• Massilia Sound System has released a new album,

    Sale Caractère

    .

  • They made it up entirely during the second confinement.

  • “A breath of fresh air”, for the group in this period of Covid particularly trying for artists.

Massilia Sound System returns to put the Oaï.

The Marseillais group released a new album,

Sale Caractère

, entirely composed during the second confinement.

“A breath of fresh air” for the friends who received

20 Minutes

to listen to the album in a popular little café in the 12th arrondissement of Marseille.

He is broadcasting a concert live on Facebook from Espace Julien this Wednesday at 8:30 p.m.

You wrote and composed this new album in just three months, tell us ...

Gari Greu: Yeah we were a bit in the dark with the arrival of the first confinement. Me for example I had released my last solo album 15 days before. Everything stopped, the tours, the same for the colleagues, we found ourselves in the fog. We decided to go back to the studio in September, we took the summer to think things over and we fell for everything between September and January. It was really good, me it saved me from a psychological point of view, to find colleagues, to eat. We did ourselves good by trying to do good to others.


Quickly we started on a digital thing, without over-arrangements, with a raw aesthetic, a digital dub rub, which we did at the beginning.

We found this essence, simplicity, rhythm.

The rub has dub dialogue with the times, this music has the capacity to always be in the times.

It's not for nothing that we've been shooting for 37 years.

It's music that comes from the Third World, made of odds and ends, with very simple sounds but which speaks to the whole planet.

Why "dirty character"?

Is that what defines you the best?

Gari Greu: Bad character is to be alive, this Marseillais with the loud verb, who speaks loudly, gives his opinion.

Like the supporters of OM who go up to the Commanderie, and despite the few exactions, it is passion that guides that, that makes them yell.

It is a little the vision that foreigners have of the average Frenchman, who opens his mouth despite all our social achievements made of struggle, always with this capacity to be indignant.

It is a pride to be French for that, a people who are not extinct in the face of capitalism and who still have the capacity to say that they do not agree.

Papet J: We always give the name of the most emblematic song to the album.

This one, Dirty character is more in the line of Massilia, with an 80's rub a dub riddin. And because people with a bad temper, it's nice.

You reuse the auto-tune, so much criticized in your beginnings, and in those of Jul ...

If you want to intellectualize the thing, it's class contempt. Like when Jul posts something with spelling mistakes and everyone's just talking about it, and never mind if he says something brilliant. The auto tune, there is an a priori according to which it would be reserved for the music of underclass, of the lower classes, stupid and which has no taste. If we use it, it's primarily for that, but also because we like it. That metallic effect that we thought was cool. I have a lot of affection for Jul, he did an amazing job with Organized 13, I find it amazing that Organized Band is not the song of the year, that Jul has no music victory. As a Marseillais, that makes us react, it is even more a standard bearer than IAM, it is a child of Massilia.

Papet J: When I was little, we used to say that guys who played electric guitar were not music, older we said guys who scratch that it wasn't music, so the auto tune is not music.

It's annotated as an attribute of popular culture vilified by so-called aesthetes.

How do you see the success of all these Marseillais rappers?

Gari Greu: They are lucky to be in tune with a time when this style catalyzes the public / Their artistic composition is very acceptable, they have their identity as a standard and make all generations dance. It speaks to everyone, it's fun, it brings people together, and it makes you forget your everyday life. This popular, folkloric side, kids listen to Jul, mothers Massilia and grandmothers IAM. It colors the generations and connects them. They did not have a Victoire de la Musique because of centralist and class contempt. All the rappers that came before Jul pumped the Americans, Jul he invented his style. Musicologists will analyze this in 30 years, and they will realize his innovative, original proposal. And it is not legion in this genre, hence the pride.

How do you see Marseille and its developments, the La Plaine site, the renovation of the city center, its growing attractiveness which means that we can hardly go to spend a Sunday at the Goudes?

Marseille comes out of 30 years of inertia with a subjective management, a municipality and a mayor only of its voters. With a city cut in two. Those who have a decent income and who pay taxes and Marseille are forgotten with problems of roads, more culture, the impossibility of finding a doctor. The new municipality arrives in a very complicated context, with competences in the Metropolis. But they speak well with the mouth as they say, it is a humanist municipality, as with their support for the After M. There are citizen aspirations which always make love our city, like the marauding of the supporters. It is our hope, this associative fabric guaranteeing the future. These associations replace the public authorities a lot. This big lack is compensated by the citizens,I want to say by dirty characters who get involved and find the solution.

You are leaving for a few dates this summer, what does that do to you, you who love to tour?

Even if it's picking up, it's not really picking up yet.

The ecosystem is shattered, large groups are buying up concert halls and festivals.

The system was already under attack, the Covid is the final layer.

But it's already not bad, we had planned 20 dates, finally we can do seven. But this summer there will be no distribution of pastaga and farandole, covid requires.

But we want too much, we prepare everything well upstream so that then there is only the pleasure and the meetings.

We have lots of friends all over Europe who will be happy to find Massilia and this fraternity relationship.

It has been sorely lacking for a year and a half.

Finally, have we never needed music so much?

Gari Greu: Yeah of course, this lack of entertainment, outings, meetings. We did not realize this importance in everyday life. We musicians are seen as kind of crazy, originals with a life upside down. It strengthened us in our awareness of the importance we have in the community, this appeasement, this letting go every Friday evening for 2 hours, to share a convivial moment that allows us to let go and which allows us to return to work on Monday. This period brought this to light at all levels, it was a beautiful spiritual experience, there are very few things that we all really experience together, so theoretically it should strengthen cohesion.

Papet J: Usually when things are going badly, we need something to accompany us.

And it's not just about Covid, it's the same when I had heartaches.

I turned on the music, I listened to something sad that made me cry even more.

Music accompanies both good and bad times.

When you remember your childhood, you remember certain music, you associate them, that's the strength of the media.

But it is sure that with this bad move and this not so terrible period, it helps.

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