This interview with the Belgian magazine JazzMania is delightful for capturing Mari’s warmth and vivacity (so evident in her music), and for its title (intimist as in introspective; concerned with inner life and psychological experiences), and for its mention of two lesser-known attributes that I happen to share: un peu français and a Laestadian childhood.
If you know more than un peu français, see the original article. For the rest of us, below is a Googlified English version.
Cue up Amame and enjoy!
24 January 2024
Mari Boine, Intimist
by Yves «JB» Tassin
Always with much emotion in her voice, Mari Boine returned in 2023 with an intimate album to which keyboardist Bugge Wesseltoft brought his delicate touch. She tells us about it and also looks back on a career that is far from over.
After we are introduced, Mari says with a smile:
“Perhaps I could say a few words to you in French. I studied French when I was sixteen and lived in Paris for four years. It’s far from perfect, but I think I can understand and exchange a few words, but let’s always do it in English!” ( laughs )
There are these words in the song “Miha”: “In the darkest darkness, in the deepest pain, where all hope disappears, I was born.” You translated it into the Sámi language. Does this song reflect the painful moments you experienced during your youth?
Mari Boine: Yes, it wasn’t easy. But this song wasn’t specifically written about me. The text was written a while back by a Norwegian singer, Stian Soli, and then translated into Sámi. Some time ago, a man accompanied by a dozen women came to the village and they talked about things that were difficult to hear, things they had experienced, sexual abuse. These were really things we didn’t talk about in our Sámi community. But my youth was also very hard given the very strict conditions of my education, the restrictions imposed by the practice of Christianity within the family.
“When a person like me has the music in them, sooner or later it comes out.”
And in this village in the far north of Norway, how did this desire to sing, play and compose music come to you?
MB: Even if they rejected traditional, popular music, my parents always sang. But they were only Christian hymns. So I grew up that way. For me, it was natural to sing. And when a person like me has the music in him, sooner or later it comes out. I must also thank my two music teachers who taught me music theory and piano. I was lucky to know them.
At that time, folk and rock reached this remote region?
MB: Of course because we had the radio! We weren’t allowed to listen to this kind of program, so we waited until the parents had left to do it in secret! They were really very strict and didn’t want their children to listen to this worldly music!
One could almost call it a cult, to hear you…
MB: Mmhh… it’s not a cult but it’s a “movement” that is nonetheless quite fanatical. We can talk about pietism, a Protestant religious movement. Listening to this music was dangerous, dancing was dangerous. Anything other than Bible reading or Christian singing was dangerous.
You have always ardently defended Sámi culture. You also reject the term “Lapp” which, you say, refers to a kind of colonization…
MB: The region of the far North has always been called “Sápmi”. It must remain so. I think the Sámi culture is a beautiful culture. A culture strongly associated with nature. I think this is one of the essential things that we must preserve now. Our people know how they should function in a natural environment, how to respect nature, it’s in our way of being. The whole world should operate this way right now, because we cannot afford to lose this fight.
Would there be demands for some sort of independence?
MB: Indeed, certain things were going in that direction. Sometimes, this has evolved in the right direction, in terms of education, the right to land, the use of resources. There is a conflict between money and people who want to keep nature intact. But this is also a global observation.
Let’s talk music! ( laughs )
MB: Absolutely!
Are you aware that with this album “Gula Gula” reissued by Peter Gabriel on his label Real World, you helped place Sámi culture on the world map? Did this have an impact afterwards?
MB: It’s obvious that when one is in contact with Peter Gabriel, who is someone so renowned, openings become available to you on a global level. It was a great opportunity to have had him by my side.
You must have been asked this question many times, but how did you meet Peter Gabriel?
MB: I only met him after “Gula Gula” was finished and published in Norway. It was a Dutch journalist, I think, who loved the album so much that he sent it to him and that’s how it also ended up on the Real World label with international distribution. Then I was invited to tour with the Womad Festival and eventually I ended up at Gabriel’s studios in Bath, and that’s where we met. He’s a really good guy. We had some interesting discussions.
“I make my music, it comes from my heart. Rankings are not my problem.”
You’ve only recorded one album for the Real World label. However, even today, we find your albums in the “world music” sections in stores. Do you consider yourself to be making “world music”?
MB: Frankly, I don’t attach importance to being categorized into one style rather than another. I make my music, it comes from my heart and the rankings are not my problem. Many people don’t really know what “world” is, or have never listened to it!
Since the nineties, rock has played an important role in your music…
MB: This is due to the influence exerted by the musicians who play in my group. I’ve always liked to rock and I like to mix different things. A touch of rock, a touch of pop, a little world…
And now here is “piano / voice” —due, it seems, to the pandemic, which prevented you from working with your group.
MB: Yes. We had started working on my new album with my band, which includes two new musicians. This album will be released in 2024. It will also be a beautiful album ( laughs ) but it was difficult at the time to move forward with its production. I asked myself what I was going to do. I concluded that working with just one musician would be much easier, also in exchanging files. I think too that when you only work with one instrument, you can put a lot more nuance into your voice.
Were these songs for the duet album written specially for him?
MB: Some, but it’s true that others had already been recorded. We rearranged them. But I had this desire for a piano-vocal album for some time.
How was the choice of pianist Bugge Wesseltoft made?
MB: Quite simply because I love the way he plays! We had played together some time ago, and he also produced my album “Eight seasons” (original title is “Gävccu Jakhejuogu” – NDT).
He recently released a Christmas album and it’s the most beautiful Christmas record I’ve ever heard!
And for you, is making a Christmas album possible?
MB: Yes, it’s in my plans. One day I will! In a few years. I will write songs in Sami language and I will do some covers! I grew up with these hymns. ( laughs )
“I am a mature woman, an elder now. I’m not trying to look young.”
You recorded “Amame” with the “pope of Nu Jazz.” Yet you asked him to stick to the piano… Could you give us the reasons?
MB: Because Bugge is above all an excellent pianist! I know he’s famous for other things, but it was his desire as well to play the piano only on this duet.
There was a period of five years between the last two albums. Don’t you think that for a singer this is a very long period?
MB: ( Laughs ) I think it’s even more than that, six! But I must tell you that I have become a grandmother. I have two grandchildren and I love spending a lot of time with them! This is important work! ( laughs )
There are many piano/voice albums in jazz. How do you consider yours to stand out from the rest of these albums?
MB: I really don’t know much about jazz. I don’t know how to compose a jazz album! I just wanted an album that sounded like what we did. I know Bugge is a jazz pianist and maybe it was a challenge for him to do something else! You might hear jazz there, but I lean more towards classical music. And a little pop.
In your biography we talk about “the album of maturity”, what is your opinion?
MB: I am a mature woman, an elder now. I’m not trying to “appear young.” I’ve been in music for forty years and it’s a joy for me to share it with young people. I don’t like this society that seems to deny the fact that we are all going to age. Who defines a person as old? You can be close to seventy and still have a young soul. I feel like I am. Not a person who stays seated in an armchair! I can’t imagine thinking “Now I’m old and I can’t listen to groovy music anymore!” » ( laughs ). It’s a myth! We will never become like that, because we grew up with rock and pop. Look at Mick Jagger! And Patti Smith!
We completely agree! ( laughs )
Is there any hope of seeing you in concert in Belgium?
MB: We are planning a European tour for 2024. I have a new agent in Germany and he will find me dates. I still have the energy to do it! Whether with my group or with Bugge! We will see.
“The Sami people know how they should function in a natural environment. It’s our way of being.”
And she leaves us with a “Thank you very much” in French!
Seattle Sámi 