As unusual as it may sound, Washington was actually born
from his own love for the blues. More specifically for the rough and direct
style of the likes of Son House, Charley Patton or Skip James. But Washington
never attempted to cover their repertoire: "The music I play is inspired
from my own life, just like was theirs long before I showed up. That's where
the link is at, and nowhere else. Tommy Johnson's or Bukka White's feelings
belong to them, only to them. It'd simply be disrespectful of mine to try
to imitate them. Moreover, those musicians we portray today as the ancestors
or the godfathers were real pioneers, they were young bucks badly in need
of a revolution, of kicking in the old stable with a modern sound. That
means a lot to me"
How could Washington's music be described, then? "I'd be happy to leave that point to listeners and record store owners, they need to know more than I do. But to answer the question, it often gets described as 'contemporary blues', which I take for a big compliment, because I really try to do something in phase with my time. However, categories don't mean much to me: I consider what's between the blues and me to be a private love affair, I don't need to raise no flag nor to broadcast who I want to belong to. I'm just careful not to forget it is some sort of an inheritance I was granted". Therefore does he not sing about the times of slavery, or about the cottonfields. Instead, Washington sings about his own here and now, his own bitter and sweet times. His music is fed by love, happiness, solitude, by his own notion of exile and of roots. He writes songs about the strange feeling you have when it gets impossible to ignore a nail in your shoe any longer, or about the sorry fact that coins have to have two sides. Actually, he simply chronicles his own little stories and his tiniest thoughts.
And what about that name, Napoleon Washington? "Well, I just thought it was both funny and a bit absurd, which is a good way to remember that what I have to take seriously is my job, not myself. But more than this, I wanted it to be a tribute to this incredible and unique fact in men's history: at the end of the civil war, when slaves were eventually pronounced free human beings and not livestock anymore, many realized they needed to have "two names", not just a first name. And just as you'd do to defy fate and misery, many picked proudly a glorious one: King, Moses, Freeman, Lincoln. Try to imagine what heart it takes, what incredible courage and faith is behind that. It really moves me."
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How could Washington's music be described, then? "I'd be happy to leave that point to listeners and record store owners, they need to know more than I do. But to answer the question, it often gets described as 'contemporary blues', which I take for a big compliment, because I really try to do something in phase with my time. However, categories don't mean much to me: I consider what's between the blues and me to be a private love affair, I don't need to raise no flag nor to broadcast who I want to belong to. I'm just careful not to forget it is some sort of an inheritance I was granted". Therefore does he not sing about the times of slavery, or about the cottonfields. Instead, Washington sings about his own here and now, his own bitter and sweet times. His music is fed by love, happiness, solitude, by his own notion of exile and of roots. He writes songs about the strange feeling you have when it gets impossible to ignore a nail in your shoe any longer, or about the sorry fact that coins have to have two sides. Actually, he simply chronicles his own little stories and his tiniest thoughts.
And what about that name, Napoleon Washington? "Well, I just thought it was both funny and a bit absurd, which is a good way to remember that what I have to take seriously is my job, not myself. But more than this, I wanted it to be a tribute to this incredible and unique fact in men's history: at the end of the civil war, when slaves were eventually pronounced free human beings and not livestock anymore, many realized they needed to have "two names", not just a first name. And just as you'd do to defy fate and misery, many picked proudly a glorious one: King, Moses, Freeman, Lincoln. Try to imagine what heart it takes, what incredible courage and faith is behind that. It really moves me."