Post by fugees-online on Nov 22, 2005 18:27:06 GMT 1
The Fugees Return Home: We Are a Family, We Fight, But Then We Reconcile!
The return of the Fugees (who will perform here in Italy on Saturday December 10, at the Fila Forum of Assago) has been big news since it was reported. They're first recording in 9 years, Take It Easy, has also been huge news since it's debut, a frenzied 5 minute long recording in which the magnificent three rhyme with great bravura like the old days when the Score was young.
Today, we have the oppurtunity to converse with them. However it's bittersweet, because the most eloquent speaker of the three and perhaps the biggest star of the group, Lauryn Hill, is not present at the interview.
However Clef and Pras still speak candidly. "Take It Easy was a warm up for us. It's like pure hip hop down to the bone, in a crude shape, that can still be listeneable" says Clef and Pras who are now recluses in New York Platinum Sound Studio to complete the work on their long awaited studio recording, heretofore untitled, but tentatively, and hopefully, scheduled to be released early next year.
"The message of Take It Easy was simple: It's a invitation to take things freely and to relax in life, as much as the world around you will allow you, because by taking it easy and looking around, we can see the neighboring world for what it is. Also it was an invitation to reflect on life, and put things into place".
In the nine years since the Score, it has been reported constantly that the interpersonal connections between the three have been strained, complete with controversional and poisonous cutting remarks (a short time ago, Wyclef dedicated the not so friendly "Fake Ass Pras" to his cousin Pras Michel).
The reply to the stories of their controversy and tension is brief and to the point: "We are brothers and sisters. We quarrel, but we are still a family, like any other family. Now that we're back in the studio and are together constantly, we're finding the road home together,".
And what was the road home. Perhaps the familial love of The Score? It was a special CD, even when you listen to it with the ears of today's music tastes.
"The motive and reasoning was simple. The album worked because it was born spontaneously, in a natural and organic environment. It was the product of a special chemical interaction between us three. It is the same now but even better, with the new CD, because now we all have a strong personality, musical background, and very strong spirituality".
Then what about the journalists who, based on Take It Easy, predict the new album will be a return to the roots of the Fugees?
"No, it is not going to be a return to the past. It's an evolution, even though we are the same obviously. It's like, the drum stays the same. Even if it changes it's rhythm, it's still the same drum. That's us. The soul of the Fugees is still the same, but even though we are the same, we have learned so much. We have matured not only as musicians but also as human beings, so how can we return to our roots but ignore our evolution. We're going to both. We're going back home, but we're going as evolved creatures, and our new sound will reflect that, our roots and our evolution. It's impossible to ignore one without the other. You can't see new leaves if your uproot the tree. They both happen simultaneously,".
What should we expect from the new CD, then.
"The typical sound of the Fugees: hip hop, reggae, r&b, soul, rock, the creole element that derives from our haitian origin. A merger of everthing that we are, and what we want to be. We all continue to love and adore Marvin Gaye, and the biggest of them all, Bob Marley and we want to continue on the same road they set. When we found ourselves together, it immediately bred a positive energy (positive vibration). And that's the reason we decided to do an immediate tour in Europe".
So how will the concert be? "We will have with us, a live band, of probably about ten or more musicians. WE WILL DO NEW PIECES and well known pieces. It's gonna be music to dance to, as well as intimate and more personal acoustic music. Above all we will be right there with the people, trying to create an atmosphere of intimacy even in ten thousand seat arenas. The people will be a part of the show. And above all this, we got the best singer of all time, Lauryn Hill".
Although they have been welcomed back with open arms (last year they did a suprise show at Dave Chappelle's Block part, documented on film) it stands to see how much space there is for the Fugees in the future, since the three took different roads and seperated. Is there still a chance for the to succeed after nine years away as a group, and after all three have dissapeared in their solo careers?
But Clef and Pras are hopeful. "We aren't worried about the past or that. The sole thing that matters is that today we are full of concentration on the group, we are full of energy, and we expect to be successful in Europe".
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
free translation of an italian NEWSPAPER interview with THE FUGEES - thanks to Sybille, LBoogie (Laurynet.com) and Terrence aka PhilosopherSelah who did the translation.
original article (italian): www.rockol.it/news.php?idnews=74674
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The return of the Fugees (who will perform here in Italy on Saturday December 10, at the Fila Forum of Assago) has been big news since it was reported. They're first recording in 9 years, Take It Easy, has also been huge news since it's debut, a frenzied 5 minute long recording in which the magnificent three rhyme with great bravura like the old days when the Score was young.
Today, we have the oppurtunity to converse with them. However it's bittersweet, because the most eloquent speaker of the three and perhaps the biggest star of the group, Lauryn Hill, is not present at the interview.
However Clef and Pras still speak candidly. "Take It Easy was a warm up for us. It's like pure hip hop down to the bone, in a crude shape, that can still be listeneable" says Clef and Pras who are now recluses in New York Platinum Sound Studio to complete the work on their long awaited studio recording, heretofore untitled, but tentatively, and hopefully, scheduled to be released early next year.
"The message of Take It Easy was simple: It's a invitation to take things freely and to relax in life, as much as the world around you will allow you, because by taking it easy and looking around, we can see the neighboring world for what it is. Also it was an invitation to reflect on life, and put things into place".
In the nine years since the Score, it has been reported constantly that the interpersonal connections between the three have been strained, complete with controversional and poisonous cutting remarks (a short time ago, Wyclef dedicated the not so friendly "Fake Ass Pras" to his cousin Pras Michel).
The reply to the stories of their controversy and tension is brief and to the point: "We are brothers and sisters. We quarrel, but we are still a family, like any other family. Now that we're back in the studio and are together constantly, we're finding the road home together,".
And what was the road home. Perhaps the familial love of The Score? It was a special CD, even when you listen to it with the ears of today's music tastes.
"The motive and reasoning was simple. The album worked because it was born spontaneously, in a natural and organic environment. It was the product of a special chemical interaction between us three. It is the same now but even better, with the new CD, because now we all have a strong personality, musical background, and very strong spirituality".
Then what about the journalists who, based on Take It Easy, predict the new album will be a return to the roots of the Fugees?
"No, it is not going to be a return to the past. It's an evolution, even though we are the same obviously. It's like, the drum stays the same. Even if it changes it's rhythm, it's still the same drum. That's us. The soul of the Fugees is still the same, but even though we are the same, we have learned so much. We have matured not only as musicians but also as human beings, so how can we return to our roots but ignore our evolution. We're going to both. We're going back home, but we're going as evolved creatures, and our new sound will reflect that, our roots and our evolution. It's impossible to ignore one without the other. You can't see new leaves if your uproot the tree. They both happen simultaneously,".
What should we expect from the new CD, then.
"The typical sound of the Fugees: hip hop, reggae, r&b, soul, rock, the creole element that derives from our haitian origin. A merger of everthing that we are, and what we want to be. We all continue to love and adore Marvin Gaye, and the biggest of them all, Bob Marley and we want to continue on the same road they set. When we found ourselves together, it immediately bred a positive energy (positive vibration). And that's the reason we decided to do an immediate tour in Europe".
So how will the concert be? "We will have with us, a live band, of probably about ten or more musicians. WE WILL DO NEW PIECES and well known pieces. It's gonna be music to dance to, as well as intimate and more personal acoustic music. Above all we will be right there with the people, trying to create an atmosphere of intimacy even in ten thousand seat arenas. The people will be a part of the show. And above all this, we got the best singer of all time, Lauryn Hill".
Although they have been welcomed back with open arms (last year they did a suprise show at Dave Chappelle's Block part, documented on film) it stands to see how much space there is for the Fugees in the future, since the three took different roads and seperated. Is there still a chance for the to succeed after nine years away as a group, and after all three have dissapeared in their solo careers?
But Clef and Pras are hopeful. "We aren't worried about the past or that. The sole thing that matters is that today we are full of concentration on the group, we are full of energy, and we expect to be successful in Europe".
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
free translation of an italian NEWSPAPER interview with THE FUGEES - thanks to Sybille, LBoogie (Laurynet.com) and Terrence aka PhilosopherSelah who did the translation.
original article (italian): www.rockol.it/news.php?idnews=74674
------------------------------------------------------------------------
