| When
did you start making music? |
|
My very first steps were taken around 1984, when I
voiced over dubs. But I really started going in 1986, when we started a band called Messiah Calling. In the same time, I also started to experiment with recording Dub. I have been making Dub with computers since 1993, 1994. |
| How
did you learn to play Reggae Music? |
|
We didn't know how to play the music, we only knew that
we wanted to do it. We also didn't have any musical
education apart from our record collection. I remember
many anecdotes from that time. One brethren who lived
over 200 miles from us, heard our first recordings and
he decided he had to teach us some things. For myself, I
also experimented with tape recorders and so on, to make
Dub. |
| Did/Do
you allways only play Reggae Music? |
|
Yes and no. I have made some housey tracks just to get
to know the music a little better, but reggae, and
especially dub, is the music of my art. I have helped
some friends for a while by providing some drums for
their band. But I listen to almost only reggae and I
think there are still so many things to be discovered
within reggae, that I don't want to leave the music and
start to play something else. |
| Where
do you get inspiration from? |
|
Being a Jesus Dread, my inspiration comes from Jah, Who
made heaven and earth. It's not a phrase, but the truth. |
| Do
you have any examples in music? |
|
Every good DUB engineer is my example. From since I was a teenager I listened a lot to
Scientist and Prince Jammy. Also Paul "Groucho"
Smykle impressed me with his Dub albums. I think that
Scientist had the most influence on my work. But the
very first Reggae I heard was Linton Kwesi Johnson. Or
should I say, Dennis Bovell? For he mixed the music that
got me into Reggae. |
|
|
On the Messian Dread website you can find a list with
equipment that I have in my studio and that I also use
to produce music. |
|
|
Yes and no. My solo works are mostly created by me from
scratch. But sometime I also collaborate with others, or
I uses other material in my own work. I never sample
material, though. And I help people out in my studio
too. |
| How
do you make your music? |
|
I won't reveal everything of the process, but first I make a construction kit of a musical file: I play and program the drums, bass, keyboards et cetera. I then record them into digital audio. While I play parts of the audio, I add acoustic elements such as voice, conga and more things. I then take every audio and put them together on several different audio tracks. I combine some instruments like piano and guitar, trombone sax and trumpet into one audio track. Then the dubbing starts. I dub every audio track separately, except in those occasions in which I clearly state that everything is mixed in one take. I start with the drums and bass, because they are the foundation of the music. I mix effects in the drums and the bass, and on strategic points I fade them in and out. After I done this with all the instruments, I have a lot of separate "dubbed" tracks. My last step is to mix them together, this is the part in which the neighborhood in which I live goes wild. If it sounds good, I mix them together to one wave file, which is then being transformed into an MP3 file.
NOTE: the above answer has been written many
years ago. I have changed my methods as my hard- and
software improved. At a later stage, i will update this
faq.
|
| You
say the computer plays a big role in the
production of you music. Exactly how big? |
|
The computer indeed plays a very important role in my musical creations. A lot of my earlier work is created only with a soundcard. Currently I use a mix of computer software and music hardware. I have a bass guitar, a conga en keyboards and my voice. I also have a 16 track stereo mixing table. The computer is essential, because I can copy tracks together where in the older days you had to re-record them all, with a lot of noise and his in the mix as a result. I also have the possibility to create my music in more takes. The computer enables me to do things which otherwise would cost me 10,000's of dollars. |
|
|
Yes, I do, but apart from a few drumloops I've used I create everything myself. You can download a few loops in the Dubroom Studio. I also use very long recordings when I play external instruments or sing a song. I only use loops when I am in the first phase of the creation process. |
| How
long does it take you to create a track? |
|
There is a big difference. Some tracks are created
pretty fast, that is within 24 hours, but generally
speaking I work 4 or 5 days on one track. I spent at
least 12 working hours on a track, but generally
speaking it takes me 30 working hours. I count from
recording the first note to the final mix. |
|
|
Some loops you find on sample CD's are
"pre-dubbed". They already contain effects.
These kind of loops are very good to use in
"click-your-own-hit" software, such as ACID or
MUSIC MAKER and I have nothing against that, but
personally I do not use these pre-dubbed loops. For a
track I use about five or six different drumloops, which
I place after each other. I then save that line as one
drum track. In the actual dubbing phase, which is in my
opinion the most important phase, I don't use loops
anymore, although I have "sinned" against that
on a couple of times, but in all the works I done, I did
that only 3 or 4 times. |
| How
many tracks have you released? |
|
Well over 100. |
| How
many albums have you released? |
|
Currently (october 2004) I have made six albums. Most of
them are no longer in print because of the piracy by the
musical industrial complex that do not want online
artists to sell their music. (See "The Ballad Of
MP3.com" in the Dubroom Articles Section). |
