{"id":3436,"date":"2022-06-09T10:28:55","date_gmt":"2022-06-09T10:28:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mensch3000.ch\/2022\/06\/09\/interviewed-by-lkj\/"},"modified":"2024-02-26T11:42:10","modified_gmt":"2024-02-26T11:42:10","slug":"interviewed-by-lkj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mensch3000.ch\/en\/2022\/06\/09\/interviewed-by-lkj\/","title":{"rendered":"Interviewed by LKJ"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interviewed by LKJ<\/h1>
<\/div>

Did you have any exposure to reggae before the making of Peeni Waali?<\/p>\n

No. Reggae came into my world only in 1987 during a stay in Jamaica. When I began experimenting with music, looking for a genuine\u00a0sound<\/i>, sometime in the early 80ies, there was no such thing as the etiquette \u2018world-music\u2019 (sic). My aim was more at a cosmopolitan aproach. I liked too much different music to dwell in one style only. Yet I don\u2019t necessarily like everything in every music…
\nHence avant-garde would be the terrain I could sharpen my claws with. Until reggae took me by surprise…<\/p>\n

How do you deal with the cultural isolation living in a retrieved valley in Switzerland?<\/p>\n

I never felt isolated, because there\u2019s been so many great musicians visiting me here and recording in my own premises. And I been travelling extensively for some 7 years, soaking up impressions to a point like when you mix all colours and \u2018receive\u2019 white (I never understood why this is so, though).
\nIt annoys me to a certain extent that I was \u2018tainted\u2019 so indelebily by reggae, because I always tried to break that bondage of \u2018influence\u2019 e.g. such as the american hegemony; all those Swiss bands singing in english often with an embarrassing accent. I don\u2019t feel it\u2019s an issue to sell Coca Cola to yanks.
\nBut then again, I\u2019d be a damn fool not to accept all these great renderings, the musicians I\u2019ve worked with had to offer. It\u2019s up to anyone to make reggae original. Peeni Waali is certainly very remote from roots reggae because I use reggae mainly to ride upon like a vehicle, a carrier to travel upon\/with. That voyage is leading me (hopefully) to unknown places, meeting new people and breaking the cultural isolation enough to live in a back-water country (musically) like Switzerland. Although that\u2019s not important to me. It\u2019s to\u00a0relate<\/i>\u00a0to what I do with whom. My mind is my root.
\nWorld-music as such appears to me like esoterism and that\u2019s not my cup of tea at all…<\/p>\n

How did you chose Peeni Waali as a leitmotiv?<\/p>\n

When I seen the firefly first (in Oracabessa – outside Ocho Rios, Jamaica), I was puzzled by the phenomenom and kept asking people what it meant to them. I also realised that it was one of the few animals, people would just let in peace. I was told all kinds of pleasant stories how the Peeni Waali meant \u2018good omen\u2019 in short. That transcends to me like hope, a very, very important vision that should stand for more people as a forceful power within. I\u2019m puzzled that so little is known scientifically about that bug. Fireflys exist all over the world. I remember when I was in Malaysia, I seen even more of them at a mangrove-coast. They call it clip-clip there. Fireflys also exist in the warmer parts of our country. Yet, the species here doesn\u2019t fly. We call it glow-worm.
\nHowever, it came in handy to build a concept for a musical project around this wonderful experience.<\/p>\n

How did you get to know all those players on your albums?
\nHow I got to meet all these people is as long a story as the time it took me to terminate the trilogy (“The Dawn”, “The Return” and “The Eve” of Peeni Waali). I like people. I like challenge. I like provocation. I like \u2018the difference\u2019. Any difference from what I know, I can learn from. Difference is a complementarity.
\nWorking with all these different people always made me learn more and more of that who\u2019s who. It\u2019s like a puzzle and a snowball combined. Knowing one musician who\u2019s worked with other people I\u2019d discover the records that one musician plays upon and would want to know maybe a next musician that\u2019s on that record and so on. I\u2019m insatiable to\u00a0learn,<\/i>\u00a0to\u00a0experience.<\/i>..
\nHowever, I wouldn\u2019t want to be \u2018stuck\u2019 with reggae only. I find a lot of interest in continental music and hope I\u2019ll be able to transcribe all my past experiences with that element. Reason why I start working more and more with our native instruments (although somewhat limited) like the alphorn, hackbrett, acordion, hornussen and others.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Interviewed by LKJDid you have any exposure to reggae before the making of Peeni Waali? No. Reggae came into my world only in 1987 during a stay in Jamaica. When I began experimenting with music, looking for a genuine\u00a0sound, sometime in the early 80ies, there was no such thing as the etiquette \u2018world-music\u2019 (sic). My...","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[75],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mensch3000.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3436"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mensch3000.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mensch3000.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mensch3000.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mensch3000.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3436"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mensch3000.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3556,"href":"https:\/\/mensch3000.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3436\/revisions\/3556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mensch3000.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mensch3000.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mensch3000.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}