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Artist Interviews
Q&A: Knaan
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 29 June 2010
Born Keinan Abdi Warsame, K’Naan is a Somali-Canadian poet, rapper and singer-songwriter. Born in Somalia, he moved to New York when he was 13, and then onto Toronto where he began rapping. Through his friendship with Canadian hip hop label man Sol Guy, K’Naan got to perform at the UN’s 50th anniversary concert in 1999, and there he came to the attention of Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour, who invited the young rapper to contribute to his 2001 album ‘Building Bridges’.
As interest in K’Naan grew, he released his own debut album -‘The Dusty Foot Philosopher’ – in Canada in 2005, and subsequently toured with the likes of Mos Def and Talib Kweli. Despite enjoying plenty of success and winning lots of awards in North America over the years, it is via his hit single ‘Wavin Flag’, which was used in Coke’s World Cup advertising campaign, that he has come to global attention. With that in mind, his 2009 album ‘Troubadour’ is this week re-released in the form of a ‘Champions Edition’. We caught up with the man himself to ask the Same Six..
Q1 How did you start out making music?
I guess my first songs were written just after I learned the English language, and they were written for personal reasons, mainly to retrack my life and rewrite the stories that had happened, in rhythm, in melody.
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
The usual, you know, humanity, day to day things, life, mum, Somalia.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
There isn’t a process as such. Other than paying attention to whatever is happening at the moment. Sometimes I will come up with a melody first, but sometimes it will be chords before the melody, or even just a sentence, or a phrase. I’ll be like “this phrase is beautiful” and then want to unravel that and write a song about it.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
Plenty of artists influence my work but none outright. There’s not really anybody I listen to and say “oh, okay, I’m going to write a song because I listened to so-and-so”. But there are quite a few artists who I just love and respect, from Nina Simone to Bob Dylan to Fela Cuti to Mos Def.
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
I would say play it loud, and I would prefer it if you listen to it through headphones, but if you can’t then play it in the car. I prefer the headphones because I think it’s nice that it should be in your head. When you use headphones you bring the music close to you, so you get to feel something more from that experience. When you are driving, because of the motion, it makes music more of an experience too.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
I’m trying to write the best music I’ve ever written, and then write music better than that. That’s kind of my ambition.
MORE>> www.knaanmusic.com
