What this change of label obviously brought, is that we had more means to create our music. We had the experience of a much larger record label. We went from a small Caribbean label, to a multinational. Well it did not bring everything we wanted because when one is under contract with a multinational there are things that you are entitled to expect, such as performing in the country of origin of the multinational (the United States) this was not the case, in any case, not immediately. But beyond that we went from 30,000 albums to 100,000 sold.
In 40 years Kassav has released about 16 studio albums, 12 live albums, and its member more than 30, without counting collaborations. How did you deal with personal productions and Kassav, when it’s known that this is sometimes a vector of discord in bands, because of conflicting interests?
No. Really, the biggest forms of discord in groups are human relations. Women ... not really women, the fact that some want to sleep with the women or men of others. It's this kind of conflict, and then money disputes, because there are some who think they have to earn better than others. It's rarely the act of playing music. We for example in a formation like Kassav, where there were 5 singers, each singer could only sing one or two songs in an album. After that, it's a bit frustrating even if you're professional. Every time each of the singers wanted to make a solo album, he was encouraged and accompanied even by the
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Flashmag May 2019 www.flashmag.net
musicians of Kassav. It also allowed us to occupy the field, and make the type of music we wanted. It did not hurt anyone.
Paradoxically certain solo productions of some members have been great successes for the band, like Oh Madiana, of you Jacob, or Siwo from Jocelyne. Somehow the time some members took for themselves also helped the group?
Yeah, until now, it’s been good. We were lucky that all these scripts allowed the band to renew its repertoire, and to have a lot of hit songs
In 1983, the final cast of the group is made. Jocelyne, Jean-Philippe and Patrick as singer, Jacob (guitars and songs), Jean-Claude (keyboards), Georges (bass), Claude Vamur ( drums). In addition, the group uses two dancers Catherine Laupa and Marie-Josée Gibon. On what basis were you recruiting members of your group? Were they peoples you had met in the music environment and whom you knew about the background beforehand, or you were making announcements?
A little bit of both. There were peoples we had heard about, whom we tried to meet, and others we knew, and then of course those we crossed like that on the road, and we decided that they were interesting and therefore they could join us.
Jean Philippe Marthely - Jocelyne Beroard - Jean Claude Naimro - Georges Decimus - Jacob Desvarieux