2 of my favourite Belgian musicians on one track.

Baloji tapped dEUS’ Tom Barman to lay down some vocals on the remix of his latest single “Le Jour d’Après (Indépendance cha cha)”. Who knew Tommie was harbouringa tad of Gainsbourg?!

Faisons un pas de deux!

Update: download the track here.

 

How well do you know Tom’s music?

Baloji : My older brothers were playing “In A Bar, Under The Sea”, but for me it really started with “The Ideal Crash” and that amazing video they shot at Café d’Anvers (ed. Instant Street)

Have you and Tom met before? 

Baloji : Yes, we met at a party for the brand “Marcel de Bruxelles” last year and we’ve seen each other at the Gent Blue Note Festival a couple of times.

What image did you have of him before you actually met?

I thought he looked a bit snobby and jaded, but I was wrong : he’s smart, friendly and madly talented.

Do dEUS have fans in Africa, that you know of?

I don’t think so, but I do think “The Architect “ deserves a Buraka Som Systema remix!

What’s your favourite dEUS song?

They made history with “Instant Street” , but for me personally it’s hard to choose between “Wake Me Up Before I Sleep” and “Little Arithmetics”.

Where you confident that Tom would agree to do the collaboration? 

Well, it never hurts to ask. He answered my phone call and we booked the session in less than three days.

Did he know about your music?

Yeah, a little. But I know that Tim Vanhamel and Stef Kamil Carlens are more into my stuff than Tom.

Did you talk about music before/during the recording? Records that you both like, stuff like that?

We talked a bit about the great crooners, tropical music and French chanson but we mostly discussed “Couleur Café” the “percussion” album of Serge Gainsbourg that we used as an influence for Tom’s part of the song.

Was there a specific track you asked Tom to listen to?

I played him “Ces Petits Riens”, one of my favourite songs on that album.

You recorded the remix version in dEUS’ Vantage Point studio. Was there anybody else around?

Klaas Janszoons and CJ Bolland. I got to pre-listen some heavy Magnus tracks!

What was it like, working with Tom?

It took us three hours to lay down the track: choosing the lyrics and finding the right melody took us a while. But all in all it was a really chill session.

Tom sings in Lingala, too. How did that come about?

I wanted it to sound more traditional and CJ Bolland liked the idea a lot and he pushed tom to give it a go! Lingala is such a melodic language so it worked out great.I

Any plans on performing the song together? 

Yes, we might do a TV performance real soon.

Tom is working on the new Magnus album. Did you talk about doing a remix with you as an MC? 

Yes, we did!  Butthey are finishing the new dEUS LP first. I did get to hear some new Magnus tracks and they sounded great.

If you could remix/rework any dEUS or Magnus song, which one would that be? (Why?)

They have this song with a Charles Mingus sample on “In A Bar, Under The Sea”  (”Theme From Turnpike”) that’s screaming for MPC drums. I think I could cook up something for “Roses” or “Nothing Really Ends “ as well…

More Baloji here

Lyrics :

Indepance chacha tozui e
Indépendance cha cha le jour d’apres
O Kimpwanza chacha tubakidi
Indepance chacha tozui e
Indepance chacha tozui e
Indépendance cha cha le jour d’apres
O Kimpwanza chacha tubakidi
Indepance chacha tozui e

Faisons un pas de deux
ou un pas de côté
trouvons un juste milieu
l’envie prend le pas sur les idées

Des hommes d’apparat
ou des hommes d’appareil
ils se couvrent d’embarras
ça ne sera plus jamais pareil

mais qu’est ce qu’il va rester
après les cortèges et les sermons
les accolades et les postures ?

perspective de renaissance
après l’air de la repantence
entre la nuit et le clair obscur

La multitude d’origines
Autant d’éthnies que de coutumes
N’empêche le partage d’aspiration commune

Indepance chacha tozui e
Independance cha cha le jour d’apres
O Kimpwanza chacha tubakidi
Indepance chacha tozui e
Indepance chacha tozui e
Independance cha cha le jour d’apres
O Kimpwanza chacha tubakidi
Indepance chacha tozui e

Les promesses de lendemain, les promesses de l’aube
d’un état souverain où le sol se dérobe
entre milices et rebelles, pillages et recels
peuples que l’on déplace comme des cheptels
de parcelle en parcelle
de gouvernance en tutelle
l’état de droit est essentiel
à nos ethnies unies au pluriel
effet papillon, effet tampon
car ici on change l’or en plomb
la révolution au bout du vote
la force du nombre est l’antidote
pour changer la dette en dotte
autant de droits que de devoirs
plus de points de convergence
que de divergence
oublier l’idée d’état providence

j’ai repris cette chanson fédératrice
symbole de la crédulité de nos prémices
entre indépendance et armistice
mais pour que nos démocraties progressent
faut qu’elle apprennent de leurs erreurs de jeunesse
mon pays est un continent émergent
bâti en moins de 50 ans

tango ya indépendance,sima ya indépendance
yebisa nga nini yango é  changer
toza ko rond point,toza kozinda
suka suka toza kozonga sima