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Album review
Lokua Kanza
Party Time in the Virtual Village
Paris
01/02/2002 -
Listening to the rich mix of Lingala, Wolof, Swahili, French and English on Lokua Kanza's new album, you can't help noticing that Lokua's approach to songwriting is as multi-lingual as an international summit! But if there's one thing that fascinates this talented singer-songwriter more than language, it's vocal harmonies. The sixteen intricately-crafted songs on his new album - which draws on two decades of musical experience - are a veritable lesson in polyphonic style. RFI/Musique met up with the Congolese star a few days before the first leg of his Canadian tour and, as fans await his arrival in France (some time in March) we asked him a few questions about the making of Toyebi Té .
RFI Musique: Lokua, we'd like to kick off by asking you what the title of your new album - Toyebi Té means?
Lokua Kanza: Toyebi Té is like saying no-one knows where they're going. Everyone's trying to be someone, everyone's trying to get somewhere, but no-one's really sure where we're going at all! And to be honest that's pretty much the state of mind I was in when I sat down to work on this album.
And where did you work on the album?
I worked in my little home studio in Buc, a village just up the road from Versailles. I was feeling a bit Toyebi Té one night and ended up shutting myself away in the studio and playing around with my sampler. I was messing about, mixing a lot of different voices and when I finished I realised I'd created this very evocative background ambience. It was like listening to a crowd of people all shouting and talking at once in some vast modern metropolis – and basically that's what inspired me to write a melody over the top and then lay the synthesisers underneath. Afterwards I ended up replacing the synths with a real string section recorded in the Bulgaria, in Sofia.
All four of your children get to sing on Toyebi Té . Had you always planned to make this a 'family' album?
No, it was all down to a simple administrative problem, in fact. I had the idea of recording Le bonheur - the song my kids sing on – with a whole bunch of kids from all over the place. But it turned out to be really difficult to put the idea into practice because we had to get written permission from each of the children's parents. To cut a long story short, I ended up using my own kids – my eldest daughter who's 22, my little one who's 10 and the two others in between. I think it worked really well with them. In fact, I must admit I find the song really moving listening to it now.
It's really catchy too. Le bonheur would make a good first single, don't you think?
Yes, it's already been chosen as the first single, in fact.
Is the song in Lingala?
Yes, that's right, we recorded it in Lingala - the language of the Congo!
You seem to enjoy working lots of different languages into your musical mix. There always seem to be at least two different languages going on in most of your songs...
Yes, I've got a real thing about language. I love using as many different languages as possible and on the new album besides French, English and Lingala, I've introduced Wolof, Mambaras and Rwandan. But I have to admit I'm not fluent in anything apart from Swahili and Lingala. I have to get friends to help me rehearse the phrases I use in the other songs.
I like the idea of using lots of languages at once – it gives things a universal feel. For me, language is an essential means of communication. It's like a bridge between peoples. And I really noticed the reaction of my kids this time round. This was the first time I'd sung in French and it was like their ears suddenly pricked up. They suddenly felt involved.
Vocal harmonies are very developed on your new album, particularly on the track Tika Ngaï . It's the first time I've heard one of your songs sound like a real Double Six-style jazz number...
You're right, and that was something very deliberate on my part! I wanted the song to have a strong African input when it came to content, but to sound really jazzy as far as the harmonies were concerned.
Would you say this jazz element is something quite new in your music?
Well, I'd say I've definitely used jazz influences in my guitar chords before now, but I've never tried them out in vocals. Up until now I've always tried to keep the vocals as simple as possible – I didn't want to put people off. The way I see it, music that you make for other people is a bit like the early stages of a relationship. You have to go gently and try and open yourself up a little more each day. I guess you could see it as a move towards a certain kind of maturity on my part.
The other track on the new album which is absolutely outstanding in terms of vocal harmonies is Goodbye , a catchy little number which sounds a bit like the Bobby McFerrin classic Don’t Worry Be Happy . It's a perfect vocal cocktail that manages to have a certain carefree innocence to it...
Well, you've certainly managed to sum up everything I wanted to get across in a few words!… I was inspired to write the song when I was thinking of my kids one day. You know, my eldest daughter's reached the age where she'll be leaving home soon. I was thinking about how that made me feel and at the same time putting myself in her place and thinking of all the nonsense we put our own parents through.
I knew what I really wanted in the song was a voice that sounded fresh and innocent, someone who wasn't a real professional. So I got my daughter to come in and do the backing vocals on it. My daughter's a singer, but her voice has got that lovely young carefree edge you have at that age. When we'd finished recording I was like, "Well, I know I really like the song, but maybe it's a bit simplistic?"
Personally, I think it's an amazing song. You listen to Goodbye once – and you feel like you've been listening to it all your life!
I learnt a lot of in the making of this album, you know. And one of the things I discovered was that things I thought sounded really simple and naïve turned out to have the strongest emotional impact. I think people need things that are simple, sincere and true. That's why I decided to record the whole album the way I did – all the vocals were recorded in one single take like they did back in the '20s! That's why the whole thing sounds so natural and spontaneous.
I notice you invited hip hop star Passi – who you know from your recent work with the Bisso Na Bisso collective – to guest on your album. You put in a guest appearance on his album too, didn't you, on the song Liberté?
I think Passi's idea of getting all these different Congolese artists involved in his Bisso project is amazing – and very audacious too! As far as his appearance on Toyebi Té is concerned, the way it came about was one day he turned round and said, "Now listen, big brother, I'd really like us to do something together one day." So I took him at his word. I called him up and got him to record his vocals standing in the middle of all the percussion.
I wanted it to be like he was a griot or some village idiot standing there spouting out the truth about things without being afraid of anyone's reactions. And it was great! Passi took a really humble approach to the whole thing. He didn't act like a big rap star or anything. He turned up to work in my little home studio just like anyone else… And I really respect him for that.
There's a very personal, festive side to your new album. It's as if you're inviting listeners into your local village with all the background noise and laughter and the crickets chirping away in the bushes… It's like a celebration of life itself in a way.
I felt it was absolutely essential to have a "village" feel to my album this time round. On my third album I felt like I was really trying to show people that my aim wasn't to make American music – which, incidentally, I really like. What I wanted to do was make African music with a contemporary feel. But people didn't seem to get the message. So for me my new album is very much a case of me reclaiming my roots. It's like I'm saying, "Hey, guys, this is where I come from. I love it and I want to share it with you too!" Basically, I think that explains the "village" feel on all the songs.
Lokua Kanza Toyebi te (Emarcy/Universal) 2002
Gérard Bar-David
Translation : Julie Street
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