Blick Bassy is a multi-talented musician with an unforgettably beautiful voice. He is originally from Cameroon and is now based in France. In the past year he has become a warm friend to Little Sun – shining Little Sun lamps during his shows and spreading the solar love across the world in his tours. He spoke to us about his global role as a musician and his vision for how we can all make a better world.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your music?
BB: Music has a chance to just be emotion and, as emotion is an international language, it has more power than anything.
Because you can touch people from everywhere just with your emotion, just with your music, never mind where you come from. I’m coming from Cameroon and now I’m touring worldwide, exchanging wonderful moments with people coming from different countries, coming from different parts of the world. It is this power of the music that allows you to really exchange, to share beautiful moments with people.
And this is what can really help the world to be better. As a musician I think I have this kind of legacy to fulfil, to help make the world better.
I’m lucky to have a microphone, to have an interview, to have some people who could really listen to what I’m talking about. So I think I’m also in charge to just give a wonderful message coming from the world…I’m lucky to really travel everywhere and to meet wonderful people. I can also see issues from different sources, I can also see people suffering.
I’m living now in France and let’s talk for just a moment now about immigration. Before, to become Blick Bassy touring everywhere it was really hard for me, coming from a country that was not that powerful, like some Western other countries. Because of this, things were more difficult for me. I think my job is also to warn people that in 2016, we still can’t just say that everyone is equal and with human rights and everything…(..) we can still see that things are changing today but really really slowly. So I’m also in charge, as a musician, you know, to bring these words out to the world, to say to the people “hey guys, let’s change our world.”
How did you first hear about Little Sun?
BB: I first met Little Sun in a show in Germany, when I was supporting Baba Maal, (I can’t remember which city it was), and when I was coming in the venue I saw that wonderful yellow little stuff and I was asking myself, “what is this?”. And finally I met Marion (pictured above) who started explaining for me… I was really really surprised because I thought “wow, this is what kind of solution I was actually talking about!”
Solar is one solution for a lot of countries. Here in Western countries, if we want people to pay less for oil, gas, it’s a solution…and it’s a solution if we want to stop wars. A lot of wars today are coming from the fact that people need some oil, companies need oil, some governments need it. So when Marion explained Little Sun to me I thought “oh this is the kind of project I really love and if I can bring something to it I will really be happy because being part of this project is also giving my contribution for changing the world.”
What made you want to collaborate with Little Sun?
BB: We all have to be makers, every day, making our world better. But it is really with a project like Little Sun that helps people to become independent. We can fix some problems in Africa as well as in here. I live in a small village in France and here I can see that everyday people are complaining about everything becoming so expensive so I can see that a project like Little Sun really makes people more effective to make change day by way. So Little Sun is about making a better day, making a better world, making a better future.
How do you think solar can play a role in Africa?
BB: I think solar energy is the future because Africa is lucky to be seeing everyday the sun..the sun is shining everyday. We’re lucky to be in a place where solar energy can really be beneficial for people and I think this is going to be the future of the world.
Because as I said, every war we are seeing every day is because of oil, because of fuel, because of energy. And if we have energy today that is really simple and also cheap for everyone, I think things are going to be better and wars will stop because everyone will have his own ways of making and having his own energy.
Using solar energy means that we go back to times when we were just using nature, before we started changing everything. Humans are so complicated now because we are always thinking we are the best and the ones who decide how the world has to be. No, I think everything is already here in our hands, like the sun. So solar for me is a really wonderful opportunity to make a better world and a better life for a lot of people from Africa. That’s why I’m thinking all these projects that have been started now in solar will be really successful in the next few years. I’m really sure of that.
What’s your future vision of a better world?
BB: My future vision for a better world is that I think we just have to be makers. Being makers is for me, deciding every day for our own future. Because if we are still waiting then some people are going to decide for us. If we want to change our world and have a better future, we have to be together, to exchange together, to exchange our ideas. I’m working today together with Little Sun because it’s for me a good project.
We have to be like in a big village: people coming from Africa, coming from Europe, from the US, coming from India, from Asia. We have to come together to build everyday, we have to be makers. Because we don’t need someone else like politicians to decide for us – no, they aren’t the ones who are going to change out world. We are the ones who are going to charge our world. Everyone of us, each of us, is the one who is going to change this world. And for me this is my vision.
And that’s also my job as a musician. To warn people. That’s also why I wrote my last book, it’s about the world of immigration – to see and to give my view on immigration. Seeing that there are a lot of lies. These lives (of immigrants) are just goods for some politicians, just making the careers of some politicians.
So that’s why we don’t have to wait for anyone, why we have to be makers ourselves. Human beings are exchanging, you know, doing projects together, helping each other together…we need to be complementary – “you have this one, I have that one” – and we exchange and we can share it.
If we want to change our world we have to every day, each of us, make the changes we want to see.
Blick’s next performance is on 22 October, at the Théâtre du Chatelet, Nø Førmat! festival
Blick’s album, Akö, is out on Nø Førmat.
You can follow him on Twitter here.
Sending our heartfelt thanks to Blick for this inspiring interview.
