Flashmag september 2017 www.flashmag.net
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At the end of the interview, do you have a question you would have liked to see us ask?
Christiane Obydol: What has happened since then? So, I signed with Wagram in distribution to take over a good part of the catalog of titles of Zouk Machine as well as unpublished titles of Christiane Obydol for 5 years. The first album was released in 2016 and is called "double d'or" with A CD (audio) and a DVD (live) and a unique song by Christiane Obydol: "Go Blues" Yélé!
The second album is in full preparation. Meanwhile, I made the top 50 tour with Marc Toesca and I did all the Zeniths of France, and the biggest halls, it was 36 dates. It was a great experience, and since 2016 I have been building up a live band composed of 2 choristers and 4 talented musicians, and since then I've performed in New York at SOB'S in February 2017, I've celebrated the 30th anniversary of zouk Machine in Martinique, Guadeloupe and Guyana. I am currently touring France with my band, and intends to celebrate these 30 years in a large Parisian hall at the end of the year if all goes well.
The final word to your many fans around the world, and your agenda for days to come?
Passionate about music from a young age, I gave a lot of my time to music, and more precisely to Zouk Machine that was my main leitmotiv. I went through difficult times but I hung on and never stopped working, and hoped to be recognized one day. The meeting with my manager Henri de Lepine has governed my job, the way of seeing things, working, projecting, and it allowed me to move forward correctly and in the right direction. There is music, and the spirit of music, as my mother used to say. The mind is all that revolves around (the most important in fact is to last). Manage the career of the artist to make it last in time. Because in this trade there are many ramifications which are indispensable for a good functioning and its duration. To use one of my manager's expressions, "we must plant, to be able to harvest later" ... We should eventually do training to educate, refer our artists and teach them about everything that revolves around their singing and / or composer craft. Through the production of records, shows, music platforms.
The various contracts (artists, distribution, artists' commitments, royalties, SACEM, Spédidam, Adami etc.). All these actors must meet in the same synergy to form a real Caribbean music industry; because it exists but it is not formalized as such, because it is a real job for some not just a hobby. Our artists are talented but idle, they are breathless, choking and dying in a system that does not allow them to exist. The real Artist in our islands, Is the foreign artist who comes from outside. Our music is not sufficiently emphasized on our own territory and has become either "retro", "nostalgic", or "folk". Place to the ragga, to the dance hall, to the Kompa of which we are enormously influenced (which does not represent us) but where the new generation is connected and unfortunately get accustomed to. Find the mistake! All this must change.
In Miami where Flashmag was created in 2011 you still benefit from an impressive wave of fans I have to tell you this if you did not know.
No, I confess that I did not know for Miami, and for the United States in general. But I think that's why we were recently contacted to do an American tour. It seems that the music of Zouk Machine is known there and might be pleasing some. I am really surprised and will try the experience very soon. Lol! Thank you for this interview and hope to see you during my visit on the American territory. I kiss my fans of the first days and all those who want to discover the music of Zouk Machine, I say to them see you very soon! Cordially
Christiane Obydol, thanks for this open talk, good continuation.
Interview by Hubert Marlin
Journalist