Page 42 - IB April 2021

Culture

ROYALTIES AND RESPECT

MANGROVE MUSIC’S ALAIN LECANTE ON PACIFIC MUSIC

By Rowena Singh Kanéka like: Bwanjep, Mexem (Edou’s original band), Gurejele
(Dick & Hnatr original band), Vamaley, Jemaa, Nodeak,” says
“The shape of the Pacific music industry has changed drasti- Lecante. “These (pioneers of Kanéka) for me started it all and
cally over the last decade,” says Alain Lecante, Mangrove the success was immediate, it was like the people were wait-
Productions music producer in a heart-to-heart with Islands ing for this sound.”
Business. “Another thing was the challenge to make this music sound
“The main thing is that there are no more producers like because we didn’t have any references: it was not rock, soul,
before, in the way that the record labels used to work, like reggae, any sound which we could get inspired of. We actually
financing and promoting recording projects, helping the art- had to create a sound. That was the most exciting part of it in
ists organising their tours, videos etc.,” says Lecante. “Now those times (the 90’s) as a sound guy.”
artists have to do everything themselves. Incomes also have And how are Pacific artists faring in a time of COVID?
changed, it’s not coming anymore from CD sales, it’s now Lecante says they are gigging at home, and that the role of
mainly gigs, rights (for the artists registered in a copyright royalty-collecting bodies such as the Fiji Performing Rights As-
society), and digital sales. For those well organised, merchan- sociation, SACENC in New Caledonia and the French Polynesia
dising can help as well.” branch of the SACEM is critical.
Lecante says that the Internet has also significantly trans- “Mangrove could not still be here without SACENC. They are
formed the Pacific music industry. doing a good job tracing and collecting rights wherever they
“In a good way because any artist can have his or her music are.”
listened to anywhere in the planet through the Internet,” says “It’s very sad to see that many countries don’t have any
Lecante. “The bad way is because it killed the CD sales which [licensing and royalty bodies]. I would consider this like a lack
used to be a good part of income for both producers and art- of respect for their artists. Here, we fought for many years to
ists.” install one.”
Lecante has worked with a wide range of Pacific artists over Lecante says that his favourite project is always his most
the years; Sharzy, DMP, Edou, Black Rose, Justin Wellington, recent one.
Small Jam, to name a few. He says his work with Indigenous “That one is an album we released last year with Edou
Pacific artists performing in their Indigenous languages was which we recorded in South Africa (prior to the virus thing)
influenced by his own upbringing and life in Morocco, Algeria with Thuthukani Cele, Lucky Dube’s keyboard player who is
and the Caribbean. a close friend of ours,” says Lecante. “It was a very exciting
Fijian band Rosiloa (previously Black Rose), was one of his experience. This project saw also a documentary telling the
success stories. friendship between Edou and Thuthu. So the whole thing was
“I knew the Black Rose since they started as a covers a great project we worked on throughout three years.”
band. I had the idea of their actual sound when listening to Lecante continues to work with local artists and is also
a traditional song they did, “Raude Meke”, so I involved a working with Ugandan artist Papa Cidy, who has a Pacific fol-
French producer/arranger, David Le Roy, to do it and then he lowing.
was the one who slowly shaped the Black Rose sound to what
it became. One of my best producer’s experience as we were editor@islandsbusiness.com
fully creating something with the boys and we never expected
that success! Ask the boys about their show in Marrakech,
Morocco!”
Lecante has also worked with Kanak artists performing in
the Kanéka genre, established in the eighties as a fusion of
world and popular music and assertion of Kanak identity.
“A lot of people here see Mangrove as the label who helped
Kanéka to become the music of the Kanak people and also
who helped it to go beyond the reef,” says Lecante.
“The creation of Kanéka came when Jean-Marie Tjibaou
asked the artists to create their own music. In this way,
Kanéka is different music from other music because it was
actually created a bit like a search and stand-up for Kanak
identity, with the base of traditional rhythms. It soon became
a loudspeaker for the Kanak artists and people in political and
social ways.”
“I could say that I have worked with the “pioneers” of Edou, Dave Segal (Lucky Dube sound engineer), Alain Thuthu in Durban.
Photo: Supplied
42 Islands Business, April 2021