Dantes Rameau is the founder of The Atlanta Music Project, an organization that fosters music in overall education. Rameau is a native of Ottawa, born of a Cameroon-born mother and a Haiti-born father. Music is as much of a part of him, as osteoblasts as part of his bones.

Rameau’s organization is recognized nationally for reviving the use of music in contemporary education in underserved neighborhoods. He put the organization together following his completion of the prestigious New England Conservatory’s Sistema Fellows Program and modeled it after El Sistema, a music program in Venezuela.

The Atlanta Music Project is now in its fourth year, and its 110 young artists perform 25 concerts annually. The young participants have performed for Atlanta’s Mayor at the Woodruff Arts Center, the venue the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra calls home. They’ve even performed at Philips Arena with Roger Waters of the classic group Pink Floyd, in front of an audience of 12,000.

You were born in Ottawa. What are your memories of growing up in that city?

Ottawa was a great place to grow up. It is a very diverse city. My friends came from all ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds and we celebrated our differences. To this day, I feel comfortable in practically all social settings, around all people and I attribute this to my experience growing up in Ottawa. This has come in handy for my work with the Atlanta Music Project, where a typical day might involve me pitching a corporate executive in the morning, teaching music at one of our sites in the afternoon, and meeting with the parents of one of our students in the evening.

Looking back on it, I realize now that Ottawa is a pretty small town. Big enough that I wasn’t too bored but small enough that I didn’t feel lost. In fact, Atlanta reminds me of Ottawa, because even though it is a much bigger city it still has a small town feel.

Who planted the seed for the love of music in you?

For this, I have to credit my parents. While they are not professional musicians, music was always playing in our house. Classical, jazz, Haitian, Salsa, R&B, rock – everything! We had a small piano in the house, and my parents played it often. Even now, I don’t think a day passes when my dad doesn’t play the piano.

They put me in piano lessons when I was six. I definitely enjoyed it and had a knack for it, but I didn’t always enjoy practicing. But my parents always encouraged me to practice, and as I got older I realized that the more I practiced the better I could play, and the better I could play the more fun I had playing and performing music. Eventually, I started playing the bassoon in high and joined my local youth orchestra.

The late Jerry Kupchynsky, a well-known music educator from New Jersey used to say that hard work is the true meaning of happiness. I would say that both my parents and music taught me the same lesson, and for this I’m eternally grateful.

Can you tell us even more about the Atlanta Music Project?

We ask potential students if they would like to play an instrument or sing in a choir during their after-school time. We tell their parents that their child must commit to coming to class five-days-per-week for two hours each day. If the family is OK with this, AMP gives them an instrument, a teaching artist, classes and performance opportunities. The kids don’t have to any musical experience and we don’t hold entrance auditions. Our philosophy is that with the proper support and dedication, any child can learn to play an instrument or sing in a choir.

The goal of AMP is two-fold: first to keep our students safe and off the streets after school. Second: through our rigorous music training, to develop in our students a certain resilience, confidence and ambition that will take them as far as they want in whatever field they want.

We have to raise a lot of money for this program – we’ve raised almost one million dollars in the past three years – but it is a sound investment. Because there are older and similar music programs in other cities, we know that students that stick with our program will graduate high school and go on to do great things. This is important since the high school graduation rate in the communities we serve hovers around 50%.

What have you observed through managing the program?

The raw talent present in our inner-cities is amazing and it’s a real joy to watch our young artists develop into confident and competent young people. We plan to expand our programming to different parts of Atlanta so that many more kids can have the opportunity to perform in high-quality music ensembles.

Your first name Dantes means “lasting, enduring, steadfast”, from its Latin origins. And I looked up the last name Rameau too. It means “branch” in French.

That’s interesting. I didn’t know that about my first name, but those adjectives are definitely essential character traits. From now on, I guess will have to live by them everyday! My parents tell me they named me after the Italian poet Dante Alighieri and added the “s” at the end so they could pronounce it French: “Don-tez.”

You hold a Bachelor’s degree in Music from McGill University. Did you have your parents’ full support at the time you chose to undertake this degree program. I mean, we all know that sometimes parents have these expectations…

It’s kind of funny that after an entire childhood of encouraging me to do well in my music studies, my parents weren’t – at- first – too enthusiastic about me going to college to do a bachelors degree in bassoon performance. But at the same time, they couldn’t have been that surprised. They eventually supported my decision, as long I “did well and produced results.” I think they understood that the rigorous music studies I had taken all my life had developed in me the character traits to do well in life, no matter what field I pursued, so they just let me get on with it and figure it out for myself. And eventually, I did.

Classic music is obviously a big favorite of yours. What other sort of music do you like?

My parents played all kinds of music at home and my friends were a diverse group growing up. So even though I studied classical music, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy other kinds of music just as much. I love salsa, Haitian Compas, samba music and have taken salsa lessons before. I also played tenor saxophone in high school so I’m a fan of jazz. I enjoy hip-hop, especially the early 90s hip-hop, part of the so-called Golden Age of Hip Hop.

Also, African drum and dance is amazing. Seemingly simple, yet so complex. Our students at the Atlanta Music Project often do African drum and dance before they start their orchestral instruments as it helps them connect rhythm, movement and story to melody and performance. This is so important in communicating your music to an audience in a captivating way.

You’ve actually taught music as well—at the Yale School of Music Outreach program. What is the main principle that you try to get across to your students?

Yes, when I was in graduate school at the Yale School of Music I did some teaching in the New Haven Public School through the Yale School of Music’s Music in the Schools program. It was a fantastic experience, one that had a big impact on my future career because from that moment I decided that I would pursue both a performance career and an education career.

And when you teach…

When I teach, I try to use my students’ development as artists to show them the value of consistent, hard work over a long period of time. You see, for most kids, and I was the same as well, playing the first few notes on an instrument is a lot of fun. But then to improve and become more proficient, well, that requires work. But not just any kind of work. The kind of deliberate, repetitive, strategic and analytic practice sessions that develop expertise. Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers talks about the “10,000 Hour Rule” – how it takes 10,000 hours of this kind of practice to get really good at something. We’re talking Bill Gates-good at computer programming or Tiger Woods-good at golf.

I’m not saying that every child I teach needs to become a professional musician, but if music can teach them how to appreciate deliberate, consistent practice, there isn’t much they won’t be able to tackle in life.

And music is the best tool to use?

The reason that music is one of the best tools to teach this principle is because if a young musician practices properly, he or she will get incremental, but fairly immediate results. A small reward for their work will go a long way in teaching them the correlation between hard work and success. And if they keep that up over many years, well they’ll get really good.

Instead of simply telling my students to “work hard and play the right notes,” I try to guide them in learning how to practice effectively and then their own musical progress shows them the results of their own hard work. Lastly, I always encourage my students to play expressively, with a beautiful sound. Once all the rehearsing is done and it’s showtime, it’s their chance to really enjoy their playing and engage the audience. Playing music is like sprinting: it requires plenty of training but the performance is over quickly. But when it goes right, there is really nothing that compares.

What’s do you think music’s overall place in education?

I think music has an essential place in education because it’s such a natural thing for kids to do. It’s fun! But it’s also important because it teaches kids how to figure things out, teaches individual and collective responsibility and accountability.

The tricky thing is that in education these days, everything kids learn has to be measurable and it’s difficult to measure the benefits of performing a concert. It’s not like reading, writing and math – you give a test and you can evaluate what a student has learned or hasn’t learned. This is why music and the arts are the first to go when school budgets get tight. But for all the testing we do, high school graduation rates and college graduations rates haven’t improved much, especially for low-income and minority youth. So perhaps, we need to start measuring more than just math and reading scores.

Recent research has shown that the results of standardized tests are not necessarily the best indicator of future success. For example Angela Duckworth, who is a 2013 MacArthur Foundation Genius,” has done some well-known research on grit. She found that students who scored well on a simple 12-question “grit test,” which contains questions like “I am a hard worker,” were more likely to get to the final rounds at the National Spelling Bee. At West Point Military Academy, the grit test – over physical tests, incoming grades and leadership potential tests – was also the more accurate predictor of which freshmen would complete the grueling summer training course known as Beast Barracks.

I think that if programs such as the Atlanta Music Project succeed in demonstrating how important music is to the character development of children, especially those coming from the most challenging socio-economic backgrounds, we will gradually see more support for music education from policy makers and administrators. As much as I would like it, a well-performed concert is not a strong enough argument, so it’s our job as musicians and teaching artists to show the value of our art in more measurable and relevant ways.

As a native of Canada, born of Haitian and Cameroonian parents, did you have any issues balancing all three identities?

Fortunately, I didn’t too much trouble balancing these identities. It helped that several of my friends also had parents from different countries. I have friends from childhood that easily spoke three or four languages growing up, simply because of their background.

As a child, I spent part of my summers in New York with the Haitian side of my family and the other part of the summer at an overnight summer camp in the middle of the province of Quebec with French Canadians. And my mom adopted her niece from Cameroon when I was in eighth grade. So in the end, I was very comfortable balancing all three identities.

One interesting thing was that after high school I began to be more conscious about the lack of African-Americans in my chosen field of classical music. That didn’t have a direct effect me because it had always been that way my whole life, I just hadn’t given it much thought until college. In college this phenomenon caused me to question why this was the case and, given the opportunities that music had afforded me, what I could do to afford the same to other minorities.

When was the last time you went to Haiti?

I have never been to Haiti. I would love to go though. Most of my Haitian side of the family is in North America but my dad’s generation speaks nostalgically about growing up in Port-Au-Prince, so it’s important to me to learn and see my origins in person. Same goes for Cameroon, my mom’s side. I plan to visit both countries in the future.

Have you ever thought of doing a counterpart of your Atlanta music project in either Haiti or Cameroon?

The thought has crossed my mind, absolutely. I know that Haiti recently launched an El Sistema-inspired program with the government’s support, which is fantastic. I’m not sure what the music education scene is in Cameroon, but I assume there are local music programs there too. I would love to lend my support as it is needed to any local effort to bring even more music to kids in Haiti and Cameroon. As it relates to the Atlanta Music Project, I think doing an exchange, where Atlanta Music Project students go to Haiti or Cameroon and vice-versa, would be a life-changing experience for all the kids involved.

You were among The Sistema Fellows at the New England Conservatory and you got to go to Venezuela. What was that experience like overall?

Venezuela was amazing. The love that the Venezuelans have, not only for classical music, but for traditional Venezuelan music, rhythm and dance is infectious. I saw amazing youth orchestras and choirs, but I also saw amazing ensembles of traditional Venezuelan instruments, like the cuatro and the Venezuelan harp.

In Venezuela, the youth orchestras have a very important role in the community. Elected officials must be able to explain what they will do to support the local youth orchestras. I believe people there see music not only as a fun activity, but also as a way to build community and good citizens. It is definitely the youth orchestra capital of the world!

But it took Venezuela’s El Sistema almost 40 years to get to where they are today! They’ve been developing free, after-school music programs for all kids, rich and poor, since 1975. I hope that the founder of El Sistema, Jose Antonio Abreu, eventually wins the Nobel Peace Prize. He certainly deserves it.

Dantes Rameau poses with his parents.

Do you sing as well?

Singing is not my strong suit. [Laughter] I have a very good ear, of course, but when it comes to actual singing, like me singing, let’s just say it’s a good thing I’m an instrumentalist.

Any counsel for those who would like to follow the same career path as you?

A career in music is a beautiful one. My advice to young people that want to follow this path is to make sure to dedicate the time to developing their craft. But in addition also take the time to discover what role in your community you want to play as a musician. These days the existence of many symphony orchestras is being second-guessed. Great musicians who figure out how to support the development of their community, alongside businesses, schools and other non-profits, will always be successful.

And for the parents of budding musicians: don’t be afraid to encourage your kids to go into music, especially if they’re good at it. Music can be a ticket to college scholarships (saving you a lot of money!) where a student can double major. They’ll get the opportunity to travel and experience the world. Then, if they choose to, they can use their degree to get a job, go to graduate school in law, medicine, business etc. I tell our Atlanta Music Project parents all the time: not all my friends who studied music with me are making a living in music – but not one of them is unemployed.

What’s next for you?

I’d like to scale our work with the Atlanta Music Project. We’ve been able to demonstrate what our organization is capable of with 110 students, so the next step is to bring together funders and partners to bring our program to more students and neighborhoods.

I’ve learned that music is a very powerful tool for good and all young people deserve the opportunity not only to be exposed to it, but also to experience it and excel at it themselves.

[Photos: Rameau and his parents by Carlton Mackey; Conducting Atlanta Music Project students pic by Anthony Alston Jr; Rameau with the bassoon by Lauren Thomas.]

Visit the Atlanta Music Project Website| Donate to the Atlanta Music Project| Facebook| Twitter | Read Dantes Rameau’s Blog | Check out the Atlanta Music Project on YouTube|

Singer and songwriter Sarah Jane Rameau completed her album Lost Breed late last year and released the work this past spring. Catch this snippet of an interview I had with her, in which she discusses the obsession of creatives with perfectionism, her thoughts on vocal and mental health, as well as the importance of mentors.

Kreyolicious: One thing about creatives is that they sometimes tend to get obsessed. How do you know when a song is done?
Sarah Jane Rameau: Too early to say, but why not writing it out loud to the Universe via your blog? [Laughter] With my fellow Haitian artists, I would love to have a collaboration with the old and the new generation together. For example, imagine some Reginald Policard or Beethovah Obas on a Jael Auguste production… I also think about rappers on the scene now such as Princess Eud, Synedad, Wendyyy, Kalibr…for vocal collaboration, I am thinking about Mikaben, Riva Precil, Darline Desca, Nathalie Cerin, Cecile Mc Lorin Salvant or Alexa…These people have strong identities through their voices and I really admire that…They are vocally magical…So why not?! There are so many emerging talents in our Haitian community!! It’s amazing and makes me proud…As for international artists, I would like to pursue my production with Vax-1, the one who produced my single, Raindrop or Mark Ronson…And as [for] international artists, there are so many…But the closest to me would be the Belgium rapper Romeo Elvis, French artists such as Tairo…on the British scene: Jungle, Izzy Bizu, Asa…American scene: Snarky Puppy, PostModern Jukebox, Jhene Aiko, Justin Timberlake, Gaga. Just so many…
Kreyolicious: Music can take a toll on one’s well-being, especially when you’re so devoted to it. What measures do you take to care for your voice and your mental health?
Sarah Jane Rameau: For me, music is therapy. This album has been a container where I threw out all of my frustration encoutered during my stay. To remain sane, I first disconnect myself from everything and everyone that’s negative to me. I write a lot. I go to resourceful places. My favorite place to go are my mother’s hometown, La Vallée de Jacmel, where I enjoy the mountains and the beach down in Jacmel. I get inspired a lot by the beach…As I grow and get serious in my music, I need to practice my voice every day. I pay more attention to what I eat and drink. I’m trying to reduce my drinking and smoking habits…I am now trying to get back at my work out routine. Also, I am back in France now, so I’m back to my jazz-improv classes…

Kreyolicious: Would you advise those who are just beginning their recording careers to seek out mentors?
Sarah Jane Rameau: I always think it’s great to have a mentor. They’ve been knowing the field for years. They give you pointers, constructive criticism, instructions, help you broaden your cultural field in music and help you see many details that you, as young starter, you wouldn’t even think of. There’s a lot you can learn through them, and you also can also share your knowledge with them. They have a legacy to transmit and you to embrace and to incorporate. As for me, Reginald Policard is my mentor and I have learned a lot with him throughout this time. And I can only be grateful for everything he has taught me.

[Photos: Courtesy/via subject’s website]

CliCK HERE to buy Lost Breed on iTunes| CLICK HERE to buy Lost Breed on Amazon |

CLICK HERE to visit singer Sarah Jane Rameau’s website.

The acting bug bit the Haiti-born Patrick Rameau in Africa, of all places. He was living in the Congo (at one point of its history, also called Zaire). His father Adrien Rameau, was among the many Haitians who had been recruited in the 1960s by newly independent African countries to teach in African schools (his mother was Martha Martial). Adrien Rameau taught French. So at the age of 5, the young Rameau was fully into the cowboy and Indians films that were being broadcasted at the movie theaters in the Congo.

The Rameaus moved to New York three years later. “Initially, it was a bit of a culture shock. Especially the cold,” Rameau recalls of the move to the Northeast United States. The snowy days were especially hard on the eight year old. While the adult Rameaus were getting themselves settled in New York, they sent their four kids to a boarding school in Boston. That arrangement didn’t last two long, as the distance between children and parents was painful—to say the least. Rameau’s parents eventually sent for their kids and enrolled them in public schools in Brooklyn. Sometimes, Rameau would get chased by other kids, including violent members of gangs. “It was crazy back in those days. I remember once we were chased by this gang called the Tamahawks. People didn’t like Haitians all that much back then. They used to call us all kinds of strange names. Now we can laugh about it, but it was traumatizing then.”

One of the highlights of his school years, was a teacher of Rameau’s named Mark LaRoach, who encouraged his interest in acting. “He was very instrumental in my high school years. We worked intensely in acting.” Rameau played a member of the Jets in a school adaptation of “The West Side Story”.

Acting as a career was slowly but surely claiming him. The theater scene he had experienced as a child in the Congo, coupled with the productions that he participated in, in high school, drew him to the stage. Before long, he saw no other career for his future than acting.

In the late 1980s, Rameau may not have known it, but he was about to hit a milestone in his career. Rameau had a theater company Colleagues in Art, that he had co-founded with Carol Fox Prescott, his acting teacher, and they were producing a play he had written, inspired by the exodus of Haitians living Haiti by boat. “Back in 1982,” he reminisces, “there were a lot of Haitians that were washing up the shore. Hundreds of them every week. It was a situation. No one really thought much about them. They were just headlines.”

The positive response to the play and Rameau’s social consciousness were to be a precursor to the next phase of his career.

Patrick Rameau (kneeling as Gracieux Sorel) with actor Jean-Michel Martial in a scene from L’homme Sur Les Quais (Man on the Shores). Movie still via Cranes are Flying

Someone in Rameau’s entourage who knew Raoul Peck told Rameau about a casting that the director was undertaking in New York. Peck, by now, was now reputed for his documentaries about Haiti. Like Rameau, Peck had immigrated to the Congo in the 1960s with his parents, but somehow they had never known each other (Peck was older, and had at one point gone to Germany). Rameau auditioned and earned the lead role for Peck’s first feature Haitian Corner. Rameau was joined by Emile St Lot, Jean-Claude Eugène, Ailo Auguste, Marie-Clothide “Toto” Bissainthe, a slew of actors based in New York and Haiti. The atmosphere on the set was very friendly and joyous. “It remains the highlight of my career,” Rameau recalls.

The character that Rameau was to bring to life was that of Joseph Bossuet, a man who had been imprisoned and tortured in Haiti, and would meet one of his tormentors in exile in New York. “I thought it was a very important film, because it was the first real Haitian film that was ever produced, with professional actors and values,” says Rameau. “For me, it was a great triumph, no matter how I looked at it. It was a great opportunity to do something that had not been done. It was a wonderful moment in my acting life. It was one that needed to be done. To this day, I’m very pleased. It’s something I’m really proud of.”

Rameau had left Haiti as a kid, and didn’t really have any adult perception of what the script had delineated. To act out the torture scenes in the script, Peck had him listen to interrogation tapes. “I was able to analyze emotionally the situation, and I did do a lot of research and depended a lot on my imagination. I’m supposed to be able to create a character that’s three dimensional using my imagination, my experience and go by and emotionally analyze the situation, and give myself up to it.” Rameau read a lot of accounts about the regime, and spoke to people who had lived it.

Rameau traveled to Haiti in the late 1980s, where the film was screened to critical acclaim. “People were really impressed,” he remembers of the screening. It had been some time since an audience in Haiti had seen a professional cast, and a Haitian movie with people speaking in Creole. The film earned many laurels at film festivals around the world.

Rameau and Peck teamed up again to film L’homme Sur Les Quais. Whereas Haitian Corner was set in 1970s and 1980s Haiti, this time around, Rameau was going to play Gracieux Sorel, a man living in Haiti at the height of the François Duvalier regime in the 1960s, whose goddaughter Sara Desrouillières—and the rest of her family—are endlessly persecuted by a military strongman, affiliated with the regime. Peck chose to film the project in the Dominican Republic, as there had been a coup d’etat in Haiti that disrupted the film’s production there. Marie-Clothide “Toto” Bissainthe was once again part of the cast. Michèle Marcelin, Mireille Metellus, François Latour, Ailo Auguste Judith, Jennifer Zubar, Jean-Michel Martial, Albert Dely, Fritner Cedon were also part of the cast.

The character Joseph Bossuet and that of Gracieux Sorel had a lot in common, but the latter role would be more demanding of Rameau, and the scenes even more intense. Rameau says that Peck was very instrumental in helping him mold the character, as well as his (Rameau’s) own dedication. “I decided that I was going to invest a lot of my time in it. I stayed a lot of time in my hotel room and reading, walking around in that limp for 9, 10 hours. I wanted to be a real, living, breathing three-dimensional person who spoke to people on so many levels. I tried to do whatever it took to give it breadth.”

Rameau’s intense preparations paid off, as the results were phenomenal. The role of Gracieux Sorel remains the tour de force of Rameau’s film acting career. Watching him in the film, one cannot help but feel sympathy for the character, a broken, literally tortured soul, who rises beyond all the emotional pain that he’s been inflicted with to have the final word on the destiny of his family. Is one watching a drama, or a horror film one asks oneself, because each scene in which Rameau appears as Gracieux Sorel, there’s this throbbing of the heart, this pounding of the veins—this overall fear of how things will end for the Desrouillières family.

Patrick Rameau in a scene from Haitian Corner.

Michèle Marcelin Voltaire who played Madame Janvier, the wife of the military strongman, has fond memories of Rameau on the set. “I remember him as passionate about his work and easy to work with.” Marcelin Voltaire had worked with Rameau previously on the Françoise Kourilsky production of Simone Schwarz-Bart’s play “Ton Beau Capitaine” [Your Handsome Captain] at the Ubu Theater in New York.

L’Homme Sur Les Quais (Man on the Shore) marked the first time that many Haitians were seeing 1960s Haiti reenacted on film by a Haitian director with Haitian actors. Many who had lived during that time could readily identify with the story’s plot line of paranoia, terror, repression, torture, and “disappearances” that had malignantly marked that era in Haiti’s history. Up until then, that decade in Haiti was mostly addressed in documentaries.

The film was an official entry at the Cannes Film Festival, and exceeded Haitian Corner in critical and audience acclaim.

More than a decade after these triumph-filled moments, film and acting continue to be Rameau’s reason for living, and ultimately his only passion, besides his family. Fluent in French, Creole and Spanish, his career has brought him to TV series sets in France for such shows as “Julie Lescaut”, “Le Grand Patron”, as well as “Aliker”, a TV series written by novelist Patrick Chamoiseau, the Colombian film Maria Full of Grace, as well as roles on U.S. television shows like “Law and Order”.

Q & A

Do you have a dream role?
My dream role is any role that gives me color, variety. I love bad guys. I love angels and demons.

Do you think that you and Raoul Peck will work on a third project together?
I hope to. It would have to be the right project for us. I think the world of him. I think he’s the best we have. I hope that he will continue to do work where he continues to put Haitians in a positive light. He is a very, good good man and I am always happy to work with him.

Does acting life get too taxing sometimes too stressful?
This is the most stressful job there is. Other than being a soldier in the front lines waiting to be shot, it’s the most difficult business there is. If you don’t want to work hard for it, then you can’t do it; that’s just bottom line. I live in two different countries. I’m going to France on Monday. It’s just the nature of the business. You adapt to it. All my life I’ve been on a plane. I came back from Iran in February. I went to Iran to teach acting, of all places. I’m a Haitian-American in Iran. It was an important job. It was important to expose these young people to what acting was all about. I took the risk and went there, and it was great. The students were phenomenal, and very diligent. With the nature of the business, you have to be willing to go. You have to have a lot of energy and train yourself to be flexible, very malleable and not be attached to anything for too long. Changes is the one thing that you can expect in this business. Change is inevitable. It happens all the time. I’ve just accepted that and have gone with it.

If you could play anybody from Haitian history, a historical figure, who would you want to play?
I would want to play Toussaint L’ouverture.

You would want to play him? Why is that?
Because he’s the most—he’s the greatest general that the world had ever seen. To this day, there’s no real, solid story that’s been told about him. There was an awful production that was made in France with Jimmy Jean-Louis. Jimmy was wonderful, but the work, the writing, the cinematography, the other actors were just not up to par. It was really sad To me, that is the greatest story about people of color, and so it’s sad that story still hasn’t been told. Very difficult to get it told properly. It was very difficult for those who had actually done it, that it didn’t succeed.

Do you think it had to be do with the medium too, because it was done as a series. Do you think it would have worked better as a film series?
I don’t know what it has to do with. I don’t know anything about the production. I don’t know the inside story is as to why it wasn’t up to par. I have no idea. I don’t think the choice of medium has anything to do with it. It is a gigantic story. I don’t think the choice of medium has anything to do with it. It could have been wonderful as a mini-series. It is a huge story. If it was taken seriously. It had scope and it’s gotta be big. It was a big historical story. It had to be big. There is precedents for movies that have 13 episodes. I mean there’s a lot of ways of approaching it. I don’t think it should be dissected into tiny stories, Perhaps a writer of more creative can make it happen.

A seasoned actor such as yourself with vast experiences on television and film, on an international and national context must have some advice for up-and-coming actors.
My advice to any young artist starting out is to take this very seriously treat it like a business, because that’s exactly what it is. If you want to make this your life, you have to know this field is unforgiving. It takes enormous amount of time, focus and energy. If you don’t have the passion for it, don’t bother. If you are too spread out with a bunch of things happening in your life—don’t bother. Your priorities have got to be your development as an artist and the business of getting yourself out there by any means available. There certainly are tons I could say on this subject, but the bottom line is that if you are sure that is what you want to do, you must work hard in all aspects of this field and develop as many contacts as possible. There is no single line to approach this field you have to be creative not only as an actor but as a business person.

You started out in theater, and ventured into film. Do you think this gave you an advantage over other actors?
It is an emphatic yes. Working on stage is the best training for any serious actor. There are no second chances when you are on stage; you are either someone with artistry and craft or you are not. There are many types of actors in the world. I would like mainly to address the actors who love the art in themselves and not the ones that love themselves in the art—that makes all the difference in the world. If you are going to this field for the right reason, you are going to want to get the best training available and that would start with stage training.

Haitian-French songwriter and singer Sarah Jane Rameau released Lost Breed, her debut album this past spring, and it was about time. Well, no creative should be rushed, but after being served with so much of her work like the song “Jardin d’Hiver” (Winter Garden), it had become almost vital for her to feed the fan base she had amassed with her lush voice. The album in question has ten tracks, including the lead single “Hotel Room”. Let’s see what went into preparing it….

Kreyolicious: Your album is out. How long did it take for you to prepare it?
Sarah Jane Rameau: Finally, my album is out. I spent two years working on it. The writing process took longer, and the production started in October 2016.

Kreyolicious: The last time we convoed, you were completing your studies in architecture…
Sarah Jane Rameau: Yes!… I am finally an architect! One more string in my bow! I moved back to Haiti during these past two years where I launched an architectural firm called La Fabrik Architecture and Urbanisme”, with my architect-urbanist husband. We had a really great experience and we have learned so many things in the process. In the mean time, I took the opportunity to expand my musical career. I have played at the 10th Edition of the International Jazz Festival of Port-au-Prince, played and made friends with the greatest in the Haitian Jazz Industry and musicians and artists of the new generation…We had an unforgettable stay which ended with an album signing concert for the launching of my album Lost Breed. Now, La Fabrik has moved to France for a while, to acquire more knowledge, and to expand its wings. I, on my part, will continue to promote my album and remain focused on my music career.

Kreyolicious: One thing about creatives is that they sometimes tend to get obsessed. How do you know when a song is done?
Sarah Jane Rameau: It’s true that artists have a hard time finishing a project. I like to set up deadlines for my work. I love to improve my projects, don’t get me wrong, but, I try to overcome this obsession. Because let’s face it: when do you really know a project is really perfect? When do you stop? I love watching my growth through my work. As I create, I see an evolution and with time, I can look back and compare. Then I aim for higher progress…Plus, a song is never finished. It may be set in stone, like in a CD or vinyl, but in a live performance, the possibilities of modification are unlimited…

Kreyolicious: Is there song on the album that almost didn’t make it on there?
Sarah Jane Rameau: I was thinking of “FreakShow”, because this isn’t the kind of song that I am used sing. It’s the alien of the album. Although, since it was a concept-album, FreakShow totally had its place! It’s the part of the album where I put in evidence the conflicts of the Haitian society. Through an “Alice in Wonderland” story interpretation…I (as Alice) get dragged in a hole by the society (the rabbit), and get trapped in a freakshow where masks are permanently worn and where hypocrisy dominates. Freakshow couldn’t not be on Lost Breed.

Kreyolicious: An album is a collaboration. How did you connect with the musicians featured on yours?
Sarah Jane Rameau: As I performed in Haiti, I tied bonds with great talented musicians such as Ferdinand Jean Baptiste, Hermand Duverne, Josué Alexis, Johnson St Cyr, Maxime Lafaille and Johnbern Thomas. When I started working on my album, I had no doubt as to who I wanted to work with. We have such a great synergy when we perform together and our energies are always in sync.

Kreyolicious: Would you advise those who are just beginning their recording careers to seek out mentors?
Sarah Jane Rameau: I always think it’s great to have a mentor. They’ve been knowing the field for years. They give you pointers, constructive criticism, instructions, help you broaden your cultural field in music and help you see many details that you, as young starter, you wouldn’t even think of. There’s a lot you can learn through them, and you also can also share your knowledge with them. They have a legacy to transmit, and you to embrace and to incorporate. As for me, Reginald Policard is my mentor and I have learned a lot with him throughout this time. And I can only be grateful for everything he has taught me.

Kreyolicious: Your songs have so much depth. You ever feel that you put too much of yourself on your recordings…?
Sarah Jane Rameau: Thank you! The lyrics and the music comes from my heart. But actually, I never feel what I put out in my recordings is too much. On the contrary, I think I restrain myself from being blunt…But this album had to be a bit PG… I could have said more. [Wide smile]

Kreyolicious: Your album is out. What are the next steps for you?
Sarah Jane Rameau: Next step is making it heard by many, in and out of Haiti..make more fun visuals…And work more. [Smiles wide]

CliCK HERE to buy Lost Breed on iTunes| CLICK HERE to buy Lost Breed on Amazon |

CLICK HERE to visit singer Sarah Jane Rameau’s website.