April 18, 2005

INTERVIEWS

THE PEOPLE VS LARRY MALUMA
Interview by Maher Mughrabi
From Inpress Magazine September 27, 2000

LARRY MALUMA's huge in Zambia. He tells MAHER MUGHRABE that It's time to crack the Australian market with his new CD, Roots & Herbs.

Next time you're in a record store, you should give a few CDs a shake. Hear anything? Feel anything? I didn't think so. Strip away all the fancy technology and apply tie 'shake test' and you'Il find most albums come up short.
A lucky few of you, though, might find that your cautious shake is answered with the rattle of seeds and a genfle falling of leaves - in a word, vegetation. Unless the staff have been a little slack on the spring cleaning, chances are you've slumbled upon "Roots & Herbs", the latest album by Larry Maluma.
Larry has been in Australia for 15 years and Roots A Herbs is his seventh album. His own roots are in Zambia, and he draws upon them for Nitandizeeni (Help Me) and Nohito (Work). However most of the album has a universal reggae sound.

So why did you come to Australia?
All the other musicians frorn Zambia were going to Europe or America, but I had a few friends here who told me life was good but there was no world music scene here. That seemed like an opportunity."

And after l5 years?
"Well, you know. Australia is a little backwards on world music, but I think there is still an opportunity. I'm the only African act out here."

The Hemlspheres album ror the Olympic Arts Festival higlilighted a couple of other African acts worklng here, didn't it? Warako Musica, for example?
They've only been here for a year.

And yet they're on a high-profile compilation and you're not
Well, I was busy putting the album together.

Whose Idea was it to put seeds and leaves in the case?
Mine.

Is it true that there's a little herb in there?
No, it's all Just decoration ... there's nothing in there you could use!.

You sing "Roots and herbs are good for you" and that track Junk Food. Do you worry about people's Intake?
·Junk Food is just a little fun tune, I didn't think much about it but ABC radio have been playing that a lot.

Did you know that there was a Primeminister of India who drank his own urine?
What? Why?

Well, some people think it has health-giving properties...Would you consider it?
No,man... only lf l really had to!

ABC radio are playin Junk Food. Any other joy?
Sure, SBS plays the album on their world music program and
Trlple J have played I Am Breathing and Nitandizeeni.'

And the commercials?
I've all but gIven up on them, you know?. You give them five grand, ten grand and they'll play your stuff. I'm an Independant, I don't have that klnd of money. There are so many people In the Industry who want to keep me down... Mushroom Records and all that. You can quote me, I don't give a shit anymore.

How did you end up playing reggae?
We got all sorts on the radio . . . from England. Not only reggae but Black Sabbath, Deep Purple. l am able to fuse what I hear with the African in me. In Zambia I'm a big star. I had a hit wlth a song about drinking back in 1984 which is stiff played now - it's become a 'classic', you know. When I go back it's a really big treat for them.

Nitandizeeni Is a song which tells a story, but on the whole your songs don't do that. Do you think that's a weakness?
I'm not a good story teller . . . but you could say Roots & Herbs is a kind of story, couldn't you?

It has a bit in It, "I am what l am/original" What's original about this album?
Everything Is original! The ariwork is original, I wrote the songs. You know, I'm an independent, but I've put this album out and I could hold it up next to Mick Jagger, John Farnham, anybody. I sold tour or five hundred copies in the first week it was out, with no publicity

You're doing a concert on the 29th ot this month...
"It's my first show for three years.

Why such a long gap?
It's so much hassle . . . I could have supported the Wailers when they were here but I passed. You have to get used to the way musicians work here. In Africa bands are like teams, you play for your team and that's it. Here there is so much fluidity, some record label can hire this drummer to play on their group's record and he's gone from you."

How do you develop your material if not through performance?
"I record on a four-track at home.. . drums, bass, guitar."

Sometimes I think the main problem reggae has these days is this big sound with lots of backing vocals and excess Instruments. Have you thought about recording an album just on the four-track?
I certainly have that in my mind - sometimes the material is even stronger that way, you know? Maybe that's my next CD.

I hope that it is, Larry, and I promise I'm not taking the urine

---

A Slave to the Rhythm
From The Sunday Herald Sun, February 11, 1996
By Kate Welsman

Since coming to Australia in 1985, Larry Malflma has worked consistently to change the perception that all popular music is based around rock and roll. With a string of albums behind him, the Zambian musician is about to launch his latest album, Motion, at Richmond's Corner Hotel on Friday. From Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, in southern Attica, his music is different from what you wouid expect from that part of the world.
"Basically I grew up with Zairean rhythms known as rhuiriba," he said.

"My music is about reclaiming some of the Zamblan rhythms, which are disappearing."

The music he refers to is known as "kalindula", which takes Its name from a one-string bass instrument and consists of lyrical guitar rifts over a pounding bass. Maluma describes his music as a mix of reggae, rank and jazz-andassuchit has great appeal to his community.

"I regularly go home to promote the albums and the people can't get enough of the music," he said.

"I also do a lot of work for the Zambian Union of Musicians ... while the government is committed to playing Zambian music, there is not a system of royalty payments. This means that the youth can't invest in instruments and recording gear. When an artist has to leave the country to be able to record. it becomes an expensive process and we need to be able to invest in Zambians."

Politics aside, the new album is ajoy. Relying heavily on reggae, and singing in four languages, Maluma sings about issues that affect the community and what he describes as "the truths of everyday life".

"I don't consciously think about what I write," he continues. "It just comes to me."
Follow Me To The Hills is an invitation to return to the land, while It's Gonna Be Alright describes living in a country so far from home.