Amadou, the son of a soldier, grew up in the village of Douenza in Mali, in western Africa. That is is 500 miles from the capital city of Bamako; Mariam’s home. He lost his eyesight at a young age due to a congenital cataract. Mariam, the daughter of a teacher, lost most of her eyesight by the age of 6.  The two met when he traveled to the capital city for a failed eye operation. Get to know Amadou and Mariam.

RIFF: Tell me how the two of you met.

Amadou and Mariam: We met at the blind institue of Bamako. Mariam was a signing teacher. She sang very very well. It was very nice to met her there!

Tell me about the Institute of the Young Blind of Bamako. What kind of school was it? How did you (Amadou) become the music director?

Amadou and Mariam: The institute has been set up in the early seventies by a man named Konate, and Mariam was one of the first to join the school, Amadou (came) a few years later to become the musical director. He was already famous as the guitarist of the band Les Ambassadeurs, led by Salif Keita.

Who are your musical influences? I heard they include Jimi Hendrix and other rock, jazz and blues greats from the U.S. How did you discover them?

Amadou and Mariam: Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd for the British. John Lee Hooker, James Brown or Jimi Hendrix for the Americans. Some people in Bamako had vinyl that we copy on tape, or the radio were the way to access to this music at that time.

What happened first, did you become a couple, or did you start making music together?

Amadou and Mariam: We started making music together and became a couple very quickly.

How does both of you being blind affect your relationship? Your music? Your performances in front of thousands of people?

Amadou and Mariam: It does not affect our relationship. For the music … it helps for concentration. We have good memory. For the live (performances) it’s different. It would be nice to see all those people, but we feel it differently. The sound of the crowd is very important for us. That’s why we always start our concerts the same way, asking how (people) are, telling them that it’s gonna be hot tonight, asking them to clap strongly. It’s how we get the view of them.

What do your children do?

Amadou and Mariam: The first one is into business in Bamako. The second is a rapper and has is own band named Smod, and the last one is a girl. She is a journalist at the national radio.

What did you do, and where did you play to gain the affection of west Africa?

Amadou and Mariam: First of all in Mali, when we set up the band at the institute, we start to tour all over Mali. We decided to move to Abidjan, and it’s where we released our first tape. Radio started to play our music a lot, and after plenty of concerts in Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso, it’s how we gain the affection of west Africa.

What year did you leave Mali for France? Why did you decide to do this? What did you hope to accomplish there?

Amadou and Mariam: We start to be a lot in France from 1997 but we are based in Bamako. It’s where we have our house and where live (with) our family. But we have a flat in a suburb of Paris named Montreuil. It’s more convenient when we have to tour or to record.

You are now pretty well known in Europe. Was that one of your goals? What kind of audiences do you perform to there?

Amadou and Mariam: Our goal is to be known or appreciated by as many people as possible. We want to reach larger audiences always. That’s why our messages are simple. We believe music is a universal media.

How did you come to work with Manu Chao?

Amadou and Mariam: He put in the media that he likes our music. Our manager, Marc Antoine, was a friend of him.

You have been releasing music since the 1970s, but in the U.S., you are just now breaking in. How do you feel about that?

Amadou and Mariam: We went to the US in 1998 for the first time, (to) the Lafayette Fest and for the Summerstage in New York. Since (then) we’ve played a lot there. It’s a big country and it takes time to be known. Since we did this summer (2009) the Coldplay tour.

What is it like for the two of you to perform with the likes of Coldplay, Blur and the Scissor Sisters? What do you two have in common with those three bands?

Amadou and Mariam: We like them. We like very different kind of music. Everywhere we go we listen to the radio in our hotel room. We like their music and it’s always very impressive  to hear that kind of bands live. They give us each time a fantastic opportunity (to pen for them).

Where did the inspiration come to go beyond traditional Malian music and infuse middle-eastern sounds, jazz, blues, and rock?

Amadou and Mariam: Our families were not especially made of musicians. Our repertoire is our composition. Our music is popular but not traditional. That’s why it’s easy for us to be open to many things.

What do you sing about? Why are those topics important to you?

Amadou and Mariam: Love, peace, unity, harmony. With very simple texts as we want to be understood by everyone. Our songs talk about examples or experiences in life.

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.