Aruba Red

Music interview by Louise Nousratpour
Thursday November 26, 2009
The Morning Star

Aruba Red's fiery rebel music hits like a refreshing blast of briny sea air, dissipating the stale, insular celebrity-obsessed atmosphere that passes for today's pop culture.

Named after a Caribbean pirate legend, Red, born Natascha Eleanor, released her self-titled debut album last year.

She is justly proud of having put together the record herself, albeit with a smidgeon of help and a load of inspiration from her socialist father, and 1960s Cream superband bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce.

"I was lucky enough to work with some of his close friends in New York when I was recording the album," she says, while emphasising that "I'm doing my own thing and my music is very different from his."

A unique London sound with a strident political message, Aruba Red's album fuses reggae, hip-hop, soul and jazz into an exquisite feast of progressive vibes.

Eleonore describes her music as "hard-hitting. It embodies all the different styles and experiences that define who I am."

The album, available on iTunes as well as CD and LP, has received rave reviews and her track Struggling which features big reggae artist Jah Mason made the top 10 in Jamaica.

Back in Blighty, the twenty-something singer/songwriter has impressed audiences from Glastonbury Festival to Abbey Road Studios.

And her no-nonsense lyrics and soulful vocals struck a chord with revellers at last year's Love Music Hate Racism carnival.

Her intelligently crafted lyrics address social issues ranging from the vapidity of consumerism to modern-day slavery, racism, and wars, linking seemingly abstract global injustice to our daily struggles.

"As ever, dark forces seek to divide us by race, colour or creed, so I want to highlight how we are not so different.

"Injustices are the only thing we have to fight against - we mustn't allow ourselves to be weakened, split up into different single issue campaigns or skin colour.

"Unity is the thing. As long as we fight each other we're not going to fight against the real problem - the system that exploits us all."

In the song It's Time Now, she deals with the lingering effects of British colonialism, singing: "Africa, all our motherland, forced to beg from the hand that enslaved her."

Eleonore damns the British government's failure to make amends for its central role in the genocidal transatlantic slave trade and criticises school history education as too "eurocentric.

"My friends from Africa feel frustrated when their hugely diverse, beautiful continent is yet again represented in the tired old terms of war, poverty or charity," she says.

"I understand it is difficult to squeeze a comprehensive study of world history into a busy curriculum, but I do believe that because we live in an ex-colonial ruler we should at least be taught about the effects that that has had on the rest of the world.

"In 2009 hundreds of millions of people are going hungry in Africa, India, Latin America and the Middle East.

"It is important that young people here are informed and know about the often destructive role that Britain has played - and continues to play."

She explains that the spine-tingling Rebel Soldiers track is inspired by the anti-war movement.

"I'm funding bloodshed with the taxes I pay, so come my friends let's light a candle for those we help murder in freedom's name," Eleanore sings.

Giving voice to a sentiment that is silently shared by millions, she says that, while happy to pay taxes "so that our health service works and our streets are kept clean it is hugely frustrating to know that the money is also being used to effectively kill people."

She salutes Lance Corporal Joe Glenton, who was arrested earlier this month for refusing to go back to Afghanistan.

"We need to wake people up to the sacrifice he has made for standing up - he hasn't taken the easy way out. Some US soldiers are also refusing to fight."

Recalling the way in which the government sent troops into Iraq in the face of massive public opposition embodied in the peace march of February 2003, Eleanor wonders how democratic Britain's supposedly liberal representative political system really is.

"I remember marching against the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and it's very difficult to know what to do when all the peaceful means have been exhausted," she sighs.

She is adamant that the campaigning must continue.

So where does her political inspiration come from?

"My father has a very left-wing outlook - his parents were very active in the Labour Party," she explains.

"I remember he took me on a march against the first Gulf War when I was very young and he taught me about apartheid in South Africa."

Her Glaswegian grandparents, who tried to settle in Canada in the height of the McCarthy era, were branded communists and forced back to Scotland.

"The political activism has always been strong in my father's family. I always thought I'd be writing articles or books, but at the moment it is coming out through my music."

Her new single Light Up, Light Up features top Jamaican reggae artist Jah Cure and will be released in the new year.

"It's my first proper debut single release so I'm really excited about that," she says eagerly, adding: "I am developing my writing skills to try to appeal to a wider audience on an emotional level. But I still want to be part of a certain political movement and push the truth forward."

Through her music, she is voicing her discontent with the injustices done in her name and hopes that it will serve as a "historical documentation" to let future generations know that "we are not OK with what's happening and we will not be silenced."

• Aruba Red will be performing at the Big Chill House (257-259 Pentonville Road, London N1) at 7pm this Sunday (Nov 29). Tickets £3. For more information visit www.bigchill.net/house