franceinfo: Daniel and Christophe you are part of the group Tryo, very marked reggae, with this desire to dance, but at the same time the desire to underline what deserves to be. Is that your DNA?
Christopher: You could say that, it’s song. We come from this tradition of committed French song and then, at the same time, it is festive. So it carries messages, it brings serious values and then sometimes, without taking ourselves too seriously all the same, because we are artists.
“We want to entertain people and it’s been going on for 25 years, so we’re committed, and then a little light too.”
Christophe, from the Tryo groupat franceinfo
Before seeing you in concert at the AccorHotels Arena on May 20, you are defending your latest album battle song, a record that ultimately defines who you are. And besides, to better understand who is hiding behind the Tryo group, there is also a book, Song of possibilities, signed by Bertrand Dicale. What is the story of this book and this album, both inseparable?
Christopher: It’s simple, we released an album. We were supposed to do a concert. And then here is a week after the release of the album and the day before the concert, we were all confined. So we couldn’t really celebrate 25 years! And then, we wanted to tell the story of Tryo because we think that Tryo is a very nice story, a very singular story.
It’s true that this group was born in 1995, I would like to talk about its beginnings. It takes place in an MJC. What were you dreaming about at that time?
Christopher: We dreamed of making music. We dreamed of making a living from music. We were three friends, because Daniel arrived later, in this MJC and we wanted to change the world and we were convinced that we were going to get there because we were young. We were 18 when the band started. We never said to ourselves: “We are going to make a group”. It was our friends who created the group Tryo by hearing us in the evenings, mixing our voices, mixing our compositions on the reggae base that Guizmo brought us. They are the ones who said:Ah, but it’s great what you do, so we’ll put you in the first part“. And then, it was the public who created the group and it tells the story of the group well.
“25 years later, it is still the public who carry us and thanks to whom we are here.”
Christophe, from the Tryo groupat franceinfo
Daniel: You also have to put things in context. At the time, there was no internet. Word of mouth was something natural and spontaneous. There were tapes circulating and even before there was the first album, it was already circulating like that. And then the media came after.
You also brought a circus side, that is to say this love of the stage, of the craftsmen, of all this universe ultimately bordering on “clownesque”, this acrobatic side. Do you claim it?
Christopher: We come from associations, we come from the middle of the street, so the mixture, the fusion with other arts. And then, it’s a scene that’s always open, like in the street. It’s a scene that has no limits, so we invite people. I think it comes from our street DNA.
Daniel: And then, I think there is also the desire to constantly surprise ourselves and the public, not to let ourselves do the same thing constantly, but also ourselves, each time, to open the scene and surprise themselves.
battle song is a song that upsets, that is upsetting. We cannot remain indifferent to the text of this song.
Christopher: It’s a song that talks about a child who has been harassed and who returns long after to his battlefield, to his college: “My college, my battlefield“, it’s about that. And it’s also a song where the person is talking to their parents, like they’re writing a letter and they’re saying to their parents, well, I didn’t tell you all this time and today, years later, I’m telling you what happened in this college. I wrote the text and then I had a lot of trouble because it touched me, even speaking there it moved and I couldn’t make the music on it.
So, I called Ours, the son of Alain Souchon, who is a great friend, and I said to him: hey, can you try to make some music on it? And it became this song, in fact, which is a bit essential on the album and which bears the name of the album, battle song.
battle song is a good definition of what you have become and what you have been since your beginnings?
Christopher: I believe. You know, every time we release an album, we always think it’s the best.
Daniel: We are always happy with the last thing we did!
Christopher: It’s an album that we really polished. So, suddenly, it’s an album that is quite prepared. I’m not saying that the others weren’t, but let’s say that it’s an album perhaps, in the writing, a little more cerebral than the others.
To read: Song of the possible, biography of the group signed Bertrand Dicale, published by GM.