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Tifane

SEE ALSO Face a Face

Interview with Jim Rama and Patrick Andre of "Face a Face"....

11/6/2005

Interview With Tifane

By Music Editor, Loungekreyol.com

Posted 3/13/2007 -- She is talented, she is smart and in this interview Stephanie Sejour (Tifane) reveals a little bit about herself, her music and her dreams.


	Loungekreyol.com: How did you get discovered?


	Tifane: I came back to Haiti in August 2004 after working and after graduating in the states, and my one goal was to launch myself in the music business. My mother knew someone who is related to Boulo Valcourt, and we took an appointment with him. He was very busy and he didn’t know what to expect. So I went there one Sunday and I started to sing my song “Se Kom Si” and by the third verse he stopped me and asked me to start all over again. So basically I just went to his place, he heard me sing and he said we just have to do something about your song; and that was it.

	Loungekreyol.com: Was “Se Kom Si” the first song that you wrote?


	Tifane: No, that was not the first song, that must have been, the ten thousandth song because I’ve been writing since I was twelve, I just lost those documents as time went on, but “Se Kom Si” was the one out of all the songs I had written that year that I wanted to produce. That’s because when I paid attention to how the Haitian music was growing I saw a place for me, for what I wanted to do. I wanted a song that is somewhat impressive to be noticeable and catch people’s attention. I wanted to go with a style which is more known among older people, not really like the young Haitian artists.

	Loungekreyol.com: You sound confident about yourself and about that song, how did that come about?


	Tifane: Actually I wasn’t so confident that this was going to be a hit song. I had to go with that idea because I didn’t want to do the minimum. I wanted to work for the best, so I thought about it and decided to do something different. If you do something different you know you can catch people’s attention, if on top of that you do it well then you can succeed at it. Being a big name in the business, I knew Boulo could have given me some kind of props or could have lifted my name up in a way. But I was a little worried to be honest because things were not going well in Haiti when I came back and I had no idea what to expect because I sound pretty deep, I don’t have a soft and high pitched voice, usually Haitian women are know to sing with the high notes, and I’m all the way down there, with my blues and soulful notes. So it was pretty much a tryout, hoping it would get far.

	Loungekreyol.com: Since you recognized that your style was different, did you see it as a challenge? Did you feel you had to stick to your own style?


	Tifane: I’m somewhat stubborn (chuckle) when it comes to creating and I think it’s because people have tried to change me. My style, I see it as a challenge but I also see it as something fun because I could try my best to sing “Konpa” and it wouldn’t come out nice because that’s not what I feel, not what my soul is feeling. I can dance to it, I can love listening to it, and I do, but we have so many more rhythms that we do not explore and that we just put aside and make them look like they are traditional and too old to be modern again. I think it is a big mistake. I see Haitian music like this pot of gold I found and it has new value it has Troubadou, it has Ragga, . . . I don’t know any more, it has everything. We have so many rhythms in Haiti and we don’t pay attention to them, so I’m going to bring them back my way and mix rhythms that are not usually mixed together and mix instruments that are not usually mixed together and have a ball because it’s music after all. Creating takes bringing new stuff and it also means following what was there before.

	Loungekreyol.com: You seem to be very involved in the composition of your music, do you also get involved at the recording stage?


	Tifane: Yes, I have to say the 11 tracks on the album were written by me, they were also composed by me, meaning the melodies. I had a very good help though, because my producer is Fabrice Rouzier, and everybody knows that Fabrice is a musical genius. When he looks at you and he listens to you sing he knows how to bring out your style in your music. So it was a fun working with him to see what he would think about what I have in mind because I don’t know anything about producing songs in the studio. That was my first time really working in a studio and seeing how you put things together.

	Loungekreyol.com: So overall how satisfied are you with the way the album came out?


	Tifane: I’m going to say I’m satisfied to a certain extent because you cannot be satisfied to the fullest with your first album or even with your twelfth album. It’s always going to be something that you’re going to criticize on your own until you might not like it. The chance I had with those songs is that I wrote them a while before the CD was done, so I had a chance to go back and change some of them. I felt that as my first album I cannot just have songs about relationship and social factors and not have a hymn or an anthem for women, Creole women. Whether it’s Haitian or African American or anywhere from the Caribbean to Africa, I felt I had to pay a tribute to Creole women. That’s how I completed the album. I changed the lyrics almost at the last moment because I had a chance to over-polish them over and over again.

	Loungekreyol.com: What do you enjoy the most performing or creating the songs?


	Tifane: I enjoy making music to see how people enjoy it. It’s crazy because you have to have a passion for it yourself, but it’s all about how people react and how people dance to my music. Even when I perform it’s how they react; the thing is when I’m on stage I enjoy both. I’ve been a dancer for about 12 years until I got really busy with the music but I’m starting over with my dance lessons. I’m now dancing with. . . well I don’t know if too many people know him in New York: Jean-Rene Delsoin. He is a very good dancer and he was my teacher a while ago. We also attended the same dancing school when I was a kid, so I’m going back to dancing and I’m enjoying performing on stage. So which do I prefer? I guess it’s really a mixture of both, singing and dancing, mostly entertaining. I think that’s why I’m in this business because I love it, I enjoy every minute of it.

	Loungekreyol.com: You mentioned going back to dancing, are you thinking about pursuing both singing and dancing professionally?


	Tifane: (Laughter) Yeah, I had to think about it. I think singing is on top; I’m known for my voice already. I’m also known for dancing, but it’s because I sing. I wasn’t known as a dancer first. I’m known as a dancer now because I dance on stage and I try to make it a show instead of just a concert. I can tell that singing is really on top, it’s not that I love it more, it’s just that to combine the two and give the same way in both is kind of hard. I don’t know what other career opportunities will come to my door, but so far these are the two I want to master. I think I’m enjoying doing both on stage.

	Loungekreyol.com: You’ve been singing and dancing for a while, did you always believe you would make it some day and you were just waiting for your time?


	Tifane: It was always a dream to make it, but making it was never something that seemed concrete because when they tell you all the stuff you have to go through to actually make it in the music industry as a Haitian woman in Haiti and elsewhere it’s really troubling to just think about it. Some women had to go in the worst ways to be known and I have to say that so far I’m still not conscious of what’s going on. I want to stay the way I am, meaning simple about things, modest and humble because I don’t think you just reach the top like that with just an album and a few hit songs, I don’t think that’s how you make it. So I’m still trying. I’m known, OK; but that’s not what I call making it. I think the impact can be greater, I still have to work on my voice and I need to work on some techniques, I think I have room for improvement, and that’s what I’m concentrating on doing.

	Loungekreyol.com: How would you define success in your musical career; do you want to become very well known or do you want to sell many albums or do you just want to gain a certain level of satisfaction from your work?


	Tifane: What I’m trying to get out of all this is not even for me. I want to say it’s for my country but it’s going to sound cliché. What I’m trying to get at is to make the music of my country, Haitian music, known in a different level. I think I’m already categorized as a world-beat artist because of the style I have so I want to take it as far as possible without having or being obliged to sing in English to make it because otherwise it’s not Haitian music anymore. What I’d really want to see is to be able to go to Russia and have a crowd of 2000 or 10000 people enjoy Haitian music. I said Russia because we’re not really known there. I don’t eeven say Africa because we’re already known in parts of Africa but other places we’re not. I think that’s because Haitian people always think to make it through with Haitian music you have to sing in a different language. I took that concept from assisting so many African concerts while I lived in Chicago. They do not sing in English, they sing in their own language however they have thousands of foreigners singing their music and listening to them and actually paying for the concerts and I want that for my country’s music too. I don’t think it impossible, so that’s why I want to go far. It will not be Ti-Fanne going far it will be Haitian music going far.

	Loungekreyol.com: It’s obviously a noble goal that you have, but what do you think will help you stay true to your roots, because success may try to pull you in a different direction?


	Tifane: Of course, I proved something already which is something a lot of people thought wouldn’t happen. I was told that if I came to Haiti, chances that I would be making it would be very slim, and I left the states in 2004. I left a very good job, I was very comfortable and I love Chicago. I graduated as a sociologist, I love what I studied but when I came to Haiti, that’s where I made it. That’s where my support system is. To me if your people do not know you and 68 other countries know you, then you’re not known, something would be missing. When I came to Haiti I met Boulo, then I met Fabrice and Soley Sound System really wanted to produce me before the time was right and I waited. Now I’ve produced my first album, which I have the intention of sending as far as possible. When it comes to staying true to my roots I think this first album represents how true I am to who I am because I had the ability to write in English, I did write songs in English and I did poetry while I was in the United States, however I had more to say in Creole. I had more to say to my people.

	Loungekreyol.com: Any regrets so far, or are you satisfied with you choices? Do you sometimes think you could’ve achieved greater success in the States?


	Tifane: No, the way I see it for people who are starting in the States, is that there’s always an influence on whatever you have to produce and production is tricky that way because they see what you can do however they also try to bring what they want you to do. That was one of the first reasons that encouraged me to do my album in Haiti, and I guess, it’s not my pride, but I think it’s something good that I can work with a Haitian label that believe in producing artists with . . . to share. I guess I’m happy because I proved something to a lot of people who believe that Haiti cannot do something like that. I’m proving that it is possible. However I do have some choices that I regret making, like putting Se Kom Si out too soon, that’s because I thought the album was going to come out right after recording but things changed and I wish I was more patient about it. Also some of the musicians I had before were not the right choices. I do have some career moves I regret making, however coming to Haiti and starting here, no.

	Loungekreyol.com: Let’s talk a little bit about the album, are there any songs that you are particularly attached to?


	Tifane: You mean personal? Yes there are a few I can name Se Kom Si, I can name Miranda, I can name Jodia. Se Kom Si is basically a story about a part of my love life that I was going through and that put me upside down. I wasn’t in Haiti yet, I was in Chicago getting ready to come to Haiti and my boyfriend had to leave the States for Germany because that’s where he would be stationed for the US Army. I wrote the song about it because I was troubled by all this. The other one called Miranda, she’s an old friend of mine that I met in college. She heard that there was a Haitian at the university, because I was the only one, so we met and she came to Haiti after graduating and she caught a disease, I don’t know how it’s know in the States, but it’s called “dingue” here (dengue fever), it’s very rare. She died of it in October of 2004, 2 months after I made it to Haiti. It really touched me because we were very good friends. And there’s another song called Jodia that’s about something I was going through while I was working on this album. Everybody seemed to know what’s best for me, and everybody wanted to tell me what to do and that ended-up being in my own personal life, I experienced that with the musicians, and business wise also, because I have to mention that I’m managed by my mother but I am also in charge of the group. I had to be a business woman and I went through a dark moment, so I wrote Jodia for everybody who feels down or who feels that people know what’s best for them and taking them in all directions.

	Loungekreyol.com: To those who enjoyed this first album, can you promise them more?


	Tifane: Yes, I want to promise more but I also know that in reality what I think is really good might not always be good. I go about it that way because when you’re too conceded and you are too sure of everything you’re doing then you become blind and you’re in denial to anything bad that you do. So, I’ll work really hard, and I have to say it’s not just me it’s also my entourage, my producer, I mean Fabrice and Keke and the musicians and artists like Bethova, Yole Derose who are always there to give some advice because they’ve been there. It’s a learning experience right now, I count on myself to give the best but at the same time I always tell myself that not everything I do will be good, so I have to be real about this. I have a lot to be grateful for, I’m not doing all this by myself, I have every member of my family behind me, I have Soley Sounds behind me, they do it for me and they do it for other artists, like they did for Belo, it’s all that that gives me confidence and I’m grateful for that.

	Loungekreyol.com: Any plans to come to the States?


	Tifane: I was in the States recently, I guess it was supposed to be a vacation, but it turned out to be a trip to promote myself. I’m trying to see if I can come around March because I have to honor the contracts I have here. The album just came out so I have to go outside of Port-Au-Prince and I started already, I have to keep that up and I have to make a concert, I’m waiting for the Carnaval to end. I don’t know where yet, but I know I will be there soon and I’m really hoping on Haitians and non-Haitians to come to see me because music is music no matter what language you sing in. So I’m hoping it will be soon.

	Loungekreyol.com: What do you say to those who haven’t heard your music yet, why should they go out to get your album?


	Tifane: They should go out to get my album for 2 big reasons. The first one is I did not do it for me, I did it for people everywhere in every corner of the world. It’s music that can enter your soul, we ended-up calling it Creole-Soul, it’s a very fun album, it makes you think, it makes you dance, it can make you cry, so I think this is the first reason why they should get it; I did it for them to enjoy it. The second reason is that I would really appreciate the encouragement because this is my first album and I want to see how my music can move people. I want them to get an album and appreciate what I do and get to know who I am as an artist and to share it with everybody they know that will enjoy Tifane’s music. It’s good for the soul (lol).

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