A Phnom Penh band that has been punching on regularly for several years now is Rags to Rainbows, featuring Colin Grafton (harmonica), Keiko Kitamura (percussion) and Gaby Courroux (guitar). LengPleng thought it was time to sit down and see what’s going on, and to find out where the name came from.
LP: My perception is that Rags to Rainbows came along after Pavel Ramirez returned to Sweden and Blues Routes came to an end.
Colin: That left a big hole.
Keiko: We were doing the Chapei Diary show, Pavel needed to leave and spoke to Gaby about taking over, but Gaby was so busy. Then we were able to get together for a gig at Bouchon on a Wednesday.
Colin: Because it was a Wednesday, Gaby’s off day.
Keiko: Daisuke [Yasukochi] was still here.
Colin: Daisuke was part of it for a couple of gigs.
Gaby: Blues Routes was more of a blues band.
Colin: Yes, there was less jazz. So that was another attraction for me, because I could do more jazz-oriented material with Gaby. Although it turns out Gaby’s not that much into jazz. He loves bluegrass! That was a bit of a surprise.
Gaby: I would say I love both jazz and bluegrass. But even the jazz songs we play are blues-based, most of them. So there’s a link.
LP: So you started with a selection from the Blues Routes repertoire and then brought in new things?
Colin: A few new things.
Gaby: In this band I sing three or four songs, like Black Magic Woman, and Cajun Moon by JJ Cale. I like JJ Cale’s way of singing, it’s very laid back, almost like talking. I like singing, but for the blues, when I listen to my voice there’s not so enough grumpiness. I don’t feel like I’m the best one for singing blues, it’s a kid’s voice, too clean.
Colin: For Cajun Moon I use the Dorian position, the third position on the harmonica, and I don’t to get to do that often. So that’s fun for me.
Gaby: We have the material and we make it our own. Because it’s a trio, a small group, we can interact easily. I’m in charge of the harmony, I can twist it around. We don’t have a bass player, so I have more control. Sometimes we stick to the recording, but it depends on the mood of the day.
LP: Who brings the majority of the new material in?
Gaby: Mostly Colin and Keiko. Sometimes the dynamic is: let’s do a famous standard like Bye-Bye Blackbird, and then the next one is a link is an obscure recording on YouTube with only ten views or something that Colin knows. The musical archeologist aspect, an Alan Lomax vibe, digging the old blues out. That’s nice for me. You can play the blues and fake it, sometimes I wish I could spend more time digging it more, and get the whole culture behind it, not just playing the guitar.
Colin: I’ll say listen to this, and then Gaby will say oh, that sounds a bit like that. At first it threw me a bit, but I’m getting used to it. You play one tune and he’s got three or four more…
Gaby: That have all the same chords. I’m more used to playing jazz standards, and sometimes they don’t fit the harmonica, I have to be aware of the harmony.
Colin: Chord changes and modulations.
Gaby: So I think forget the fancy stuff. Let’s keep it to nice singable melodies that can be played on the harp. Then sometimes we start the wrong song.
Colin: Recently I started the wrong song, but I realised after the first time around, oh, this is the wrong song, that’s why Gaby’s holding back a bit. So I switched into the right one and that threw him again. It was fun! And when you came back with jet lag, that was a funny gig.
Keiko: It’s really interesting watching them practice. More of a discussion.
Gaby: It’s like a gathering.
Keiko: Because I don’t have knowledge of the western music, I just listen to what they are doing. It’s still a learning process.
LP: What percussion are you doing with this band?
Keiko: Cajon, snare, spoons and shaker.
Gaby: You have a nice pair of red plastic brushes that you use on the cajon as well.
Keiko: I don’t play Japanese drum for this.
LP: And you have different music traditions even between Colin and Gaby – the French versus the English for a start.
Keiko: And 50 years apart. Gaby knows many songs…
Colin: He knows more songs than I do.
Keiko: Old ones.
Gaby: Sometimes I say: you don’t know that? It’s from your generation, from your youth. And Colin says yeah, but I was in Paraguay at that point, I didn’t know what was going on.
Colin: I missed out on that era.
Gaby: But I feel the same, there’s many songs people my age know and I don’t.
Keiko: You say that your parents listened to many songs that Colin listened to. But your mum and dad are my generation. So there’s a three generation thing.
Gaby: They listened to a lot of rock’n’roll, and all the classics. It was the Rolling Stones versus the Beatles, my parents. My mum for the Stones and my dad for the Beatles.
Colin: Hendrix versus Clapton.
Gaby: There’s a lot of songs I heard as a kid, a lot of songs, just didn’t know the meaning of the words.
LP: The French are very particular about the text, whereas in English we are happy to accept what we think we hear, and often it’s wrong.
Gaby: In English language the song is thought of as a global object. I’ve noticed with my girlfriend, if she doesn’t like the text, or doesn’t agree, she won’t might not enjoy the song as much. Even though the drums are killing, the groove is great, it doesn’t matter, that will bother her until the end of the song. And me, I started as a kid to enjoy the melodies and the musicality, not the words. I listened to a lot of English songs, and it didn’t matter to me what the words meant. It seems the words matters more for non-musicians. Then when I try to write songs, I think oh my God, people are going to hear my wrong grammar, my bad syntax. It’s easier to sing English songs in France so they don’t know what it means.
Colin: You’ve got to have bad grammar in English songs. Especially blues.
LP: The French have a term: singing yoghurt. Singing in English but you don’t know the language well enough, so you insert nonsense words to imitate.
Gaby: Most of my originals are in English. I don’t write that much anymore. I have songs but they’re old.
Colin: You haven’t done any original songs with us.
Keiko: We should do something with Gaby’s originals.
Colin: There is your instrumental Small Manouche.
Gaby: That was written about eight years ago now, for a short movie. The movie is gone, but the song lives on. There was a time I was very inspired to write more singer-songwriter style songs, now not much. Lyrics are the hardest part for me. I have a lot of ideas for melodies, chords and stuff. But what am I going to sing? Since I came to Cambodia I have only written maybe two or three songs. Do you have any songs, Colin?
Colin: The only thing I’ve done is to change lyrics in some songs. Like Hey Joe, where I change the second verse to Hey Joe, I hear your lady shot you down.
LP: In fact a lot of your repertoire is instrumental, yes?
Colin: I’ve always veered in that direction because I just didn’t listen to the words, it took me ages to notice the lyrics. I listened to the melody and thought about what I could do with it, fiddle it around and play all the wrong notes.
LP: And so – where did the name come from?
Colin: I knew you were going to say that.
Keiko: It came from Colin’s brain.
Gaby: Suddenly.
Colin: Rags to riches, and then Rags to Rainbows just came into my head.
LP: So there’s no deeper mystical story?
Colin: No. I’ve been trying to find something, but I haven’t succeeded yet.
Rags to Rainbows play at Craft on Saturday 15.