When we asked him about their involvement with video clips. Steve was joined by Aktar Ahmed (a.k.a. Aktarv8r), so we seized the chance to let them describe their latest release, which was filmed in Brixton with many references to La Haine.
The ‘Stand Up’ video turned out really well. That’s right, we tried to capture the vibe of ‘La Haine’ because we’re not happy at all with the situation. So I tried to get that across in the video. Global Faction’s Abdul [Abdul Raham from the digital media production/broadcasting house Global Faction] did a great job in locations within Brixton and around Brick Lane. He really sent us good vibes and we enjoyed doing it.
Aktarv8r totally agreed and added that they were looking forward for a concept like the one proposed by Abdul Raham.
That was the more street level thing we have done for a long time. It’s a hood video! And we haven’t done one like that since… actually never! We’ve never done a video that hood! We gotta get the hood behind us as well, because we want and fight for the same things.
Sci-fi, ‘hood’, urban, electro but also popular and traditional: Asian Dub Foundation artistry is a reflection of the many souls forming the band. What is more, the musicians look natural and at ease in every musical environment, which is not always easy for a band. Steve responded to this compliment with nonchalance.
Why not? You just have to do it. I don’t see anything difficult in this. It’s natural. I remember when in the Italian X-Factor that guy called Madh performed ‘Flyover’ the entire panel went: “You just did ‘Flyover’ by Asian Dub Foundation! It was really difficult! What you’ve just done was really difficult. To mix all those styles together it must be really difficult.” You know what, I don’t see what’s difficult. In my opinion it’s pretty instinctive – as it should be.
And More Signal, More Noise, Asian Dub Foundation’s latest work, does indeed sound quite instinctive and straightforward.
While we were touring with ‘The Signal and the Noise’, the songs started to change. The more we were touring, the more they were changing. They changed on the road, and that’s where we are best. So we just had to go to the studio and record the album. It was very simple, and I think that it has come out the best since a long time! It might even be ‘the’ best because it’s an honest portrayal of the band.
More Signal, More Noise, like Asian Dub Foundation’s previous album, works on different levels. On first listening, it sounds rhythmically attractive and musically enticing, but when it comes to its lyrics and the messages hidden behind the curtain of beats, the picture becomes more self-conscious and sensitive. The musicians never kept secret their social involvement and never shut their mouths when describing the present. So we asked Steve Savale if it is still possible to consider music as a message medium.
Actually we never tried to think about messages behind our music. It’s not really what our songs are about, because, in the end, you write what you feel. We’re from an educational background, youth work and things like that, so we write about things we came across and saw. But of course music still has an impact on people, and there’s a multitude of ways to have it. You can have different amounts of impact. I can give you two examples. The first one is from a different culture like the Malian one with Tinariwen. They were guerrilla leaders and they were gathering troops by sending cassette tapes with their songs. And they did change Mali! They helped to turn Mali from a unitary to a federal state. That’s fucking mad! The fact that it was a band to do that it’s absolutely mad!
The second example is essentially British. In fact I think this country is less slavish to the Royal Family because of Sex Pistols. I remember in the mid-70s, if you said anything against the Royal Family they chopped your head off [figuratively speaking]. I remember my grandmother saying to me ‘don’t be disrespectful to your Queen!’. Then the Sex Pistols released ‘God Save the Queen’, which went to number one selling millions of copies. Everybody who bought that album was less respectful and frightened of the monarchy as an institution. It changed things to the point that in the ‘90s people were really critical of the monarchy.
So we tried to understand if it would be possible to do something similar, to move the listeners’ conscience to their feet today too.
I don’t think musicians are cultural leaders anymore, at least not in Britain. While if you go to America or Africa musicians and artists can still be cultural leaders, whether that’s right or wrong. If you look back at the 1960s, musicians were considered as cultural leaders. People like Bob Dylan even if that was the last thing he wanted. John Lennon was another cultural leader, but actually he acted like a brat all the time. Mick Jagger was a cultural leader too even if he was actually closely conservative. He doesn’t have a great record. Then, there were people like James Brown or Chuck D who are more successful examples of musicians as cultural leaders with ideas reflected in their music.
In Steve’s words, music’s momentum has been watered down and its drive softened.
Music doesn’t have the automatic right to be the most important medium in a particular era and it hasn’t always been. For example, during the 19th century the main influential medium was the novel. While at the beginning of the 1900s, from the 1920s to the ‘30s it was cinema. We grew up in a period, from the 1950s until the ‘90s, when musicians and music were the number one form for younger people. Now it’s not. It’s all kind of a rival to music: the internet itself, videogames and the constantly evolving television genres. If you ask me what’s the best album of the first ten years of the 2000s, I’d say the Wired box set. I wouldn’t say anything related to music but a television drama. That was better than any music, it was more influential, got people more excited and was less predictable.
We wondered if this is a new cultural language that television series are introducing.
I fundamentally believe that any artistic expression is the same. It doesn’t matter what it is. Whether it’s art, TV, music or internet, it’s all the same. It’s just a way you express yourself. It’s just like the difference between using a pen or a pencil. To me there’s no real difference. There’s a phenomenon called synaesthesia [hearing sounds as colours]- well, I’m like that about creative things. I don’t see any difference between a film, a piece of music, a comic or a book. Even the design of the stairs can be related to anything!
We found a natural end to our interview by asking Steve what Asian Dub Foundation are planning to ‘design’ next.
I don’t know, I must admit that this year has been really intense. I really have to take a holiday from this. It was madness! The new album, ‘La Haine’ which is still going, then ‘THX’ is just out – I can’t think beyond that. I have a couple of ideas, but it won’t be another movie.