The Bear interviews Irie Revoltes/ Entrevue avec l'ours et Irie Révoltés

The first song I ever heard by Irie Revoltes was "Il Est La." After that, I went out and bought the albums... And I have been hooked ever since. Irie Revoltes is a ska/hiphop/reggae/whatever-they-feel-like group from Europe made up of nine very talented and nice guys who just have fun with their music- what's better than that? They're pretty big in Europe, but I'm sad to say that they haven't made it over to America yet.. But hell, who wants to be in America, anyway? ;) They're extremely politically charged, both in their actions and their lyrics. But most of all, they just sound great! This interview is both in english and french... Because I originally did this interview in french, so sorry to any other languages. (Desole, il n'y a pas d'accents. J'ai un clavier americain.)


 Vous considerez-vous plus associes avec la culture francaise, ou la culture allemande?/Do you consider yourselves more associated with French culture or German culture?

MAL ELEVE: Aucune. :-) Je me voi comme habitant du monde./I see myself as a habitant of the Earth.

Quelle a ete votre experience preferee avec le groupe?/What has been your favorite experience with the group?

MAL ELEVE: Il y en a plusieurs... pour moi chaque concert est une experience formidable et surtout les concerts de solidarite pour des campagnes antiracistes par exemples. ca, pour moi c'est des experiences que je n'oublierais jamais!!!/There are several... For me, every concert is a wonderful experience. Especially the solidarity concerts for anti-racist campaigns. That, for me, are the experiences I'll never forget.

CARLITO: La meilleure experience avec le groupe avait ete jouer au sein de G8 et voir la foule enorme dansent les flics loin a traverse notre musique./ The best experience with the group had to have been to play at the anti G8 and to see the enormous crowd dance the cops away through our music.

Avez-vous commence avec neuf membres, ou avez-vous ajoute depuis le debut?/ Have you always had nine members, or have you added since the beginning?

MAL ELEVE: Le groupe a debute avec 4 personnes. Mais tres rapidement, les autres membres nous ont joint./The group started with four people. But very quickly, the other members joined us.

Votre musique est influencee par de nombreux genres- diriez-vous d'ecouter plus ska ou le hip-hop?/Your music is influenced by many genres- do you listen to more ska or hip-hop?

MAL ELEVE: Au fait, chaqu' un de nous ecoute lui meme un autre genre de musique et cela fait que notre musique est influence des differents styles./ In fact, every one of us himself listens to another genre of music and this makes our music influenced by these different styles.

CARLITO: Oui, il ya beaucoup d'influences dans notre musique, du ska, hip-hop, reggae, punk rock, et plus encore. Personnellement, je viens du hip hop et R&B./ Yes, there are a lot of influences in our music, from ska to hip-hop to reggae to punk rock and many more. Personally,. I come from hip-hop and R&B.

Pourquoi avez-vous choisi de melanger les jamaicains et francais en votre nom?/Why did you choose to mix Jamaican and French in your name? (PS: Irie is the Jamaican word for good, being happy, higher self, all is well, ETC. Revoltes is the French word for rebels.)

MAL ELEVE: Honnetement, le jamaiquain c'est parce qu' a l'epoque on aimaient bien le Reggae- et c'est le Reggae aussi qui a quand-meme le plus influence notre musique- et le Français c'etait simplement car mon frere et moi on a choisi de chanter en français au lieu en Allemand./ Honestly, the Jamaican, it is because because that was the time we REALLY liked reggae- and it is also reggae who has influenced our music the most- and the the French was simply because my brother and me chose to sing in French instead of German.

CARLITO: Le melange de francais et de la jamaiquain dans le nom est montrer le melange de la bande est tout au sujet. Nous sommes irie et se revoltons avec ce sentiment plutot que d'etre deprimes par tout le merde dans la monde. Nous melangons les styles musicaux et des langues aussi. Meme dans nos paroles, qui sont surtout de nature politique, mais nous faisons aussi des chansons d'amour. Vous comprenez ce que je veux dire? C'est Irie Revoltes! /The mix of Jamaican and French in thename is to show the mix the band is all about. We are irie and do revolt with that feeling rather than be depressed by all the shit happening in our world. We mix musical styles and also languages. Even in our lyrics which are mostly political but we also do have love songs. You understand what I mean? That's Irie Revoltes!

Quelle est la chanson que vous avez le plus de plaisir avec?/What is the song you have the most fun with?

MAL ELEVE: C'est pas facile et je ne veut pas eviter les questions, mais je ne pourrais pas dire une seule. Mais en live je pense que c'est « Rebelles », « Ska » et « Antifaschist »/ It's not easy and I don't want to avoid questions, but I couldn't tell one. But live, I think that it's "Rebels," "Ska," and "Antifascist."

CARLITO: Il n'y a pas de chanson nous preferons en particulier. Il y a differents evidence pour chaque membre, je suppose. Mes sont «Explosion » et «Il Est La » pour le moment./ There is no song we prefer particularly. There are different highlights for each member I guess. Mine are "Explosion" and "It is" at the moment.

Asterix et Obelix, ou Iznogoud? :) (Asterix and Obelix, or Iznogoud?)

MAL ELEVE: Idefix. :)/ Dogmatix :) (English explanation: Asterix et Obeliex and Iznogoud are two french cartoons. Idefix is Obelix's dog. Idefix, means dogmatix, which is a pun on the word idee fixe, meaning an obsession. Idefix.)

J'adore, Irie! Merci! 

-Bear