The group “Les Guetteurs” was created almost fifteen years ago. Where do you find the motivation to continue?
We draw on the love of Christ and the love of music! We like that. After the confinement we felt the need to relaunch ourselves in a real group album. During the confinement we had released an EP, of six titles, which was digital, electronic, where we had each done our parts on our side. We really wanted to go back to the studio together… So we wanted to prepare this album and put Christ back at the center. It seemed essential to us, especially these days!
Since the creation of the group, faith has been omnipresent in your songs… You called this album “King”, why this desire to highlight the figure of Christ even more?
When it came to choosing a title for this album, we first thought of “Kingdom”, to refer to this royalty that is not of this world. In my eyes, something incarnated was still missing… We found that “King” was stronger. That brought us to the essential! Most of the songs lead back to Christ but not necessarily in a direct way. I like to go through metaphors or a poetic narration that is not just an explicit announcement. We attach great importance to form, we want to make things listenable to any audience.
For us, the idea is to bring souls to Christ and you don’t get there just by repeating “ jesus is king “. You have to be skillful. On our side, it goes through the musical composition and the composition of the texts.
You went so far as to put Jesus on the album cover. It’s a strong choice!
We put Christ on the cover because I think there has been a turning point in recent years. I find that we talk more about God, that he is more present in our society. People are more and more looking. It is perhaps the confinement that allowed some to understand that this society, with all its trappings, had its limits, that there was something much more important.
When I made the pilgrimage to Santiago, I met a lot of people in search… People who didn’t necessarily believe in God but who asked themselves lots of questions, who believed in a God but didn’t necessarily know which . That’s why I think there is good ground right now, I feel that times are no longer lukewarm, times are no longer for a poorly calculated strategy of wanting to catch people with a camouflaged message.
The times are ripe, we must go frankly, we must pronounce the name of Christ! This does not prevent you from doing it with skill, from putting the forms in it! I didn’t want to find a cover that would fit in all walks of life anymore: I had an intuition of God’s love, I want to talk about it. I wanted to put Christ at the center and show it!
What are the sources of inspiration for your lyrics?
I draw a lot from the Bible and from the whole universe that composes it, in particular in its lexical field. I really like the prophets and the Gospel according to Saint John, which is very poetic. I’m not trying to make direct references to it: I immersed myself in it and it necessarily comes out in my texts. Many other literary works also inspire me, such as poems by Baudelaire for example.
Your objective to witness to Christ through your music is clear but do you have an idea from your audience that is not Christian?
If we look at our networks, Facebook, Instagram, it’s made up of 75% of Christians and 25% of people who don’t believe… Afterwards, we are generally listened to by people who believe in transcendence. We receive messages from people who are reggae fans and who are receptive to our message, which is above all spiritual.
It must be said that reggae is a particularly favorable style for approaching spirituality…
Absolutely, there’s not too much of a surprise when we talk about God in reggae. It is perhaps more surprising for people when we speak of Jesus by name! In reggae they call the one God more “ jah rastafari “. They do a particular reading of the Bible and have a whole universe around it. It’s very interesting to see how a musical current has appropriated a spiritual message.
Many songs by Bob Marley are also prayers. Redemption song is an example of this… That’s why I’ve always loved this musical style: I saw in it the imprint of God! I also saw there souls wounded by life who relied on the Lord, I found that beautiful! That’s why at 12, when I had the will to witness to God through music, I immediately chose to do so through reggae. It is the music most likely to bear witness to God. It’s in his DNA.
Les Guetteurs will be in concert on June 13 at La Trinité, in Paris, then on June 16 in Lyon at La Marquise.
Fratoun, singer of Les Guetteurs: “Now let’s talk about Christ! »