Watcha Clan to bring world music to MCLA

By John E. Mitchell

Posted: 09/28/2009 02:49:58 AM EDT

North Adams Transcript

NORTH ADAMS -- Watcha Clan brings the new and old together with diverse influences in order to create the musical sound of unity. The idea is to revive sounds that aren’t actually dead, just in a form of suspended animation.

The Marseilles, France-based band -- consisting of singer Sista K, keyboardist Suprem Clem, bass player Matt La Bess and guitarist Nassim -- will perform Wednesday at 8 p.m. in the Venable Hall gymnasium at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

"We found that world music is not something that you put in a museum saying, ‘This is traditional; this is the way that people used to do music,’ " Clem said during an interview last week. "No, it’s a living music. So for us, it’s very important to show that we can mix this music with modern beats -- with hip-hop, with reggae, with drum and bass -- so people from all generations, from very young people to older, can dance, so you can have world music in a club and on the radio."

Clem says the band’s major goal is to make world music something for real people and not just stodgy intellectuals attending museum recitals. It’s a movement that has been sweeping Europe, with bands and DJs providing sounds that audiences flock to.

"When you go to Algeria, for example, you see that young rappers and young MCs sample traditional music and make it live again," Clem said. "It was incredible because there was a real mix of generations, but we rearrange it in a house beat, and they were all dancing without a problem."

One of Watcha Clan’s biggest inspirations is its hometown of Marseilles -- a port city with the second largest population in France -- which has served as the biggest port of entry for the country’s millions of immigrants in the last few decades. Culturally, Marseilles has grown into a melting pot with fragrances that flavor the air for everyone living there.

"When you live in Marseilles, you know a lot of African people, a Spanish guy, [people] from Greece, [people] from Turkey," Clem said, "So you’re inspired by the city because you hear a lot of music there, and you have a lot of inspiration from the city.

"When you live in Marseilles, you have to be open-minded and to mix on that, because it’s in your city and your street."

The band members’ own backgrounds reflect this. Sista K is the child of a Jewish barber from Algeria married to a Lithuanian girl -- she got her start in music performing reggae and Afro-beat. La Bess is originally from Corsica -- he came out the blues and jazz scene there. Guitarist Nassim is the newest addition to the band -- an Algerian immigrant who lives in Paris on a student visa.

Clem originally played keyboard in a ska/punk band with his brother -- now the band’s manager -- and has a background in classical and jazz. However, he has moved heavily into electronic music since the formation of Watcha Clan. Nowadays on stage, it’s just as likely to see him wielding a sampling laptop as an accordion.

Songs often begin in Sista K’s head, with Clem joining in on the composition and building it up.

"She often has a melody in her head or a text that she wrote, and I try to rearrange it with my computer, with samples on top," Clem said.

The songwriting collaboration always leads to a process of experimentation that utilizes a swirl of traditional samples and techno sounds.

"Sometimes it’s, ‘OK, I like this song from the traditional Jewish culture or Algerian heritage’ and we say, ‘OK, how can we rearrange it?’ " Clem said. "Sometimes it takes four or five versions of each track to find the good way. So we try the hip-hop or dub way or jungle way. We remix ourselves all the time -- it’s the way we work."

The band shapes its sound in a home studio, recording and working on tracks constantly, but travel has also become an integral part of its work and central to the process through which the band created its last album, "Diaspora Hi Fi."

"When we went to Algeria, we recorded some parts, some percussion, some strings, some things," Clem said, "and then we came back to Marseilles and mixed all that together and then did all sorts of voice. So it’s very independent, and the home studio makes it possible."

It was on their 2008 tour in support of that album that they made new connections that would make their latest album, "Diaspora Remixed," possible.

"We toured in something like 20 countries, and we met a lot of DJs and producers that are in the same scene as us -- the global beat scene, which mixes electro and traditional music," Clem said. "These guys were really interested in our job, and we also found their job very nice, and so, after more than 20 countries in Europe, Eastern Europe and even America, we had something like 15 people saying, ‘OK, I’d like to remix this track or this track.’ At the end, we said, ‘OK, we have enough people to start this project.’ "

The album brought the band even further out of home territory and propelled its message of cross-generational and cultural unity.

"We’re very proud of this project, because it shows that we can all be together," Clem said. "There’s people that come from Greece, from Serbia, from New York City, London -- it’s all over the world."

The band is currently on tour in the United States and soaking up sounds the same way its members do in Europe. They’ve met a few rappers on the streets who have impressed them, as well as other musicians. Making musical connections is part of the job for Watcha Clan members, and even they don’t know where things might lead.

"What we did for the previous album was we went to Morocco and Algeria to really work with musicians," Clem said. "We spent two weeks playing with them -- with some traditional players like an ood player, plus young rappers, young MCs. We also did that in Spain and, of course, when we travel in Eastern Europe, we meet some people, like some Balkan gypsy brass.

"That’s part of our music -- to explore -- and then after that, we try to build something and work with it. So maybe we can do that in the United States."

Watcha Clan can be found online at www.watchaclan.com.