Daks : So Tatiana, do you have other artists other than Haroun? T. de Ricard : Yes, we have another artist called Charlie Is Ready, she is neo-soul, R&B. She mixes a lot of genres. She has an EP coming out as well. Charlie’s music is now available on streaming platforms with her new single “Bun The City”, which is about the gentrification of South-East London. The music video is coming out soon. We are releasing all the music initially on Spotify and Apple Music. We’d love to press vinyls of course, but we are at the beginning stages financially, so we can’t really afford to do that right now. But hopefully in the future. Daks : It’s always cool to have your music on vinyl! T. de Ricard : So we have her and another jazz, neo-soul group in Paris. They are just recording their music at the moment. But as yet, no name! And I am making music as well and that will be released later this year. Daks : And that’s electronic music? T. de Ricard : It’s Drum and Bass. Daks : Excellent! So it sounds like you have a lot going on. Spinning the plates. I want to talk to Haroun a little about his music, his musical journey. Do you want to tell us a little bit about your background and where you are from? H. Yamou : I was born in Chicago, but I was adopted by my mother who is from New York and my father is from Morocco, but they lived in Paris. Daks : And your father is an artist? H. Yamou : Yes, he’s a painter sculptor and my mother is a book editor, so it was already a pretty creative family that I was in. My parents always pushed me to be creative, and think they saw that I was not a very scholarly individual so they were never really against me just going for the whole creative thing.
Daks : So in terms of musical influences what were you listening to growing up? H. Yamou : My dad likes a lot of Miles Davis and John Coltrane and my mom likes either classical music or a lot of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitgerald, and Louis Armstrong. I also used to watch a lot of the old musicals on TV: Funny Face, Singing in the Rain, Meet me in St Louis, Guys and Dolls. Daks : The classics! And in terms of your musical tastes, what do you listen to now? H. Yamou : Well there’s D’Angelo, Marvin Gaye, Eryka Badu, Kendrick Lamar. Daks : So, quite a mellow vibe? H. Yamou : Yes, but then I like a lot of rappers like Lil Kim and Megan thee Stallion. Daks : That makes sense, because a lot of your music that I’ve heard, you have a rap going on with your mellow groove. H. Yamou : People tell me my rap is really old school. Like, very nineties. Which is normal, because that’s what I am listening to. I. Fevrier : One thing that I think is really interesting about the label itself, it’s not about a specific genre. They are releasing music that makes people happy and makes people dance. Also, I think that with our generation we have such an array of accessibility to all types of music. We’re not picky! We can listen to country or to rap; we can listen to classical music. Daks : A lot of record labels try and channel artists into what they want them to be. T. de Ricard : They want them to fit a mold. H. Yamou : The artists that I like the most manage to blend everything and you can tell they just have a love for music. Daks : Let’s talk a little about some of the songs that you have
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