Interview Bass Warrior Sound System

 

photo by Bartosz Madejski

“But that was dub music. And me, coming from the Caribbean, I wanted to hear reggae dancehall style.”

“…And as a matter of fact, I played dubplates before and people were like “how did you get your name into that song?”, because they don’t even have a clue what it is. They don’t know what a dubplate is.”

Kenny from the mighty Bass Warrior Sound System very kindly sat down for a lengthy chat with us, and shared his thoughts on the early reggae scene in Scotland, the growing dubplate business, and the difficulties in connecting Scotland with sound system culture.

So,I guess the first question would be when did Bass Warrior start, and why?

Bass warrior started 8 years ago, so that would be 2006. But we started because we used to have to hire equipment, and most of the time the equipment was rubbish, but you still had to pay. So I decided to build some speakers, and set up a system. We started off with 6 bass bins, and some top boxes.
So after that, we just been doing gigs, it’s been quite good so far. Except nowadays it’s quite difficult to find a place to play a big sound system.
but we started may 2006, and the reason for that was just to make sure we had our own system, instead of having to hire crappy PA system. To get a good sound, to get the sound that we really wanted, that’s why we decided to start bass warrior sound system.

And it’s completely homemade ?

Yeah. Well except the amps, they are bought.

When you started, was there already a sound system scene here ?

Well I started in ’96. There was reggae music,  I used to DJ from ’96 upwards. It was good but then once I started knowing more people I wanted to put on my own night, because before then I was just getting paid to play. So by this time we were playing in the Carnival Arts Centre, in Albion Street. So after having a discussion with the people, we decided to build a system and sit it there. So that’s where it used to sit, for probably a couple of years.
So before that we were just DJing, and hire if people wanted reggae music then I just play.

Back then we had Unity Reggae. But they really weren’t a sound system, they were just playing reggae. But they were playing reggae music, which was still good.
And I think just before that I’d heard of Mungo’s HiFi as well. I wasn’t familiar with Mungo’s at that time.

So sound system was never really big here for me. Not like in the Caribbean. Scotland never really had that, besides Messenger Sound System. I knew of Messenger, so that was the only real system I knew about back then. But that was dub music. And me coming from the Caribbean, I wanted to hear reggae dancehall style.

Well about dancehall and soca as well, how did people react to that kind of music here? Were they quite warm towards it?

Well, early days it used to be really good. I think most of the people we used to play for in 2006, and even back in the 90s, they tended to go out late at night. But back in the 2000, 2001 when I used to play out there was loads of people. But I think they just got old and stop all the late night business. Because I first used to play in Edinburgh, in this place called the Mambo Club. You probably never heard, but the Mambo club was a club where if you wanted to hear like African music, reggae music, everybody used to go on a saturday night.

So I used to play there, along with Caroline from Unity Reggae. They were the ones I started out with. So that’s where we used to play then, and it was a bit of everything: Soca, reggae, dancehall. So that’s my culture.

It’s funny that.  I mean in Glasgow now reggae and sound system has grown a lot, but you’re still the only one playing Jamaican music I guess, like soca, like dancehall.

Yes well that’s how I feel, because originally the island where I’m from is mainly soca. I mean reggae has just filtered in, because if you know the islands, you have Trinidad which is soca, and reggae is Jamaica. But then most of the islands are just soca: Antigua, Montserrat. All of these are soca islands. But then reggae becomes part of the culture because of the Rastafarians.

Reggae became bigger as more and more people started getting into Rasta in the Caribbean. So that is what I kind of grew up listening to, mainly soca, reggae. Then later in the 80s I got into dancehall. So I used to feel happy playing soca and I still do enjoy it, but there’s not really a big soca crowd in Scotland.

But still, every now and then I still have to play it, just to make me feel at home. That’s what it’s all about, you know.

We talked to Rampant Sounds a while back, and they were playing in the 90s, and said that reggae and Jamaican music was quite hard to get to in Glasgow mainly because of the techno legacy. But do you have any thoughts on why reggae took so long to get here?

Well people say reggae is big here, but me personally I don’t think it’s big, you know, how reggae should be like. I mean, yes we go to Argonauts on a Thursday night, Mungo’s at the Berkeley suit.

But when I first came here in ’94, every month we used to go to this place just across Woodlands Road. There used to be a club there called Club Mandela, where they used to raise funds for anti-apartheid groups. And we used to do reggae there every month, and we used to have huge crowds. I’m talking about 500 people at those nights. And Unity Reggae used to run that, and I used to play reggae and soca and dancehall. So those people who used to come every month, there were times where we had to close the door to keep people out. I mean everybody didn’t come for reggae, but they came and enjoyed the music and gave support to the charity as well. But they still used to enjoy reggae, and it was popular.

And when you got to do smaller clubs, you still got good numbers that would come. Now, you do reggae music, if it keeps in certain areas you only get a certain amount of people.
I mean, Mungo’s does reggae at the Art school, and they do their style. You have Argonauts as well; you have me. You still have Rampant Sound, who are still about.

Then you have other reggae shows, like things that you put on at the O2. I mean you would expect bigger numbers for some of the good bands they bring. So yeah, techno is still the leading music here.

So you had bigger crowds in the 90s than what you have today?

Yeah. Well I think back then you still had ska. People from the ska era, who were here supporting reggae. Some of these people now they probably still love their reggae, because if you go to Toots and the Maytals at the O2 you will see them there,  but you won’t see them anywhere else.

So they must love reggae music, which is why they were supporting it back then. But some of them do grow up, past 12 o’clock they don’t want to be in a club anymore.
Also over the years, I think British people become more British. You probably get more people going to drum n bass, going to grime and stuff, than you will find going to reggae nights.
I mean, go to Messenger sound system in Edinburgh and you’ll find a lot more of foreigners. There’s quite a lot of foreigner who support Messenger. So it’s that kind of dub style, UK style that people prefer. Messenger is more UK style, it’s not really Caribbean.

It’s more like Channel One, Jah Shaka style, which is what they like. But for me, it’s not Caribbean. So depending on what type of reggae you’re thinking about, some Scottish people adapt to that (UK style) instead of the Caribbean one.

If you go to Europe, then you see people who like reggae. Going to Europe you see people who like reggae music and you realise that is what we need in Scotland, where you don’t really have it.

You go to Garance, you go to Summerjam, Benicassim… You see what it’s like.

That was something I wanted to ask you about actually because I know you went to Garance with Argonauts a couple of years back.

Well I’ve been to Garance, I’ve been to Summerjam, and I’ve been to Rototom. And the following for reggae over is so huge, for people whom English is not their first language. And it’s not even the way they follow it, it’s how they’re passionate about their reggae, you know. I don’t see that kind of passion here. So far I don’t really know why we don’t see it here, I don’t know if it’s just that people don’t take to reggae. Because some people say reggae is a bit too slow, some people like dancehall. Some people just don’t want to listen to the same music all night. It might have to do with that as well.

It’s funny because Scotland is quite closer to London, which has got a huge sound system culture, whereas France or Italy, it’s further away.

Well that is true, but the problem is if you go to north of England, even if it is closer to London, there are only certain places in England where reggae really has a Jamaican following. When I say Jamaican I mean the Jamaican style of reggae music.
Because if you go to Leeds, you’re going to be finding Iration Steppas, who have a following for their style of music. You don’t really hear about any other big reggae sounds in those parts.

If you go to London there are well over a hundred sound systems, as you can tell from the [Notting Hill] carnival. But come out of there, then the next city is Birmingham basically where reggae is partly big again. They are the only two cities that over the years you have had big sounds develop. Anywhere else you go, there are names or smaller sounds, but they never really make it big. So the culture is just still basically tied up where the West Indian community is huge.

Like Manchester, I don’t know if you’ve heard of any big sounds come out of Manchester. And yet they’ve got a big West Indian crowd there. I mean there are sound systems there, but they are just not big.

In the north of England you have a couple of ones that go to festivals, that you can see at festivals.

It’s interesting what you say about that, and that the culture hasn’t really moved. Because I mean if you look here, like the London sound systems with only one turntable and MC, you don’t find that style here.

No. the only sound in Scotland that plays the way London sounds play, how Jah Shaka play, is Messenger. That’s their style, and that’s how they play.
I mean Messenger has been around I think from the 90s, because when I came here in 94 they were already here. But I mean beyond that you get other people who play reggae, like DJs who play reggae music, but they’re more DJing, they’re not what we would classify as sound systems.

My whole idea when I started was to be able to go to a park and set up and play. I didn’t realise that the laws don’t allow that [laugh].
Back home that’s what you’d do on a Saturday afternoon if I’s a good day. You can take the system out and play, or arrange it with a bar. You only need two weeks to do that, you just need to apply for the licence. So I thought I’d do the same thing when I came here, I didn’t realize it doesn’t work like that.

So I don’t know if that’s what helps keep the sound system thing small. But now there are a few people who want to build speakers, but just can’t. Because you have to have storage, you have to have a crew. If you don’t really have crew and have a sound system, that can be a problem. You need to be able to have people to move speakers. Because even if you can roll (the speakers) out, it doesn’t roll out easy. You need a crew.
Over the years I’ve struggled with that. Sometimes it’s just me and two more people. And if you’re going to move 8 bass bins, and mid-tops and stuff at the beginning of the night and then at the end of the night… it’s quite a lot of work.

And if you do all that and the crowd doesn’t really turn up, it’s not really inspiring anymore.

Is it quite hard to find a place for sound systems to play, to book places for sound system sessions here?

Well I think it got harder.
the Art School is one of the best places that would allow you to bring a system in. Most other places, except in Blackfriars, you have to go down some stairs. Then warehouse parties aren’t really a big thing in the reggae scene. There are loads of warehouses spread about Scotland, and especially around Glasgow, in places like Govan.
But people won’t travel to them unless you really have some famous name. And that tends to be techno a lot. These free parties that the techno guys do, they do a lot more in that scene than in reggae.

They set up a party somewhere in a field, and you stick the music on and people are happy to go. Whereas with reggae, people wouldn’t come out for it. Unless you go there and provide lots of weed then they might show up [laugh].

I mean for Glasgow itself, you should at least have one sound system set up every weekend. For the reggae crowd, we should be able to have one sound system set up properly, not just like Argonauts at the 78 or Mungo’s in the Berkeley Suite. I mean a sound system set up in a venue. But you can’t get that.

So sound system in Scotland, I would say the culture is not there yet.

I guess the idea would be that people are not ready for it yet, they’re not ready for proper reggae?

No I think it’s just the britishness. I mean young people here they grow up listening to stuff like grime… I think there’s just an element of britishness about the people here. They are just into what’s theirs.
For example the accents, they can associate a lot more. Because for reggae music, a lot of the people here wouldn’t actually understand what it actually means. If you listen to dancehall especially. The part where they’re singing, some of the sentences they are parables. And if you’re not from that culture, you don’t know what they are talking about.

So the message doesn’t get across. Whereas years ago the old school artists, like your Toots and the Maytals, everybody understood what they were saying. Because they were just singing about life stories, and things like that. People would understand what they were saying. So a lot more people would listen to these guys back then, because they could still relate to what they were saying.
But nowadays not many people can relate to dancehall artists. Especially in Scotland, you know. Half the time people don’t even know what they are saying.

But I don’t know if it will even pick up. Maybe if we get more foreigners, you know. People from Europe wanting to hear that.

I mean there’s never been a really big West Indian community in Glasgow, so it’s true there never was the culture to begin with.

See that’s the thing. Well, probably back in the ‘60s they had the days when people were moving to Britain for work, but after that that went away. So I think that is part of the problem, that we don’t really have a big West Indian community.

Because most of the black people here, they are Africans, and each of their music is different, if you’re from Kenya, if you’re from South Africa… They have different styles of music, and reggae is not really their big thing.

Some like reggae, like people from Zimbabwe, Gambia… they like reggae, but you still have to play American stuff as well. It has to be like hip hop and stuff like that.
The Gambians are the only people from Africa who actually accept reggae wholeheartedly, they will be happy to go to a reggae club. All the guys I know from Zimbabwe, they like reggae but they still want hip hop, RnB as well.

Is there any reason particularly for that kind of taste?

Well I think you had Jamaicans who went to Gambia and tried to promote their system over there. Promote the whole reggae scene and that side. Into their Luciano, because these guys from Gambia they still like their roots reggae, they’re not 100% dancehall. Sizzla, Luciano, Anthony B… that’s what they still listen to. That’s what they want to hear.

It’s just because I’ve been exposed to so many of these guys from playing in Edinburgh at the Mambo club, which is why I know what they actually like. What style of music they were actually into.

Because at the Mambo club you had a floor that just played reggae and Caribbean music, and then you had a floor below that played African music. And some of the people who came to the club wouldn’t even leave downstairs, to come up to listen to reggae.
They stay downstairs to listen to their music, I think because it probably made them feel at home, and they won’t interested in reggae, period.

But the Gambians they used to be always at the reggae. They like their reggae music.

How about all the west coast of Africa, like Ivory Coast… They seem to have a reggae scene there too

Yeah you get some guys who are into that there.

Bass Warrior Sound System

Okay, back to Bass Warrior. Did you at some point have any releases, or produce any tunes?

No I’ve never gone that way. Well one of the reasons I do reggae was just for the fun of it. Because it’s not really my main bread, I have a day job. And the reason I started playing reggae was because I actually wanted to feel at home. Because I wasn’t hearing how I wanted to hear out in the streets. So I needed to play some reggae music, some soca music. Nobody else was playing soca and reggae like this.

So when I finish work at the weekend, it makes me happy to go and listen to some music.

Also, It would mean I would need to find time and help, if I had to make productions. So I just said to myself that’s not really me, I’m just doing this hoping to have some fun. If any money comes from it then fine.

Because you have some good dubplates though.

Yup. Well I have a few dubplates from over the years. I think the first dubplate was from Macka B. The reason I never had more dubplates was because I never thought it was fair for me to be promoting artists and still be paying 200, 300 pounds for one song.

But, after having a discussion with some of the guys, you can’t really have a sound system and have no dubplates. So it’s kind of a hard one.
Because I’m thinking some of these artists won’t really get a hit out of the sound system and are still charging enormous prices for dubplates. I don’t know how familiar you are with how much dubplates cost, but you can pay 250 for one song. And I would have been happy to buy dubplates if it was the original way – when you had a dubplate which was only for one song.

But now you pay 250 pounds for a dubplate, and another sound system could buy the same dubplate. Now if you go to a sound clash, you can’t play back. See if you pay 250 for that dubplate, you may never get to play it in a soundclash, because if the other sound play that song before you, then you can’t play it. It will simply mean you are a weak sound.

So the whole thing is just not right to me. I think guys should be happy that you are asking them for a dubplate, to promote their music. But they don’t see it so. They see it as money for themselves.

Dubplate business as bit?

Well dubplate business. I mean 50 sound systems have the exact same dubplate. That’s not dubplate anymore, that’s the same as just going to the shop and buying a record.
Years ago what Kilimanjaro had, then Jammys want to have. That was then: a dedicated song for that sound. He would play that song that the other sound couldn’t play it. It couldn’t play it back.

But now it becomes a money business.

Couldn’t it also be because today we have digital, anyone can take a song and just record over it?

I mean, me personally I have to get dubplates as I go along with Bass Warrior. Sometimes, if the price is not right, I just tell them no. If I play a dubplate in Scotland, how many people are even going to recognise it [laugh]. How many people would actually think “oh that’s a Bass Warrior dubplate”.

And as a matter of fact, I played dubplates before and people were like “how did you get your name into that song?”, because they don’t even have a clue what it is. They don’t know what a dubplate is.

If I was in London, it would have been a different story. It would have been compulsory. If I wanted to run a system I would have probably had to. Especially if I’m doing Jamaican style music.

Because, I mean, I’ve been to Channel One dances, and I don’t think I’ve heard a Channel One dubplate. I mean I don’t know if you ever heard a Jah Shaka dubplate.
I think it’s only if you’re tied up in the Jamaican side of things that dubplate is really important.

It’s just because we play West Indian style, and West Indian people expect to hear if you’re spending money. Because if you have good dubplates it makes your sound system sound bigger, like you have more ratings.

Whereas ‘dub’ sounds, it doesn’t really matter to them, they just need to play good music. Of course as you know dub sounds they can play a track four times. They pull up, they play the main song, then they play a version, then they go back and play the instrumental.
Dubplate no work like that.

These dub sounds are still bigger than most sounds that you get here. Because the sounds you have in Britain are mainly dub sounds. Your Channel One, Jah Shaka, Iration Steppas… They are big name sounds. And they are British again.

So far, I don’t think you have that many Jamaican orientated sounds I could say off my head, that are big in Britain.
Except… you used to have Saxon back in the 80s. They were a big sound. But they then decided to start doing their own style, which made them bigger, by having Tippa Irie and all these guys chatting in the British way.

That’s what they decided to do to make their own style, that’s how Saxon became bigger, by being British. All of the music sounded Jamaican, but the rapping at the time was British. They were speaking in a cockney accent.

But any sound who would come out of Jamaica would only have a Caribbean / West Indian following or people who are into that west Indian style reggae. Scotland doesn’t have that.

I talked to Wayne as well from Argonauts and he was saying that if some of the European systems went to play in Jamaica, Jamaican would not really catch on. The European systems have gone in such a completely different way from the Jamaican ones.

Well I mean you still have a few. If you really follow some of the sound systems, like guys from Germany… There are a few sounds who go over to Jamaica and clash in order to make a name. But because they are now spending lots of money on dubplates, and Jamaican people relate to the dubplate, they are making a name over there. It’s just like Mighty Crown. I mean they are Japanese, but they have dubplates galore!

So they can play a track that most people can relate to. Because who they are playing for understand it. I mean they can go to London, they can go to Jamaica to take part in a sound clash, and they can play dubplates and know how to play them.
Whereas if they played up here, people would not know what is going on. Only the likes of me and you, people who know about dubplate, would think “oh that’s a big track”.

And that’s another thing. If the artist is not even recognised, then the dubplate doesn’t really mean anything. It has to be an artist that everybody knows for a dubplate to be recognised.

So I think what really keeps Scotland’s reggae scene to a minimum, is that there is no radio station played here. We have no pirate stations, and most radio stations that play reggae here are internet radios, like an African internet station. But there’s no reggae station, and that is what kill reggae music up here.

It’s true here you mainly hear rock, folk or techno and dance.

Yup. And the reggae you do hear would be your Bob Marley, just old school guys. Say if you listen for instance to Clyde Radio, if they play any reggae, it’s exactly the same songs all the time, year in year out.

They play the same Bob Marley songs. You might hear ‘One Love’, you might hear ‘No Woman No Cry’. And I think that is what makes reggae not big, because nobody grew up listening to reggae on the radio, because no radio plays it.

See in England, in Birmingham there’s tons of pirate stations that play reggae music, where you can just turn on your radio and listen to. So that’s where people can get into that culture.

Here it’s not like that. Over in Europe I don’t know how it is, how these guys get into it.

Well I mean in France we do have a few stations that play proper reggae, or have special reggae hours.

Right, so that is an advantage. I’m not sure about the north of England. I think they have them.
The only way Scotland could listen to reggae music used to be BBC 1Xtra, Chris Goldfinger. But you had to stay up until 12 o’clock, to hear from 12 until 2am. And that was all you would hear. Once he’s off there’s no more reggae or dancehall on the radio for the rest of the week.

So that’s what’s killing it up here. Pirate station is what makes it big down south. Everybody knows that. But all of the stations here they play techno, or rock music, or indie.

You want to people to be here for the music. In the Caribbean, when a DJ plays a big track, everybody goes ‘Woooi! Pull up pull up!”.
When they (in Scotland) are there, and the DJ pull the track up, they are like “the DJ must have made a mistake” [laugh]. That’s not the best vibe you know. I mean it’s good that they pay money to get in, and you make back the money that you used to promote the night. But at the same time you still want to get the real vibe.

I mean Mungo’s would probably say the same thing because they would like to be able to just drop  a track and everybody just go crazy, and when you drop another one it’s still going, the whole place buzzing, like a honey hive [laugh]. That’s the vibe I really like!

But I don’t know if that will ever happen.

Well that whole thing about the pull up, and that way of responding to music. That’s also due to a lot of people here being used to techno, and that whole idea of continuous music. There’s not really that whole idea of stopping the music is the tune is good, playing it again… you don’t really have that culture.

No you don’t have that culture. When I went to Cologne, I went to see – what’s the guys from Germany… they do productions as well. I think it was Pow Pow. Well when they were playing in Cologne in a club, and I went in on a Friday night, I was absolutely shocked to know how the actual people relate to the music. And these are German guys I’m talking about.
I just felt like I was back in Montserrat, the way the crowd react to the music. The way the DJs were carrying on. I don’t know if you’ve been to Summerjam lately, because they have a dancehall arena, which is just set up in the woods away from the main stage. And I went there last year, and I was like “this can’t be right” [laugh]. The guys up there with their flags, over soca tracks. And they are talking between English, Jamaican patois, and their language. So everybody knows what’s happening, even those who can’t understand English. And I think “oh man, why can’t we have this in Scotland”.

And when I went to Rototom this year, they had lots of people there, lots of sound systems. I mean they had Pow Pow, Sentinel, all of these guys. You have a dancehall tent, you have a ska tent, another reggae tent, and you have a dub station tent.

And even the ska stage, where they play only ska, there is a big crowd, and everyone is into that. When a track comes on that they think is a big track, they react. And over here, it’s really just dull.

And as I said, reggae is not big in Scotland.

So there’s sort of a lot of people playing, but not a big crowd?

Well most of the people who like reggae want to be DJs because they think there’s no reggae playing anywhere else [laugh]. There’s so many reggae DJs, but there’s not much reggae things happening, you know.

I mean, I know Mungo’s, they work really hard to promote their stuff, which is very good. But Scottish people don’t have the same click up here, as down south. They have people coming to the Art School when they have nights, and they probably have to put big acts. Whereas, with the amount that Mungo’s do now, them alone should be able to just bring a crowd in.

Reggae should be about jumping about a lot more than what you see here.

It’s funny, a lot of the people who come here to reggae nights, a lot of foreign people when they come here they specifically look for reggae nights. I know in France for the last 7 or 8 years, the scene has become really big, especially for dub reggae – you have Dub Stations in pretty much every town in France now. So when they come up they’re like “oh there’s reggae, there’s Mungo’s!”. And you recognise them, they are the first ones to go mad when there’s a pull up, because they know how it goes in a way.

Bart: and it goes for so many other people from other countries

Yeah, most other European countries know how to do it, and how to react.

Well, for instance when I go to Germany, or I go to France, all the MCs on the mic they are talking Jamaican patois, even putting on some form of accent.
When guys in Scotland try to talk like that and they are white guys, people criticise them. You have guys here that tell you “it doesn’t look right to see white guys with dreadlocks, that’s not right”. That’s the kind of mentality that some people here do have.

You see for you, you probably just go to the dances and listen to the music. But like for me, because I’m at the front. I don’t know if you knew Rudy Alba. He used to sing quite a lot, and people used to come up to me and say “why is he talking like that, why is he pretending he’s black”. People actually take great offense for him to be talking patois. They do! You wouldn’t believe it.

He did a show once, I think he supported Toots & the Maytals at the O2, and the engineers who were working there while he was doing the show were just like “why is he talking like that, he’s from fucking Scotland”.

Bart: somehow it doesn’t work either for people from Scotland who do grime and stuff, and talk with a really big London accent, you’re just like “that’s not you”.

So people take it quite personally then?

Yeah, some people do.

Bart: we can go ask Charlie P what he thinks about it.

Well I know Sean (Campeazi) once told me “it’s appreciation, not appropriation”, and I think that’s quite true.

Well what people seem to forget is that even if you’re white, if you grow up in a black community and all your friends are running around you talking in a certain way, then that’s how you’re going to talk.

My oldest son, if you listen to him then he sounds proper English. But when he’s talking to me, it’s just pure dialect. But if it’s anybody else, he just talks the way he expects people to understand him. But that’s because he grew here.

But some people would probably comment if they hear YT. They’ll probably ask why he is talking like that. Because I remember a girl, she’s from Birmingham living in Scotland, and she was offended when she went to the (Alexandra) Park and heard YT. She was like “why is he talking like that, he’s not from Jamaica”.

For us, coming from the Caribbean, it’s not a problem, because we kind of thing that’s cool that he can adapt, that he can talk like that. We think it’s quite impressive. But people here in Scotland seem to take offense to that.

Well YT grew up around that whole culture.

He grew up around sound systems. Yeah, and that is what you’re going to get. But some people here they never left Scotland, and they don’t really know about much else…

My boy, he said to me that one of his friends told him“reggae music is not for white people” [laugh]. I was like “what?”. Because we went to Wickerman this year, and he came with his friends to show support. And some of his pals are like: “we like the music, but it’s not really white people music”.

Bart: it’s great when people say that and then go play some blues.

Or rock n roll.

Well even soul, it’s not really Scottish culture, but there’s tons of people who seem to like it.

Well in the end what do you call “your music”.

But as you could see, it started from a long time ago. From the days of ska, when people change it in Britain to call it ‘two-tone’. It’s actually ska, but they decided to put a British thing to it and call it two-tone. Just to make it their British thing as well. There are lots of people who hear some tracks and they don’t even realise that those tracks originated over in Jamaica…

This would be a wider question. Reggae and Dancehall  in Jamaica, and even in England, had quite a political or social message to it. Do you think that still exists today, to some extent?

Wow [laugh]
If I’m being honest reggae is not that political. Well… reggae itself might be, the actual reggae. But the dancehall, no. You would still get some of your reggae artists who would still try. I mean, you get Sizzla who still try, you get Luciano who still try… Some of the guys, mainly the singers and the roots guys they still try to keep some of it a bit political.

But you see in the 80s, everybody was poor. When you’re poor, you feel for something. And that is what inspired you. When life starts to become a little bit better, struggles are not the same. Some of these guys they don’t have nothing much more to sing about. Because they are touring the world now and getting big money. Whereas when these guys were singing in the 70s and 80s, they were only singing in Jamaica. It wasn’t going anywhere else. They weren’t making much of a living. Every morning they would wake up, life would be the same for them. All they had to do was go to the studio, and try and find something to sing. And often there would be a hundred people at the studio.

So… You still have some guys in Jamaica who are still struggling, but life is not as bad, in a sense. These guys were musicians, but they weren’t making any money. Now, the guys who are making lots of music nowadays just do it with computers, with laptops. So it’s easy for them.
But back then, why you get these good political guys is just because they were talking about their daily struggles, and they were singing with feeling because they actually felt what they were singing about. Nowadays, guys just make noise just to see if they can become an artist, or become popular. So that’s the big difference.

I mean, as you probably know, most of the old guys they are now living a better life, touring and all. They are getting recognition, because Germany, and France, and Spain have festivals; they are now getting to come out of Jamaica and perform. Like the Israelites and all of these guys, they used to be popular in the Caribbean, but they never used to be touring.

There used to be a struggle: one, being poor. And two, being Rastafarian as well.
They weren’t able to get anywhere. It was hard for them because people used to hate Rasta hard back in the 80s and 70s. It’s just because reggae started to get a little more recognition worldwide, that Rastas started to get more recognition as well.

It wasn’t such a bad thing to be seen as Rasta after a while?

If you were a Rasta in the Caribbean it was a bad thing man. In the 70s and 80s, Rasta just meant that you’re just a lazy so and so, an untidy so and so [laugh]. But some of it really, the Rastas have themselves to blame. I mean, I have dreadlocks, but will still go to work, I still like to move around.

Back in the day you had Rastas, and as far as they were concerned they were not going to work for the Queen’s head, which is the pound. I mean, when you talk like that, who’s going to take you seriously. And people would think that talking like “I’n’I”, and “Fyah fi dis”… That kind of talking never really would inspire people to accept Rasta, in a sense.

But now, as the youth who grew up during Rasta time, we come to the years where we start accepting these things, because we grew up understanding what it meant. But our moms and dads would have never, because they grew up believing that you have to have your hair looking shaved and wear a jacket and tie for church on Sunday [laugh].

But as reggae got recognition, Rastas got recognition as well. So that is how things change.
But if you didn’t really grow up in the Caribbean, you probably wouldn’t know that much about it, unless you really read into it.

Early in 1983 I used to listen to loads of Culture and stuff like that. By that time there was only a couple of tracks that would have been known worldwide. By the time Culture had been accepted worldwide, then they practically all passed away.
But back in the days, these guys were big guys throughout the Caribbean, because everybody understood what they were singing about, they were actually singing about the politics that were going on around them.

I don’t really know how Europe is, how Europe got into reggae.

Yeah, I’ve been trying to find how reggae got into France especially, but it’s quite hard to pinpoint it.

Bart: it’s funny when you thing about reggae in Poland it did have quite a lot of relation to the punk scene, but it was all just because the left was really bad politically, and people felt like they were oppressed. It was kind of naïve in terms of musical style, but it was still relating to it, and I think people associated with the message.

Well what used to help was that people could go to a reggae club and get a smoke, if you into smoking. It chill everything else around you, the worries go away for that moment we’re having the party. Everybody is in the same boat here, everybody is happy.

And that is what is really good about having reggae festivals, that people can go to these and just relax, enjoy themselves. All the political side of things goes out the window for a few days.

But Scotland doesn’t have that kind of festival, except the Wee Dub Festival that they do in Edinburgh, and that’s only a weekend thing.

Is there a particular message, or vibe that you try to promote through Bass Warrior?

Well, I wouldn’t say really a message, because some of the music I play is not really message music. It’s more of I vibe that I try to promote, have a good night, be happy – it’s supposed to be fun. It’s good to just put stress aside and just enjoy the night and the music.

Sometimes, to be honest it’s probably more of a stress having to play [laugh]. But at the end of the night you still think “oh well, the night is over, we still had a good time”. But I’m just doing it more to promote enjoyment, to have a good time.

I mean I personally enjoy reggae music, good reggae music that has some good roots, some good lyrics that I can relate to at times. But I like my dancehall too, and my soca because when I’m feeling free, then I can just jump about.

But message-wise, for there to be a message I have to be feeling a struggle. And the people who come to reggae here in Scotland they’re not really struggling. They might think they are struggling, but they do not see struggle. For some of them they’re just happy it’s reggae music, they like it from their past, maybe when they were struggling.

But life in Scotland is, for me, good. It’s not 100% or how you’d like to be, but it’s good. You can wake up every day and have something to eat, you don’t have to worry about breakfast or dinner. Me personally I don’t.
And Scottish politics at the end of the day… I live here so it’s got something to do with me, but on the other hand it’s not got that much to do with me either. Maybe for my kids then I have to think about politics, for my children who are growing up here. But beyond that…

Well, I think that’s about it. Anything you’d like to add?

If I talk about reggae in Scotland really, and even in Britain because I’ve been to places down in England. I’ve been to shows North of England and it’s only certain artists that still bring a certain amount of people. I mean we had Raging Fyah in Scotland, which I think is a really good reggae band. And they were playing at the Rum Shack for free. But you probably had about 30 people. I think Raging Fyah is a very good band, and I think they might get recognised someday, because they’re not really dancehall. They have some political elements about their music, and they have a bit of an old school style… I think they’re really good.

In Europe they seem to be doing well, but they come to Britain, nope. Even in London, even in their own community, their shows still get cancelled. So I don’t know. Maybe everybody in England now is happy, living good lives. They just want to party, just want to talk about this and that, their clothes and all this nonsense.

Also you said that in England what seemed to happen was that you also got jungle, garage, dubstep… so all the energy moved to other places. Which is maybe why in France and Europe it just stayed with reggae. So it sort of stayed with roots, and they kept it maybe more ‘traditional’?

Yeah but what I find in France as well, is that… Say for instance, OBF, Blackboard Jungle, how those guys start out: they are big. In the sense of big sounds. And it has an impact if you have that big a sound. If you walk into a building and you see that stack of speakers, and you get that sound, it makes a difference.

If we could do that in Scotland, where people could come in, listen to something that sounds that good… Where they could feel the vibes.

Really experience what it is all about?

Yeah! Well it would make a big difference. I mean say for instance when Mungo’s go to the Art School, the young ones lurch on to that style. They like the big sound, and they come to hear it, but I wouldn’t say that they are 100% into the music. If you look throughout the night, most of them are just in and out the door. When you are there for something, you are THERE. But I look at them at the Art School and they just go up and down the stairs, up and down.

Scotland has that kind of thing, the idea that where people are is where we should go, because that’s where it’s happening. It’s kind of a trend thing.

If you could find a venue where like every week big stacks of speakers sit there, you’ll find that whoever is genuinely into the music will come. Because that is how Messenger managed to get where they are now. They sit in the Bongo Club, and everyone knows when they go to the Bongo Club exactly what music is playing there, and they go just for that.

But it takes time to build that up. Messenger just didn’t suddenly get that kind of following overnight. It took him quite a few years.
But in saying so, it’s not just them alone. The club owner was happy to persevere with them there. Whereas in Glasgow, most venue if no money comes through the door, they start thinking “oh we need get something else. We need to get another night“. That’s the problem here.

Well there’s the Rum Shack that does a lot of stuff for free. How does that work?

Yeah because the guys who run the Rum Shack they love their reggae music. And what they do is if they want to put on an artist, they try and get funding to do it. Because everything they have done so far, like getting Tippa Irie, Cornell Campbell

Yeah they got Dawn Penn as well

Yeah Dawn Penn. What they do is they’ll get a sponsor – either through the lottery, or Red Stripe… Because you have to remember the guy who owns the Rum Shack owns Macsorleys too. So they own a pub, and because of that they deal with distillers. And Red Stripe would be happy to sponsor something. Same with distillers, they are happy to put money where it’s going to suit them.

AF
All photos courtesy of Bartosz Madejski

Argonaut Sounds interview

[Photo: Bartosz Madejski]

“Actually you’d be amazed at how many people come up to us, or send us emails saying “I was down at your night, so great to see someone playing vinyl”. I bet no-one that plays on a laptop gets emails saying “I was down at your night, great to see someone playing with a laptop.”

Here’s a really interesting (and long) interview with Argonaut Sounds, about the early sound system scene in Glasgow, reggae music in europe, and about the role the internet played in the growing popularity of sound system culture.

How did you first discover reggae ?

I would guess the way most people do. Like some Bob Marley tunes. Because that’s the thing that everyone’s exposed to kind of first of all, when you’re small, especially when don’t really know much about music. You’ll probably hear more Bob Marley than a lot of other things anyway. But other than that I don’t know. I like toots and the Maytals, and jimmy cliff and stuff like that, you know all the more obvious stuff.

But then I got kinda more into it when I moved to Glasgow and I went to a reggae night, Unity reggae. And that was the first reggae night I went to, and it just got me more and more into it. You start to find it more from going to different nights. Unity reggae was the first sound system I went to. It doesn’t run anymore, but it used to be at the sound house which was by the Clyde, just across the expressway. Afterwards you’d sometimes run across the expressway to get home to cut off about half an hour off the journey [laugh].
But they didn’t have speakers or anything, but they had quite a big PA in there. And they would put on nights once a month and it wasn’t all that busy, but you could have a smoke in there.

And when did you decide the start your own sound system?

About 2002. Well I don’t think it was ever a conscious decision to start a sound system. How it was, was that Neil was in a band called the Argonauts, who were a reggae band. For their pretty much last ever gig, he got a few mates of his, including me, and played reggae music of vinyl basically to DJ at it. And afterwards we were like “hey we should put a night on or whatever”. And we kind of did down the line, but also about the same time we started doing a radio show on Subcity radio, me and Neil, called Argonauts sounds, after the band. So yeah, it kinda all grew out of that.

But I don’t think it was ever first a conscious decision like “oh let’s build a sound system”. It was more just like, let’s start putting on nights and it quite quickly grew into building a sound system.

This is a fun question. How would you describe a sound system session to someone who has never been to one?

It’s like trying to explain it to your parents or something [laugh] I don’t know, I almost think it’s like… You could flip it over and say it’s a cross between a nightclub and karaoke. But it’s not because it’s more than that.

It’s different from to a nightclub in the sense that it’s much more of a community thing. You don’t just look up a list and say “oh that’s on, or that’s on, and we’ll go to that”. It’s more a thing where you know that it’s on, and you keep more in touch with the scene. For a sound system session, well I guess you’ve got to have your own speakers. I mean that’s kind of integral. Not many other events would do that.

I’m thinking what else kind of defines it… It’s a really difficult one to get your finger on.
Yeah it’s the speakers, it’s the crowd, it’s the way that the people follow it. It’s also the way that it takes a lot more people than just the DJs to run it. See you’ve got the people who run the sound, but you’ve also got all the others. You have your crew and then you’ve got all the people who kind of help out doing little bits and pieces, and they kind of are brought into feeling part of it. And then they bring their friends in, and they feel part of it. And it’s more of a sort of thing that grows out, I think, as it gets bigger, rather than just being like a strict relationship between the people who come to the night and the promoters or the DJs. It’s not like one and the other; where one’s just playing to the other. It’s more like the thing kind of grows out of someone saying “oh I can do that, and I can get involved in it that way”, and someone says “well I’ll work the door for you” and things like that.

Plus probably the fact that it’s not necessarily a business enterprise for a lot of people. A lot of people just do it for leisure, you know. So that takes away that kind of more commercial aspect.

It’s true there’s not that much money in it, so you have to have a passion.

Yeah, I mean you’ve got to do it for the love of the music basically.

I know in the last few years reggae in Glasgow has gotten pretty damn big. How was the reggae scene before?

It was small when we started. I came to Glasgow in 2000, and then as I say, my first reggae night in about November 2000 was Unity Reggae. And I don’t think that even Mungo’s has started then. I think there was another sound system just before I got here, I know the guy Stevie who used to run it, called Rampant Sound. Stevie from that helps out Bass Warrior now.

But when I came there was basically Unity Reggae and a couple of really small things that you would struggle to find out about, and they weren’t really sound systems.
Unity always promoted itself as Unity Sound System even though they didn’t have speaker, and I still to this day kind of see them as being a sound system because of the way it was.
And yeah, pretty soon after that I guess Mungo’s must have started because I remember going, certainly when I was in second year at uni… So that must have been 2001-2002. I’m not exactly when they would say they started.

And so we started in about 2002, and for a while there wasn’t all that much else, that I can think of. I mean Kenny started doing Bass Warrior nights, and before he had built his sound system he used to do nights in the art school, like ragga and dancehall nights. But I think they were often quite quiet.

That was the thing, I mean back then it was hard to get a crowd out. We would put on our first nights just in pubs with a small sound system, and you’d be doing well to get 30 folk.
And I remember going to Mungo’s nights, and it was not quiet because they always got a pretty decent crowd, but it was nothing compared to these days. And then, they didn’t have a big sound system either. I remember going to the first night when they got subs… It was amazing [laugh].

But the crowd was quite different then, because it was more like, what you would call “crusty” kind of folk. Folk who are into protests and would set up peace camps and stuff. And I remember Mungo’s used to live on a farm, and they used to have farm parties and stuff. Because I think the crowd has changed quite a bit, it’s gotten a lot younger, and it’s also gotten more… I don’t know, it’s hard to say. It was smaller back then. It was a lot of crusty folk, a lot of punky folk and things like that. And it’s stayed at that level for ages, and then I can’t remember when we noticed. We started to find that we were getting a lot more people in about 2007. That’s when we noticed that it really started to pick up. And when we moved to the Ivy bar downstairs in there. We did nights in there for a year, and I just remember some of them were packed. One night we had people dancing on the stairs, because it was so rammed. It was amazing in there.

But that was a complete change. And it seemed from when we’d done nights before that, for about a year before then it had started to get a lot bigger. And I remember Mungo’s were starting to get a lot bigger, because that’s around about the same time that they moved to the art school. And it started to really take off then. That was the start of it getting a lot bigger. But I don’t know how or why.

Ah, Well that was the next question actually

Well it’s popular partly I think now, because people have become exposed a lot more in the way that, that music gets a lot more… How would I put it… It’s almost like a snowball effect as well. The more the people come to it, and they bring their friends, and then they tell someone else, and then someone here’s from two friends independently “oh I was at this night and it was great” and then they decide to go the next time. I think that has got a big impact on it.

And as it’s happened that more people have started putting on nights or sound systems, I think it’s become that people have made more links and realized that the scene is bigger, so that means that they go to more things as well.

But I find it hard to know why it actually did kind of explode. Because you know, the late 2000s weren’t a classic period for new reggae stuff. I mean I think there’s loads of good stuff from then, but loads of people don’t.

Yeah the 2000s aren’t known for really being a time of great productions.

I mean, I don’t know if the net has had an influence in that way. Because I remember when I was younger, and I mean like in my teens, the music that you could get exposed to, you had to search quite hard to find stuff that was different to your mainstream music.

Whereas now maybe a lot of stuff is more accessible because you’re not restricted as to where you find out about stuff. Like it would have been impossible for me to download say, well I literally couldn’t have downloaded an Anthony B album in 1996. Like that to find out about that would have been so much work. Whereas now I think it’s quite easy, someone says “here’s a mix that my mate made, it’s full of reggae and dancehall” and that gets someone into it.

That’s a good point. Because 2006-2007 is about the same point when social media started to really kick off as well.

Yeah, that’s true. Because social media I think has a big influence in getting people out to nights who haven’t been before. Just say on Facebook you make an event for a sound system night, go on and invite loads of mates, people who are like fans of Argonauts sound say on Facebook. And then someone who has been invited accepts it and invites all their friends, maybe some that have never been to a reggae night before. And so they might just suddenly realize that there are reggae nights maybe.

I don’t know how much the internet has to do. I think it’s really hard to quantify, but it must have had an influence.

Yeah because it is about that time, even back in France, a lot of people started building their systems around then. There were things before, but a lot of the recent ones all started around 2007-2008.

Yeah, and whether it’s access to information about running a sound system, and easy access for parts to building it. Whereas I remember before we had these old Celestion bass speakers, they were pretty horrible, they were all covered in felt and stuff. They had big 18” drivers in them, they sounded not bad actually, they just were really old. And then one of the drivers got blown, and this was about 2004 or something. And we hadn’t really twigged on to the internet enough to think to on there and get things, we didn’t know enough about it. And actually we had to find this guy, who was a Pioneer speaker cone dealer in Glasgow, and we went to his house way out in Cardoland I think it was. And it was like something from back to the future, the guy stumbles out of his garage with massive white hair, and all these pioneer drivers. And the thing is, that was quite hard to get hold of this guy and work out a god deal; Whereas now, you can just look at this driver that cost that much, this one cost this much, and this one will come tomorrow if I buy it now, but this one is more expensive.

There was this debate in France last year, about what makes a sound system’s identity. What would that be for you?

Well there’s got to be two factors I think. One is the identity that you kind of want to portray, because you make conscious choices about what you’re doing.
But the other side has got to be the way about how you are sort of perceived, I guess. Like the way that people think about your night, and see it.
Music must come into it as well, the music you play, and what sort of style you play. But I think that, a lot of sounds, newer sounds particularly, especially when go to like Garance or something and see European sounds systems that are really dubby sounding. They have got that kind of new dub sound.

What do you mean new dub sound

You know like, almost that sort of semi digital dub sound. Rather than playing your classic 70s Tubby’s, Jammy’s, Scientist kind of dub, more that sort of new sound – yeah steppers… And I don’t know, that seems really popular there, and that often gives a sound its identity. But then also say we play a lot more major key stuff, so that’s quite different.
But you get a lot more sounds like that in London I think.

So music can play a part in the identity… I don’t know, that’s a hard one. It’s really difficult to pin that down. It’s funny because you can almost imagine what it is, but it’s really hard to pin down in words. It’s a conglomeration of a whole load of different factors.

There’s the music you play. Also the music you choose not to play. There’s that whole aspect of tunes with homophobic lyrics, and we’ve always though it’s a strict thing, we’d never play that. If one slips in by accident we’ll take it off, you know. Stuff like that, that contributes to your identity as well. Because there are sounds I’ve heard who do play it, and you think “oh fucking hell, don’t play that shit”.
And you hear one or two in London and stuff, whereas I don’t think you’d hear that here. But maybe that’s more kind of a social norm amongst sound systems, or well anyone with a reasonable moral outlook would see that as the right way to go.

I don’t know, a sound system’s identity. It’s a really tough one. I’m going to be thinking about it for days [laugh]

Well we can pass on to the next one. And actually you kind of touched on it a bit. You said you went down to France a bit, have you noticed any particular differences between the UK scene and the French scene.  You mentioned the music a bit, but is there anything else?

Yeah, there is a bit. But there are also a lot of sounds now that play in Britain stuff that they would play in France I would say. I think that a lot of sound systems in France play stuff that’s not that dissimilar to Mungo’s. I don’t know what side has influenced what, but I think those are becoming a lot closer.

What, so like more recent ‘bass music’?

Almost yeah. Or like, more when you hear Mungo’s playing, you know. That sort of stuff I was talking about, with those french guys playing that kind of steppers dub, things like that.
So I do think you hear Mungo’s play a fair bit of that. And I think you get a fair amount of that in France. The difference would be I think maybe that you don’t get as much of the – is that true actually, I don’t know. See sound system, new roots and things like that. We play a lot of new roots, and we play a fair bit of new dancehally stuff. We also play a lot of 80s digital dancehall. And then you’ve got Kenny and stuff, and he plays soca, ragga, dancehall, new roots. And you go down to London, if you go to the carnival you see all these sound systems and you realize they’re completely different to what it’s like in France.

I mean you’ve got your classic old system, like Channel One, and Aba Shanti and They’re all playing, you know, kind of classic roots and dub. And then you’ve got your newer ones who are all playing brand new stuff, whether it’s ragga or new roots or conscious stuff.
And maybe in France, I mean I don’t know enough, I’ve only really ever been to a few nights, and the Garance three times.

But I don’t remember really hearing too many of the sound systems playing brand new stuff. Although I do remember at the Garance hearing one or two. There was one, Jumbo Rock sound, I remember playing really good stuff. They played some news stuff and I really enjoyed it, but I don’t know where they were from, they might not be French.
I think maybe, this is only a conjecture, but maybe they don’t play much brand new stuff out of Jamaica in France, as you might find a lot of system in Britain playing. But then I know a lot more Jamaican artists come to France to play.
It’s hard to gauge whether maybe sound systems would in another environment, you know. I get the impression that a lot of German sound systems play a lot of new roots and stuff, and dancehall.

Really? This is going to sound really weird, but I can see germans playing new roots a lot. In the sense that it has a similar sound, or esthetic to the kind of rock and electronic music they produce. I don’t know..

Yeah I know what you mean. I mean there’s a big scene for that in berlin and stuff, there’s a few labels and shops there as well, so I don’t know… I would be interesting to see the differences in that in Europe, but I don’t know enough about that. Obviously the main places are France, Germany, Italy and Spain in Europe for reggae. And it would be interesting to see the differences, because Spain, they’re beginning to get quite into the new stuff, and so are Italy.
I mean, I say that about France but some of the biggest, you know Irie Ites is one of the biggest European new roots labels. And there’s so many labels in France that, I don’t know, a lot of the stuff must be getting played in France. But I guess I just haven’t heard it

The thing is, I’ve not been to a lot of dances – well a lot in France, but just in one area – but even a lot of the new sounds that have come up, they are very attached to roots and steppers, more like Iration and stuff like, and a bit of digital. Whereas in Glasgow, Mungo’s, and CC sound or Chungo Bungo, what they play does seem to be a bit more dancehall, or Jamaican orientated.  More digital and all, and then Mungo’s and the others often go into bass music. Whereas in France, well to the sessions I’ve been to, they are a lot colder to dubstep.

[Laugh] that’s kind of how I feel.

That’s the main difference I seem to have noticed, that there is a lot more roots and stepper in France, while in Glasgow it’s a lot more dancehall, new roots and newer stuff.

Yeah. Someone once told me there was a theory along the lines that it’s just colder here, so you want something that will keep you going, and a bit more upbeat [laugh] I don’t know, sometimes you read too much into these things, but you wonder if that might be true, if the further south you go you just get a slower bass. You know like in the south of Spain they just listen to nyabinghi drummers or something [laugh]

A friend told me another theory he had – he was a bit wasted at the time – but he argued that the periods where reggae and sound systems peaked was in times of crises. Like you had 50s and 70s in Jamaica, then 80s in UK, then it came back a little in the late 90s, then now since 2007 it’s become really popular. I’m not sure how much it stands up but I found it interesting.

Well there might be something in that. I mean, it is often seen as a protest music. Protest music is a funny phrase, but it is that way that it’s about people quite often, and it concerns how life is being lived. A lot of it is about reality. And yeah, maybe that would have something to do with it.

Well that brings on the next question. Originally reggae was very political in Jamaica, and even in England in the 80s. Has reggae kept its political element today?

Yeah. Certainly Jamaican stuff I think still retains a lot of that strong, political… like a strong political force. And all the rasta stuff you get still contains a lot of that religious weight. And a lot of it I think is still about society and things like that. I mean there’s obviously parts that aren’t. You get a lot of stuff that’s about nonsense, but you’re always going to get that. But compared to most other kinds of music, you get way more stuff that is socially and politically, trying to either have an influence or say something about the situation.

I mean stuff that’s produced in Europe. Again it’s a funny one. Because a lot of these guys who are producers in Europe are going to be using Jamaican vocalist, and they’ll still do that on the European productions. I don’t know if a lot of the European guys kind of mimic, or maybe not mimic because that’s harsh and I think a lot of the European guys are great, but take their lead from the Jamaican tradition.

I remember actually one time talking about this with Neil years ago, and we were saying that one of the things that gives reggae an extra dimension, that social and political and quasi-religious sort of punch to it. It really seems to give it some depth, more than just the music.
It’s a whole other layer than can be interesting, to see what people are saying about stuff. And a lot of stuff must come from the history in Jamaica as well, with like Mento and Calypso being musics that were basically just a way for people to tell news and stuff like that. If you listen to a lot of old Mento it’s amazing how it’s all about how this happened in this town, or there was a fire here. It’s amazing when you listen to it, it’s just stories about stuff that’s been happening. Some of it is hilarious too.

When you do a session with your sound system, is there something you try to bring to your night, aside from just the music? A particular vibe or message?

Well message, kind of. Sometimes you fall into play loads of tune which give out a certain message. Kind of by accident. Sometimes you have a plan to play a few where you feel like you’re spreading a message. But also, I’ve got a really strong belief that there’s a sort of energy in nights, somehow. That you can try and create the right conditions for that, so that everyone is really enjoying it, and then everyone kind of feeds of that and it gets bigger and bigger. So it’s all about that sort of thing, of setting the right lighting, setting the right tone, making sure it all sounds perfect – isn’t too loud at points, isn’t too quiet.

There are times almost where selecting the music… I don’t want to say you could do it without looking or whatever, but sometimes it’s not the most important thing at all. One thing that I think really gets energy going is when people see more than one person picking the music. So if you’ve two or three selecters who are doing a tune each  and we do that often at the end of the night – and it’s like a challenge to the next person, like a soundclash within the sound system And I think people can see that, and you can get an energy building up from it…

And that way as well that having an MC obviously helps, in that even if I’s not an MC that’s going over riddims but is just kind of hyping it up, keeping it chatting so that everyone feels involved. Because I find it funny how DJs who don’t play reggae don’t use mics. I don’t like going on the mic because I’m not very good at it. But if you’ve got an MC, it makes everyone feel so much more connected to the people who are playing.

But that’s what I would say, it’s more about trying to create the right atmosphere as much as iit is playing the right tunes.

You mentioned lighting, but even in setting up your system as well, is there a particular way you have of doing it or does it change according to where you are?

It depends on where you are but you’ve always got to think about the actual space that you’re setting up in. It depends where it is but you’ve got to t about it quite carefully I think. I mean there are technical reasons and there are reasons for making it a good night.
For technical reasons, if you set up wrongly, you’re going to be plagued by feedback and all that sort of stuff, so that’s the first consideration because the night’s going to be a disaster if the technical side isn’t right.

But after that you’ve got to think about where you have your speakers, where you have your decks, making sure that there’s space for people to get in and out of the dancefloor, because no one wants to be stuck. And if people feel that they might be stuck they won’t go on to the dancefloor I think. If it’s too bright people won’t dance, you know, you have to make it quite dark. And décor and stuff like that makes a huge difference.
I always prefer the decks to be quite close to the sound system, because what you tend to find is that a lot of people tend to congregate around the sound system. And our system isn’t huge, we’ve only really got one stack. So if you have it that close to you it makes it quite natural. You almost have a corner thing, the system and decks on each side of the corner.

I’ve seen people put the decks on one end of the room, and the sound system on the other. That could really work because you could almost book in the crowd, but I think it’s harder, because it puts people in two as to where they want to be. Some people like to be close to the decks, or close to the sound, or some like to be both.

Having the system at the other end of the room works well if you have a big system I think.

Absolutely. I mean two or three stacks and you’re laughing. That’s the thing: if you’ve got loads of stacks what everyone classically does is try to make a sort of enclosure, so that everyone can be inside a big triangle or square area. There’s a sweet spot right in the middle, so you get the decks halfway between the two stacks or whatever.  I mean all these things come into it sometimes you’re stuck by what venues you can get. You always think that one of the best things to do to only have a blank canvas for playing your sound. Like venues with unlimited possibilities.

But even the street in the Jamaica and you see it at the carnival how they do. On the street typically on the two sides they’ve got a stack on one side and a stack almost diagonally across from it. The decks will normally be set up sort of just inside that square. So you almost make a sort of square, as you’ll often put a van in the other corner. And I think that’s classically how folk would do it when they’ve got more stacks. And that works particularly well on a street, because ten the street becomes the dancefloor.

You play as well strictly vinyl, compared to the others that tend to also use laptops. Was that a conscious decision, or it sort of just happened?

Partly because we just had vinyl collections, but I do genuinely think that it sounds better. Actually you’d be amazed at how many people come up to us, or send us emails saying “I was down at your night, so great to see someone playing vinyl. I bet no-one that plays on a laptop gets emails saying “I was down at your night, great to see someone playing with a laptop”[laugh].

Again it’s talking about the energy. I think people pick up on the fact that there’s someone flicking through records, and finding one and putting it on. Compared to someone scrolling through their laptop or something, it’s a thing where people see it’s someone who’s really paying attention, and putting effort into it.
I mean, there is that element of it, I think it helps in that way. It’s annoying because there are a lot of things that you just can’t get on vinyl. But I like the fact that maybe you don’t find the record you’ve been wanting for ages, and then finally you find it and it’s like “holy shit, I’ve got it”.
Whereas I don’t think it’s the same if you say “oh I really like that tune, I’ll just download it”. It makes it a lot more throw away, and maybe people take a lot less care over what they’re playing. I ‘m not sure if that’s true. Good DJ probably don’t. But it means anyone can have anything, and I think it takes away the specificity of certain tracks.
I mean I don’t have all that many that are really dead expensive, I’ve got one or two, I’ve got a a few singles that I’ve paid over the odds for. I’ve got one album that is worth about 300 quid, but I didn’t buy it though: about 15 of my mates chipped in and got it for my 30^th birthday.
But there is that element to it. I like it, because I really like vinyl. I like holding it, I like touching it, I like having the sleeves. I like the fact that you take the record off and on. I also find it a lot easier to find what you are going to play. I think if I was flipping through a laptop, I would kind of be stuck thinking “what am I going play”. Whereas, I mean I never take all my records obviously, but I take a selection and sometimes you’re just going through and you’ll think, “oh that will go well now”. It’s a very tactile thing, you know, you get more of a chance to interact with it I think.
But the main reason, as I say, is that I think people appreciate it. People pick up on it.

It’s true that as well because in sound system you’re on the same level as everyone else, anyone can sort of look at the record, or come up and ask you or have a chat.

Yeah, we get people asking to see stuff, and when people are trying to look over to the decks and you just tell them “hold on, I’ll show you at the end”.
The funny thing about all that is that back in the day in Jamaica they would scratch the labels off the records, because no one wanted other to know what they were. But there’s no point in that anymore because all music is so accessible. I mean I don’t think I would really want to hide what I was playing, I’ll always be happy to show it to someone. Because there isn’t the same rivalry for it. You don’t get proper sound clashes here. But even that rivalry doesn’t exist here because all the sound systems here try to help each other.

That’s true, it’s quite a difference because until the 80s, the rivalries were quite brutal – like they would rip your speakers apart and stuff.

Yeah. In Glasgow, I don’t know how it is in London or in the rest of the UK, but in Glasgow I know that because when we started there wasn’t much, everyone was just trying to have a go and help each other. And that’s just continued, to be honest. There have never been any disagreements between sound systems. Everyone is always, as far as I’m aware, been up for helping each other, and that whole aspect of collaborations and stuff.
I guess back in the day, in the Jamaican tradition, it was run by guys who were definitely businessmen as well. And one or two of them were gangsters probably. But you’re not going to get that here. I guess that the difference. You know there’s almost that kind of mock rivalry that you sometimes get. People sometimes get dubplates that say “we’re gonna kill your sound” or whatever, but no-one is going to come to a night and break up our speakers.
And as I say, there’s that care. I think maybe in Glasgow, and this includes everyone who comes to dances, but everyone kind of knows that they’ve built something up, so you don’t want to go around wrecking it. Everyone’s put so much effort into it that it wouldn’t seem right to go around breaking stuff out.
And everyone tries to help each other out. Kenny [bass warrior] helped us build the subs that we have. Whenever Kenny puts on a night I’ll go and give him a hand setting up; or I’ll go and ask Jerome [mungo’s hifi/bass alliance] for advice and get a lift in the van, or speak to whomever else about this stuff. Everyone does kind of help each other.

In the end it’s a community

Yeah. Because everyone’s got different areas of expertise.

You released your first 7” last year now – which was really cool. Do you have any more releases planned?

Just before I came down here, I arranged for it to get sent to the pressing plant. It will be coming out probably in the end of February or something. I got it mastered in December but because the pressing plant was shut over Christmas we held off to get the lackers cut. So the lackers are getting cut tomorrow and it’s getting delivered to the pressing plant in France. The place that presses the vinyl, they’re not the cheapest but they’re really good quality. And they’re cheaper than any in Britain as well. Britain is just overpriced for all that sort of thing.
But yeah, next one is two 7” at the same time, all on the same riddim, but with 3 vocals and the version. One of the vocals will be from a duo from St Lucia. We are actually going to go to St Lucia with Babascum, maybe in March. Partly to record vocalists, because I think there’s a lot of untapped potential there. To be honest everyone I’ve heard from there is really really good. But they don’t have a lot of facilities, and it’s untapped, there are no labels or anything like that.
But yeah, that’s one thing I’d actually consider doing with the label, is just making a link with St Lucia, since we’re kind of in there.It’s a very expensive process and we can’t really afford to be paying huge advances to artists, because as a sound system we don’t make anything. Trying to break even until you get to a stage where you do start to make some money and then you maybe think about starting to pay advances, and folk can start to earn royalties and things like that. I don’t know if we’ll ever get to that stage.
But again, I think having a label – it’s one of those things that are traditional amongst sound systems. When you think back to all the Jamaican sound systems that became labels – like Treasure Isle, Coxsone Dodd became Studio One. And the later ones, you’ve got stereo one, Stone Love… All these started off as sound systems and became labels. And it was just a natural right of passage in a way, that you would eventually have a label as well.

That brings on to the last question. Having your own sound system, your own label, your own productions, essentially means you are completely autonomous. You don’t rely on anyone else.

Yeah well I think that is the key thing for sound systems, is that they stand apart from everything else. You get booked occasionally by promoters, but by and large we promote our own things, we run our own label, it’s not like you’re just an act that’s there to be booked. You’re doing your own thing.
You lean on people for favors, and help and that kind of mutual exchange of information. And maybe that’s partly what makes up a sound system’s identity, is that they do stuff by themselves, without relying too much on other people. Being able to run a night, a sound system night from scratch, however you do that. All the different aspects like booking guests, getting them somewhere to stay, arranging the sound system, making up flyers. We always just design our flyers. Most club nights would just pay someone to design stuff like that.
I think you can realize a lot more what you want to do that way, when you’re in control of more stuff. Because there’s so much different bits. I remember actually, you know our crew has changed a fair bit over the past few years, we got more folk involved. But I remember sitting down and drawing a diagram of all the different aspects, and it was huge! There was so much stuff in it. I wrote Argonauts sound system in the middle of it, and drew a mind map chart of all the different things, it was a massive thing. It was amazing actually when you looked at all the different stuff, and there were things that you realized linked.
All the different things that you did, or had to look after as part of it. And what that would entail, and how they would link. Like there was Argonauts sound, then there’s the sound system, so that linked to the warehouse where we keep our sound. The maintenance aspect, and then you have sound system nights that link up to the sound system but also go with flyers and guests and all these different aspects. And then of course our radio show, and how that links to PR and promotion.

Was that the subcity radio show?

Yeah, we’ve done it for 12 years now.

You also do the Sunny Govan one as well?

No Neil used to do that with Craig, but he’s not done it for a while. Craig that puts on gigs at Mcsorley’s and places, he’s more a promoter. But the show was pretty good.

I mean, when we started doing Subcity, it was only on 4 weeks a year on FM in the Glasgow area, because there was no internet radio. So we had a 4 week local FM license, and it cost that like six grand or something for those weeks. And that was the things, 4 weeks of shows, you’d get so hyped up for it and so excited. All your mates would listen to it on the radios.
But it all changed when we started to get internet radio, because we realized that the costs of the FM license doesn’t really make sense anymore.
The internet radio works – I mean I was really skeptical about it at first. Because I didn’t think at first that there was that many listeners, but it gets a fair amount of listeners now. And the fact that people can listen back to it as well.

At this point we finished the interview, but we kept on talking and it got quite interesting so I put the recorder back on:

I tend to think that in Europe the music goes off in tangents, like you get dubstep.. In Britain it went off in tangents from Jamaican stuff in the 80s as well, when they got lovers rock and stuff like that. And that tends to happen quite a lot, it goes off in tangents. But ultimately the path of reggae is still dictated by Jamaica. Whether that be dancehall, or new roots or whatever. And Europe takes ideas off that and goes in different directions. But reggae is always dictated by what is popular in the dancehall in Jamaica. You know like in the 80s they were into digital and so that’s what came over here, and so people took from that and made other stuff – they made this kind of digital dub and things like that.
And in the 90s they got really into their ragga dancehall, and the kind of slackness stuff. And supposedly people didn’t get so much into that here, although I think you see elements of it.

Well jungle kind of brought in elements of that

Yeah. So that all went into that.
And now in Jamaica, for the last 10 years it was all Sizzla and Anthony B. And that has come across and people have taken that… I don’t know if that’s actually caused too much of an impact here, in terms offshoots… but it’s gone now again in Jamaica where they’re just going down their own path.
They went through that phase where it seemed like Mavado and folk were going to get huge, and then they faded away and it’s come back more into this kind of… well they’re all talking about this reggae revival. With Chronixx and Kabaka Pyramid, and I love all that stuff, I think they’re all really really good. But it’s interesting to see, they’re not paying attention to all this dubstep stuff. You don’t hear dubstep in Jamaica. There’s more like of feedback loop on it. They send stuff over here to Europe, and Europe takes it in its own direction and places, but there’s no feedback to Jamaica where they say “oh we love that”. No we like what we like, you know, and we are going to do our own thing.

And because ultimately what it comes down to in Jamaica, what’s popular is what’s popular in sound system dances. And they don’t really care what is going on elsewhere. They’ve got stuff made locally that is popular… They like a lot of American stuff too I guess.

Also reggae is essentially their music, it’s Jamaican, so they don’t really care about the reggae that’s out there, because it’s not theirs in a sense.

I think a lot of the artists have got a lot of respect for the European scene. But I don’t know that your average man or woman on the street that goes to a sound system would give a damn about what’s happening in France or Britain or Germany.

It’s true I would be a bit surprised if local Jamaican sound system would be playing French dubs or productions.

Yeah, I would be pretty surprised. I think you might get one or two coming through because of how many Jamaican artists are recording there. But a lot of this reggae revival, new roots kind of ties with a lot of the stuff that’s coming out of Europe as well at the moment. But you never know how that’s going to split in a couple years’ time.

Yeah it’s the one thing that I am a bit surprised with is the whole dubstep , bass music being so big in sound system nights recently. I mean I can see why, sound systems are best for bass, and dubstep and bass music rely on that, but a lot of reggae sounds tend  to now blend both.

Yeah, I’m not really into dubstep. I’m always a bit amused by dubstep rooms at reggae nights. I kind of feel like the dubstep stuff… I’ve actually enjoyed it at times when I’ve been really really wasted, I don’t so much like listening to it. But I would almost prefer it if it wasn’t at a reggae night, because I really enjoy listening to reggae and then someone puts dubstep on.

Although that being said, the first dubstep nights, DMZ and all that, I do enjoy that kind of dubstep – with a slow bass, really quite minimal.

Yeah I mean I’ve heard some stuff that is a lot closer to classic dub. If I was going to be into any of that, I guess I’d be into that. But I’m not really. But I can see where that’s coming from.
But again, dubstep you know, most people in Jamaica would be oblivious to it. To be honest I feel kind of jealous of them [laugh]. You’ve got to have a certain respect for a place that is so sure of itself that it just doesn’t really give a damn. I mean that’s also why they’re wrong on some things, I mean some of their lyrical stuff. And you know, it doesn’t really affect them that millions of people in Europe see something wrong about it.

Check out their website for all the information on their radio show and gigs, and here’s a promo of their last 7″ release ‘Down Inna Di Ghetto‘ featuring Babascum.

Mungo’s HiFi NYE 2013 Podcast series

If you’re into reggae and haven’t heard of Mungo’s Hifi by now, then you must living in some remote cave and are still marvelling at this new invention that is fire.
In addition to setting up their powerful sound system in some of the biggest festivals in Europe (Glastonbury, Reggae Sun Ska, and Outlook among others), touring the world from Japan to South America, and organising weekly and monthly nights in Glasgow; the Mungo’s crew have been releasing a steady stream of heavyweight singles and albums on their own label. In preparation for their New Year’s Eve party at Stereo, they put together a series podcasts from each of the crew and some of the extended mungo’s family.

Podcast #1 is from the Chungo Bungo crew, who have been organising alongside Mungo’s HiFi the monthly events at chamber 69 and SWG3, and have been a regular feature of the Walk n Skank nights every Thursday.
Podcast #2 is put together by Stalawa Sound. Originally from Le Havre, France, he is no stranger to Glasgow and has set up nights alongside DJ Kokoro under the Hunt Them Crew banner. Having freshly moved back to Scotland, he presents a heavy selection of old school dancehall and digital.
Podcast #3 has Craig from the Mungo’s crew brings the 80s back with some classic early dancehall from the likes of John Wayne, Cocoa Tea and Barrington Levy.
For podcast #4, Breezak, the main man behind the Mungo’s/Bass Alliance Sound System rig, brings here a selection of heavy stepper tunes, including a number of dubs from the French scene such as OBF, High Tone and Stand High Patrol,
Youthman outfit CC Sound take care of podcast #5. Since last year they have been organising their own sessions, building their sound system and took over Walk n Skank this summer while Mungo’s were on tour. You should definitely keep your eyes and ears out for these guys, and the serious selection of killer tunes and dubplates in this mix will illustrates my point.
Podcast #6 is from Mungo’s Hifi’s Doug, where he presents his best of 2013. In his own words: “I had 30 minutes before I had to go get the kids from Capoeira class, and i had only just collected some of my favourite tracks from this year, so this one take is a little rough around the edges. However, on listening back I think it will do as a taster for some of what I’ll be playing at stereo this Hogmanay.”
Podcast #7 might not be a favourite for anyone who has a preference for roots or more classical reggae. Put together by Tom from Mungo’s, it covers some of the more recent tunes of what one could call the (very wide) ‘bass music’ genre.  Expect hints of dubstep, carnival/soca and bass heavy dancehall.
And to wrap up the series, podcast #8 is a mix by Mungo’s Hifi’s newest recruit, James. As he describes it, “This selections brings in tunes from nowadays and way-back-when, mixing some of my favourite grime & dubstep records from my collection along with some bang up to date new releases, dubplates & studio productions. These are the styles of music that led me to start digging for dancehall & rub-a-dub records, I hope you can appreciate the connection and enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed recording it. Cheers.”

Mungo’s HiFI:
http://www.mungoshifi.net/

Scotch Bonnet Records:
http://scotchbonnet.net/shop/

Interview Mungo’s HiFi [English]

” For a lot of people, and including ourselves, it was mostly about building a sound so we could play when we wanted and where we wanted without anyone else controlling the sound and the music policy.”

Short interview with Tom from Mungo’s HiFi on his influences, the reggae scene in Glasgow and Europe, and sound system’s place within the music industry.

How did you discover reggae and sound systems, and when did you decide to start your own sound system?

I first discovered reggae through an Andy Weatherhall mixtape, a dub compilation of King Tubby and Scientist stuff. Plus my dad used to like Bob Marley and listened to Bob Marley at home, so I had that from childhood. But the Andy Weatherhall mixtape is what really showed me the dub side of it, the darker, more creative side of it.
And then in terms of the sound system. I was making music since school really. But more like Electro and House and Techno. And I started making more dub stuff and buying reggae records. And just by chance really we found these speakers on the street in Glasgow, and we fixed them up started from there.
That was probably around 1999.

This is a question that I find quite hard to answer: how would you describe a sound system dance?

I would describe a sound system dance as being organic, and it’s a lot to do with the interaction between who is playing the music and the crowd. Rather than it being a show of someone playing their music and everyone else just accepting it. Like the sound system, the DJs, the MCs will be feeding off the energy from the crowd, and different crowds have different desires, so you have to be reading that.
If a crowd gets excited, then it’s easier for an MC and the DJ to get excited, and that generates this kind of special vibe, which doesn’t  always happen in a normal nightclub situation.
And also the simple factors like the way a lot of sound systems run being on the ground, right next to the people. Not on a stage, far away from the people. That’s another important thing.

About that, when you organize your own dances. How do you organize your system? Is it always the same or does it change?

It depends on where we are, because smaller venues will sometimes only want four bass bins, or be allowed to have four bass bins, so that dictates the set up and the cabling and so on. But it’s generally quite a symmetrical thing. So we’ve got one stack that can be run by one set of amps and then the same for another stack if necessary.

Since I’ve been in Glasgow  you’ve played in a variety of places, like clubs, warehouses, bars… Does how you play, or the vibe you manage to create, change according to where you are?

Yes definitely. Some bookings will be more of a dubstep night, where they want a reggae dubstep edge to it, whereas others will be a roots nights, in which case we will be playing more rootical, but with a modern electronic, digital element to it.

Back to the music. For you, what makes dub and reggae have that particular vibe? It’s something you find rarely anywhere else.

It’s hard to say. I think it’s because most reggae has been made with the intention of making good music and with a positive message. And I think that’s the main element really. There’s a sense of freedom about it as well. Where some producers in other forms of music will be trying to engineer their music to fit in with what’s going on at the time, and of course we do as well. But I think there is an element of freedom, of doing what you want in a DIY fashion.

This is a question that relates to several debates that have been going on in France. What creates a sound system’s identity?

It’s crew really, the people in the sound. I mean the speakers is the most obvious aspect, but if you don’t have a solid crew of people to run it, then it’s never going to succeed, no matter how good your speakers and amps are.
People often ask me how do Mungo’s manage to make a living from this, and employ several people, all working full time. And I think it happened because each of us has got a set of skills, and we try and make space for everyone to utilize their skills in the best ways possible. For example I can make tunes but I’m not very good at replying to emails and keeping on top of dates and things like that.

So yeah, it’s really about the crew, and the vibes between the crew. The crew have to get on very well. If there’s bitterness and division its always going to show in the end result, in the dance.
And obviously the music that they produce. Because there are sound systems that are strictly selectas and speakers. But I think there’s only so far you can go with that. Because especially these days people have access to any tune, pretty much. And anyone can learn to select and buy speakers. But when you actually start using your influences to make your own music and add your own edge to it, that’s when your identity forms even more.

If the identity is from the sound system and the crews behind them, you go to certain nights because they have certain identities. Let’s say, you have Iration Steppas playing on your system, will it be just a Mungo’s night with Iration Steppas playing on your system, or will it become an Iration Steppas night when they play?

Well it’s a bit of both. In that case it is a Mungo’s night, but when Iration plays it’s very different from the set that we’d play and for that time he’s playing, then yeah, it’s an Irations set.
If we play on OBF, then they’re inviting us to show our identity on their sound.

So you can move around your identity in a way?

Yeah absolutely. And especially in that situation where we go play abroad for example like an hour and a half set or two hours and its generally strictly Mungo’s production, not vinyl and so on. And that’s the idea to get a Mungo’s vibe across. But on the other hand at a festival where we have more hours to play then it will be much more selection as well.

As you were saying, you manage to play across the world – Japan, US, Europe – especially going to Europe, does the sound system scene in France, Italy or Spain change from the one in the UK?

Yeah, it varies a lot from county to country. I would say France is one the most advanced in terms of the number of people that come to sound system nights and that are into it, and the way that reggae is generally more mainstream in France than here. And you notice it in the dance, we always have a great time when we play in France. People know the tunes, they’re really excited to be at a sound dance. And then other countries are still learning sound system culture, and people don’t know so much but you have to give them a flavor of what it’s about.

One comment that has been made is that France and Italy are slightly more conservative musically wise than the UK.

From personal experience I’ve never really felt that. I mean, the kind of dubstep we play, generally bassline and very reggae influence, and for me there’s very little difference between that and a hard steppers tune, it’s just a few details really that make a difference. And for some reason, people will love to pigeonhole things, and even if they’re very close to each other they will say “ that’s different, it’s for different people”, which I just totally don’t see the point of.
But in France, any experience I’ve had has always been good, and even playing more dubsteppy tunes always goes down well.
I mean there are more orthodox sounds I’d say in France, who are much more into the UK steppers style, and more into the Rastafari part of it, which is not such an important element for us.

Is there something else than music that you try to bring to your dances.

Definitely. Like I was saying before about how the crew works together, that all reflects in the vibe of the night. Even who you have doing security, the first people that people meet on the door when they come in. If they’re grumpy and rude, then that puts things off to a bad start. So these small details are important. Whoever is talking the money on the door, and the bar staff.
And generally… I’m not sure why it’s the case, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen any fights or troubles at a dance we’ve done in 14 years. Maybe once or twice. But compared to other clubs scenes I’ve been to. People are expecting a certain openness, friendly vibes, there’s no particular agenda, and it’s quite open to different kinds of people.

In the last 5 years I’ve noticed, mainly because I’ve been more aware of the sound system scene. But even in the three years I’ve been in Glasgow I’ve noticed this, there seems to be a lot more people building their sound systems. Any ideas why that would be happening?

I think it’s just the natural kind of growth and spread of sound system culture. And in Scotland especially compared to England and London in particular has never had a West Indian community. So it’s never had the reggae history that London or Birmingham or other towns down south has had. So I think it’s really ripe for Scotland to get lots of sound systems on the go, and more MCs and things happening.

One of the first things I was thinking of looking at was how reggae moved from Jamaica where they had ghettos and poverty, to England where there was racism and poverty too. And now it’s grown to places like France, or Italy or Scotland, places that don’t really have that, or not on the same levels in any case. They assimilate with the history even though they didn’t experience it.

Yeah, well people approach it from very different angles. For a lot of people, and including ourselves, it was mostly about building a sound so we could play when we wanted and where we wanted without anyone else controlling the sound and the music policy.
And I suppose to some degree just the frustration with poor quality sound in so many venues we’ve played in. It’s always a pleasure to turn up with our rig and play somewhere because you know what you’re dealing with straight away.

You’ve incorporated dubstep and electronic music to the reggae ethos, how did that come around?

It came naturally. I mean partly because, like I was saying before there isn’t a set of rules established in Scotland for how reggae sound should be, and it doesn’t have to be an orthodox strictly rasta based sound. And also just from having played in various jazz and funk bands, and having made electro and techno before, I don’t see any point in leaving these styles alone.
And importantly in order to connect with young people and people who aren’t reggae heads already, you have to be playing them tunes that make them move.  And that’s not going to happen if you always stick to strictly old school roots.
And I think it’s something that’s always been happening. I mean the whole ‘Sleng Teng’ thing when digital arrived. A lot of people were really against it, and yet it became the most popular thing and really gave reggae a big boost at the time.

Many new sounds in France appear to come from free party backgrounds. There are some similarities between both, but are there also some differences?

Well there are differences yeah. I would say from an outsider point of view and from having been to both kind of dances, the free party and techno and that kind of scene is more strictly hedonistic in a way. It’s strictly for having fun and release, which is totally valid. But it doesn’t have the more integral, positive message that reggae and dub has.
It’s just my opinion, but for me it would seem people are more there in an individualistic way, in a techno free party. Taking drugs or whatever, and still obviously having fun with their friends.

But for me a reggae sound system dance has deeper underlying currents somehow.
I’d have to think about it, I can’t quite put my finger on exactly what it is. The closest thing I could say would be about the positivity thing which I keep coming back to. And the ability for people to get on, for strangers to get on well, no fussing no fighting.

Another thing I’d like to add, it’s a little bit more about the DIY things, with regards to sound systems. For us when we first started, we did play a lot more roots, and rasta style tunes. And although there’s still a great deal about the rasta side that I admire, I don’t feel like it’s part of my culture. Not part of my immediate culture anyway. I think, as well as the positive vibe of the dance, there’s also something really valuable in showing people that it’s possible to build up something from nothing, and do what you want to do in life, and earn money from even if it’s not much.
And I do see a lot of other sounds being inspired by that, that it is possible to do full time music and run a sound system if you work hard enough.

From an outsider to that, it seems that it is, well maybe not a resistance, but maybe some form of counter culture?

Yeah I think it is. I definitely think it is. It’s one of the few ways where you can get involved in music and do exactly what you want to do. If you’re a talented producer or singer in the pop industry, you’re still basically a lot of the time going to be working to a certain set of rules that have been defined by a label or a taste maker of the time that thinks that a certain sound is going to make a hit record. Of course we would like to make music that becomes popular, but that’s not the main point of it.

So does the sound system scene run parallel to the traditional music industry, or does it go completely against it?

It’s not completely against it. But it kind of acknowledges how much rubbish there is in pop music (laugh). And it’s more that music that’s been engineered purely to make money, like a chemical a lab, they’ve got this much of the chorus, and this much of that, and a certain formula to try to make money.

Does vinyl link into that too? In the sense that pop music seems to have abandoned it?

Yeah that’s right. That’s definitely a kind of underground counter culture thing. Well, counter culture suggests it’s against culture, which it isn’t really. But it’s kind of making a point about being autonomous I’d say, by pressing vinyl.

You have a lot of stages at festivals, like Outlook, Glastonbury, Dimensions… how does that change from organizing your own dances.

Well we’re not programming the acts you know, so sometimes there will be music that we don’t like (laugh)  But I mean that’s part of making a living from a sound system sometimes. You have to do things that aren’t your style. But that’s like any job you can’t always be completely what you want.

It depends on the festival. We always try and have a say, especially in the placement of the sound and of the stage, because that’s really important to any festival. It’s often put second to like the décor or whatever, but people don’t realize that that’s going to affect the quality of the night for the DJs and the crowd. So we always try and talk to the festivals about what we’re looking for. Then things like the details of the décor are generally up to them.

But it’s always good fun doing a stage where there is a wide variety of music, because for example at outlook, it’s all nearly kind of bass music, and most of it I really like. And there are very often MCs involved so we still try and run the night in a sound system style. Even the sound of the mic, and the power of the bass compared to the rest of the music.
For example at Outlook there’s nearly always someone on the delay of the mic, waiting for the last word in an MCs verse, and so it goes “OUTLOOK… outlook… outlook”. And they love that, they really appreciate it. You have to be careful with it of course, you don’t want to annoy MCs as well. If you put too much delay and they’re doing a fast chat then you’ll cut it right out.

And finally, about the décor. Many sound system nights have very little décor, or lighting compared to other club nights or gigs.

Yeah, it is often like that. Sound systems seem to like it raw. Personally I like a bit of décor. We do try and avoid loads of bright lights, because it does give a completely different vibes. And I’ve seen so many times where we’ve been playing in a more standard nightclub, and there’s loads of bright lights on, and as soon as you turn the lights off, people will start going on the dancefloor, you know. They feel free, and not under the spotlight.