasons: ska, reggae, the stripping, abrasive side of it. Riddim is for belonging to Jamaican music. By the time we wanted to change, the people who were starting to come and see us talked us out of it, because it's crazy and it sticks in the mind.
Thibault: It doesn't denote a colour or a style of music, it leaves people with a bit of a question mark. The "Riddim" appeared with the release of the 1st album "Carnet de Roots". We asked the multinational that makes the stain remover whether they minded, even though we were self-produced. They liked our project, but they were against it. We didn't make a fuss and added "riddim". We registered the name with the INPI and the Johnson company, not to name names, hadn't even registered the name!

Is the stage the most important thing for you?
Thibault: We're really a stage band. It's through that that we emancipated ourselves, grew up and trained ourselves musically. We've been on stage for over ten years, from youth centres and pubs to big festivals. But for the last album, we did a real studio job for the first time.

Do you spend a lot of time there?
Thibault: To record the last album, we took between three weeks and a month.
Loïc: Some tracks had been tested on stage, others not. On this album, we did a lot of work in the studio, notably with the producer, Tyrone Downie, a former Wailer. We've all been on stage for a long time. It gives us direct energy with the audience. It's really positive, you never relive the same thing at each concert. We really like seeing people jump in the air, let loose, leave having sweated properly. In the studio, you can record peacefully to send out a good groove, to relax.
Thibault: For the first time in our lives, we did a real pre-production. We ended up with 40 versions. Tyrone Downie helped us to choose, to decide, to define directions. Thanks to him, we understood a bit more what real studio work is. For example, I'm the only guitarist in the band, and I allowed myself to record as if there were three guitarists on the track. It's real work, but also a pleasure. People who listen to "Decaphonic" will find K2R in its diversity, we've kept our identity. But there's also a less live, more studio side, with a more laid-back sound. Just as a Marley live show is completely different from a studio album.

There are many collaborations: Tyrone Downie, Karl Zéro, Manu from Tryo...
Loïc: We worked with Tyrone Downie to get a professional's touch, and to try to bring together all the distortions within the band. On some tracks, we had several viewpoints, several hypotheses of possible directions. He made it possible to juggle all that and to offer us songs without diverting K2R's identity, which brought us an enormous amount. The idea was to have not only the stamp of a very good musician, but above all someone with a great reggae culture, able to put us back on track.
Thibault: For the track Clash Infos, which is ironic, we wanted to make the tongue-in-cheek tone clear. We thought of a hypothetical TV presenter and journalist, who introduces the track, to turn it into a kind of interview. Tyrone Downie offered to put us in touch with Karl Zéro, who was preparing an album with the Wailers. We took him at his word and two days later, Karl Zéro came to the studio free of charge. It was wrapped up in two hours. It was a big helping hand from them. Besides that, Manu from Tryo came to play guitar on a track. He's a very great guitarist, and we were happy to invite him. We also had a string section, a clarinettist and an oboist on the dub track. Phil, the saxophonist from Mister Gang, came in on some tracks.
Loïc: We had plenty of other ideas for connections, but between the number of singers already in the band, and all the ideas we had, we couldn't bring all the projects together. That will be for another album.

On the album, the lyrics are very committed, perhaps more than on the previous ones...
Loïc: K2R has always had a protest message, a message that takes people travelling, and instrumental tracks that are there for the pleasure of the ear and for escape. The protest side was carried more by the singing of Ange and Justin. On this album, we wanted to reach people with lyrics and get messages across in a different way from what we had done before. There are ways of getting messages across with a committed or spiritual connotation, which Justin and Ange do very well. We wanted to get messages across differently with some wordplay, with the writing. That's what tracks like Clash Infos give. Being committed matters to us. If we have the chance to address an audience, we mustn't forget that there are things in the world to be shifted. We don't claim to succeed, but we get our messages across.
Thibault: On the other hand, I don't feel there are more of them than on the previous albums. It's a logical continuation. On "Carnet de Roots", we have lyrics like La discrimination, or La Gangrène on "Appel d'R".
Loïc: The messages have always been there, but on "Decaphonic" they're carried in a different way. We have an identity, but we also have to renew the way we say things.
Thibault: And besides, reggae is rebel music! (laughs).

Is the current government a source of inspiration? For example the movement of the intermittents du spectacle (the entertainment industry's freelance workers)?
Loïc: We're completely involved, so of course we support the intermittents' movement. Without going into detail, they are trying to attack a status that has given the country a range, a cultural richness. It's not killing it yet, but many people, ourselves included, are now struggling. They are starting to deprive people of opportunities that, in France, make things evolve...
Thibault: ... and that allow us to develop independently of the majors, of all the already-mapped circuits.
Loïc: What's scary is that you tell yourself that by starting like this, they risk carrying on even harder.
Thibault: We're heading towards a completely formatted culture. We will no longer have the right, because no longer the possibility, to develop artistic careers independently of the big majors or the Star Ac and the like. It's not only music that is at stake, there's theatre, the technicians... Lots of things are going to disappear. We can write off all the fringe festivals: whether it's Avignon for theatre or any music festival, there are intermittents or people trying to become one. And those people make culture in France evolve and move forward. They want to format all that, make us into good little sheep.

What is your opinion of the French scene? You get the impression that few French bands knew how to take advantage of the craze around reggae 4-5 years ago to establish themselves for the long term...
Loïc: I hear people saying that we've moved on to heavy rock programming, things like that. It depends on the whim of the message being conveyed. I don't think that's the public's view. Even when there was a craze, it wasn't easy to make your place, and it still isn't. I think the majors were interested in having their reggae band. Things go in cycles. Reggae has always existed, it still exists, it gets people moving enormously live. The record industry has taken a huge blow too. There is a gap between the public's choice and the personal choice of certain programmers or record shop owners, which makes things tend that way. Lots of bands managed to break through and stay on the circuit because they do things from the heart, because it's sincere. For me, there are still enormous numbers of talents on the circuit who are not yet well enough known, for lack of support from record companies.
Thibault: In the underground, reggae hasn't moved since the early 80s. In Paris alone, the African and West Indian communities have done a lot for reggae. Alongside that, there are certain guys who show that reggae can stand up to pop in terms of sales figures. Tryo, for example, are considered a reggae band or not depending on the purists, but they are part of the big reggae family: they are at 270,000 albums sold. Reggae is quickly taken as the cliché with the sun, the beach, the palm trees. Seen from that angle, it works for one summer and that's it. Reggae is not dead, there are lots of bands you don't necessarily see on the national channels or on the radio. Lokos have been around for years, our mates Orange Street are still there too...
Reggae didn't get to the top to stay there for good, but these "peaks" have established it a little more in the French musical landscape. It's still a victory for reggae. When you switch on the TV, what do you hear? Most adverts have reggae riddims to sell soap or whatever. It's really a music that has taken root. And the underground is still there.

After 4 albums and more than 10 years of existence, have you arrived at the reggae you like, or can the formula still evolve?
Thibault: We have nothing predefined. Everything is evolving.
Loïc: After that, it's personal. Me, there are lots of things I haven't made concrete on these albums, and that gives me plenty of inspiration for the next ones. People who wrote to us or saw us after concerts told us we'd given them a boost, that it was a moment in their lives when they were down, but that they left the concert with a smile. If we managed to share that, I'm happy. On a more personal level, I've met people I wanted to meet, artists and others. Musically, the aim would be to make lots of connections. We had an idea for the album, to make a track and share the verses between a German singer, Dr Ring Ding, a Japanese singer, and a Malagasy singer, Abdou Day. It didn't happen for lack of time, but we hope these projects will come to fruition. We also have a maxi project, where K2R would do the musical versions, and singers, rappers, or storytellers would come and express their view on the problem of AIDS in Africa. The aim would be to raise funds, and to make people aware that an economic logic creates an embargo on generic medicines over there. There are lots of things we'd like to shift.
Thibault: We have so many projects that we can't have a sense of completion. It's like sportsmen, they're never satisfied! We're satisfied in the sense that we feel we're progressing musically. We realise it and it's a pleasure. We also have a DVD coming out soon. For 2 years, people followed us at concerts, in the album's pre-production, the recording sessions in the studio...

Are you thinking about individual projects?
Thibault: We all think about it...
Loïc: The priority is the band and the people I play with. For me it's inseparable...
Thibault: We still have a way to go together…
Loïc: We're all asked for recording sessions or to share stages…
Thibault: Loïc has already been to sing with Lokos, he recorded horns for Mister Gang or Orange Street. For concrete personal projects, I know Dorothée would like to, me too, and I imagine all the others too, of course... Right now we have a project all together, we've invited Lord Bitume from Lokos and Timike from Mister Gang on stage. We can allow ourselves that because two of our singers, Ange and Justin, have left us, they'd had enough of life on the road. We wish them good luck in their personal projects. As for us, we're carrying on along our path, as we've always done, with the vibe.