The soundtrack to a revolution: interview with Asian Dub Foundation

February 26, 2011
Issue 
Asian Dub Foundation, with Chandrasonic, centre
Asian Dub Foundation, with Chandrasonic, centre.

A History of Now
Asian Dub Foundation
www.asiandubfoundation.com

The artwork for A History of Now, the new album from Asian Dub Foundation (ADF), is a set of iPhone apps.

But instead of Apple鈥檚 tame applications, the band of British-born Indian genre benders have invented their own parodies.

A typical one, named 鈥淚nstigator鈥, features a burning bottle and the instruction: 鈥淪tuck for a weapon while protesting against government cuts? Let 鈥業nstigator鈥 turn your phone into an instant Molotov cocktail!鈥

It鈥檚 clear that since they began as a London community music project to fight racism in the early 1990s, ADF have lost none of their incendiary fire.

Hardly surprising, then, that when the band鈥檚 seventh studio album was released just as the protests began to build against Egypt鈥檚 president Hosni Mubarak, someone edited news footage of the revolt to the album鈥檚 title track and stuck it on YouTube.

The video, which set ADF鈥檚 brittle shards of guitar and searing eastern strings to images of hurled tear gas canisters and bloodied revolutionaries, built a following to rival the crowds in Cairo鈥檚 Tahrir Square.

鈥淭he song itself is about information overload,鈥 guitarist and band leader Steve Chandra Sevale 鈥 better known as Chandrasonic 鈥 tells 麻豆传媒 Weekly.

鈥淏ut its rhythm and sound seemed to go very well with the images and thus the song鈥檚 meaning was changed. I love that!鈥

Not that the band aren鈥檛 well-versed in the Middle East. They have written and toured a live soundtrack to the classic Algerian anti-imperialist film The Battle of Algiers.

They have also composed an opera about Libya鈥檚 Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, which they performed with the English National Opera.

Chandrasonic has even hosted his own Al Jazeera TV series, Music of Resistance, showcasing musicians who fight repression.

This eclecticism has ensured ADF have never lost their relevance. Yet they have never compromised their unique sound to do so 鈥 even when they started out by embracing the rattling snares and fractured breakbeats of the nascent jungle scene.

鈥淲ell, our take on jungle was hardly generic then,鈥 says Chandrasonic, who earned his stage name through his unconventional habit of detuning all his guitar strings to one note and playing the instrument with a knife.

鈥淭here was no jungle act that used live dub bass, echoey post-punk guitar and Indian sounds at the time.鈥

For the same reason, they鈥檙e now keen to avoid any generic dubstep sound.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a bit of a herd mentality about dubstep at the moment,鈥 says Chandrasonic. 鈥淲e often nod to new ideas coming from the clubs, but we don鈥檛 let it swallow us.鈥

Perhaps because they manage to fuse so many different elements, ADF have never sounded fused to any particular time. Nor have they ever wanted to be 鈥 musically or politically.

鈥淣one of the songs are about the 鈥榩olitical situation right now鈥,鈥 says Chandrasonic, who bristles at the band鈥檚 鈥減olitical鈥 tag.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e not news reports and I wouldn鈥檛 want them to be. I hope they will transcend the transient, though I do like it when people interpret the songs in their own way.

鈥淥ne journalist asked me whether 鈥楾his Land is not for Sale鈥 is about the [British] Coalition鈥檚 proposed sell-off of the forests. No it wasn鈥檛, but you鈥檙e welcome to think it is.鈥

One of ADF鈥檚 apps, labelled 鈥淶apata鈥, explains the true meaning of 鈥淭his Land is not for Sale鈥.

鈥淚t鈥檚 based around the land rights issue in Mexico,鈥 says the blurb for the app. 鈥淟ast year we were honoured to play a very special show in Mexico after which we met a delegation from the peoples鈥 front for the defence of the land, including a woman whose husband was one of the 12 political prisoners from the Atenco land struggle.鈥

In the Atenco land struggle, people fought against the government鈥檚 plans to build a new airport on their lands, and in response were met with rape, killings and imprisonment.

鈥淭he delegation we met gave us an audio recording of a very powerful speech about Atenco, and this became the backbone of the track.鈥

The result is unlike anything ADF have produced before, adding a childlike, chanting charm to their energetic edge.

But the band have sung about indigenous rights before 鈥 one of their best-known songs, 鈥淣axalite鈥, is a raging battle cry for the persecuted tribal warriors of north-east India.

They therefore have few illusions about the situation in Australia.

鈥淭he crimes against Indigenous people in Australia are on a par, and even surpass if that鈥檚 possible, the crimes of the apartheid regime of South Africa,鈥 says Chandrasonic.

鈥淚 remember being sick to my stomach the first time I went to Australia about it, just by watching the TV. I鈥檓 sure the happy-go-lucky, 鈥榤atey鈥 Australian self-image is a psychological construct that makes these crimes more palatable in popular culture.鈥

Other Indian visitors to our shores have been equally, if not more, offended.

Indian students contribute up to $4 billion to Australia鈥檚 economy, but a report in January this year said the number of Indians studying in Australian universities had fallen 30% after last year鈥檚 spate of violent attacks against them.

鈥淭hat is one vile statistic,鈥 says Chandrasonic.

But are things in Britain getting any better?

鈥淲hen we started it was easy,鈥 he says. 鈥淵ou could spot the racists and they hated you. Easy to see the enemy.

鈥淣ow it鈥檚 not so easy 鈥 Islamophobia, various versions of multiculturalism, two vicious wars, the criminalisation of asylum-seekers, blaming immigrants from eastern Europe for unemployment.

鈥淚 feel that, yes, my own personal experience is racism has improved 鈥 but have things improved overall? Maybe not.鈥

British Prime Minister David Cameron鈥檚 speech on February 5, in which he said Britain鈥檚 promotion of multiculturalism was helping promote terrorism, hardly helped.

鈥淭he equation of multiculturalism with 鈥榟ome-grown鈥 terrorism is ignorant, dangerous and wrong,鈥 says Chandrasonic.

鈥淭he war in Iraq, failure to find a resolution in Palestine, the US funding Bin Laden in Afghanistan 鈥 a whole host of deep geopolitical causes underlie the rise of radical Islam, not whether a local school celebrates Eid or Xmas.

鈥淭he effect of his speech? The thugs of the far right will reduce it to making Muslims the enemy within. And of course he made no mention of the increasing preponderance of divisive faith schools, which he supports.鈥

Cameron and his austerity-cutting ilk come in for another kicking on one of the highlights of the new album, an explosive, pogo-ing ska anthem about the bankers鈥 bailout.

The song, titled 鈥淲here has all the Money Gone鈥, asks, mockingly: 鈥淚s it down the back of the world鈥檚 biggest sofa?鈥

It may jest, yet it seems Cameron has fooled the British public into thinking the money has vanished and the poor are to blame for the country鈥檚 debt.

Chandrasonic is more hopeful.

鈥淗e鈥檚 certainly convinced people that cuts need to be made,鈥 he says. 鈥淏ut when they start to bite, he won鈥檛 be convincing many people for long.鈥

Another of ADF鈥檚 apps shows rather less hope for the future. The 鈥淲eather鈥 icon shows a sinking Statue of Liberty.

Does Chandrasonic feel preventing climate change has become a lost cause?

鈥淚t鈥檚 certainly feeling that way,鈥 he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 getting to the point where the debate has been reduced to obscure fact jousting between those funded by the state and those by corporates. It鈥檚 such a grand abstract that it鈥檚 very difficult for people to internalise.

鈥淚 think the environmental movement is in danger of being derailed altogether by this. I myself would prioritise more concrete stuff 鈥 deforestation, species destruction, overfishing.

鈥淢ost people respond to stuff like that, not obscure debates about temperature.鈥

ADF, no strangers to pushing the boundaries of technology in their music, know the technology already exists that could save the world. But, as Chandrasonic points out, it鈥檚 all down to who holds the power to use it.

鈥淚f you read the projections at the beginning of the last century, the time we鈥檙e in now was supposed to be a time of leisure 鈥 jetpacks, robot cleaners, holidays on Mars,鈥 he says.

鈥淲hat happened to that? Technology is ultimately neutral. Its development and implementation can only reflect the powers that be.鈥

Yet, as ever, he is optimistic.
鈥淲ho knows where this technology is going to take us 鈥 and reshape us,鈥 he says. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 not just a question for the privileged West.

鈥淚 have seen first-hand how mobile phones are changing the lives of nomadic peoples in Mali 鈥 for the better, on the whole.鈥

Which explains all those refreshingly radical iPhone apps.

[Mat Ward鈥檚 full, unedited Q&A with Chandrasonic - in which he talks more about the new album, its apps and his unease with ADF's "political" tag - can be read at聽Soundtrack to a revolution: interview with Asian Dub Foundation's Chandrasonic.]

Video:聽The title track from Asian Dub Foundation鈥檚 new album 鈥楢 History of Now鈥 put to footage and images of the Egyptian revolution. EGYPT REVOLUTION - TUNISIA REVOLUTION THE HISTORY OF NOW.聽.

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