My influences are jazz, blues, European classical music; they are rock music and pop music. So many kinds of music. World music from different countries like India and China. I think that would be a shame not to take advantage and do something... not unique, because I don't have this pretension.

Rokia Traore

Categorized in : Thinking Country Unique

We need self-confidence in our ability to build Africa. I trust in Mali and I trust in music.

Rokia Traore

mali self-confidence needs

Going back and forth between Western Arabic and African countries clearly created the various musical backgrounds I could have and obviously influenced my professional attitude, my way of approaching both music composition and singing, particularly phrasing.

Rokia Traore

musical attitude country

You just have to try before thinking that you can't.

Rokia Traore

trying thinking

You can't be unique any way. Music is made from seven notes. You will always come back to something. Even if you think you are unique, you will come back to something that existed before you were doing what you are doing.

Rokia Traore

unique way thinking

Everybody does music from his culture and his experiences with his culture. There are not so many people who are interested by the music coming from different countries and different cultures and trying to make music from that, from all these experiences.

Rokia Traore

trying country people

I think about all these influences and musical cultures, then the opinion of the audience is of course important, but when I'm working on an album or a new project, I'm not all the time thinking about what the audience will think about it.

Rokia Traore

musical important thinking

I used to play guitar for myself and write lyrics and listen to different styles of music.

Rokia Traore

guitar play writing

The most important thing is to be happy myself with what I am doing.

Rokia Traore

important-things important

I don't think I'm unique or that I'm trying to do something unique, but I feel it is something I would like to hear. This kind of music I would like to listen to but I can't hear very often.

Rokia Traore

unique trying thinking

Of course I am stressed after I finish working on an album about what an audience will think, if it will be successful or not.

Rokia Traore

stressed successful thinking

The interesting thing for me is to put together all my influences and all my experiences I got through my traveling with my father.

Rokia Traore

together father interesting

There are some things around us that are not actually useful. I didn't know that before. It's very new for me to understand. That became my way of writing: I can see also the new myself.

Rokia Traore

knows writing way

I don't know if it's due to my age, that I'm older now, [but] I love the essentials. I don't like the things around us that are a kind of mirage.

Rokia Traore

essentials kind age

We're repeating the same things all the time; there aren't many new things happening in this life.

Rokia Traore

new-things happenings this-life

I can change the arrangements on stage while I am playing or singing, doing signs to the musicians to change things because the audience is dancing or singing with us. That's the interesting part of the live show, actually, because everything is possible and everything can change.

Rokia Traore

singing dancing interesting

I've been in contact with music since I was four or five years old through my father, because of the interest he had in music and all his musical skills. I finally managed to make that my profession.

Rokia Traore

skills father years

My father was not able to get all the vinyl he used to listen to with me. He couldn't travel as he did it because of his profession as a diplomatic career.

Rokia Traore

able careers father

The fact of playing an instrument and singing... that I can try to make my dream of singing and becoming a professional musician come true is linked probably to the fact that I traveled a lot, which gave me an open mind and an ability to push my limits.

Rokia Traore

singing mind dream

Traveling changed my personality and gave me ability to do the music I do and to think in a certain way that everything can be possible.

Rokia Traore

personality way thinking

I wanted to come back to the guitar after three albums and almost 10 years. I started to miss this instrument and I wanted to come back to the guitar.

Rokia Traore

guitar missing years