The old maxim for any new writer is "write about what you know". So when what you know is pretty much alien to the Western mind, chances are you might come up with something breathtakingly different.

And that is certainly true of Tinariwen, a loose collection of Touareg musicians based in Mali, who have lived through the oppression, rebellion and poverty of their desert community over the past 45 years.

Despite this, they have created amazing music which has not only lifted the spirits of their fellow Tamashek-speakers but is rapidly gaining a following among open-minded music-lovers in Europe.

New album Aman Iman (Water Is Life) mixes Western electric guitars, played in a blues-inflected, unfussy style, with the voices and rhythms of the desert to create a unique but very accessible sound.

On tour the band features the seven essential members, led by singer, songwriter and guitarist Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, with vocalist-guitarists Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni and Alhassane Ag Touhami, bassist Eyadou Ag Leche, djembe-player and percussionist Said Ag Ayad and rhythm guitarists Elaga Ag Hamid and Abdallah Ag Lamida (known as Intidao).

The band's female singer Mina is pregnant and so is currently unable to tour with the band, although Ibrahim hopes to have some female singers travelling with them.

"There are plenty of other members of Tinariwen who are either retired or who are working on their own musical projects," says Ibrahim.

"It's funny, I often say that every Touareg in the north-east of Mali is a member of Tinariwen. It's more like a social movement than a group. The touring band is just the representative of something much larger."

Ibrahim gained a fascination with the guitar at a very young age.

"I always liked the guitar, ever since I was a young boy when I first saw the instrument in westerns and Elvis Presley films I watched in street cinemas in southern Algeria.

"I used to make my own guitars using an old oil can, a stick and bits of bicycle brake wire.

"It wasn't until I was in my late teens that I had a go on a real acoustic guitar, and the electric guitar came a few years after that."

He has also experienced some of the worst hardships of the group members, as explored in the muted and haunting song Soixante Trois (63).

The track describes some of the horrors which took place around the 1963 Touareg rebellion against the Malian government.

Ibrahim says: "The events of 1963 were the beginning of years of suffering for all the Touareg of northern Mali. The uprising began with what was just a minor incident involving a few young Touareg men and some goumiers (mounted policemen).

"But the Malian military took such a brutal revenge on the whole population and it was this which led to the conflict between the Touareg and the Malian government which has lasted until today.

"I remember as a boy in Tessalit (a Malian city in the northern Kidal region) seeing rebel suspects taken from their homes and executed in public. We were made to applaud while this was happening.

"My own father was arrested and taken to Kidal (the capital city of the Kidal region) where he was executed. So these events have marked me and all the Touareg of north-eastern Mali in such a profound way.

"The rebellion created a deep bitterness which fuelled years of antagonism and conflict. I wrote the song to express all these feelings."

The teenage friends and founder members of Tinariwen - Ibrahim, Hassan and Inteyeden Ag Ableline (who died in 1994) - were all directly involved in the Touareg's struggle against the Malian government.

Like many of the Touareg who were driven from their homes by political conflict and the droughts of 1973 and 1985, the trio went to neighbouring Libya and Algeria to find paid work.

In the Eighties they joined Libyan military camps run by Colonel Gaddafi, who had a vision of creating a mercenary Islamic army which could further his revolutionary and territorial ambitions.

The Touareg were told they were being trained up to liberate themselves and create their own Touareg nation in the Sahara.

"The camps in Libya were just like any other military camp," says Ibrahim. "Lots of training and exercising and all that kind of stuff.

"But we did find plenty of time to play music, and in the second camp, which I joined in 1985, our job was specifically to make music and to record our songs on cassettes which would then be taken to the far-flung corners of the desert to educate people about the situation."

The musicians did take up arms and fight in the 1990 revolution against the Malian government but take a different view of how to change public opinion now.

"We created Tinariwen to change people's ideas, specifically those of our fellow Tamashek," says Ibrahim. "The message we conveyed in our music was one of awakening, of understanding the realities of the modern world and the suffering of our people.

"I think Tinariwen was effective in this regard, especially in the Eighties and Nineties.

"There were no radio stations, no newspapers and no TV in the Tamashek language. So the songs of Tinariwen were like the only news service which existed. These songs educated the people and tried to prepare them for the struggle.

"You have to remember that the Touareg were a very isolated people up until then. Our songs were an attempt to end that isolation and to create awareness. Now we are taking a slightly altered message to the rest of the world and trying to raise awareness of the fact we belong to an ancient culture which has existed in the Sahara for centuries, and that we have very specific problems of poverty, oppression and under-development.

"The gun was a very temporary aspect in our lives. We fought the rebellion in the early Nineties because we believed it was the only way to make ourselves heard by the politicians.

"But the rebellion was very short-lived. We were musicians before it happened and we've been musicians ever since. And if you take stock of all we have done, I think it is true to say our music has carried our message much further than the gun ever did."

The songs the band plays are directly related to their experience, with themes covering loss, exile and longing, emotions which Ibrahim says "we have all felt and continue to feel".

Among the song subjects on the new album are the exile of the Touareg people during the droughts, Touareg freedom fighter Mano Dayak and calls for unity among the Touareg people.

But in among the political songs are genuine heartfelt love songs, too, such as Ikyadarh Dim (I Look at You) and paean to the desert landscape Izarharh Tenere (I Lived in the Desert), which closes the album.

Ibrahim says: "The desert and the Touareg people are my main sources of inspiration. Most of my songs have a very personal aspect and they recount emotions I have felt very strongly - loss, exile, nostalgia, longing and a love for my desert home.

"But they also express the anger and frustration I felt as a young man. There were times when it seemed my fellow Touareg were just stumbling in the dark, like blind men, and I wanted them to wake up and face reality."

The choice of songs for Aman Iman (Water Is Life) were whittled down with the help of producer Justin Adams from a long list of 25, many of which the band had been playing live previously.

"Aman Iman is one of the most famous Touareg proverbs," says Ibrahim. "The whole phrase is actually aman iman, ach isoudar', which means water is life, milk is survival'.

"But there are deeper meanings in there, too. Iman really means soul and so you could translate Aman Iman as water is the soul'. What this means then is without water there is no existence. But water also symbolises the essence of life and all the things which make life worth living, including love, music, joy."

Ibrahim's life has changed as a result of the music, which now sees him touring across the world with the band.

But the band remains firmly rooted in their normal lifestyle both on the road and at home.

"When we are on tour, we try and bring our desert lifestyle with us," says Ibrahim. "Lots of tea drinking, smoking, chatting, sleeping!

"Touring is hard work and it's also difficult for us to be away from home for so long. But we're musicians, and musicians have to tour to earn a living, so we accept our lot with a good heart.

"We feel it's a privilege to be able to represent our culture and our people. My home is the desert and it always will be. When I go back there I live in much the same way as I always have.

"I have a house in Kidal and I also spend as much time as I can out in the bush. That's where I feel most at home and most at peace."

He isn't surprised at the rising success of the band outside of their desert home.

"We've been touring in the West since 2001. It has been a long time coming and also it has been very gradual.

"I think music is something which crosses frontiers very easily. When I was young, I listened to a lot of music from places I'd never been to, with lyrics I didn't understand, but I still loved it. So with us, this is happening in reverse.

"Tinariwen has had a good reputation in the desert for the past 20 years and this hasn't changed. I think our music is still respected a lot back home. And we are treated just the same as we ever were, really.

"We still have the same friends and live in the same way we always have."

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