“Music is a common language”: Songhoy Blues’ Oumar Touré on spreading the joy and pain of Malian music
It might feel like old news now, but the impact of the 2020 pandemic is still being felt across the globe in various sectors. Shutting various parts of the world down for almost two years, the catastrophic effects of the virus led many people to take stock of what they considered to be the norm for them and to recontextualise their place on our vulnerable planet. Whether that meant undertaking a drastic change or simply focusing on what was more important to them in the grand scheme of things, many people chose to take the imposed lockdown as an opportunity to create change for themselves and to effectively start afresh once the green light had been given to return to ‘normal’.
Released at the height of the pandemic, Malian desert rockers Songhoy Blues’ third album, Optimisme, was a triumphant celebration of everything they had previously accomplished as a band. The heady and complex fusion of local musical traditions of the Sahel region with a Western-influenced rock sound captured a righteous sense of fury and desire to bring change within their homeland, but the themes of the record were easy to apply to situations around the world at the time. However, while there was a universal anger at the state of the world felt across the record, it was peppered with a sense of optimism, as reflected in the album’s title.
The change that would come as a result of the record was a decision to soften their sound, and ultimately saw them shift their focus away from global issues and musical styles, and hone in more on inspiration from within their home country. Over the course of the next four years, this increased amount of time spent at home allowed the band to zoom in on Malian musical traditions, and the resulting record, Héritage, sees them delve much further into this aspect of their craft.
“It’s been a long-term idea to create something very local and traditional with acoustic songs, as we practice all the time at home on acoustic instruments,” bassist Oumar Touré explains during our call. This stripped-back approach afforded Oumar and the other Tourés, Aliou and Garba, more scope to explore their own musical heritage and diversify their sonic output by edging their sound towards something more traditional rather than amalgamating it into a fusion of Malian and Western influences. “Since the band was set up, we’ve never had much time to do that because we’re touring all the time. Since COVID happened, we’ve had much more time to stay home and see other musicians playing traditional music.”
Taking cues from the legends of Malian music such as Toumani Diabaté, Mangala Camara and Dassi Mabo, Héritage certainly offers a different side to Songhoy Blues, but it isn’t one that listeners would consider to be a drastic departure from their previous work. “We want to show people another side of Songhoy Blues, you know. It’s a musical development and new perspective that we’ve done with this album.”
The musical climate in Bamako, the country’s capital and current home to all three members of the band, appears to be thriving. “We’ve been lucky to play in some projects around the town here with some local artists who share traditional influences. These are all the influences we can hear on our new album.” The safety away from the troubles in the North of the country means that Songhoy Blues can feel like they’re part of a wider scene as well, which Touré says has led them to play at various local festivals that celebrate the broad church of music that Mali has to offer. “Bamako is in the South, so the capital is very safe. We can do music, and you can see some festivals and some showcases. Even this week, we have the Ségou’Art Festival; last month was a tuareg festival, and in the next few days, there will be the Dogon Festival. A lot of tribal festivals happen here now, and musically, a lot of things happen.”
Despite the current vibrance of the Bamako scene, it hasn’t got to where it is currently without struggles, with the impact of terrorism and strict government control being two of the obstacles that locals have had to navigate in order to help the city’s musical talent prosper. “Compared to 2012, when the terrorists took control of a big part of Mali, a lot of things were stopped by the government. They didn’t want people to play any festivals or any music things. Now it’s changed a little bit. People have started to try to start again as music is a huge part of many people’s lives.”
This blending of styles from the different parts of the country has seen an increased amount of influence coming from Tuareg music and other styles aside from the tishoumaren (‘guitar’ music) that they have mostly worked with in the past. “It’s something that comes very natural to the band,” Touré says about creating this fusion. “When we musicians come together, they always want to fix styles together. The music is a common language, so we try to fix our different rhythms, our different influences and grooves. It’s something we can’t describe, but it’s come on naturally.”
With the traditional timbres of the kora (a harp-like plucked instument) and balafon (a percussion instrument similar to a xylophone) coming into the mix and providing a more organic and Southern-inspired sound, Touré attests that these additions have all contributed to the split between North and South Malian influences.
In order to get a greater variety in their sound palette, the band couldn’t work alone on Héritage and recruited the talents of a number of other local musicians to collaborate with them on the record. “We brought in a lot of great musicians from the South, some big names. Guys like Madou Diabaté, Rokia Koné and Harouna Samake are used to playing with big artists like Salif Keita, so we’re lucky to have all of these musicians.” Adding longtime friend and Malian musicologist Paul Chandler as producer also helped the band realise the ambition of assembling an album with a far more expansive sound. Having been involved in the band’s projects since their early years, his expertise and understanding of the band’s process were integral in bringing the project to life.
“We work with Paul all the time,” Touré explains of the relationship between the two parties. “When we write songs and want to do demos for our albums, even the past albums, we call him to see if we can get to his studio, and he’s always happy to do that. Our label, Transgressive, were happy for us to work with Paul as a producer because he’s helped us with his ideas a lot.”
With so many more elements being added to the Songhoy Blues sound, it’s difficult to imagine their regular live setup continuing to work when it comes to faithfully recreating the tracks on Héritage. The overdrive-heavy rock fusion that I personally recall blaring over the mountains and entrancing the crowds at the Green Man Festival in 2016 wouldn’t be suitable for this new set of songs, but that doesn’t mean that they have to fully abandon their bluesier roots in a live capacity. Touré says that there are plans already in the works to help facilitate this for their ventures overseas later in the year.
“We plan to have a tour in summer, so now we have to figure out how we’re gonna put everything together because we need extra musicians who are gonna play the traditional album. We’ve got a lot of options; some musicians that already play on the album, we might bring them with us. We also have the option to have some Malian or African musicians who live in Europe on the table, so we will choose once everything is set up.”
Of course, it’s important to keep elements of their old identity present for fans of the band, but one constant feature of their music that often gets overlooked but is still as intrinsic to the group is the lyrical content. Entertaining their Western audience in a musical capacity has never been a tricky prospect for the band, with the rhythmic components almost effortlessly arousing a desire to dance, but the language barrier between the band and fans overseas means that they’re often unable to pick up on the vital socio-political messages that feature so frequently.
“The lyrics are basically about how beautiful Malian music and culture is, and how important it is to bring people together. We want to show people our value as Songhai people from Northern Mali,” Touré insists, but while they might highlight some of the more beautiful aspects of Malian culture, he knows that it’s equally important to highlight the challenges Malians face. “Every track has its own story. ‘Issa’ we wrote about protecting our environment and our rivers. We’ve had a lot of damage from climate change. ‘Garibou’ is about young people in the streets who haven’t got parents to give them food or education because we’ve got a large child industry here. There are a lot of songs about the hypocrites who are in power in this country.”
Given the tumultuous political landscape in Mali that has been ongoing since the forced introduction of Sharia law and persecution of non-Islamic faith groups in certain parts of the country, writing protest music in a way that manages to get their messaging across without landing themselves in trouble is a task fraught with immense difficulty. “Because the military has taken over the country, they don’t want to see you protest, but even the politicians want to see people protest,” Touré explains about the coup that seized power in 2021. “Malian music is something very engaging and has very strong messages, and it’s always been like that. We don’t just sing about love, but our music is always about what has happened around us. The military doesn’t want us to do that, but we can’t be quiet about it if something is wrong.”
Héritage might look back at more traditional sounds from Mali’s rich musical history, but that doesn’t mean that Songhoy Blues and other younger artists from the country are only looking backward for inspiration. While he’s optimistic that some of the next generation are catching onto what they’re doing, he realises it’s a slow process. “Young people try to make traditional music here but they haven’t got the same audience compared to people who make Afrobeat.”
Keeping hold of the ‘heritage’ that the album so joyfully clutches onto is key to keeping these traditions alive. “It’s our responsibility to take the heritage of all the people who make this kind of music,” Touré concludes, “and to put our signature on it for the next generation.”
