RFI Musique: On the track 20th Birthday, you sing about your childhood dream, one that led to you becoming Meiway. How did zoblazo come about, back in 1989?
Meiway: In the eighties, Abidjan was a real hub of African music, but Ivorians tended to listen to foreign music: soukouss, makossa, etc. We needed to take our Ivorian music outside our borders. Going into the studio, my idea was to revolutionise the music of my country. With my arranger at the time, Bamba Yang, we used rhythms from my region, Grand-Bassam, and added some ingredients from elsewhere to concoct a compelling hybrid form of music. Today, wherever I go, people always think that what I play comes from the place I’m visiting. It’s a good way to go about things, I think.

What is special about the music from Grand-Bassam?
First, we have the tom-toms we use for the Abissa, which is a dance that that celebrates the new year. Another factor is that Grand-Bassam is a town where the colonists arrived. So we were the first to get to know modern instruments, in particular brass instruments. I was very inspired by brass bands when I was trying to create zoblazo. And then on top of that I added fuzzy guitar, bass, drums and synths to give a more international feel to my music.

Which African, European or international artists do you feel you’ve drawn from?
Musically, I didn’t follow any particular movement, I created a type of music that hadn’t existed before. With the lyrics, on the other hand, I was inspired by the “loudmouths” of African music, like Fela Kuti or Pierre Akendengue. As for the voice, from a very young age I was enthralled by an Ivorian virtuoso with a very soul-oriented voice, called Bailly Spinto. He was very much ahead of his times.

Have the "faroteurs" and the whole coupé-décalé movement taken a lot from you?
Until 1994, I was the only one making popular urban music in Côte d’Ivoire. And then a generation came along who drew on the country’s musical heritage to create different music genres. On a train, behind the engine there are always a lot of coaches, which is where I’d put today’s "faroteurs". They are like the "descendants" of Meiway, but today we’re making Ivorian music all together, and I’m very proud of what we’re doing.

You’ve made light-hearted songs out of some very serious material – I’m thinking of La prudencia, a war dance where the dancers dodge imaginary bullets…
At the time, Côte d’Ivoire was in the middle of a crisis, and a lot people were being killed or disappearing, so I launched an appeal to the people. Everyone had to be careful. I said in this song [KK Mou Prudencia] that our country was a model of tranquillity, and that Ivorians didn’t use guns. In such a situation, artists are one of the few types of people that people can unite behind, much more so than politicians. I am a singer who is committed to the people.