Current music:	Ya Saryan - Clotaire K
Entry tags:	belly dance, clotaire k, interviews, music, pop culture

An interview with Clotaire K


In a recent Belly Dance workshop in Las Vegas with Heather Stants of "Urban Tribal Dance Company", I was introduced to the music of Clotaire K, and really enjoyed it from the beginning. When I got home, I googled him, and found His site, where I was introduced to scenes of Beirut that I had never witnessed before, and found myself quite impressed with the man behind the music that I enjoyed. Shortly after that, I ordered his Cd, have pretty much been listening to it ever since, and am now quite the fan.

You can imagine how excited I was when he agreed to doing an interview with me for my little blog here. We did this through E-mail, and it consisted of me asking a whole lot of questions, him answering them and mailing them back, so if anyone happens to take note of the lack of follow up questions on my part, this is why.

I found Clotaire K to be even more impressive in this interview, and I hope that you all enjoy.

Peggy Hall: Your name on your Cd "Lebanese" is Clotaire K. What is the K short for?

Clotaire K: First letter of my last name.

Peggy: What do your freinds call you?

Clotaire: Clotaire

PH: Your web site has many beautiful photos of Beirut, along with some short blurbs about the photos. It is obvious that you have a great deal of fondness for the city, so would you tell me about it?

CK: Beirut is a great city certainly because it has always been a crossroads between different civilisations and continents. It's usually compared to the Phoenix, dead and reborn 7 times. It's actually built on about 6 layers of different cultures (Phoenicians, Ottomans, Byzantins, Mameluks, Greek, Romans), and when you dig in the center of the city you always end up digging through the ages and finding antique monuments or constructions.
The seniority of a city is part of its cultural wealth, and that's the case here.

It's always been a crossroads for various cultures, ideas, traditions, and I think these things remain somehow in the daily life of its contemporary inhabitants.

Contrarily to what people may think it's a city where lots of different ideas and ideologies mix, like winds coming from different directions, and it has always been a place with a very active and various press.

It's also a city placed on the middle east end of the Mediterranean sea, being its most important (sea) port, which also favours trading of not only the goods, but also ideas and people immigrating or emigrating. Its face is turned towards this sea which is the cradle of civilisations and its back against the high mountains that start climbing high right from the city....
There obviously would be lot more to say about it.

What saddens me most is that Beirut has ever been used as a catalyst to serve interests which are often not even Lebanese; and therefore has suffered lots of years of oppression or war in its history while its inhabitants are peaceful, tolerant and open minded; that being maybe the reason.

Why would someone want to visit there because it's simply like a paradise, from my experience of meeting people from all around the world who went there, all of them want to go back there when they've been there once.

PH: What are some of the sites that you would send a tourist to visit?

CK: Just take a car, and wander around, it's a trip.

PH: You are originally from there. Can you tell me something about the daily life in Lebanon that may surprise a person in the west?

CK: Well, there's lots of things to say again. You can find everything in Beirut. What usually surprises westerners is the ability of most inhabitants to speak 3 languages fluently, the fact that it is a western as well as an arabic city under every point of view.

PH: Beirut was war torn in the 80's; is the rebuilding complete or is there a ways to go yet?

CK: That's a recurent question, actually Beirut has suffered about 20 years of war in its recent history, but it looks let's say like Athens, don't expect any wasteland or destroyed landscape. The major damages were concerning the center of the city (about let's say 5% of the city's surface). It's now all rebuilt, shining brand new. Which in some points is sad because the center which used to be the popular place where every social class used to meet and mix has become a trendy place where low classes are unfortunately pretty excluded nowadays.

PH: It is my understanding that you currently live in France. How did you end up there, and how does it compare to life in the Middle East?

CK I'm born in France, but I live in the south, which is Mediterranean still. I don't think I could leave far from this sea.

I've tried, but I miss it.

I would say that the main difference with the Middle East is that in the Middle East people are more friendly and hospitable than in the west.

PH: When you're not in France, where are you?

CK: All around, on 4 of the 5 continents, but mainly in Lebanon.

PH: Your album "Lebanese" was released in 2002. Tell me about how you went from a kid in Lebanon to having your own Cd?

CK: This album has been released actually in 2003.

I've always wanted to play music, since my prime childhood in France and Lebanon. So I've started performing with bands in France, and forgot Lebanon for a while. Then I went there again after quite a break, and relized how much I was still Lebanese inside of me (just like in my childhood).

I then started doing my own music, setting up my own band and started performing mainly in France.

I won several local prizes since my first couple of shows with this band and interest upon my music started growing with my shows. Hence we haven't much performed in clubs, we usually perform in front of large audiences (average being about 3000, and we've done gigs lately in front of 50,000 persons as well as once 250.000 ! ).

Still I'm an independant artist, going at my own pace and not regulated by any market, that's my freedom.

In the last years, we've performed a lot in Africa, Europe of course, Latin America and the Middle East.

Now the forthcoming tours will be a bit of Europe and North Africa, plus Scandinavia and perhaps the US.

PH: Have you ever played in the U.S.? If so, where?

CK: Never performed there, but I must say, contrarily to even supposed 3rd world countries, American promoter have a hard time understanding that artists are not for free. That's why we haven't toured the US yet despite requests from promoters for 3 years in a row.

PH: Are there any plans to release a new Cd?

CK: Sure, I'm working on it.

PH: "Lebanese" is written in several languages including French, English, Arabic, and the old Coptic language. There's even some in a Bedouin-like language on my favorite song, "Ya Saryan". That's an impressive range of languages; do you speak all of them fluently? Which is your primary language?

CK: No, my primary language would probably be French. I also speak Arabic and English as well as German !

PH: I've been calling you a "French/Lebanese hip hop artist that is sometimes politically charged" when I speak of you to my friends. Would you say that is an accurate description?

CK: Well maybe, though I don't know why it seems "politically charged".

PH: How would you describe your music and sound to someone that has never heard it?

CK: Mainly hip hop beats with Middle Eastern scales and melodies, plus lots of other influences.


PH: Is yours a popular genre in France, or the Middle East?

CK: Not at all, actually it's gonna soon be 10 years that I do this sort of music, and I just notice today that other artists are starting to do something equivalent.
Though most of them still are a bit rookies.

PB Are their any other artists with a similar sound that you would recommend?

CK: In that sound area I would recommend Soap Kills which is a very good Lebanese trip hop band. And Kita Aayoun (Lebanese hip hop).

PB: Are there any U.S. hip hop artists that you can relate to, or are a fan of?

CK: Sure, hip hop is a traditionnal American music.
I love a lot of artists but more accurately songs.
Roughly I would say PE, Dre, Snoop's first album, Paris, etc...
But I'm more attracted now by non-US hip hop and artists I've met along my way, like MV Bill in Brazil, Roots Manuva in the UK....)

PH: Did you ever think that your music would be popular among American Belly Dancers? Does it's growing popularity among us surprise you?

CK: Not at all. It does surprise me.

PH: A track on your CD, "Lubnan", has a sample of Sadat speaking of peace. Is he someone that you would consider a figure of peace? That song has some references to violence towards minorities. What country or area are you speaking about in there, and who are the minorities that you speak of?

CK: I don't really care about Saddat, but these words were interesting to me.
This song talks about Lebanon (Lubnan means Lebanon in arabic).
These minorities here are the people of Lebanon, and extensively people of the Middle East.

PH: Another track on your CD, "Bif Bam Boom", has a reference to Martin Luther King in it. Is that song about the United States, or just the plight of minorities in general?

CK: Would take a book to explain, but it refers to the carelesness of rich countries towards others formerly know as third world, which in fact nowadays represent the real majority of the planet's population.

Sometimes these countries are considered and used as trashcans by rich countries to fulfill their current needs in terms of lots of things such as sales of weapons, advantageous (geo)political manipulations, or oil supply; while not even being able to plan or pay attention to the "un-natural" reactions that can result from "un-natural" handlings applied on populations owning another type of culture and way of thinking.

As an example, let's take the disease of the "insane cow" (I don't remember how you call it in English): do not be surprised if you feed cows with meaty aliments (which is un-natural considering the cow's "culture" :) in order to get a better yield, to end up making up an un-desired new type of disease.

I actually wrote this song back in 1998, after having noticed how things were evolving on both sides of the planet. It wasn't at that time difficult to see with openned eyes that a new "cancer" resulting from such continuous carelesness was brewing; which led to events such as 9/11.

More generally, this song talks about the growing differences and misunderstanding betwen the East and the West. Meaning that if one goes on using its supremacy without clevernesss nor long term forecast, what goes around comes around.

PH: Do you consider yourself a minority? Would you explain, and tell me a little about how it has affected your life?

CK: I don't. And anyway yesterday's so called minorities are nowadays and tomorrow's majorities.

PH: What is your opinion on the now famous "cartoons" of Mohamed in the Dutch (Danish! Boy, am I red faced, considering that I have even been in all sorts of debates with people on this subject.) Newspaper, and the violent protests that followed?

CK: It's the opposition of 2 logics, the muslim community one and the European lay one.

Both have their reasons, the muslim community doesn't allow prophet's icons, and the European community has worked hard through the centuries to gain their freedom of speech.

Both logics are understandable, but not the physical violence which has resulted from this story.

I believe words are often more effective than violence, and such disagreement should have been expressed with words only.

I just hope now that the press (which should in all cases remain free) will not be affected and will keep being free.

To correct your question, it wasn't a Dutch newspaper initially, but Danish.

PH: What are your thoughts on the US and Allied military intervention in the Middle East and talks of a possible war with Iran?

CK: Why wouldn't the US and Allied military take care of North Korea for instance, instead of the Middle East?

And why don't the US sign the Kyoto protocol about gas pollution restrictions?

PH: Is your Cd available in any music stores here? Tell us where to go on the web, and the steps to take, to buy a copy of "Lebanese".

CK: My Cd isn't available in stores anymore.

To get it, simply go to www.clotairek.com, then click on "Purchase the album", fill in the form, and you'll receive an email re-directing you to Paypal, once paid the CD(s) will be posted to your address.

Thank you, Clotaire, for taking the time to answer my questions. I enjoy your music very much, and am looking forward to having the opportunity to dance to some of it at some time!

~If you have high speed, you can listen to some of Clotaire's music on his site. I have dial up, so I had to go the Womax site to listen. They also have a bit of a profile on him there.