Welcome to this seminar. My name is John Gradval. I'm a Swedish music journalist.
And it's an honor to have here and to introduce Mr. Tony Allen.
I know you have been doing choralong music with Damon Alban from Blör.
And Blör did a song, Music is my Raider, I think, where one of the lines for Tony Allen got me dancing.
Did you hear that Blör song then?
Well, he did that when I never even met him. I never saw him before. That was it.
I said, this Blör guy is from rock. I mean, relating to Afrobeat, me making him dancing.
When I looked at it, I said, well, that's great.
But that's why I invited him when I was recording my album, Home Cooking.
And you recorded it in Legos, yeah?
Yes. The album was recorded in Paris, Legos, ended up in London.
I was looking for, I was using guests, different guests on this album.
And the last track was, who is going to sing this last track?
We were in London trying to do the mix.
And those producers, they just suggested Damon.
Why not Damon?
They said, Damon, why?
They said, it's a song about you making him dance.
So, we had a meeting at the pub.
I had some food drinks and they asked me, do you want me to sing on your album?
I said, yeah. And then we went to Nigeria, we went to Legos.
So you, Damon Alban and Paul Simonon, from the clash?
No, not yet.
So, we have gone to Legos to record the whole album.
And because we have used many guests in Legos.
At the end of the day, the whole band will become like a 20 piece band.
So, we finished the music.
He just called me, he said, oh no, 20.
He said, I don't think we are going to use this project.
He said, we are not going to use it.
So, we just wasted the money for everything like that.
He said, no, not really.
He said, we should start to rewrite more.
To bring the band down to a small group.
There are some bass players that play a lot.
He wanted somebody that is not going to play a lot.
Somebody that can just hold it down, make it strong.
And then, that's when we tried different bass players.
He went to dig out Paul Simonon.
Paul had stopped playing 15 years.
He was just painting.
He was just painting in the house.
He never touched the bass anymore.
He brought him to the studio.
He said, let's work with this guy.
Paul Simonon from Clash.
It was difficult for Paul in the beginning to play with me.
My drumming is kind of different.
My approach is different.
I have to sit down with him.
I know why you have problems.
I said, don't think about it.
Just listen to yourself.
Don't listen to me.
I said, then we can get it done.
Had you listened to Clash before that you had any relation to the music?
No, really, not really.
I just know Joe Stroma.
I know Joe Stroma himself in the studio with Dave Stewart.
He was passing in the studio and he says from Clash.
They were not playing anymore at that time.
I gave him my white label album, which is that home cooking.
I gave him the vinyl.
He died just a few months later.
I met Paul for the first time in the studio.
I started to listen to Clash.
I listened to your No Discrimination album from 1979.
The same year as Clash and Elon called it.
Not that part with the lyrics and this melting pot of music.
You had something very in common on different continents.
I have been thinking about doing my music that way.
I was not able to do that with Fella producing my album.
It wouldn't do anything I asked for.
My intention is to not play like him.
I want to have my way of playing my alphabet.
You told me right now you are working again with Damon Albon
and Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, next month.
This album is going to be out next month.
We have a few guests on it.
Basically, three of us, Damon, me and Flea.
I think it's called Rocket, Juice and the Moon.
Any explanation behind the name?
I don't know.
It's Damon, I was asking him.
Where did you get this from?
He just told me.
It's Rocket, Juice and the Moon.
Who is Rocket?
I said who is the juice and who is the moon there?
I remember the good, the bad and the queen.
I always mentioned that the good, that's you.
I said the bad is me.
I said so, the queen is who is the queen.
I said it's Simon and Simon Tung.
We make jokes.
So this time around, Rocket, Juice and the Moon.
I don't know where we are anymore.
