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| (c) Sarrah Danziger |
RG: How do you like being in France?
Leyla McCalla: I like it a lot. It's very
different culturally than
a lot of other places I
get to travel to.
I feel very well taken
care of here. The social and political climate is a little bit
intimidating here, globally too
these days; it's a little bit heavy.
But otherwise I like being here.
RG: There are a couple of French
songs on the record. How close do you feel to French
culture?
Leyla: I feel closer
to the French
language
than I
do to the French
culture. Through colonization French
has spread through parts of Africa, the West Indies and parts of the
United States. And other places as
well but those are the places where
I’ve been and to
where I feel connected. There is
something about French
that is really captivating, just sonically. To have grown up around a
lot of people speaking Creole
and to sort of connect with
what the French
language
is and to what the Creole
language
is and why. It's very interesting to me as well.
RG: You were raised in the
United States of
Haïtian heritage. Listening to the
record I
feel as though
you're constantly
searching for your
inner self. Was it hard to find a place to belong?
Leyla: In some ways yes. But in a lot of ways and
in the way I live my life I've been following my intuition and my gut
feeling that have
kind of led me down a very
unorthodox path. And I realize that my sense of home may not be
because I am always on the go and I'm always searching and that's a
part of being an artist and a touring musician. And now to be doing
it with my family, I think it just changes
my sense of what home is. Rather than being difficult to find a place
to call
home it was difficult to establish exactly
what that meant
to me.
RG: What is your definition of home?
Leyla: That is the hardest question on the
interview (smile). I guess home is where you feel comfortable. Living
the way I
have been living and now raising a daughter and having my family on
the road with me
means that in my sense home is where
I
am. It's something I'm
learning to establish wherever I happen
to be. Not necessarily in one place.
Because as soon as I start to get too comfortable in one place, it
starts to get boring. But I think that home in general is a place
where you can be yourself.
RG: How did it feel
when you went to New Orleans the very first time?
Leyla: I felt like it was a big tourist trap. I
was very disenchanted, very
disconnected. The second time I went I was committed to staying
for a month. I was playing in the streets and I met these women in
New York who invited me to play in New Orleans with them. I was with
my bicycle and my cello and I felt the scent of freedom and magic. I
fell in love with the city. I went back one more time and that is
when I decided - I'm
gonna move here. I wanna be in New Orleans, there is something there
that is really calling me. A part of that was the music. It was such
a contrast from how I had
been living in New York. To be self-sustaining as a musician had been
one of my goals for a long time. I felt like it was actually possible
in New Orleans. In New York it was like a battle. I felt like I had
to do a
lot of other jobs in order to continue to afford to play music. And
that felt very unbalanced to me. I've had a lot of different feelings
about the city especially since it changed so much since I moved
there in 2010. Gentrification.
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| (c) Sarrah Danziger |
RG: What
comparison would you draw
between New Orleans and your Haïtian
heritage?
Leyla: Haïti and the Haïtian revolution had a
big influence on New Orleans culture and also political power in the
West Indies, the United States and Europe. That is
why I do my work to try to understand why that goes unrecognized.
New Orleans has
inherited a
lot of things in terms of the
language
and the food:
the spices, the rice, the cooking techniques. I'm sure Haïtian music
had a big influence on the creation of jazz. The movement of the
banjo from the West Indies to United States is
an example. We like to say New
Orleans is the birthplace of jazz but we don't ask ourselves, what is
jazz?
Where did that come
from and what does it mean?.
I think we like to think about history in a tunnel vision kind of
way. When really there are
a lot of different factors that come
together in order to create change, to create culture. I feel New
Orleans is a big example of the effect Haïti had on global history.
RG: How did you fit into
the local scene?
Leyla: In some ways I fit in
very well and
in some ways I didn’t.
I was a classical cellist and I was making a living playing classical
music on the streets when I first lived there. I wasn't totally in
the jazz scene. I fit in because there are so many people passionate
about music and in New Orleans, music is a part of every gathering,
every party, every show. Everything. There is always music around. I
think that is something I wanted my whole life.
RG: There are a few traditional
songs on the album. Are roots important to you?
Leyla: Yes.
RG: I think of it as some form
of soul searching…
Leyla: It's a little bit of both. It's a little
bit about looking back and kind of understanding
heritage and roots, history and the
origin of things. And in another way
it's very much trying to understand my place and my role in it all.
RG: The album title « A day for the hunter a
day for the prey » is coming from an Haitian
proverb...
Leyla: It means a lot of different things to me.
In one way you can hear it as every dog has it's day. In another way
it's a day for the oppressor and a day for the oppressed. That felt
more in line with what we're seeing in the world today and a lot of
things happening in history. That title came from a book that I've
read about music and power in politics in Haïti throughout the
twentieth century. The book is about the
coup d'état and troubles in Haïti
where reflected in music and how music was used as a tool for a
political party’s
propoganda. On top of that there are
issues about immigration, refugees, prisoners, people fleeing
violence or persecution. That title came from all the research I did
about Louisiana, Haïti, the
United States and France and the
intersection between all those places. The title became the umbrella
for this album. All things
fit with
this title. It made sense with that feeling of helplessness or
hopelessness. There is a lot of dichotomy in that title. I found it
very interesting.
RG: This all
seems very heavy but on the other
hand the music
itself is uplifting…
Leyla : Music is a such a great tool to be
uplifted by.
Spiritually. That's what I am doing with my music and hopefully
that's what people are feeling while listening to
it.
RG: In my opinion, there is a
sort of timelessness quality to this album. How do you bring a fresh
look to the traditional songs?
Leyla: I have fresh eyes (laughs)! Some of the
traditional songs were written sometimes decades before I was even
born. I was a teenager in the nineties and I graduated from College
almost ten years ago now. I'm pretty young compared to a lot of these
songs. And the world and my experience is very different than the
world that shaped those songs. When you put those things together
it's inevitable that something different and new is going to happen.
Also I play the cello so everything is designed with my « cello
mind ». My arrangements are designed with that in mind all the
time too. I don't know how I do it. I am amazed (laughs).
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| (c) Sarrah Danziger |
RG: That is where the magic lies…
Leyla (laughs): I really care about the music
and how it's presented in the way that people can receive it. What is
the best way to present this song? That is really what I am thinking
about the whole time.
RG: We're going through some dark times right now
and the world is a pretty violent place. Do you think music can bring
healing in some way?
Leyla: I think music has an important role,
certainly, in society right now. And there is definitely a lot of
healing to do. I'm not sure about curing though, because even the
music industry is completely sick you know (laughs). To me, having
business be around
music sounds like a spiritual paradox. That is not what my music is
about but I need to eat and pay for my mortgage. I am pretty sure
that is not what your question is about but I kind of
feel that
there is this capitalism underneath
everything and then you have to create more and do more. It's always
more, more, more and there is nothing that is ever
enough - especially
in American culture. Maybe it's different in France, or maybe not. I
see the same things
walking down the boulevard, it's all big brand names and everything
is on sale. We've had
to get rid of our stock in order to get more stuff. How do you create
healing in a society that is so intend on consumption.
I think that what I am interested in is creating something that is
consumable as an emotional and spiritual tool. Maybe my label and
people around me are like: « You've got to become a
star and do this and that so we can make a lot of money ». I
think that is clearly not what it's all about. So there is a bit of a
conflict there, for a musician. Even for me. It's not like I'm in big
business like Madonna or something. I do wonder about it.
I guess we all have choices and we can make good choices about how we
produce and release our music. And things we talk about in our songs
and that is what I am focused on. The positive choices I can make.
Because it all feels very much like the world is waiting to swallow
you whole
and take everything they want from you and squeeze all the good out.
Leave you mentally, physically and
spiritually exhausted. And I think this is now the risk for a
musician. How to regenerate oneself
without breaking down.
RG: And you need that in order to create…
Leyla: Exactly. You have to create that for
yourself in order to share it. You can't just only be relying
on what people want
you to do. It has to come from inside at some level. It will be
interesting to see what will happen in the world. It is a really sad,
sad moment in history. We were supposed to play the Nice jazz
festival that was our first date on this tour. That was that morning
right after the big tragedy in Nice. Some people were worried about
us and showed
some concern. What can I say about the people that were there?
Clearly we need to be talking about these things more and this is why
I do the music that I do. I believe that things can be better. But it
takes more than writing a few songs. You can change people's hearts.
We need our politicians, and people who are representing us and
making decisions to be interested in inspiring people and changing
their hearts. It can't be just musicians alone.
Interview 22nd July 2016.
Many thanks to Angela Randall !!!!
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