Fun>Da>Mental: Looking Back In Anger
Author: Jonty Adderley
Saturday, October 5, 2002
When last year's 9/11 attacks spawned a furious crusade against Moslem fundamentalists everywhere, activist cum dance experimentalists Fun>Da>Mental found themselves in a peculiar position. Nakedly exposed on the one hand, their name suddenly opened doors to a media previously as indifferent to their acute political consciousness as it was to their music.
"The album came out around the time of September 11 and interestingly we were interviewed more about that than the album," Aki confirms.
"September 11 actually helped in making people interested in talking to us though they'd just shove the album into their articles as an addition."
12 months on, the band are just about to release a new single featuring four remixes of recent tracks from the likes of Pressure Drop, afro-fusionists the Moody Boys and Temple of Sound. More pertinently, the CD will include spoken word monologues from prominent Moslems, political activists and possibly even Yvonne Ridley (the Express reporter captured by the Taliban who recently converted to Islam). Skrufff's Jonty Adderley caught up with Aki at Nation's West London offices on a sunny afternoon.
Skrufff: Where do you see Fun>Da>Mental compared to other politically conscious bands like Primal Scream
Fun>Da>Mental (Aki): "If you look at someone like Primal Scream, they're musically respected but as far as politics are concerned they're non committal and sitting on the fence, they're apologising and compromising. Even bands like Asian Dub Foundation are about 80s style politics, and they appeal to the typical NME reader, by saying certain things and remaining within certain parameters. If we don't discuss issues with honesty and integrity, ie being full-on, then we're not going to achieve anything or go anywhere. One side is being submissive and entertaining while the other side continues to be dominating and controlling the parameters. It's total disrespect to the past to continue in that way.
When someone like Damon Albarn from Blur says something slightly edgy, people are like 'Wow, we've got to listen to that' but we're still sidelined. There's no reason for Fun>Da>Mental to carry on as a show biz/ entertainment band, there is no show biz, or entertainment or money to be gained. What there is to be gained is some space to talk about issues we want to talk about and this is the only avenue we have."
Skrufff: You spoke after 9/11 about going to Pakistan, diid you go there in the end-
Fun>Da>Mental (Aki): "I went in January but the atmosphere was so tense. I was intending to go and interview somebody from Al Qaida and I was actually thinking 'If I could find Bin Laden it'd be brilliant to get an interview out of him but obviously the political situation in Afghanistan and the politics between Afghanistan and Pakistan haven't been resolved yet. It was so dangerous, people were saying to me 'if you want to go up there and get killed, do it'."
Skrufff: How did people in Pakistan react to you, coming out of England-
Fun>Da>Mental (Aki): "In Pakistan everybody is obviously very anti-American but you also find great objectivity. I was amazed that despite the fact they've got a military ruler there were great discussions going on. If you're really passionate about something, you're still allowed to speak. I met up with these communist leaders, Pakistani communists and I was really surprised by what they said. I asked them 'what do you think of the Taliban-' and they replied 'there's nothing wrong with the Taliban. They were really good, they just strayed under political pressure and isolation but their leader is actually a very pious guy. A lot of the propaganda that you've probably h Tags