Flashmag September 2020 www.flashmag.net
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Guillaume Ajavon
When the Album came out, were you hoping for the worldwide success this Album will have?
Honestly, when the first album came out, I was more focused on France, because I had focused everything on France, publishers, distributors, tours… in France unfortunately it didn't work as we would have thought. But the big surprise was Cameroon. When the cassettes came out and the videos too, we sent them to a distributor who himself did not really believe in it because it was different and we ourselves were afraid, we said to ourselves the Cameroonians are going to trash us [laughs] so we were afraid. It went beyond our expectation ... it proved you can succeed to reach people with acoustic songs
You worked with Canal + on the show “Nulle part ailleurs” (Nowhere Else) at the end of the 90s. What this television experience brought to your vision of art?
It made me feel better in the idea, that you have to be professional. If it feels like we are having fun on TV, in fact behind it, there is a lot of work. A pivotal time. The teamwork was very friendly. Antoine de Caunes, the show’s host star , was a very nice guy, who also loved music; and as they invited artists from all over the world when they needed a percussionist they often called me. And I also understood the work of the camera. Besides, I was a reference, the most watched show in France at the time.
How do you reconcile the professions of producer and artist musician? even if it stays in the same environment it seems difficult to do both at the same time?
It's very difficult, I understood it better when I stopped working with Henri. Even if there are successes people do not understand, that there is not always money. Investments do not always immediately produce profits. Especially in the days when large recording studios were used. Nowadays, Success all the same, means making an artist known. And then with Henri Dikongué, we also had to show that we can work together between Cameroonians, and do something productive ...