Sona Fariq


Sona Fariq, who have been touring the UK for more than 2 years with Pitchshifter, One Minute Silence and other nu-metal stars and play now the big festivals and headlining concerts, have come to Paris to promote their debut album, a sonic and rhythmic extravaganza. We met the furiously energetic members of the band for a very dynamic interview.


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- Where does the name Sona Fariq come from ?
- The more people ask that, the less we know about it, but the only thing that matters is that we are Sona Fariq and that's the sound we're making. You can read whatever you want into it.
- You all met in England, but your origins are very diverse: England, France, India... Is this melting pot essential to the music you make?
- It's essential in the fact that it's about who we are. Our personalities make our music. We basically write the music that we want to hear, we're not playing cover versions. Everything in our lives is reflected in what we do, not just the fact that we have cultural or genetical differences.
- Is it a plus for you to have different cultures?
- Yes, because when you're an immigrant's son, as a kid, you go and visit family, and then when you come back, you've learned something, as opposed to, say, someone who would just stay there watching TV. We're absorbing all our differences and when we have arguments, we all speak different languages. But anyway, when band members all come from the same place, they have individual differences as well.
- Would you take the opportunity to sing in different languages?
- We do that, not on this album, but we're working on it. One of the first songs I wrote was in French, because I was listening to a lot of french hip hop, so it was natural for me to do it. I wasn't really into the US scene, I'd been living in France for a year and it was a language I was really comfortable with. When you've been living in a country for a year, you start dreaming in that language. It would be a pleasure, but what really pisses me off is that guy from Soundgarden releases something and makes it seem like a big cynical marketing thing. It's like what those boy bands do, they have British guys singing in French and it's just marketing. But certain songs also sound better in certain languages and certain ideas can be expressed better in certain languages. But when you translate, you lose everything.
- What are your musical influences?
- Everything, hip hop, rock, reggae, jungle, whatever. And it's the same for everybody else, all music influences all bands. That's why we have to sit here and suffer people like these sluts Christina Aguilera or fucking Britney Spears. We have to suffer these bitches. They put their shits into everyone's heads all day long.
We come from families that appreciate culture and we grew up with music, so it was quite natural for us. But it's not just the music we hear, it's everything that surrounds us. There are bands out there that want to live the rock'n'roll lifestyle and that's why they make music. But we're not interested in that, we don't want to impress anyone, it's just about who we are.
- You had to wait before this album was released and you toured a lot before that.
- We got together 3 years ago and we've been writing continuously. When we had our material, that's when the record companies seem to be coming in anyway. We weren't really ready before that.
- Was it a kind of dream for you to see your own record in the shops?
- There are more important things. You don't walk around feeling proud of yourself just because you have a CD out. Of course, we're proud of what we've done, but there are always things more important. Like tomorrow we're on Canal +, so we've got no time to be really thinking about things. It's gonna be really terrifying probably. There will be millions of viewers. I'll shit myself (laughs).
- Are there any bands you feel close to?
- Not right now, not musically. We do what we do, we don't give a fuck about anyone else. We don't take cues from other bands. Of course, it's a bit out-moded now to consider music a means of self-expression and to write for yourself, but that's what we do (laughs).
- How do you see your future?
- We wanna play and keep on writing music. We want to become stronger and stronger and write better and better songs. We want to enjoy our lives, what because if we didn't, the music would suck.

Interview: JP Coillard, Photos: Christophe Valette



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