What do a rock band, a DJ, Morocco and Paris have in common? Interview with Amiral aka Loveplex

Talking to my friend Amiral has been a pleasure as he is one of those people you can talk to for hours and always find another interesting topic. I myself learnt a lot from him and am happy to have met him. We hope you will find something worth reading in our talk about music, Paris, Morocco, and all life is about. Or just enjoy one of Amiral’s aka Loveplex’s mixes that you can find on the link:

https://soundcloud.com/search?q=loveplex

Connected: What would you say about your life now, considering things that you have been doing so far and things that you've committed yourself to be doing in future? 

Amiral: My life now has a meaning. I suffered deeply from having to do office work, even if it was highly paid. I first started my own company to make money and eventually retire young (laughs). After a while I realized it was better to go straight to the point and do what I really love. 

Connected: You're Paris-based at the moment. What kind of vibe does Paris have? You've been living here for quite some time now. 

Amiral: Paris is a tough city. People are not very open at the beginning and you have to know people to get introduced and invited to the right places. Also it is a very expensive city, which does not enable an underground and free art life to arise easily. 

(All photos are property of Amiral aka Loveplex.)

Connected: Is Paris a friendly place for everyone? 

Amiral: Certainly not. But if you stick long enough you end up loving it anyway. People may seem snobbish and unpleasant at times. But when you get to know them more they open up, though they are clearly not as warm-hearted as people from other places (North, West, and South, for example) .

Connected:  How complicated is it to blend in there? You told me some interesting stories about your initiation into the night life in Paris, just after you'd arrived there from Morocco.

Amiral: My first memory from the night life in Paris was to get bounced from the entrance of many clubs, because I did not fit in. I just came for the good electronic music whose big fan I’d already been. The only clubs where I got accepted were underground techno clubs, which made me love this music even more.

Finding a decent place to live is also a complicated and tricky issue. Landlords ask for tremendous guarantees, and if you are not lucky enough to have rich French parents, you might have to consider striking the center of the city off your list, and go for more affordable places in the outskirts. 

Connected: What does music mean to you? Have you always had this passion for it? 

Amiral: When I was a kid, we did not have TV, so I used to sit with my mom in the living room in front of the Hi-Fi System with two big speakers that were bigger than me, and listen to vinyl records of Jazz & Blues Classics, Classical Music, Traditional World Music, French Pop, Rock Hits, and many others. My mother did a very good job in giving me a broad music education.

Later on when I was a teenager I founded one of the first rock bands in Morocco. We immediately got very successful and the feeling of playing in front of hundreds of people and the shouting of the front crowd left an unforgettable imprint on my memory. Today, when I play in clubs, I still feel this same pure excitement of sharing and communicating emotions to people. 

 (All photos are property of Amiral aka Loveplex.)

Connected:  Has your life in Paris contributed to that? 

Amiral: Coming to Paris gave me access to artists I could not dream of meeting in Morocco, like Daft Punk, The Chemical Brothers, but also Metallica, Iron Maiden and many more. All the notorious artists of the moment come to Paris. However, even when I was in Morocco, I was able to find all the records I wanted, in a few specialized shops for connoisseurs. But now, with the Internet, everything is at hand for anybody no matter where in the world they are. 

Connected: What about your life in Morocco? Let's start with all that diversity there - what does that feel like? 

Amiral:This is a complicated question. I don’t know where to start. There is social diversity (the very rich and very poor, the educated and the illiterate), cultural diversity (Berbers, Arabs, people from the north, from the south). The Moroccan identity is not monolithic. It is more of a mosaic. 

Connected:  How is the situation now? Are there people who want to flee to Europe?

Amiral: People who praise Morocco are very rare and most Moroccans hate their country and stay there because they have no choice. It is a common belief among young people that „there is nothing to do in Morocco“. And if they had the chance they would all emigrate for sure. Except for the happy few. I myself tried to go back there a couple of years ago, but I could not bear the shock, so I came back to France. 

Connected: You come from Casablanca, how would you describe it based on your feelings for it? What are your earliest memories of it? 

Amiral: Casablanca is a tough city. It grew too fast and the rural exile made a lot of agriculture workers come to the city. Mostly uneducated, they were not prepared to face the city and the result was generations of young casawis that are „angry by nature“and aggressive, both physically and verbally. The very rich / very poor contrast causes this to be even more extreme at some point.

But, just like Paris, you end up liking the places you spend long time at. After all, I grew up there and the weather was very warm all year round, and there were a lot of surfing spots along the beach. 

Connected: How does tradition affect life there? 

Amiral: It is impossible to live out of traditions. I feel a lot of youngsters want to break out of it, but conservative views and practices are still imprinted on society so hard that it is almost impossible to escape from it. And it is also often mixed with religion. 

Connected: What do you miss about Morocco? 

Amiral: My family, the very tasty Moroccan food with oceans of spices and herbs, the sun, and the beach. Life is easier there, in some way. Much slower. Even if cities like Casablanca are not representative and tend to sometimes drive people into the big city life, like in Europe. 

Connected:  Has it been difficult to make friends in Paris? Can you say that you have close friends there now? 

Amiral: Yes, I have close friends but it took me more than a decade to build strong friendships.

Being an Arab is definitely not a good starting point to make true friends, because people are full of prejudice. 

Connected:  And what about food? (again : ) )

Amiral: Moroccan food is tasty; it is an explosion of flavors, spices, and herbs. We have so many different specialties and listing them would take an encyclopedia. From sweet to savoury, it takes a lifetime to make a good Moroccan cook. This is why grandmas are the best cooks usually. 

Connected: What is your life philosophy? 

Amiral: Love, Compassion and Self-Correction. Material life is an illusion, a projection of the Mind.

I could speak about this for years. 

Connected: You are a good DJ – what are your further plans there? You have this new project Deep House Paris – can you say something more about it? 

Amiral: I came to DJing as it seemed to be a „passage obligé“ for making it as a producer.

I have been producing all kinds of electronic music since I came to France in 1998.

I first wanted to keep playing rock guitar but as it was hard to re-create a group in Paris, I started recording my own samples, and arranging them in my home studio.

DJing makes it easier to get a grasp of a genre as a whole, and understand how the musical grammar and vocabulary work. It helps making music for clubs and it enables the DJ to communicate in a specific way, via intros, rises, breaks, climax, etc. The DJ then communicates it to the crowd. It's a very interesting process.

Deep House Paris is a project I started initially in order to create a tool that would help me promote myself. After I’d published my first mix, it got immediately successful, and I started receiving mixes to upload from DJs all over the world. Today Deep House Paris publishes content by DJs from over 15 countries in the world, after a few months only.

I also created 24 Heaven Records, a Deep House Label to release tracks from producers I support. 

 (All photos are property of Amiral aka Loveplex.)

Connected: Who has been the most inspiring person for you? 

Amiral: Me. (laughs). I never found somebody I could really rely on so basically I had no other choice but to believe in myself. I always felt that nobody could really guide me.

Then I met Spinoza, and Buddha. The latter had a tremendous influence on me, and helped me discover an inner universal meaning to life.

Recently I've met a lot of inspirational people who helped me believe that it was possible to make it without a regular job and I decided to give it a go and live off art. 

Connected: Thank you, I’ve really enjoyed this one and thank you for making an effort to write all the answers by yourself! :-)

About Senegal And Love For The Music

 About Senegal and love for the music

You know how an idea sometimes becomes real by pure coincidence?

 

This story is about that. And Senegal.

 

I don't know why I feel some sort of connection with Africa – could be

 

because of my name (which is African), or maybe heartbreaking (or 

 

heartwarming) photos of cute little children and nice people, or its 

 

wilderness, or simply my encounters with Africans around the world. 

 

Maybe also my strong sense of justice and the need to protect everyone I feel 

 

should be protected. 

 

 

 

Africa is much more than everything I wrote above and it is not, as you 

 

may wish to remind yourselves, a country, but a continent. It means that 

 

there are plenty of differences and whichever African country you choose, it 

 

will be quite unique in its own sense. 

 

 

 

I chose West Africa or, to be more precise, Senegal, Gambia and Mali. This

 

is where music took me to.  Being an eager fan of all kinds of music, I like

 

to explore music around the world. And so I came across some 

 

well-known names that most of us will have known, such as Youssou

 

N'Dour and Salif Keita. I started listening to everything they have ever 

 

produced and loved it. And the language(s), too. They led me further to

 

some great musicians such as Rokia Traore, a woman who I absolutely 

 

admire just by her looks and energy, let alone her musical talent. 

 

And then I thought how great it would be to visit those countries. Of 

 

course, it would be. But it's not like you go to your friends and say –

 

 „Look, I feel like going to Africa, I'd really like to explore the music and 

 

the culture in Senegal. Do you think you could go with me? „– and expect 

 

them to say „Yes, sure!“ immediately.

 

So I abandoned the idea. Then I saw there was a concert of Senegalese 

 

music in Zagreb and went to it. I met there Senegalese musicians who are

 

also organizing music workshops in Senegal. And this is where Commi 

 

Balde, a talented Senegalese musician from Ziguinchor, comes in. A few 

days ago I spoke to him about Senegal, putting in front of him a long list

 

of questions that I prepared.

 

 

 

 

We hope that you will enjoy this interview and maybe get interested into 

 

some of the topics mentioned, especially the workshop Commi and his 

 

friends are organizing in Senegal in December 2015. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Connected: Commi, this will be a story about you and your views about 

Senegal and everything else. We'll start with you then.  

 

Commi: I'm from Ziguinchor, a Senegalese town on the West African coast, 

and I come from a large family of musicians. Everyone from my mother's side 

was a musician. She herself is a „griot“, which is a term denoting a special 

class of people in Senegalese society –historians, storytellers, praise singers, 

poets and/or musicians. The griot is a source of oral tradition and is often

 seen as a societal leader.  

As you may know, we all come from different tribes and the most popular ones

in Senegal are the Wolof, Mandinka, Fula and Serer. Each of the tribes has

their own language, like Wolof and Mandinka, which are the most popular

languages in Senegal and everyone,  no matter which tribe they are from, will

 speak these two.  Wolof is officially recognized as „lingua franca“ in Senegal. 

My mother is a Mandinka and my father a Fula. Yet I can hardly speak or 

understand Fula. I speak Mandinka, Wolof and French. French is an official 

language taught at school, as we used to be a French colony. Portuguese is 

also spoken by some people in the south of Senegal. Apart from that, many 

people, myself included, speak English as well. 

Connected: The musicians I mentioned earlier, Youssou N'Dour, Rokia 

Traore, etc., all have a status of griots. And your mother, too – that means 

that it was inevitable that you have a strong musical influence in your family.

Commi: Yes, exactly. As I said there are a lot of musicians in my family 

playing all sorts of instruments such as drums (djembe, saouruba, sabar), 

kora, etc. I play all of those and also the guitar. I was going to school and

then said to my parents I wanted to be a musician. They weren't happy about 

it (smiles), but that's exactly what I became. I started playing all across 

Senegal and a few times also in the Gambia with my uncle . Music for me is 

all about passion. It will always be the first thing in my life. I feel I have a lot

 to give in terms of it and want to develop myself constantly. The musicians 

you mentioned are among my favorite ones, but the one I really look up to is 

Seckou Keita. He is the one from whose music I learn and inspire myself all 

the time. I can play everything, like covers, i.e. popular stuff, but my aim is to

 be performing my own music, which I write. That is exactly what I'm doing 

most of the time. Here in Croatia I have two bands: Kaira Kela, made up of

Senegalese musicians mostly, who are my friends, now also living in Europe;

and Silaba, which is a band of both Senegalese and Croatian musicians. 

Connected: About Croatia, you've been here for quite some time now.

Commi: Yes,this is my second time in Croatia and this time I've been here for

almost two years now. I have a lot of projects here. Together with my friend 

Abdoulaye I have a dance school where we teach African dance and we have 

numerous workshops where we teach playing African instruments, such as 

djembe, etc. We make our own instruments and I can tell you that these 

workshops have been extremely popular with Croatians. Most of them are in 

Zagreb, but we've had workshops all over Croatia, from north to south. We are

just preparing a workshop on the island of Vis, which will take place in July. 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kaira-Kela/1436805993295633?fref=ts

Connected: Can you tell our readers something about the workshop you are organizing in Senegal and which will take place from December 20 to January 7 or 9, 2016?

Commi: Yes, that is the one you are interested in. We will go from Zagreb to

Dakar and then to Ziguinchor. After that we are going to Kafountine, a small 

island on the West coast, where we will have a two-week workshop of African 

music and dance. Me and Abdoulaye will be organizing the whole trip and act 

as your guides during all that time. This is the website that we've set up for 

that purpose: 

http://ismailabalde.wix.com/senegal2016

 

I hope more of you will get interested in it and experience Africa as it is in its

entire culture. 

Connected: Looking at the itinerary and talking to you, I can say you are very organized. I have to say, I didn't expect that kind of attention to details in this context.

Commi: Well, I'm always like that. I want to make things right, especially 

when it comes to things that I live from. However, I don't want to perform on

my own, I have my bands. Kaira Kela, for instance, has 8 musicians and we look for venues where we can all perform together.

Connected: You said you write your own music. What about other musicians in your two bands?

Commi: Yes, I do, but when I finish something, I want each member of the 

band to add their own touch to it so that we can have a piece of music that 

contains something from all of us.

Connected: Let's talk about your country now. Tell us something about its cultural traits. The first thing that crosses my mind is that most people in Senegal are Muslim. How does that influence your culture?

Commi: Yes, most people are. I was also born into a Muslim family. 

Regardless of the tribes we have, which are part of African tradition, most 

people in Senegal are Muslim. This means certain traditions that we respect. 

For instance, this is the month of Ramadan or time for us to fast. It means we

don't eat anything from dawn to dusk. We also abstain from all wrongdoings, 

such as swearing, etc. Politically speaking, Senegal is a democratic country. 

We are liberal in terms that young generations are similar to young 

people anywhere else in the world. 

Connected: And that is also reflected in the status of women in your society?

Commi: Well, yes. Not all of them wear traditional clothes, like hijab. 

However, there are some villages where circumcision of women is still 

performed. But that is something that we fight a hard battle against to

eradicate completely.

 

On the other hand, we are a very friendly country, which, just like our 

Gambian neighbours, lives from tourism. We like people and talking to „toubabs“ („white persons“). 

Connected: Tell us some phrases in Wolof, the most popular language in Senegal.

Commi: 

„Na nga def?“ – „How are you?“, „Hello“

„Jaam rek“ – „I'm fine“ , reply to „Hello“ („peace only“)

„Na nga tudd?“ – „What's your name?“

„Maa ngi tudd“ – „My name is....“

„Ba beneen“ – „Goodbye“

„Jai rruh-jef“ –„Thank you“

„Namm naa laa“ – „I miss you“.

„Baal ma“ – „Sorry“

„Deg nga English?“ –„Do you speak English?“

It's not difficult to pronounce, because we write the same as we speak.

 (All photos are property of Ismaila Commi Balde and his website about the workshop in Senegal).

Connected: And your food?

Commi: Rice with anything. We take rice very seriously (smiles). You will find 

a lot of dishes with rice and fish and rice and chicken. We don't eat too many

sweets as for us that is „little food“. In Senegal we have three large meals: 

breakfast, lunch and dinner. And they have their exact time when you should

take them. At those times we eat hearty portions but in between there are no

nibbles like here. Here, or in Europe, everyone can eat all the time. We don't 

do that.

Connected: What are your plans for the future?

Commi:

 

I like Croatia, I have here a lot of friends who are very welcoming.

However, it is not easy to make a living. I work hard, but I guess it's like 
that anywhere else. 

Connected: Begg naa Senegal, thank you, Commi!