Talking To...Daby Toure
Daby Toure gew up in Mauritania, Africa, near the Senegal border; an area rich in musical heritage. He then found himself uprooted by conflict in Africa and following his father to live in Paris, France. I had the chance to speak to Daby in his dressing room at The Sage, about these two places he has come to call home and his love for his homeland, along with his musical influences and his recent EP; a collaboration with Ohio bluesman Skip MacDonald.
DT=Daby Toure HM=Helen Mitchell
HM: Can I start by asking how your name is pronounced?
DT: Daby - some people say 'Day' but it is 'Da'
HM: Toure - is that French or from the African background?
DT: It is from Africa - everything is from Africa - you know that? (laughs)
HM: Everything?
DT: We know that the first men - earliest signs of human being life come from Africa.
HM: Really?
DT: Lucy is an old, old, old human being found in the ground in Africa.
HM: Tell me, Daby, what was it like growing up in Africa? Was there a lot of music around?
DT: In Africa? Yeah, of course. Everything is about music and rhythm. Everything is about our harmony to nature. Problems when Europeans come to Africa and tried to stop that. They didn't. They make a big mistake because they just decide to change the life of these people and said to them "You have to be Christian, you have to follow Jesus Christ, you have to wear these clothes, you have to go to school; you have to, you have to......" So now we don't know what to do, so that's why it's really complicated now, because we are between our traditions, our lives between the nature and the modern things we took from the Europeans. It's kind of complicated for a time; but music is still in Africa and people still enjoy their lives and they're still smiling all the time.
Everywhere of course there are people who like power and they kill people for nothing. This is what we see about Africa but what I see in Africa when I go back is a vision I have of these women and children. The beautiful smiling of these children running everywhere in my village amid all these people. You can read on their face that they are peaceful, you know. Really that is magic because when you see how life is really hard for them but still they are smiling. This is Africa.
HM: It gives you hope?
DT: Oh every time, every time, it is giving you every time a hope and an energy when I go back to Africa. I don't know, I just take something from there that is helping me continue.
HM: That's lovely. Thankyou for sharing that. How often do you go back?
DT: I was there two weeks ago to see my mother.
HM: Your mum stayed and you moved to Paris with your Dad. Is that right?
DT: Exactly. You knew that? (laughs)
HM: So, Daby, how big a change was it; musically and generally, moving from Africa to Paris?
DT: Yes. Of course different. In Africa I was listening to cultural folklore and traditional music. When I was a teenager I began to hear about Bob Marley and the Police and reggae songs. So at that moment I heard about the band who most impressed me; The Police because there were 3 of them and they were British and they were doing this music with harmony and this is exactly what African music is like.
HM: Did you know that the lead singer from the Police, Sting, grew up not far from here?
DT: They what?
HM: Sting, the lead singer from the Police grew up just a couple of miles from here.
DT: Really? I didn't know. Now here I am. This is really amazing.
HM: There you go. It's a small world. Sorry, you were saying?
DT: No, no, that's fine. It's good to know. No really. I'm a fan (laughs)
HM: So the Police were one of your biggest influences?
DT: Yeah, The Police. They were three and they had rhythms and melodies and everything. It was magic and they were just three. I like that. When I came to Europe I discovered Jazz music and for the first time I played with professionals, with people who play music because they are professional musicians not because they are just playing music. That was really important for me because at that point everything has changed because I was doing that seriously.
HM: Did you suddenly realise that it could be done in that way?
DT: I always realised I could do music this way I just was waiting......waiting....
HM: To meet the right people?
DT: (laughs) to meet the right people. (laughs) Yeah and that happened there.
HM: Is there a big music scene in Paris? I love Paris as a city but I wasn't aware of a big music presence.
DT: Yeah. I think once there was a meeting of different cultures from everywhere, but now, French people are so closed. They closed the door with the European Union. I'll never understand something. I was talking about this with a friend of mine and we never understand - Africa - why English people and French people and other European people when they need African people to help them - against the Nazis - everything was open for us. These people came to fight for the liberty. So they fight and a lot of them died here. So.....but today you hear people refuse these people and that makes me really really sad and really angry because I just don't understand. So that's why today I think everything is (makes sound like closing door) closed and music is really...doesn't exist anymore in Paris to me. Everything is against multi-cultural things. I don't know if it's the same in England or USA....I just feel that as a musician I'm on my way. I don't think I'm African or European. I just try....
HM: You are what you are?
DT: Yeah. It's normal that I work everywhere and go everywhere. It's normal. That's the world. The world belongs to everybody. The ground belongs to everybody I think. Nobody can say that that ground is for me, because when you die you leave the ground here. They put you underground so you belong to the ground really. Now Paris has changed so I go where the music is. I think I can find it here in England and in Africa of course. I think it's really important to move sometimes. My father was a singer in a band. At that moment I can say that Paris was really the centre of that music but today it is different. Most of the music in Paris is French now. It's not really easy to explain.
HM: I certainly think the French are possessive of their language.
DT: Oh yes. Of course.
HM: They like us to have a go at speaking their language.
DT: Yeah and when they speak English they speak they speak it without making any energy to to do it. (laughs) I think they are really proud to speak French - that's really nice but I think we can be proud of our culture and still be open.
HM: Can I ask; how did the collaboration with Skip MacDonald come about? He is a blues singer, yes?
DT: Ah, Skip. Yes he sings blues. He lives in Ohio. We met at a Real World (record label) show, we shared a stage. We talked. We went home and met again in Calgary. We talked. We met at Real World when I was recording and he was recording and then he asked me to come to the studio so I went to listen to what they were doing and it was really nice. So I sang on one of the songs. I called him to come to Paris one day - he came to Paris and he played one show with me playing guitars.
HM: So it started out as you contributing to each other's music, then developed?
DT: Yeah, we didn't think about it. Then when the record company said 'That's a good idea, maybe we can...' we said 'Why not.'
HM: Why not indeed.
DT: (laughs) yeah, really, why not? Making an album.
HM: I've got my copy here; what made you pick these six tracks? Is there a particular reason why you chose these six?
DT: Yeah, because it's just a meeting. That meeting doesn't need a complete album. What I didn't want is more of the same; an album, promo, tour, etc, etc. I didn't want that because for me that was a meeting - a good meeting. I chose these six songs because it was how it was. For me , it was so fast, so it should be the same when you listen. We've done a lot of songs but we chose these six.
HM: Which is your personal favourite on here, if you had to pick one?
DT: Pick one? That is really difficult. You are asking me to choose between my babies. (laughs) That's really hard. (laughs). I will go for Past Time at first but I like Riddem also. That is what I can say.
HM: Why those two?
DT: Because Past Time talk about my past time. (laughs) My family story, my grandfather my grandmother. One day I heard the voice, I was thinking about life and about them. Riddem is calling people to dance not do war. When we do war we put a lot of energy that's bad energy and when we dance it's good energy and I don't understand why. We can fight dancing.
HM: Like a competition?
DT: Yes, a competition with dance. Why do we need to do war? Why do we have to kill? This is really stupid. Lost Voice I like also. It talks about the children I was talking about before.
HM: That's my personal favourite on there. I don't know why there is just something about it.
DT: Yeah, yeah , yeah, you're right. Lost Voices talks about children alone in Africa. So many, so many everywhere. I just don't know what to do because I don't have any money to put them all in school (sighs) When I see them everywhere waiting, just 5 or 6 years old with no family and you can see the future of that country, you know what I mean? Because that is the next generation. How are we going to get out of this situation? This is really something I don't understand. I just don't understand and that is why sometimes it happens that some people have the image of African people of war and poverty. Sometimes I just don't understand what is going on. So I want to do a big big show to show Africa just to talk to people and make sure that a week before we open a lot of places everywhere for people to talk. People need to talk and they never talk. Nobody wants to ask what was the past and what were the slaves. We keep all these things inside us.
HM: Why do you think that is? Was it a historical thing that people tried to hide it away?
DT: Yeah, they hide it away but it isn't people who try to hide it away, it's these people who get the power. These people know about the stories, they know everything but they just work for big brothers (laughs), big big brothers. They work for these people who want to keep us down because when we get up it's going to change things. Everywhere we go people should understand that if we just share the food, the water, if we share it normally, we could all have power. These people who have power don't care. Nothing has moved on. The only thing that has changed is we buy what people give us - people have cellular phones and all the television channels, all the things that come from outside but we don't need them. We need the schools and to be healthy. We don't need anything else. Education and health and in sixty years after you will see a new generation. We need to begin but we didn't yet.
HM: Okay, one last question. Is this the first time you have toured in England?
DT: No, no, not the first time. In March 2005 and many many times after but I can't remember them. (laughs) I was touring also with Peter Gabriel.
HM: Really?
DT: Yeah, I've done two months of support in Europe - the Growing Up Tour.
HM: How did you enjoy that?
DT: Oh that was magic, it was amazing, just amazing.
HM: Any inside scoop on Peter Gabriel?!
DT: (laughs) He really helped me. He was preparing the audiences for me playing. That was really kind. I accepted because I was sure I had something to say to these people. I have so many stories to tell. They don't understand what I'm singing but they feel it.
HM: That is the interesting thing with the EP - a lot of it isn't in English, yet you get a feeling for what it is about.
DT: For me, music isn't about the lyrics. This is not my vision. The music is the harmony and the sound. Music can change your day. Music has something chemical that when you listen to something you listen and you react. You can have really something emotional, you can cry without someone singing, with just the music. How many songs have you heard when you were young (sings a tune) which made you feel? You don't need to understand but you feel. Talking to people without words is the most important. We need to understand each other without talking the same language. The only thing that can save us is emotion. You feel it in your heart and on stage is the same. When I go to the stage I want to touch people even if just three people I don't mind, because I played so many times in front of three people, but it doesn't matter. I feel like it is something to give to people all the time.
HM: It's about what happens between you and the people there I think.
DT: Exactly. You can change their life, you can change a lot of things, their day, their week, their month., their year. When I see people coming to my show and go when they get out smiling and happy because that means that they spent one hour or more and they forget everything during that hour and this is really good. Forget about difficult things and society and problems, children, school, everything.
HM: I think that music is a chance to stop and just be. I guess that's what those people get?
DT: Yeah there is something like this in the air.
HM: Something we all share that we don't really understand?
DT: (laughs) Yeah, yeah, exactly this. As Bob Marley said; what did he say? (laughs); Bob Marley say "There's a natural mystic blowing through the air." This is a really nice idea. (laughs)
HM: It's just there, it's not tangible, we can't touch it but we can feel it.
DT: Exactly. Just there.
HM: That was great, thankyou so much for your time.
DT: No, thankyou, it was my pleasure
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