Just deserts: Hot Press meets Tinariwen's Said Ag Ayad

It may seem strange for an album recorded in California, which features Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer and Nashville fiddler Fats Kaplin, to radiate the sound of the Sahara desert. When it comes to Tuareg rockers Tinariwen, anything is possible.

“In America, we were lucky enough to find a sound which was like home, a more natural sound, an earthier sound,” explains percussionist Said Ag Ayad. “Thanks to the quality of the equipment in America, the sound that you can hear on this album is the sound we have been looking for, the real sound of the Sahara.”

He’s talking about Emmaar, Tinariwen’s incredible sixth album. It's their first to be recorded outside Africa. Due to political instability in their home country of Mali, Emmaar was put together in Joshua Tree, California, with American producers and some local guest musicians. Despite the US influence, the album still resonates with the windswept sounds and tribal heartbeats of the African desert.

First up, the songs that make up Emmaar are all sung in the Tuareg’s own language of Tamasheq. You don’t have to be proficient in this ancient dialect (I’m not, as you may have guessed) to understand the sense of loss and yearning that permeates the album, however.

“All our music speaks about our people’s suffering, the famine of the people, the drought of our land, our exile from our homeland,” Said notes. “Even if you don’t speak the language, you can guess that the songs are about the exile and suffering of the Tuareg people.”

The Tuareg have effectively been exiled from Mali through a host of regime changes since the 1960s, the latest being a fundamentalist Islamic leadership who effectively banned music in the region last year.

“Music was completely banned but it is starting to change,” Said reveals. “Right now, it is possible again to go out, to play music, and women can behave more normally. There was a time when these things were banned. It is only in recent months that this has changed thanks to the MNLA [Movement National de Liberation de l’Azawad, a political and military organisation based in Northern Mali], which is helping the Tuareg. Even though music is not banned anymore, it is still unsafe.”

So how difficult is it to be a musical refugee?

“It is hard,” admits the percussionist, one of the few band members still resident in Mali. “Most of the members of Tinariwen are in exile in South Algeria, Niger and Libya. I’ve always lived in the desert in Northern Mali and I still live there: it’s where I was born and where my parents lived. But the other members are spread across North Africa.

“But it is in this exile, in a way, that we find inspiration,” he muses. “Despite the fact that we are spread across various countries of the desert, we try to meet and compose together, but it is not easy now. It was much quieter before, but now it is difficult. It is much easier to compose in a quiet place and with quiet minds, but we try to do it.”

At least the Tuareg people can now hear these songs, due to the relaxation of the ban on music. However, the message of Emmaar will resonate slowly, as there are no radio stations to broadcast their songs to the Tuareg people.

“Music in our country is not like it is in the West,” Said sighs.” Here, it is mostly played live, during celebrations, family meetings, baptisms, marriages etc. There is not really a way to broadcast it, so it is mainly live that people can hear our songs.”

But can songs like the devastating ‘Toumast Tincha’ (‘The People Have Been Sold Out’) have the power to change things?

“Because the Tuareg have been exiled from their homeland of Mali and spread across different countries, like Algeria and Niger, the people have been sold out,” he says. “The songs of Tinariwen are about trying to work together to change things. They highlight the Tuareg people’s suffering and drought.”

Emmaar is out now and gets a live airing at the Festival Marquee, Belfast (May 4) and the Westport Festival (June 29)