Pro Motion Interviews K’Naan

  • knaan Pro Motion Interviews K’Naan

    K’Naan as I’m sure you are all aware, is the man reponsible for this years World Cup anthem Waving Flag. As was to be expected it has been a monster hit all over the globe. K’Naan is currently on a world tour but he took some time to chat with us this week about his music, this thoughts on the success of Waving Flag and the people he has collaborate with and would like to collaborate with in the future. Listen or read the transcript below.

    K’Naan’s next single Bang Bang that features Adam Levine of Maroon 5 will be released shortly. Look out for it DJs

    Camille: How are you today?

    K’Naan: Good, how are you?

    Camille: Doing good, doing good. What have you been doing recently? Anything exciting?

    K’Naan: I’m on tour. It’s long flights.

    Camille: All over the world?

    K’Naan: Well, I just came in from Tokyo and I’m in British Columbia, so that’s like a day away.

    Camille: What are some of your musical influences?

    K’Naan: A lot of everything, really. I grew up on Somali folk music and then early teenage years I discovered hip hop and later on, kind of got into everything, from folk to reggae music to jazz- that kind of stuff.

    Camille: Very nice. So what do you consider to be the biggest break that you had in music? What got you your start to being recognized for what you do? Is there a particular track?

    K’Naan: It’s hard to say. I mean, for me, my career hasn’t been as a result of one thing or some overnight success, it’s just been a journey and so there’s been different moments that were monumental, from recording my first album to the second album which had the help of a few big name stars, to the moment when “Wavin’ Flag” became the anthem for the World Cup. It’s just been different.

    Pro Motion Interviews K’Naan

    Camille: How did that feel when you were asked to sing the World Cup anthem and subsequently see the success all over the world? As you say, it’s been a huge success this summer. What’s that like for you?

    K’Naan: It’s been amazing. It’s just been great. It’s rewarding to just do the music that you love and that’s personal to you and not necessarily conform to anything and to receive that kind of success.

    Camille: (The World Cup was held in Africa for the first time) as someone that originally is from Somalia, how did that feel to be as a person that was from there, being the person that was responsible for creating the huge theme tune that it was?

    K’Naan: It was just one of those moments you can’t really write in a script. It was really beautiful and very fitting and it was like the “What if?” moments. If all those elements come together- if Africa was really, for the first time in history, hosting the World Cup and I happened to have a song that seemed like it was the most fitting thing for it- it was all perfect.

    Camille: You’ve worked with a lot of people over the last few years- you collaborated with Will.I.Am and Adam Levine’s on the new track- who did you have the best experience working with so far?

    K’Naan: There are different experiences to them. They’re all great. Some are funny to be in the studio with, like Will.I.Am. The music is a consequence of the humor, it’s all just funny the whole time and then you happen to write a song, so that’s a different way of working, then, like, for example, with Damon Albarn of the Gorillaz, who I’ve worked with. He’s kind of like a genius when he’s at work, very much inspired and you can’t extract him from the moment and he’s jumping around to different instruments and he’s just fascinating to watch. Some of the others, like Mos Def or Damian Marley are really close friends and so all of our music stems from conversations while we’re in the studio, just different feelings.

    Camille: Your work in the past has contained a lot of political messages based on your past experiences. Did you ever feel that you encountered any resistance because of that?

    K’Naan: Yeah, of course. I mean, the biggest question still remains, to me, the way I see my music and the way people see it, and I don’t see the politics that other people see. In contrast to popular music that’s on the radio, then you can see why some people say it’s political or something, but the music on it’s own is not so political, the music on it’s own is more humane than political and so that’s one of the things. But of course, with anything new or different, you always get a strong resistance from people. People are more comfortable with you doing what other people do, it’s a sure thing, your efforts won’t be wasted, even the ones who love you have the most resistance because they don’t want to see you waste your talent on something they haven’t seen proven to work and so that was my biggest resistance, but I’m too stubborn to have anything like that affect me.

    Camille: At the moment, are you just focusing on being on tour or are you writing music as you go?

    K’Naan: It’s a different art form, to be honest, writing music and being on tour- it’s really difficult. When you’re on tour, it’s very mundane even though it sounds exciting- it’s airport waits and security and “take your laptop out” and that kind of thing and then you reach the town and you play the show and the cities tend to look the same because it’s all a venue and you go to another city and you’re tired and you want to get some proper food and sleep. That’s kind of really what it is. Creating music, you need time and you need a place and you need to be able to just dream and not worry about the practicalities of life. I’m writing a little but it’s not the way I would like to write.

    Camille: So you’re one of those people that needs to just be in the zone to completely focus on music rather than having to manage other stuff as well? I see. The last thing I wanted to ask you is what do you have coming up for the rest of 2010 besides the tour? Any new tracks coming out?

    K’Naan: Yeah, I’m working on a few things. We still have singles coming out of this album, “Troubadour”. “Bang Bang” now with Adam Levine is out and there will be another follow up after that and more touring. But I’m also on a few other people’s projects that I’m not really mentioning but will come out in the future. It’s all exciting and I’m getting a lot of calls from artists I love who are fans and want to do work together. It’s nice and something to look forward to in the future.

    Camille: Not mentioning any names, exactly as to who you have lined up to work with, just putting out there as if you could collaborate with somebody that you haven’t worked with already, who would you choose?

    K’Naan: Probably Chris Martin from Coldplay. I really like him, but I also like what they do, their band. Something like that would be interesting. Or the Swell Season, I don’t know if you know who the Swell Season are. A great band- a guy from Ireland and a girl from the Czech Republic and they have a band called the Swell Season. Something like that.


    August 26th, 2010 | Admin | No Comments | Tags: , ,

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