Currently on tour to defend their latest album Shikantaza, Chinese Man claims an identity of its own that the band has been defending for more than 10 years now.
Scouring stages around the world for more than a decade, the Chinese Man group is only on its second album. After Racing With The Sun, the Chinese man has just released Shikantaza which means in Zen culture "sitting" or "posed". Posé, Sly, High Ku and Zé Mateo certainly are. The Marseille trio took all their time to compose this album, locked in their bunker in the Ardèche. They have nevertheless released a record with sounds from all over the world coupled with exceptional featurings. JustFocus met Sly and High Ku at the Natural Games extreme sports festival in Millau. The opportunity for them to talk about their way of composing, their new live but also the pride of having set up an independent label, Chinese Man Records, for more than 10 years now.
In February your album Shikantaza was released, what does that mean?
Sly: It's a mediation posture that simply means "sitting."
High Ku : We often choose the name of our albums from one of the songs. It was not obvious for Shikantaza, we wondered if people would remember this name. We hesitated with Escape. We liked both in the idea. We made a first point with Julien Loïs and, at the end of this meeting, we had not really decided on the name. Except that Julien, as often, after a day or two, had forgotten the end of the discussion and for him it was Shikantaza. We, in the meantime, had stopped on Escape. Eventually it was found that Shikantaza's reach was stronger. Then it was more in line with our attitude to everything that was going on. We thought it was good for people to ask themselves a little, as for us.
It's only your second album, what prompted you to compose it?
Sly: It goes back to the name of the album. On Groove Session Vol.3, we did a lot of hip-hop songs with MCs. We wondered if we still knew how to make instrumental music like we did in the beginning. We said to ourselves "let's sit down, let's go to the Ardèche in our landmark and see what happens". It wasn't necessarily to make an album, only to make songs. It turns out that one piece led to another. And then it was fun to be like at the beginning: the three of us with our record bins, our keyboards, and having fun making music without really calculating. We ended up making an album.
How do you compose in your "bunker" in Ardèche?
High Ku: In the band, everyone's role has changed a bit compared to the time of the first album. Sly was on the computer a lot, Mathieu and I a lot on the turntables and Sly and Mathieu a little on the keyboards. In the meantime, Mathieu and I got on the computer. As a result, the three could intervene and have a greater interaction when there was one that was blocked. Being able to tour, to move on allowed us to produce this album much easier than Racing With The Sun. It's been a while since we've done titles like that, making weird delusions. There, we tried without any idea beforehand what we were going to do. It's a more instinctive album.
And then we had ass. Mathieu's cousin found records in his cellar that were a completely crazy collection in which we took 75% of the samples of the album. In addition to the samples that corresponded, in the same atmosphere. I think pretty quickly, we thought we had the basis of the album in our hands. The songs were 1'30 but we knew we had the material. And then we took a lot of time. We started more than two years before the first sounds. We were never speed, until mastering. It's the first time we've done a project like this. It's the album at the right time that we wanted to make with a logical continuation but a real evolution for us.
You registered it in India. What did you play and sample?
Sly: That's what we like: if you listen to the album, it's hard to say what was sampled and what was played. There, we recorded a lot of percussion, zither, violin, etc. Our desire was for all this to mix while remaining coherent.
Are there any special samples?
High Ku: Shikantanza's voices are African. If you pass them in 45 laps, you will recognize them better. The pitch gives a manga side. After that, there are two records that we sampled twice for Wolf and Modern Slave. It's an unlikely record called "ambient music" by a French artist, except that the guy is super strong and he didn't do that. This is often the case, guys do crazy intros and then they are forced to do what they were asked to do and the song becomes disgusting. On Goodnight and Stone Cold where we sampled Harry Soulman who is a pianist who covered standards of American songs from movies but it's super hard to recognize the original. We had these five pieces that formed a fairly coherent whole.
You also have featurings that are out of the ordinary with Malala Yousafzai, Nobel Peace Prize winner or the artist Alejandro Jodorowsky. How did this happen?
Sly: That's pretty crazy. We first did the song (Warrior NDRL) and we wanted to have a special intro. It turns out that this speech was very touching and it stuck with the universe of the piece. We put it on thinking that we would never have the opportunity to use it. Finally, UNICEF gave us gracious permission. It was the first time we asked them that and they validated the thing. When you have the artist you are sampling who validates the song, you are very happy.
For Alejandro, Matéo went to see him in Paris. He met his wife for a film project that has little to do with Chinese Man. We're big fans of him and we asked him if he felt like doing an intro of a few words. We wrote him the text and he accepted. He had never lent his voice to musicians.
How did you organize your new live? What will you play?
High Ku: Mostly songs from the new album and a lot of references to the old songs. After, we quickly detached ourselves for this new live saying that we have some imposed things, some old ones that we want to do but the canvas of the live is clearly the new album. So, you have to find a way to play these pieces that are not necessarily all easy to play, there are quiet games before fast games. Fortunately we have both the MCs who help us, all the scenography with a real set that allows us to have a show aspect, especially for quieter parts, that people can watch and listen at the same time. And then the videos take over a little because we also want to play quiet songs, we do not want to fall into something where it is the fair from beginning to end. That's not what I want to see in concert. We want intensity that is all the more highlighted by quiet moments that we assume.
Are there any new artists coming to the Chinese Man Reccords label? How do you find them?
Sly: At the moment there are no new artists planned. All the bands and musicians we have on the label, we met them. Humanly, musically something happened. Even if between Scratch Bandit Crew and Taiwan MC you have the impression that it's a big musical gap, in the end we are all of the same generation, we all have the same influences. There is a common point in our sounds. We get demos but we have to meet people for it to work. Deluxe, we found them in Aix-en-Provence, they played in the street. They started with live and we saw right away that there was potential. And then it matched.
High Ku: We like to take developing artists, show them the way and the means to do it.
What is the Chinese Man Records touch that brings you all together?
Sly: It's hard to say… I think the common point is the music that influenced us: dub, reggae, hip-hop. After each artist has his vision of these styles.
High Ku: The common point is Chinese Man. Having created the label before creating the band, somewhere it was a label that, like our music, was destined to go from black music to bass music. As long as it can fit into our DJ set playlists, it's okay. Naturally, we are focused on projects closer to our universe.
Your label has been independent for 12 years now, did you think you would go this far?
Sly: Not at all, our first and only ambition at the beginning was to release a vinyl. It was a fantasy we'd had for a long time. The three of us put a little bit of thunes to release our EP to 500 copies. At best, we could have done a second one but we never imagined that it would end like this. And then over 10 years, it was very progressive, we did not immediately realize the relative size of the project. We all had a job on the side, it was a hobby, a passion.
How do you fit into this family?
Sly: We're kind of big brothers
High Ku: These are different situations depending on the group. We don't have an official posture. Some will be more in demand for advice while Deluxe has its thing that is done. We are there to help people but we do not impose anything in general. As a matter of principle, we listen to the album before it comes out on the label but we trust people enough to let them work.
What is your relationship with vinyl?
Sly: We like the object and the sound that is particular. I think it's a generational thing, we didn't discover music with vinyl but for us it went together, especially when you're a DJ. In this environment, it has value. And also because the visual side is super important. For Julien Loïs who makes our covers, it is a great medium to express himself. You artwork differently than on a plastic CD. We are attached to the physical object and what it evokes: reggae, dub, sound system, hip-hop. It is the symbol that we like.
What will happen next for you? A new album in perspective?
Sly: We're slow (laughs). There, we know that we have a little while with this live and we still want to defend the album. It will be done but everything comes logically. Next year, we're going to tour a lot abroad so we won't have time to produce much but an EP or a free project because it's been a long time since we did. No big recording project, not right away anyway.
High Ku: You have to love it, it's the best time!
Interview by Martin Roucoules and Louis Rayssac
