mum was there to Khaled, the King of Raï, since "Ya Rayi" 2004. Since then, he is touring through the world, but a new album was postponed. "Liberty" has been produced by Martin Meissonier, like all Khaled's first album, "Kutch" 1988th At that time, Martina Zimmermann met the singer in Paris, was the first German journalist who interviewed Khaled and Germany reported the Raï. It was followed by other interviews and meetings with Khaled in Paris, Montreal (Canada), Amman (Jordan) and Oran in Algeria. On the occasion of the new album was held the following interview in Paris.
Martina Zimmermann: your album "Liberté" it will melt my heart like 20 years ago, discovered when I saw the RAI in a Paris bar, and you still Cheb call'dst [cheb = young: The Raisänger called themselves Cheb, in contrast to the previously singing Cheikh]
Khaled (laughs): Cheb, that's over, I'm almost fifty and had gray hair (laughs). For this album I wanted Martin Meissonier, who produced my first album Kutch. I had demo tapes and did not know which way to go. I was wondering about whether I Don Was, Philippe Eidel or who should take. I almost wanted to do it alone. Then I met Martin in the studio of a friend. I said like, you make a new album with me? He hesitated, as is his way ... He finally said okay. I was glad. He then said, throw away your demo tape! I had almost 30 titles, and he did not want to! I said, you want to throw away my work? He said, pick them up for another album. He said I have an idea, we will record live. I said, you're crazy. He said you have not found the way alone.
He said you are a man of the stage, so I have to know you, do it live, I heard you sing at weddings! I said that Kutch was a good experience, I will follow you.
MZ: Kutcher is now a cult - among connoisseurs.
Khaled: 's true. But even Kutch we had not done live.
MZ: But the repertoire and the manner similar to sing ...
Khaled: Martin only knew how to bring my voice to advantage. He wanted the voice in the foreground. All my other albums were music and voice in the ratio 50:50. My voice is only really discovered the people at concerts. But what was bad: We did it without the metronome! He [Martin] said, sing as you sang in your home. Jazz! To not get confused, I sing always in normal mode. You to count and know when you start and when you stop sing. But he said: No, you get no metronome, you make it simple, the band is prepared in the large studio Davout, sing! I said, but I'll do it on TV when I was there to present a title? I do not want to sing next. Should I sing by ear or by the clock, help, I will make mistakes (laughs). He said, do as you want to do, but it! And then he also wanted the intros!
MZ (laughing): You can use the yet! Do not be so, as if you could not improvise, Khaled! At concerts you do it always ...
Khaled: I side in France have a record deal, I make it like all Artists here: Nothing more than four minutes!
MZ: And on the new album there are songs that are eight minutes.
Khaled: You did get it. I had always done like discharges, but I did prefer to concerts, because there was time for it. Not on an album. I said: Martin, which takes too much time.
MZ: But now do you like the album yet?
Khaled: clear. But you always fear that tomorrow my album sounds like a guy and says what makes Khaled there anyway? I was also afraid that the Europeans will not conform. In my homeland is not a problem there may be a song for an hour, that does not bother anyone. I was terrified, I was afraid that they do not like the intro that this is too much perhaps.
MZ: I thought rather that more than 20 years after "Kutch" the ear of the European, has to be developed and that today feels like to hear less formatted music.
Khaled: My experience of concerts is because the Europeans sometimes come and say that the beginnings of your songs are beautiful! Europeans want that, but I did not know that they love it and also on an album.
MZ: That's wonderful. You sing from your heart how you feel.
Khaled: [Martin] knows that the Jazz, Blues as Raï. He knows that you feel and what is sung. But when it comes to business, then you have to play the blues in a bar.
Martina Zimmermann: The album is called "freedom", and exactly what it was back then in the 70s, the RAI was a scream, the thirst for freedom, you have sung in your young age! "Zabana" was the first song that was played in the Algerian radio, in the version of Raina Rai. That gave me the [most Algerian radio and TV] journalist Aziz Smati tells me, who had placed the song. You put on your new album, the original version.
Khaled: You know Blaoui Houari, who has given me the title. He was a buddy of Zabana.
MZ The independence fighters.
Khaled: They were together in prison, Zabana was sentenced to death. The other was charged as an artist, to support the independence movement, but that was his buddy, his friend. Therefore, it has brought him the song. A Kabyle had written the text! From East to West [in Algeria]! A Kabyle had written the text and Houari made the music. Houari said Raina Rai did not sing the song with the full text. We sang the song together with Blaoui at weddings when we were young, it was very popular. On the album the sound is better, but I took the melody and the exact text of that time.
MZ: I'm talking about the song to ask for the time when the Raïmusik was censored because of the lyrics. Zabana is a "martyr" and therefore could Aziz Smati play his boss and say: There is finally a martyr!
Khaled: If you sing a martyr, they say. That's smart. He's really right, Aziz. You know the History of Raï that did not come on the radio. We were hypocritical and singing beautiful lyrics to come on TV and radio (laughs).
Martina Zimmermann: Rai was forbidden. How do you see today? You come across all channels, you sometimes think of the days when you had to defend your music?
Khaled: I still laugh about the fact that I'm number one today. People are arguing about making a show with me may not (laughs), that makes me really laugh. I say: Look at that, yesterday I was at the door of the Algerian television like a dog, a nothing. And now said the great manager: Please, could you do something for us, feel like home. I have to laugh about it, but I do not see. In my heart I say to myself, I have figured a way out! I told you got it. (Ouel dik on Algerian he uses a harder expression).
MZ: Martin (Meissonnier) has helped you to come out of Algeria, have you suffered for your music! At that time we all dreamed of it that Rai is a genre like reggae. Of those tasks for you?
Khaled: I avoid the term "back to basics". The roots of people know now, thanks to the Journalists, if you say Rai, the people of Oran and Rai and Khaled have heard. You know the story, Rai is even in the dictionary. The people already know the roots. What I wanted to prove with this album? His identity! I wanted to give Rai a pass. So you know: How is Rai, not what Rachid sings, not what sings an Egyptian ... people confuse everything, Tunisians, Moroccans.
... Rai comes from North Africa, but he is Andalusian, and the place is Oran, Algiers, not, not the Kabylia. Rai comes from the triangle Oran and Oujda [in Morocco at the border] and Sidi Bel Abbes. Oran Why? Because Oran is a modern city. Rai comes from the province to Sidi Bel Abbes and Oujda. All of these Bedouins found themselves in Oran, to have fun. They have brought this music to Oran, because there was something going on there. Since there were Jews, as there were French, as it were life!
MZ: And today?
Khaled: The young people can ... a bit to do business. People can live like this and especially not that feeds terrorism. The hard life feeds the fascists. We have seen in France when the people voted Le Pen. That was scary. Not all French are racists, but they wanted a change. Like the people with me in Algeria. You were in Oran and have seen everyone can enjoy themselves and get drunk. Do you think Ben Laden and others can make us into a fundamentalist country? Never in my life they will never succeed! The French have not done, the Turks, and a little asshole to make our Bled [town, country, home] fundamentalist! Even the Islamic terrorists have not touched Oran, they can not do that, we drank whiskey with the milk, and Ricard Anisette (laughs broke it). You can not change such a world. Yet 99 percent of the FIS [the fundamentalists] voted!
MZ: It's been a while (1991). Algeria today is no longer the case.
Khaled: Because a small Kluger come is three inches greater than Napoleon, his name is Mr. Bouteflika, and I show him the honor. He understood the suffering of the youth. He understood the suffering of this country. He understood that he had to privatize the economy. Previously, there was not even brake discs in this damn country, although it was rich! There was no pineapple, although Africa is next door. Bananas did not exist, although they are growing next door cheap. Nothing. In a country that has billions [of oil]!
MZ: Today there is everything, but not for everyone, not everyone can afford the goods.
Khaled: What is better now, if you have money, you can live. If you have no ... We have become like Brazil, there are favelas. Fortunately, there are no kidnapping us. ... We used to have only two or three hotels. Today, there are plenty of hotels, and super good. And they ask you not to the marriage certificate if you arrive with a girl! Previously there were too many restrictions. When a young man wanted to go hand in hand with his girlfriend, he was beaten or imprisoned. Why? What he has done bad? For this reason, the fascists took us a favorable terrain.
MZ: Rai is in thy it comes to that freedom. We hope so. One last question: No more scandals, no excesses, no rock 'n' Roll?
Khaled: Ooohh yet! (Laughs) But in secret (laughs broke it).
Martina Zimmermann: I'm glad.
Khaled: You know, I came out not long ago, and then only discreetly, not like before. You know why? There are no more parties in the 80s and early 90s. In France, many things have changed. Paris was better than Las Vegas! Sorry, today was it like Eckmühl in the 80's! Today Eckmühl better than Paris, I tell you (laughs). You were in Algeria, Morocco, have the people interviewed, you know what the young people want there. They want to live free, they want to do what they want. This is the message I wanted to bring that message I bring and I will get it there on my deathbed.
The producer, journalist and musician Martin Meissonier: Khaled was in the years 1983 to 1985, a legend in the Algerian milieu in Paris. There were tapes that were sold in Barbès [in the African quarter], which was a hit. I had heard it at a buddy and told me there are not 50 such votes. I boarded a plane to Algeria to see him. For no one could give me information, so I tried to take him directly to see if we could do something together. I was in love with that voice.
I have met him then to Oran, then he sang at weddings and made tapes that were recorded very quickly in one afternoon and immediately sold. He was very sympathetic, and he had a problem with the papers because he had not done his military service and could not come to France. The regime was still very hard, the RAI was banned on radio and television. This was a phenomenon of the underground. I then a festival in Bobigny [in the Paris suburb, 1986] organized, and we have asked Culture Minister Jack Lang for help, Khaled from Algeria to get out. We have organized the festival, Khaled was in the process but also all other Raisänger, Mom, Sahraoui, Fadela, Hamid, Raina Rai and all.
Martina Zimmermann: The intro, the accordion and vocals of Khaled and the selection of some popular songs to give the impression that Rai is as before, "à l'ancienne".
Martin Meissonier: We have taken a repertoire with the whole range of what he can, Moroccan, Berber, and pure Rai, to make a versatile album. I think this is a success. I also wanted to show how this music can sound. Khaled is the best band he's really the essence, he is in the center of this music, he is the best, I wanted to use his talent. He is an incredible orchestra. Musically, he is extremely strong. That I wanted to use, so that can feel like that voice, the band goes along and not vice versa.
