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Album review
Magic System
The ascent continues
Paris
21/09/2001 -
Their favourite title Premier Gaou served as the locomotive to relaunch zouglou on the international scale. A success story in less than two years. 1,500,000 sold in Africa, so they say. Tours of more than twenty countries. There's talk today of an electro remix to come by the Frenchman Bob Sinclair. Until the appearance of this group in the limelight we only knew very little about this street music which appeared on the university campuses in the Ivory Coast at the beginning of the Nineties. On tour in the French West Indies, "A" Salfo the group's mentor granted us this interview.
Is there a secret to your success?
No. There is no specific recipe. We are four young people who believed in what they were doing. You must say that before the success of Premier Gaou, there was an album that flopped. We didn't get discouraged. We were perserverant because there was no other way out. We had abandoned everything including our studies to devote ourselves to this music. We had to fight to prove to our parents that our future was there. We had to get our own back.
From the street to the bigtime a path that's not always easy to forge?
There is nothing to explain. We just live it. But when I go back a bit, I see that we nevertheless suffered. You know the musical jungle of the Ivory Coast, in Abidjan especially, is difficult to break into. When you make a first album that fails no producer wants to work with you afterwards. And when you say "the street", I personally find that this word itself is weak, because we live in the poor neighbourhoods, the poorest of Abidjan. We were four young people who even had problems to feed ourselves. At one time, we could no longer go to our parents to say "help us financially to do this or that". We were left to our own means. We played at funerals and baptisms for about 150FF per night. There we had to sing from midnight to seven in the morning to make this kind of money. And when you had it, you had to split it between eight or nine people. These were hard times. It's hard to talk about that life. We often walked for miles, 30 or 40 to go see a producer or someone likely to help us financially even if it was only to succeed in making a demo. Premier Gaou was even recorded in an office. We recorded this album on credit. We lived through terrible times. And maybe the good Lord heard our cries and he tried to help us in his own way. You must also say that this allowed us to prepare ourselves psychologically with relation to what we're living now. I think for example that beyond money there is a fraternity today which links us because we lived through these hard times together. So, money doesn't mean anything compared to this solidarity that we want to preserve in this group.
In other words, this experience allowed you to keep your feet on the ground. Which is what a lot of artists don't know how to do, as soon as success knocks on their door?
In life, to fall isn't serious. But you have to know how to get up when you're down. That's the problem. We haven't forgotten that we suffered in the past. We will always take a step back to help those who need our support, especially the family. You'll notice that today in Magic System, everyone lives in the same area, in the same poor neighbourhood where we were before. It's because we don't want to get cut off from reality. It's also there that the problems exist that we talk about in our songs. We always need to be there. But we mustn't take a step back in the work of the group. At the level we have reached today, if we regressed, it wouldn't be a pretty sight. That's why we need the support of everyone to always be at this level to legitimately represent African culture in general and the Ivory Coast culture in particular.
Zougloutily speaking, it's true that the others used us as a reference. When you talk about zouglou, you immediately think of Magic System. And us, our objective is to encourage those who defend this music and who are behind it, so that they preserve and keep the faith. But for that, we must stay on top. If they see us regress, that will discourage them. No zouglou group has had ten years of reign. Not one. Even five years on top seems impossible. The groups do one or two albums, maybe a third, Neither good or bad and then drown. They disappear. As for us, we want to show the whole world that zouglou can survive for a long time on the charts. We tried an experience. We're going to do everything so that this music becomes international. Today, we are in Guadeloupe, a place where zouglou couldn't penetrate before. Now, you can hear that music here. That's already a big step.
There was a time when one wanted to compare zouglou to rap. But beyond that, how do you see this music?
Rap in the United States, is music of the ghettos that describes the ills of society. And zouglou in the Ivory Coast, is a bit the same. But, zouglou isn't rap. In the Ivory Coast, the rappers dress expensively. They live in luxury. And the zouglouphile, when he has a beer, the rapper is perhaps in the middle of opening champagne or driving big cars. It's not the same thing. We cannot live in an air-conditioned house and live the reality of the people. It's sort of our view of the situation. Zouglou is a philosophy. A zouglouman is one who, beyond all his musical aspirations, watches firstly for the evolution of his movement. The real zouglouphile is one who is inspired by the problems of the people and who says out loud what others think to themselves. Unfortunately, we aren't on television, we cannot show it. But zouglou is gestures, arms extended towards heaven to ask the Lord to help us. Often, the arm is on the stomach to say that we're hungry, that the government has to think of us. The zouglouphile is also one who contributes to the blossoming of the youth of his country. He's the one, as they say, who can wear jeans for a week without being ashamed, who lives modestly and humbly. He knows how to keep his feet on the ground and adapts to every milieu that he goes into.
This second album is presented under which trend ?
We wanted to make zouglou evolve, without altering it. We must keep the basics which make it authentic. When you listen to the album, you still hear the percussion. If there isn't the sound of percussion and a bell in the song, it's the base which is a failure. With us, that's how it is. We have therefore kept this base, trying to improve it by adding violins, harmonica, accordion, guitar and keyboards. It's no longer the programmed zouglou like before. We wanted to make a zouglou which is "alive". Thank God, people started calling us to congratulate us. That's why we created the Super Gaou Orchestra, who we tour with. It's to set the example. You have to think more and more about "live", leaving the programming side. We called upon good professionals for that. We wanted to show that if we make the effort, we can, beyond the lyrics, make the sound advance. Poisson d'avril represents a turning point in the career of the group. After a success like for Premier Gaou, we had to come back with a solid album. It took one year.
Globally what does this album talk about?
We kept the same themes as the first album. These are the problems of society. We talk about a widow who has to prostitute herself to feed her children. In Poisson d'Avril, a man plays a joke on his wife, who is looking for a reason to leave him. It also talks about malicious gossip. There are a long of things said about Magic System and Brenda Fassie in Abidjan. That's why we did a duo against the gossip in Popos dipo. We did Gagnoa chez Houphouet to show the dishonesty of some people during the election campaigns. We talk about love, perseverance, solidarity and unity. We also sing against record pirating.
You also talk about the complicated life of a Gaou in Paris?
Yes. It's a way of urging our brothers to stay in Africa and to stop dreaming about France. We tell them that the best way to feel comfortable is to stay at home. When we were little our dream was to come to Paris. We came and we saw the reality. But at no time, did this town give us the desire to stay. In Paris you can go three or four weeks without anyone saying hello. Everyone is stressed. It's true that materially, the people are "ahead of us". But I think that we are more at ease when we are in our own country than in Paris. When I see our brothers killing themselves to get into the shit in Paris, I tell them in the song that my dream was to go to Paris. But I didn't know what was waiting for me. I left Abidjan in 34 degree weather and I arrived in Paris and someone told me it was two degrees. Already a change in climate. I tell them that when "you leave home with a lot of money when you get to Paris it becomes a little money. To get their papers, they suffer and arriving there suffer again. And that makes suffering in suffering. So it's better to stay at home. That's the message that I put forth. And I sang this in all sincerity, because that's what I feel. Everyone wanted Poisson d'Avril as a promotional piece of the album, I myself chose Gaou in Paris. And I think that it's overwhelming everyone. In less than two weeks here in the Antilles, it has stolen the show from Premier Gaou.
Interview by Soeuf Elbadawi
Poisson d'Avril by Magic System (JPS Productions).
Homepage's photo: Gérard Nicolaï/JPS
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