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The Nubians’ global village
Nü Revolution, constructive energy
Paris
17/05/2011 -
Hélène: Our albums have always been partially recorded in France and abroad. The first two were done in Paris, London, Jamaica and Marseille. But it’s the first time that we’ve also worked in the US.
What are the benefits of working in all these different places?
Hélène: A particular sound. The idea that you can find a bit of yourself just about everywhere. In Paris, there’s the bond with musicians we’ve been working with for a while and know really well. This line-up is our dream team, like Guy Nwogang, an expert in traditional percussion from the forest who I went to record in Vesoul.
Did you spend long researching?
Hélène: That’s why we took two years to do the album. It’s finely crafted. The tracks even took shape as we slept! Music is something you live with all the time. The inspiration comes every day and the work does too. The studio is only when the ideas have taken shape and it’s time to get them down on tape.
How does your duo work when you’re creating an album?
Hélène: There isn’t a particular procedure but we put our four hands into the songs. We form a multi-talented partnership and we’re mega-complementary. Sometimes one of us writes a song on her own and then presents it to the other one. We also do a lot of a capella creation. We’ll sing the bass line, the percussion and guitars, put a track in place and then sit down to write the text together. On Fraîcheur souhaitée, Jean-Michel Rotin gave us a magnificent song with a tune that we kept just as it was. We simply asked Tété to write the lyrics.
With hindsight, has the album come out as you thought it would?
Célia: I think it’s like we’d imagined it in our heads and our hearts.
Hélène: We try to make albums that have something to say. To talk about the changing world, or the fact that today more than ever we all feel dependent on one another and linked to one another, from a global point of view. The title Nü Revolution didn’t come about after the songs were written. In “Revolution” there’s the word “dream” (Ed’s note: rêve in French). When Obama was elected I felt like I could do anything. Music doesn’t change the world, but it can give it that same kind of constructive energy.
The song Nü Soul Makossa was inspired by the Manu Dibango hit. Has he influenced you as an artist?
Hélène: Uncle Manu, who’s a friend of the family and very close to us, is one of our inspirations. As a kid, I used to get really excited when he came along with his voice and laughter and his talent. I was lucky enough to see a show at the Olympia when I was four years old and I’ll always remember it.
What initially brought you to sing together?
Célia: It was a natural progression. We were sisters living in the same house. One of us would start singing, the other would do the music with her mouth. And vice versa. We grew up in Chad, where there isn’t much organised for kids. No TV, so you have to find your own amusement. We used to invent our own shows. We found the words of the song Arsène Lupin in a book and even though we’d never heard Jacques Dutronc’s version, we made up a song from the lyrics.
And how did you end up on stage playing to an audience for the first time?Hélène: Youssou, from the reggae group Rockers Melody, came along one day with a poster for an event, and it had “Hélène and Célia” written on it. The idea was to raise money to repatriate the body of an African teacher who had died in Bordeaux. We had to go and sing. The next day, the Sud Ouest newspaper reported the event and mentioned us. After that, we decided to do our concerts a cappella. We started to put together a repertoire and play in cafés and small venues. Our references were jazz singers, we told ourselves that we’d do an album when we were thirty or forty. The album came about a bit like an accident.
How did you react to the project at the time?
Hélène: We took our time to decide.
Célia: I was under-age at the time, and my mother would never have agreed to sign for me! I had six months to go until I came of age, so we asked the record label to wait.
Hélène: I was studying law at university and things were going well. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to give everything up to go chasing rainbows. In the end, something unexpected happened: at the time we were doing professional vocals, like for the TV show Taratata. I had asked to adjust my tutorials at the university, which is possible when you have a paid job. I presented my backing singer salary slips but the application was refused. Being a backing singer isn’t considered to be a career. That was a real slap in the face, I discovered what a “glass ceiling” was. So I said to myself: the die has been cast, let’s take that contract the record label offered us.
Liberté
Bertrand Lavaine
11/01/2006 -
18/04/2003 -
02/12/1999 -
