RFI Musique: What motivated you to work on two completely separate albums released so close together?
Gino Sitson: The last two albums I made were divided into an a cappella section and an orchestrated section. This time round, I decided I wanted to work on two completely separate projects. Way To Go is my way of presenting the quartet I've been playing with since I arrived in New York nine years ago now. I could have done exactly the same thing with a bunch of guest musicians, of course, but this is me saying "OK, this is actually what you're going to hear if you come and see me in concert." The a cappella project is something I've been working on for fifteen years now. On Listen I've chosen to blend my own vocals with other singers' which is something I've never done before.

Did you draw on different sources of inspiration for Listen and Way To Go?
I think these albums are essentially two different ways of shaping material inspired by the same thing. What I'm basically drawing on is my roots - specifically western Cameroon and Africa in general. My roots are there on both albums, completely natural and visible. I never set out to draw on my roots because I never want to be labelled as a Cameroonian musician. I prefer for people to think of me as someone from Cameroon who happens to play music. I've immersed myself in all sorts of different musical universes over the years and I'd be hard pushed to put a label on what I do. Some musicians have even told me that my music sounds like Bach!

Have you been able to put what you learnt during your ethnomusicology studies into practice in your work?
I used to be really into American music when I was younger. When I was fifteen all I wanted was to be like Marvin Gaye. It got to the point where everyone took to calling me Marvin Sitson! But studying ethnomusicology changed all that. It made me want to delve into my own culture. My studies also helped me to feel comfortable playing a broad range of musical styles. I've reached a point now where I like to stop myself from thinking too much otherwise things become too cerebral, too abstract. The idea is to stay completely raw and natural, but arrange things in a subtle way so that it sounds smooth and easy.

What triggered your move into singing?
When I was around thirteen or fourteen I was a drummer in this band. We wanted to do a song by Marvin Gaye but the singer didn't know the words, so the other guys asked me if I'd sing it instead. I said OK but I was actually really nervous about the whole thing. Singing means you have to lay yourself bare. Anyway, I sang that song and got a taste for being behind the mike. I think I wanted to feel like I existed in the etymological sense of the term - you know, like breaking outside of myself! Maybe I had a bit of a predisposition for it, too. I was certainly surrounded by music from an early age. My mother used to sing all day long and my brother played the flute. Me and my little brother - who also turned out to be a musician - would go round banging out a rhythm on any old thing…

And why do you think you've adopted such an instrumental approach to vocals?
I wanted to work on the voice as an instrument in a different way from anything people had heard before, you know, not necessarily have this beautiful voice backed by a full string orchestra. When I'm over in Cameroon people say, "Oh, you only sing? You don't play guitar?" But maybe the guitar just can't technically do what I do with my voice - or, if it can, it can't do it as fast!

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 Listen to an extract from Way to Go

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