Music Interview with
The Canadian Band Christine Atallah and the Bassalindos

August/September 2009 Edition

Escapades, The Album Cover

The Canadian Band Christine Atallah and the Bassalindos has created a beautiful sound with their music that incorporates elements of Pop and Jazz into melodious tunes. Christine’s voice, mesmerizing, enchanting, and intoxicating, is the perfect instrument to the band’s overall style. Other elements that can be heard in the band’s music are Latin and Arabic. One of my favorite single from the band is titled Sometimes which is a smooth Jazzy track that showcases the wonderful style of this band’s music.

In a recent spotlight with our Webzine, Christine Atallah speaks to our readers about the band and where they are heading in the music industry. Enjoy!

Isaac: We'd love to know about your inspirations growing up. I hear so many influences in your music. How old were you when you first discovered music? Is there any kind of musical history in your family?

Christine: I was always drawn to music… but first I always wanted to be the center of attention as a baby and could mobilize a room. I would sort of make a scene until all eyes were on me and then I would calm down. I first appeared on TV when I was four. I was belly dancing. Later on, I remember my youthful play games. Other kids would play doctor, they would be dancing sometimes also... but I would grab the first thing that I could use a prop for a microphone and then go. I was immersed in piano early as well as singing at elementary school where my love of attention and loud pipes (yeah even then) got me noticed in a positive way. I used to lie on the floor listening to my parents’ old vinyl records… I loved their scratchy Beatles albums, Stevie Wonder, Barbra Streisand, and enjoyed one particular old Harry Bellefontaine LP (Dé-O) as well as Enrico Macias.

I also listened to classical and to Arabic artists like Fairuz and Um-Katltoum. There were musicians in my family; all amateur because many Lebanese are in business and music is considered great, but for a hobby only. My great aunt was an organist and my uncles and aunts sang in the Church Choir, in all sections. I was in the kiddies’ choir and then the adult choir at a young age, so it all started there. It was great because it was acapella… no instruments at all and our voices filled that huge space. It was humbling, motivational, and magical. I was hooked.

Isaac: What drew you to pick up an instrument in the first place?

Christine: I was always drawn to any musical instrument. The first was the piano. I liked the sounds of course that I heard and the fact that the person sitting there would be the focal point instantly. I did try wind instruments and amused myself on the harmonica and the flute, but what I always loved most was singing because of the incredible feeling of the sound coming directly out of your own body. I was naturally drawn to it, like a moth to a flame. I took piano lessons first in elementary school and then later it was voice.

Isaac: As you hit your teenage years, did you know that this was what you would be doing for the rest of your life?

Christine: I always had these visions of myself onstage in front of many people. I would always substitute myself in my mind into any footage of singers I happen to watch. I had early dreams of being an astronaut—hey who hasn’t? These ideas fell away quickly and I realized that I was happiest when singing. By then, I was already singing a lot of the time. I guess I was born always knowing what I wanted to be. There was no question, no debate, and no long soul searching. I never was lost for direction, or torn between professions. Music is more than a job to me; it’s a goal, a vocation and a consuming passion. I took voice lessons and then later got a scholarship to study... so I started first as an opera singer with classical training and then did jazz at University and then with cool jazz cat Billy Georgette who taught me a lot in the school of life and on the stages of the city.

Isaac: Is there a performer in any genre of pop culture that you would like to work with?

Christine: We would very much like to work with Zachary Richard at some point as Danny McLaughlin, my co-writer, is Acadian and we both are fond of his work. I have always nursed an ambition to work with Prince, who is a consummate genius and whose music, old and new, never ceases to amaze me. Our last album was mixed by Chuck Zwicky, a brilliant engineer originally from Minneapolis who worked with Prince there. I would love to have Leonard Cohen singing on an album with me as he is an icon and a poet that I adore and a Montrealer, like me. That would certainly be glorious.

Of course, I would be tickled to collaborate with Sting as well. I would love to be in a film about music, playing myself, like in the movie Once. I should call the director, John Carney and tell him: “Hey, let do the next film on me and Danny—and we call it Once Again.” I am being playful here, but would jump at this chance. Our everyday life certainly is different that many people’s lives, that’s for sure.

Isaac: Who are some musicians that you really like, present or past?

Christine: Wow. The list is really long… but here goes some: You already heard me rave about Prince, indeed he’s a biggie for me. The past… Beatles, Steely Dan, Marley, Hendrix and many of that era’s grand rock bands. I think Mozart rocks by the way and am in profound admiration of Bach and Handel also as well as Strauss, Verdi and Puccini. That aside… a shift of styles… I enjoy Lenny Kravitz, Alex Cuba, Raul Midon, Ricky Lee Jones, Joni Mitchell, India Irie, Alicia Keys, Souad Masi, Garbage, Sarah MacLaughlin, George Michael, Incubus, Amos Lee, Lasha, Lila Downs, Maxwell, K.D. Lang, Jane Sibbery, Charlie Robie (we played with him), Taima, George Azzi,Damien Rice, Samir Joubran, Sheryl Crow, and frankly addicted to Sting past present and future. Carmen McRae was a goddess.

I am fond of Patrick Watson, Jacques Brel, Eva Cassidy, Damien Rice, Cheb Mami, Francis Cabrel, Eminem, Glen Hansard and a group called Apocalyptica. I guess I am exposed to a lot of tango music because I dance it seriously- its my main hoppy, so I enjoy tango music like Otros Aries, Gotan Project and Tanghetto to name a few. I am great buddies with Victor Simon of the Montreal Tango Ensemble and recorded with them. They’re awesome. I could go on and on... but this is a treasured cross-section of representative music in my listening life.

Isaac: What is your ultimate goal with your music career?

Christine: To share my music with the most amounts of people around the world and to keep on recording and touring as long as I physically and emotionally can. I hope that financial worries are a thing of the past and that I and my band all make a comfortable living. I would love a bigger team around me to facilitate this. I have pet projects like recording a jazz standard album in Spanish in Cuba with a full orchestra, as well as an album of lullabies. A fond dream is to have my music in more films and to perform my own compositions in a touring show with a full symphonic orchestra. I visualize this down to the last detail and am determined to have it come true.

Isaac: What has been some of the obstacles it has taken to get this far in your career?

Christine: The first, longest standing and hardest was the opposition of my family to my career choice. Then along the way, there are many sacrifices to be made and re-made from lifestyle to physical moderation to postponing life altering personal choices and forsaking chilling out time and working around the clock.

Isaac: Would you recommend this "field" to others who are aspiring to be musicians like you?

Christine: Sure, on one condition... That being a musician is the only thing that you can be… It has to be a compelling needs—a vocation, a larger than life focus that completely filly you and drives you at the same time. If you can do something else and be happy and justify your time on this earth, then maybe I can say you can choose another path as this one is really rough, but if it is the thing that defines you, validates your existence and fills your soul like nothing else, then it’s for you. I always tell my mom when she worries about my musical life and calls it “hard”. “Nothing worthwhile was every really easy” I explain to her. You have to be patient and to be in it for personal reasons; not the lure of fame or the idea of power and fortune. Most musicians don’t live like that. You have to have a thick skin and to be single minded, enduring, tough and possessed of a larger vision, of a hunger for creativity and self-expression that leaves room for little else. Let’s face it; if you go for it all the way you will not have much room for much else anyhow.

Isaac: Describe one piece of advice you've have been given to by others in the music industry.

Chrsitine: I was told to take chances and not to try and be “perfect” all the time. I have to say that this is a great piece of advice and I have used it. Sometimes we choose a take for the feel… even if it’s not flawless; The imperfection means taking a risk... but is better than being too perfect as that is a rigid absolute and people cannot always relate to such clean faultlessness. The advice was to risk things, take a chance and extend your possibilities.

Isaac: What genre of music do you consider most of your music?

Christine: Most of our music is what I call world-pop. Second album is going more towards singer/songwriter, with colors of the world... so world popfolk… ha, I think I just invented that. It is sophisticated and with thought provoking lyrics of beauty and with messages of hope and a longing for peace.

Isaac: What has been your favorite piece of work?

Christine: I really am in love with our song Night of Secrets. That one gives me great pleasure to listen to, and of course to perform. Let me Be Me or M’Envoler (French Vs) is another such one. Amongst the new ones I am in love with a song called If, that will be on the second album. I also have a soft spot for VIP for Me, as do a lot of people.

Isaac : How can fans-to-be gain access to your music? Do you have a website with sample songs or a demo CD?

Christine: They can check out the links before. My CD, Escapades is in stores, but if they run out, you can always get my album Escapades at ITunes, or Amazon or any of the many other retailers or music downloads sites that have it online. Here are some links for fans to explore:

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/bassalindos
Official Site: www.bassalindos.com
Digital Press Kit: www.sonicbids.com/ChristineAtallahTheBassalindos
YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/Christallah
LAST FM: http://www.reverbnation.com/bassalindos
For a free download of one of our songs: http://www.baom.net/visits/promo_visit

We are also on Facebook under Christine Atallah and CBC Radio Two and Twitter under Bassalindos as well as many other music communities on the net worldwide.

Isaac: Is there anyone you’d like to acknowledge for offering financial or emotional support?

Christine: I want to thank the fans.. like Terry Farnsworth and many others of those who come out regularly to shows and those father away who buy our music and who keep up the excitement between the albums. I also want to thank my first voice teacher Margaret Khalil who got out my first big beautiful vocal sounds from me. Special thanks to drummer Basil de Sousa—his cheery enthusiasm gave me the courage to go forward and found my band, The Bassalindos. Thanks to bassist François Lalonde who was there from the first of those early lean days and for bringing in Danny McLaughlin, whose meeting changed our band and the course of my life and career. Thanks to Serge Naggiar for filling up the Corona Theater in Montreal for us, by sheer diabolical hard work and all that followed his brilliant madness. Thank to Dennis McColm and Nel Moschetto for being great personal assistants and for putting on so many hats, from stylists to videographers to bodyguard.

Thanks for the financial support from Louise Harel, Fondation du Maire de Montreal as well as a personal contribution from Eric Racicot who worked like a frenzied banshee for our big record launch concert and exhibition. Thanks to Graeme Humphrey of Coup de Foudre AudioVisual for early arrangements and for making my ear (almost) as finicky as his, as well as to John Winiarz for all he taught me about music. Kudos, love and gratitude to Nelly Dimitrova of Justintime Records for all her encouragement and mentorship and for all those drawings over lunches at the Orange Juliep about publishing and how the pie is sliced. Thanks to poet Yves Alavo and industry whiz Maria Masino for their support… they believed in me at times where I needed their respectable endorsement and their continued encouragement still does me a wealth of good. Thank you Raul Cuza for your positivism and for being there smiling through crises and reminding me that I am always an “estrella”. Thank you Mark Goldman, producer, for helping us to weed out the diamonds for the second album and for the wonderful adventure of the production of the first three thongs of CD two. Thank you to colorful industry veteran and friend René Leblanc, director of the Festival Musique en Nous, from the Maritimes for all the advice from the hip and from the heart and all that you taught me about so many facets of our complicated industry. Thank you to those great musicians who make up the group... Firas Haddad and Mathieu Tessier and to lovely Diana Dorval as well as Patti Payne of the golden voices.

Thanks to Georges Daou of Art et Coiffure chez Georges, for all my hairdos and haircuts and emergency hair styling backstage everywhere I perform and for my silky hair on the album cover. You always pampered me so well. Thanks to Victor Simon and to kanoun marvel Nizar Tabcharani who always accepts my gigs with profound grace and charm. Thanks to all those talented people who worked on the album.. many musicians as well as genius Chuck Zwicky (ZMIX) for his amazing mixes. Thanks Renée-Marc Aurèle for your shining example, gentle love of all and your ears of gold for our mastering. Thanks John MacLean and Eric Thé, engineers for toiling so hard at the console for way longer than you were paid for. You guys rock. Thanks to Egyptian personality but my down to earth friend Hussein Al-Imam for his playing, poetry and joyful musical input and ideas.

Thanks Alejandro Rodriguez… rest in peace my friend, and thank you for your arrangements, programming, advice and amazing playing on our new songs as well as setting me up on my Mac for Digital Performer. My heart broke when we lost you so young and so suddenly. I miss you! Thank you last but not least to Danny McLaughlin, (guitar, singer/songwriter) the greatest writing partner and guitarist a lucky girl can have. You’re a man of such purity, chops, talent and vision and you keep me on the path with unadulterated dedication and the rarest passion. It’s a joy to share this supreme adventure with you from songwriting to touring to everything in between. Love you babe! I thank God for my gift and to the Universe for this continuing adventure.

Isaac: Any last words?

Christine: Keep buying music people and keep attending shows… Share your wonder of music and live your passion, whatever it is, whatever anyone says and whatever you may have to give up to go for it. Live in the moment and treat others with love and live with wonder. Dare to dream the impossible things and speak out against wrongs when you can. Remember to do all you can to assure peace and the health of our planet. Thanks for sharing this moment in your life with us!