Strand Three Profiles and Interviews - Ms.Alberta Fatima Matin

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Ms.Alberta Fatima Matin

Interview date: 06 _ Apr _ 06

Interviewed by: Jamil Iqbal and Natasha Jalal

Ms.Matin was raised in East London. She was a dance member of Joi Bangla Crew and a vocalist with Joi Bangla Banned. She started rehearsing dance moves at the age of 14. She performed on BBC 2 programme with the Joi Bangla Crew.

Ms. Alberta Fatima Matin

Q: Can you tell us about your music and your band, in late 80s and early 90s?
In 1987, friends and families, sort of members in the area were making lots of music. That later evolved into dance crew (Joi Bangla Crew) and also a band (Joi Bangla Banned), sometimes worked to perform together, sometimes very separately with different elements.

Q: Were you a part of the crew?
Yes, I used to dance with the dance crew and in the band do a bit of singing.

Q: How would you describe your music?
At that time, the band music was very much Bengali music with rock influences. The dance was described as a mix of east and west, which was quite vague. I think at that it was dance music and it was mixing of very modern beats with the traditional music. So it was a mix but potentially dance music.

Poster of Joi Bangla Banned with Osmani Soundz

Q: Did you play any instruments?
No. I didn’t. I did backing vocal and also raps with friends. I was singing in both Bengali and in English. It was good fun, looking back now it would probably be very amateurish but it was appropriate for the time. Back in those days it was more common just to hear rap just in English, these days you hear raps in lots of different languages. During those days rapping in Bengali was different.

Q: Did you take any professional dance lessons?
Not any sort of professional lessons but it would be routine intense training before any event. If we have an event in say March, we will train for at least six months running up to it, and a lot of rehearsals. I was always very interested in performing but never had any formal training.

Q: What do you think of the blending of Music?
I think it’s very good, Music like anything with time adapts and evolves and responds to what is happening out there. Mixing musical styles, when it is done well, it can create a sound and appeals to difference audiences. I don’t make music, I am not probably very technical, but I would produce an example, say classical music, people are very much exposed to classical music more so now because of a bigger audience in mass market, because of the way classical music has used to either promote it or has been mixed with some dance track and therefore you are tapping into a classical audience and dance audience. Mixing music brings creativity.

Q: Do you think music at the time of 80s reflected multiculturalism?
I think at that time we were very much, probably a bit ahead of our time. To be honest, I don’t know if I or most of the band members were trying to break into a mass market, we wanted to appeal to the mass, we wanted to get the message across. But how much of an effort we would have made, I don’t know in fact that time we would have done it, but we were ahead of our time. I think it reflected the multicultural society very much. It reflected the Asian, the Indian subcontinent Asian and more traditional western dance beats. That’s not world music, but it was two very different types and styles of music working together. It did reflect multiculturalism but I think today it would have been such an exposure, everything sort of becomes better and better and bigger that now if we put that music on, I am not sure if you would call it multiculturalism? Is it by mixing two different languages of music together, makes multiculturalism. I don’t know. But I thought at that time we had done a great job.

Q: Do you think London is good for musical creativity?
Yes, I think London is definitely a good place for musical creativity. If you want the exposure, you can come to London. Creativity happens in different ways and different places. London is a better place, we have seen some great bands coming out of London. The true answer is yes, London is good for musical creativity. There are lots happening, people can tap into lots of issues, people can probably relate elements and express feelings and views through music. There is money in London and maybe money can sometimes stifle the creativity but also if you got money you can explore and experiment. The artist needs to have their freedom to experiment. London does have it all. I find it very difficult to give you one answer, but I think its quite interesting what you are asking, because it is making me think actually. In bands you actually say that London is a great hub, I think it is, I think there is so much happening.

Q: Can you tell us about festivals and melas?
At that time there were lots of festivals, not exclusively in London, and we went to all over UK actually. We went up to Lancashire, all over the country. Lot of them were in London and lot of them were outside London. We went to lot of different festivals and melas.

Q: What do you think of festivals and melas, do you participate?
Yea, festival and melas are great, I have seen Brick Lane festival just grow and grow. It’s a big highlight of festival calendar now. The great thing about festival is that if they work well, do create an atmosphere where people come together in a place, where often they don’t. London is known with its share of issues, and festivals are great to bring people and musicians and artists and create a real buzz and excitement, its brilliant. Brick Lane has got so big, so actually I probably missed the last one; because that was too big an event and it’s growing from the smallest event to something that actually brings in a lot of money. It is good, it’s good for lots of reasons and I think participating in them benefits me in lots of way.

Q: With the bands at that time did you play different influence of music
Yes, the band made different types of music with influences, but the dance crew, the music we dance to then was a lot of very unusual music to me at the time, very much not exposed to that.

Q: Singing or dancing with band, what kind of issue did you deal?
It was almost very much like we are Bengali and we were proud, essentially it sounds very simple but at the time it used to happened and I look back at those days and think wow how could we do this. We wanted to put Bangladeshis on the map. This is what we tried to focus on. We also tried to be very cool, which we were!

Q: Did you actually get any coverage from mainstream media?
Yes, I was on the cover of City Limits in 1987, Nineteen years ago, that’s amazing, I forgot how long it was? We had an article in Time Out magazine the same year. Yeah, we got exposure in the news and we performed at the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts), which is a big contemporary art centre, very famous, well renowned and it was good. I think we were in the spotlight because of the people who were in the media at that time, who could see what we were doing. They weren’t Bengali but they were there, they were seeing what we were doing were actually quite interesting. So they gave us some exposure.

Q: What kind of reaction you got from your parents, family and community?
I was 14 when I started, we had evening rehearsals so my parents at the time because I was so young, they just wanted me to be safe, because rehearsing in the evening they wanted me to get home safely. They were really really proud and I remember we performed on TV, Network East (BBC 2), my parents video taped and showed it to people. So they were very very proud.

When we performed in melas the community by and large were proud. Back in those days, there were not many girls up there on the stage, dancing and singing and rapping and yelling and being quite loud. The community perhaps over all were bought into it but there was a barrier, I think, whether it was obvious or not.

When you perform in a festival, you had to ensure whatever you wore did not offend anybody, but balancing what response you will get from the community was important. My point is performing in festivals with a tiny loose gown that would not be seen actually as promoting something positive. It’s not my view, but it is important to get it all right, when you perform with your costume and all these sort of things.

I used to wear costumes made by my mother, the girl’s costume. We used the colours of Bangladesh flag, red and green. I think of Madonna back in her 80s, the black leggings, with long knee length black skirt, almost what they wore in the 50s, one of the skirt has red border and red stripe going down the side and one had a green one. Black tops, almost like in the style of sari blouses, black tops with either red or green puff sleeves, they were really cool actually. I think my mum did well making the dresses and the guys would wear sort of anything, that was in the dance crew. In the band, people and musicians were creative and did not think of costumes they wore. They wore something comfortable in performing.

Q: Was the audience mainly Bengalis?
Back in the days, the festivals we did in London, East London mainly. I would say the ICA was very, very mixed audience, at the ICA the audience was predominantly White. It depends what the venue was and how it was publicised. It was mainly mixed and I think it was a positive thing having a mixed audience. At the gigs there was a real mix, the DJs who were heavily involved in it were mainly White.

Q: Do you thing traditional Bengali music should be preserved in Britain?
I don’t think anything is preserved, because at the end of the day, you can keep something as it is but my view is to bring it to a bigger audience and if it means preserving it, its fine. If it means sometimes playing about with it, its fine too. I think, what would be a shame is, if in 20 years time, may be the 6th or the 7th generation Bengalis can’t think what traditional Bengali music is because they have never heard it. But its how do you make anything appeal, either you like something or you don’t. But I think it can be preserved in lots of ways. May be it can be preserved by mixing with something.

Q: Are there any differences between the traditional Bangladeshi or Indian style of music and music by you at that time?
I don’t really know that much about traditional Indian and Pakistani music but what I do know, I like traditional folk music. In all different parts of the world they have their own sounds. I can listen to certain piece of music and if they use very obviously traditional and obvious conventional sorts of instruments.

Q: Did you follow any musicians?
No, you have interesting musicians, music makers at the time, doing all sorts of stuff. It was a big explosion of house music recreated again and revamped and there were lot going on. However, I don’t think musicians have been creative enough, although they were creative but not pushing the boundaries. At the time other then us, outside of Joi Bangla Sound and band crew of that group I don’t think people were using at all. No, it was us who did actually play big part in that explosion and since then, like still today it’s unusual to hear about Bengali DJs. It’s quite unusual to meet Bengali DJ, they are not really well mixing all sorts of music. They should not be limited to one stop. We very much actually pushed the agenda foreword within the Bengali community.

Q: What kind of music do you think the young British Bengali or Asian people listen to now days?
I think there is still a huge influence from R&B, American hip-hop, jungle, garage, eventually it is dance music in the broader sense, music you can dance to. I wouldn’t say a huge percentage of Asian youngsters listen to say Radiohead. Indi music has been exposed to more people but its still very much dance music based.

Q: Do you think it relates to your taste of music?
Yes, when I think dance music, who ever makes it, people who makes dance music, DJs, they are the most creative, I would say because they are prepared to play with the bit of classical music, bit of Bengali music because of that, their creativity they are creating a new sound, and people want listen to new sounds. We did that at that time and people were continuing to do that, but with broader area, with Indi and with any music. I would say it’s broader in some respects, what Asians are listening to is broader then we listened to. That’s because the music is seen broader now. That’s very influenced by the dance sort of music.

Q: Why did you get involved in music and dance?
I think, at that time it was interesting enough. I was raised in East London. Outside of school I didn’t have many Bengali friends, for what ever reason. When members of the band got together and when they said this, if want to do this Ansar in particular from Joi Bangla Banned. They were interested and I said why not and I had the energy and I wanted to perform and I always sort of had an interest in performing arts and had an interest in, culturally where I was from. I suppose to speak Sylheti, and very much Bengali in some respects but perhaps in other ways I did not expressed that and at the time it felt right to do something. People may be thinking really idealistically, but it was how we could really be the creators of putting the Bengalis on the map and all on a sudden I was exposed to all these cool Bengalis making music.

Q: What was the message you wanted to pass across through your music? What was the condition of the Bangladeshi community then, when you were growing up, when you just got into this?
We wanted to send a message to both the Bangladeshi community and to the non-Bengali community. I think the perception within the community was, in terms of doing something, exposure, was not ambitious in the creative art sense like people might run a small community centre and this was something that would break that mould, and then I think the attitude in the community was that they could go out their and create this buzz but we did. I’m sure people thought ... People really rated us and I am sure some took us as role model. I didn’t know what the community thought, probably afterwards, reactions has been, “Wow, you have been brilliant at the time, you were brilliant, you influenced me and you inspired me”. So that’s the feeling in the community, it wasn’t that ambitious in the art sense. Now they have just taken over what we did, what we did probably was naïve and innocent and very simple. But it needed to happen and what we created was a buzz among the community and the community were proud, after all the community was proud of us overall. It does sound a bit rosy. Now the community expects more, because we have actually come a long way, it is nearly 20 years. That’s a good thing and that’s why what should happen, we should have been doing the same thing 20 years ago. We should grow and evolve and be out there in the record of the creation, all that buzz created around us. Now I am taking the credit!

Q: Can you give us one or two of your memorable experience?
Performing in the ICA (the Institute of Contemporary Arts) that’s to me is the highlight of my performance, that’s a very well known contemporary arts venue, sorts of events that happened there are sorts of high calibre, high profile events, top artists. To perform in that venue, probably the buzz and that evening was absolutely phenomenal. There was a week of different evening and day time events of Asian and world music, and I think we got the biggest crowd. The crowd was brilliant and the buzzing and on the last track people jumped on the stage. That is the high light definitely.

Then performing at the earlier sort of festivals in the area, it was quite nerve racking. The crowd was big enough to jeer and throw things at us but that was an important issue. Think if they didn’t like it, they would have just booed us off the stage. That would have been embarrassing, that did not happen so it was important I think, in that regard.
Then when we went up to the BBC in Birmingham to film the Network East performance that was in November 1987, and the ICA was in May 1987. That was the exposure to the mainstream media. That’s the highlight of my life.

Q: What do you think of the young generation in term of music and culture?
I don’t go out as much as I used to. I am a bit out of touch. The young generation are aiming high. They are travelling around the world and it shows that there is a thirst out there and it’s very much among the young Bengali males. There is no exposure of women. Nowadays everyone wants to make music, everyone wants to be famous, it’s a hard industry, so I think often you are going to somebody who is really dedicated to music. You do it because you have love for it, this is the passion, something about performing and Bengalis are no difference to anyone else in wanting that.

Q: Why did you leave the band and the music?
I am not involved in the music and the dance at all, it has couple of reasons, most things evolve or they just break up because you cannot keep something the same, you have to change with the time so essentially what we were doing, we had to do a job we did that job, and now I want to move onto something else. People want change and that’s one reason.

The effort and time that goes to, being in a dance group and being a musician is often the same as having a full time job and if it is not bringing the money in, I could not have sustain it and actually I have other interests, for me it was good at that time. I did a real good job, made a point and now its time to move on, let the next group of people come along and do, carry on. It’s a nature of life that you move on. I would be bored doing the same thing. Its 20 years now since I first started performing, to be in the industry like that for 20 years, it’s a big part of your life. You can either do that making a lot of money or make little as in our case or you could do lots of other things. I have done lots and lots of other things and they have all shaped my life, they continue to do so. But I have grown up of performing at gigs and not making money and now I have done a job and I think I have done it well. I think by staying in a band, myself or trying to perform in a dance group, defeat the object. It is time you have to move on.

Q: What type of music do you listen to now?
I listen to very broad range of music, everything. In my record collection, there is everything starting from traditional Bengali music. I really listen to sort of Indian or Pakistani music. I like radiohead, I like dance music. I like Indi stuff, country and western, it’s so broad and I think that reflects the sort of music that can be accessible to people and different types of music and genre of music appeal to the people. You can see the trees of how music evolved. Your taste develops and evolves also. Good music, good composition and good lyrics, it’s very broad. But essentially if I like the sounds and if the instrument sounds good, it’s been put together then why not I like it. I would hate to limit myself, and say well I listen to rock music that’s pre-limiting for me.