![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/mdou_moctar.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe digital age brought with it some fundamental shifts in music industry paradigms. Tuareg guitarist and songwriter Mdou Moctar was a beneficiary of those changes, leveraging them to catapult himself to prominence in his home country of Niger. More than a decade later, he\u2019s signed to an established label and touring the globe with his distinctive music. He\u2019s currently on the road in North America in support of the politically-charged Afrique Victime<\/i>, his first release for Matador Records.<\/p>\n
Moctar owes a debt to smart phones; years before any official release of his music, Moctar\u2019s fans acted as something of a street team, sharing digital audio files of Moctar\u2019s music freely.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t have any control of it at all,\u201d he explains through an interpreter. \u201cThat\u2019s how it\u2019s done in Niger. People didn\u2019t really have access to the internet [in 2008], so [my music audio files] spread amongst people using cell phones.\u201d The approach was a lower-tech equivalent of Napster. \u201cIf someone you don\u2019t even know is listening to music that you like, you can just walk up to them and say, \u2018Wow! I love it! Please send it to me.\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cAnd they\u2019ll do it immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The guitarist\u2019s music draws from Tuareg folk traditions and rhythms, but it doesn\u2019t sound a great deal like what most would consider \u201cworld music.\u201d Moctar\u2019s songs have the power, energy and attitude of rock, but they\u2019re rarely constrained by the rules \u2013 structure, tempo, meter \u2013 that govern most popular rock music in North America or the U.K. Westerners might perceive a psychedelic flavor to his instrumental approach, but that quality might have more to do with its hypnotic, freewheeling nature than anything else.<\/p>\n
Tempos shift in mid-song. An extended guitar solo might be backed by a trance-like, one-chord drone. A loosely conventional melody might follow. And all of that could happen within a single piece of music. \u201cI\u2019m trying to transcribe what I feel deep inside me,\u201d Moctar says, noting that he has no formal musical training. \u201cSo it makes sense for it to sound very strange.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moctar embraces that strangeness. And he notes that his music is perceived the same way, even back in Niger. \u201cI do a few more modern things here and there, but most of the way I play guitar is traditional, using traditional vibrations,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it still sounds odd \u2013 very<\/i> odd, even \u2013 to locals. I know that my music sounds very weird; I love that. I want to be able to exist independently from the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s passionate and outspoken on matters of importance to him, and his lyrics convey that passion. The title track of Afrique Victime<\/i> is the most ready example. \u201cThe lyrics of the song go, \u2018Africa, a victim of so many crimes,\u2019\u201d Moctar explains. \u201cI want to signal how our leaders \u2014 people who are supposed to provide political stability and protect us \u2014 are falling one by one, and the rest of the world isn’t reacting. Situations are getting worse by the day in Africa, and I feel like no one is talking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s rights, religion, and Western exploitation of Africa all figure into the lyrics of Moctar\u2019s original songs. \u201cI\u2019ve been talking about politics since I was a kid,\u201d he says. \u201cI grew up in a region where uranium was being exploited by France, so I did grow up with a hatred in me.\u201d While his earliest music was largely apolitical, by the time of 2017\u2019s Sousoume Tamachek<\/i>, his lyrics had become pointedly topical.<\/p>\n
And he broadened his worldview. \u201cIn the beginning, I was centering more on problems that were mostly impacting the Tuareg community,\u201d Moctar says. \u201cBut then, with age, I understood that that wasn’t the right angle: it wasn’t only Tuareg people who had been oppressed. It really concerned all of Africa, and it was a huge problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if he comes from a family tradition that places emphasis on these weighty topics, he says no. \u201cMy family isn\u2019t really involved with my creative process,\u201d he says, pausing a beat before elaborating. \u201cTo tell you the truth,\u201d Moctar says, \u201cmy family is a little bit afraid of the things I\u2019m [singing about]. They say that I talk too much about colonization, women’s rights, slavery and terrorism. My parents don’t like me bringing these topics up, because they’re afraid for my safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s fair to wonder if Moctar\u2019s messages are getting through: though he is fluent in French and speaks English remarkably well, he chooses to sing all of his songs in his native Tamasheq language. He seems unconcerned that while Western listeners will certainly pick up on the inherent passion in his music, most won\u2019t have a clue what he\u2019s singing about. \u201cI mostly want to get the music<\/i> across,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
For the rest of his message, he relies on journalists. \u201cOne thing that’s evolved in my career is [that] the journalists who are interviewing me help me to say everything I’ve got deep inside me.\u201d Moctar explains that his music is merely the first step in getting his messages across. \u201cMy singing is just a tiny part of what I want to say,\u201d he emphasizes. \u201cThen, if my fans listen to the interviews of me and [read] the articles, they can really understand what my music is about, why I’m a musician, and where I come from. And I\u2019m satisfied with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moctar has mounted several U.S. tours in recent years, growing his fan base by dint of hard work. The pandemic put a temporary pause to his globetrotting, but he\u2019s back on the road now, with many of his U.S. dates \u2014 including a Folk Yeah! show at The Chapel on Sept. 28 \u2014 selling out. His 2022 calendar is already filling up with dates in the U.K. and Europe. And after releasing a succession of albums on Sahel Sounds, a small label focusing on music from West African artists, Moctar recently inked a deal with US-based indie label Matador.<\/p>\n
Taken together, those steps are likely to help Moctar get his messages out. After gaining momentum thanks to cellphone file sharing of the early 21st century, Moctar is poised to take advantage of more modern tools to communicate his concerns. And he\u2019ll keep doing it in the context of heady, unconventional yet alluring music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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