Name: Koum Tara
Members: Karim Maurice (piano, production), Mohamed Hamam (vocals, mandole, banjo, darbouka, bendir), Brice Berrerd (double bass), Kamal Mazouni (cajón, derbouka, bendir, percussion)
Interviewee: Karim Maurice
Nationality: French
Current release: Koum Tara's new studio album Baraaim El-louz is out via Ondradek.
Recommendations:
Music: Rite of spring, Igor Stravinsky.
Book: Possibilities (Herbie Hancock Biography)
Paint: The Persistence of  Memory (Salvador Dali)

If you enjoyed this Koum Tara interview and would like to keep up to date with the band and their music, visit Karim Maurice's official homepage. The band are also on Facebook.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

When I listen to music, I mainly feel emotions.

If my eyes are open, feelings go through me. If my eyes are closed, those feelings come with a range of colours or light, from black to white, leaning towards golden. The colours are linked to music notes, keys and modalities.

What were your very first steps in music like and how would you rate the gains made through experience - can one train/learn being an artist?

My taste for music comes from my grandfather who used to play several instruments. He would play pieces to me, he helped me discover classical works and would record tape of classical music for me. Then I started studying music at a very young age, percussion first then piano.

I remember that when I had my first piano, even before starting to study it properly and have lessons, I would play tunes that I liked and compose some new ones. That’s how I got a taste for composing music.

There is today a bit of a romantic vision behind the word “artist”, which comes from the 19th century. But it wasn’t always this way: before, the word artist was more corporative and less passionate, stemming from a common root with the word artisan: someone who keeps at his task tirelessly, seeking perfection through hard work.

I believe that anything can be learned, but we don’t all have the same predispositions. In sport for example, some will have great natural abilities where others will have to work harder.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

I was 12 when I created my first band. Music was for me a space of creative freedom and more importantly, something I could share with my friends as we dreamed of doing concerts and tours like the bands we liked.

What is different for me today is that the dream has become a reality and a job I love doing.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and what motivates you to create?

First, I enjoy creating an atmosphere which will evolve in the musical time, a scenario, a certain colorimetry, just like in a film. Then, I like mixing, to surprise the listener and avoid him being able to predict what’s coming next in the piece of music. In that purpose, the atmosphere has to evolve in a wide range of aesthetics with different writing techniques I like to combine.

What I love in the creative process is to be able to imagine, build, express myself and convey emotions.

To quote a question by the great Bruce Duffie: When you come up with a musical idea, have you created the idea or have you discovered the idea?

I don’t know, this question is hard to answer. I would say it’s a bit of both: sometimes an idea can stem from a mistake, a musical accident!

Paul Simon said “the way that I listen to my own records is not for the chords or the lyrics - my first impression is of the overall sound.” What's your own take on that and how would you define your personal sound?

I believe that the way to listen one’s own creation depends on the timing, the period during which we listen to the piece. Therefore, this listening evolves.

Personally, first I listen with the ear of a producer, who will screen every tiny detail, from the smallest aspect to the overall sound, and this throughout the whole production process.

Once the album is released, I fuss less about the details and I focus more on the overall sound whilst appreciating the work achieved. And it is only a long time later, once I have forgotten all the details, that I will be able to listen to the album freely, carelessly.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

I believe that all is frequency and rhythm, rhythm being a punctuation of time. Therefore any sound, determined or undetermined, is a music: a cow mooing, a car driving by, a train, etc …

To me, the only limits are certain frequencies or volumes which are aggressive for the human ear.

From very deep/high/loud/quiet sounds to very long/short/simple/complex compositions - are there extremes in music you feel drawn to and what response do they elicit?

I am not sure to understand what you mean by extremes in music. I believe that different styles can really elicit some conflicting feelings, strong and assertive.

I do love diversity in feelings, I don’t mind even the toughest ones. They carry me through a wide range of emotions, just like our existence, a reflection of our humanity conditioned by sounds in a given time.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of one of your pieces, live performances or albums that's particularly dear to you, please?

I will use this new album by Koum Tara to describe my creative process. The idea was to go as far as possible in the writing process, based on the experience of the first album. The aim was to build a musical universe around the chaâbi music style to attempt to take the audience towards surprising and unexpected atmospheres.

To achieve this, I focused and worked first on climates, the scenario and the atmosphere of the scenes. Then I worked on the characters and the musical dialogues in time.

Finally, I worked on the direction, performing live then recording in studio. So “shooting” as it were, then editing and sound mixing where I tried to polish the details to take further the desired atmosphere created by the musical production.
 
Do you conduct “experiments” or make use of scientific insights when you're making music?

Experimentations? Yes, all the time.

Scientific ideas, no, I don’t think so. But I do consider music as a science!

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

During my studies in writing and orchestration, one of my greatest teachers told me once, regarding a composition, that music was a great school of life: one couldn’t have everything and had to make choices. He was saying this regarding how to handle a form in time.

I spend a lot of time making music but I don’t know how this reflects on my life, or if music is a reflection of my way of living!

Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

I believe learning how to make a good cup of coffee takes less time nonetheless!

Every time I listen to "Albedo 0.39" by Vangelis, I choke up. But the lyrics are made up of nothing but numbers and values. Do you, too, have a song or piece of music that affects you in a way that you can't explain?

No, I don’t think so.

If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

I wish for new emotions, I wish to keep on creating and having a passionate taste about the creative process.