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Studio Expresso, an online community of music producers and artists, recently interviewed Zap Mama for its January 2010 e-zine. This monthly report on music news and trends features Zap Mama in its “Studio Spotlight.” In the interview, Zap Mama talks about the goals behind her music and the process of writing a song. You can read the full article below:

Zap Mama Up Close and Personal
2010 NAACP Image Nominee Zap Mama Talks with studioexpresso About Her Positive Music Spin
Interview by Claris Dodge

41st NAACP Image Awards air live Friday, February 26 on FOX.
This year, in the category of Outstanding World Music Album
Zap Mama’s ReCreation is nominated. studioexpresso spotlighted this album in August 2007. Though producer, singer, songwriter and humanitarian Marie Daulne aka Zap Mama makes Brussels (Belgium) home, her music belongs to the world.

“My early childhood was filled with the music of my mother, the music of the Congo,” she says. Her mission is loud and clear in her 2009 album released on Heads Up International, a division of Concord Music Group ReCreation (HUCD 3159): Positive Force of music inspired by nature and history aiming to crack the happiness code. Got your attention yet?! Rooted in a rich Brazilian vibe, ReCreation also boasts a guest list of high-profile vocalists including Bilal, G. Love, actor Vincent Cassel and several others. You might say Marie Daulne thinks like an Olympic athlete. A sport injury changed life of a young runner who turned the downtime into a learning opportunity. “A new direction unfolded for me. Since I couldn’t run, I decided to get my hands on any and every book on African and European art and history. I thought about what I would do after I’m 30. I traveled back to my homeland and learned about the healing and connecting nature of music. Soon, voices were talking to me. Voices from the earth… from mother or “mama.” Fast forward 20-years and Daulne is celebrating a multicultural musical entity she has created, the Afropean vocalist and songwriter knows as Zap Mama.

“I couldn’t play an instrument, so I had to learn how to make the music I was hearing in my head. I started with my vocals. Just singing in polyphony. It made me think of how the poor can accomplish happiness and togetherness with bare basics. So I learned to communicate my music and merged it with a philosophy of respecting nature, connecting to people and finding happiness,” Daulne says. “Take Villabe singing for instance -The African or Arabic world know the secret of simplicity. I learned it from the Blue Men or nomads in Touareg (the Savanna desert near central and North Africa). I learned from Animists and how they heal people….learned from their oral tradition,” she adds.

Daulne approaches writing new material like she paints. “First I imagine the image and treat sounds like brush strokes…the perspective or the placement of instruments can change the view. I then add or take off musical elements, until I’m happy with the image. Daulne who is multi-linguist (French, Dutch Congolese and some Lingala or Portuguese) explores melodies on the keyboards first. She has gotten comfortable using ProTools. “I thank the guy who invented it…Sometimes ideas come to me on the road or when I’m out shopping. I used to record on my phone. Now, it’s easier to capture it on my computer and I get a much better sound quality,” she says.

Daulne also likes to conduct workshops for other artists on how to project stage energy combined with healing and oral tradition teachings. She believes that when it comes to fashion or style, understated elegance is ageless. “Arabic women like to cover themselves so you uncover the internal beauty first. Style is a personal choice. At the end of the day my music represents the real world and I’m always very clear on what I want,” says Daulne who is proud of her NAACP nomination and representing her rich Afro European heritage.

Zap Mama music is beautiful, inside and out. She’s a positive force in music today.