InYourBass.com

A long history

The two of you grew up together. How did you catch a vibe for reggae music?
Vinnie : I’m the youngest brother. Alex has always been the pioneer, he passed a lot of his knowledge on to me. As a youth I was mainly into hiphop and techno, but my love for reggae started when he gave me a Bob Marley album on CD.
Alex: We grew up with Capeverdian music as these tapes always played at our home, full of exotic music like salsa and reggae. These roots riddims came to our ears at young age. During my high school years I grew to love this music, and got more and more into it. At home we only heard black music, apart from a lot of eighties soul and pop music. Neither Vinnie or I had any idea about typical Flemisch music, or the rock hits that were popular at that time.

How did you make your first steps as a reggae DJ?
Alex : I started as a dj when I was in fifth grade, around the age of sixteen. I played in a bar called Vice Versa. These were the early days: it was hard to find anyone in town who knew about reggae music. At the end of the eighties I got to know Pancho, owner of a bar and of a huge collection of seventies roots, who made me discover a lot of music. In ’93 I became part of a local musical collective called the Riot Squad. It was initiated by Jeroen Joly and brought music lovers like Wontime, Killah Tactics and myself together. Each one of us had his own show at Radio Scorpio. It was a small student radio with very limited broadcast capacity, but this period meant a lot for my musical growth. It’s exactly there where I met Boombastic Sound, probably the only Belgian sound I knew these days. Russ Disciples from England was another important connection. Through these people I got in touch with Jamaican roots and dancehall: both the vintage seventies style as the nineties “new roots”. Starting from ’96 I played at regular reggae nights in a local dancehall called Rumba. These nights turned out to be an amazing succes: every time the place was fully stacked with people.
In the beginning I only bought LP’s. I didn’t even know about the existence of maxis or singles, or about more specialised stores like Harlequin. It was at radio Scorpio I saw 7 inches for the first time: I had absolutely no idea where you could find these. Most of what I had, came from Stef and Arne from JJ Records. Stef passed me some Jah Free and Vibronics promo’s one time: it was the first time I ever heard UK dub, and I grew quickly attached to this new style. Keep in mind these were still our pre-soundsystem days.

"Around that time arose the name Dread Pressure, and I compiled the first of two tapes called “Roots and Culture”, one year later I mixed “Truths and Rights”."

Vinnie: Apparently these tapes had quite an unexpected impact. Ten years later, some people still ask me about them.

Apart from your selection, listeners were fascinated by the sound of your siren: it often happened people just imitated this sound as a synonim for your name.
Alex: We had a pre-amp and a siren quite early : we have been playing with this gear for ten years now. I can’t remember a lot of parties without that amp. We bought our siren through the Disciples, from an official JTS soundsystem equipment dealer.
Vinnie: Keep in mind these were the pre-internet days. It was way harder to find out where to get this kind of equipment. Applications like chatting were in the making, but no used by a larger audience. ?

A CIRCUS TENT FULL OF JUMPING RASTAS

Could you name an experience that bound you to soundsystems?
Vinnie: I remember buying records in the early days, apart from what Alex was doing: I was into hiphop, jungle, house and techno. Alex came home one day with a Jah Shaka session on tape. We didn’t have a clue of soundsystems yet, as we started at the very base, with Bob Marley LP’s, Johnny Clarke, Barry Brown, King Tubby...But what we heard on these Shaka tapes was quite new to us: it was the first time we realised reggae was played in this style. In the end these tapes made us to go London to watch Shaka for ourselves. That’s how we ended up in Brighton in ’97, at the Essential Festival. This day was an absolute revelation to us. I remember very lively how I heard Shaka playing “Who are you” (by Seventh Sense, Jah Works) and spontaneously thought: this is techno! This is exactly the same energetic vibe!
Alex: We barely understood what was happening to us. Standing there like two newcomers from smalltown Belgium, in the middle of an enormous circus tent with eight towers of scoops. We saw rastas skanking all over the place; we had never seen anything like it.
Vinnie: It hadn’t been easy to reach the festival either: there was no Eurostar yet, we had been travelling for a whole day. It’s definetely still the best festival I’ve ever been to. There were 8 tents and big names on the line-up like Johnny Clarke, Twinkle Brothers, Zion Train, Aisha...

"Can you imagine I haven’t heard a single bad song for the whole festival? From that day on, I finished with house and threw myself on reggae music."

Alex: Soon there came more experiences like these: we visited the Rocket, Powerhouse, Seven Sisters, Dub Club...But this day in Brighton, is the very day I decided I wanted to build my own soundsystem.  

Wasn’t it hard to find this type of music in Belgium these days?
Vinnie: Certainly. We had to search through listings and catalogs from Japan or the English distributor Dubvendor. It were long lists of records...
Alex: ...you couldn’t listen to. The numbers went quickly into thousands.
Vinnie : You couldn’t prelisten anything like nowadays on the internet. Most of the time we chose titles that seemed appealing, and even more often, we just took a blind pick. I still have a few boxes with bad records from these days at home now. You had to make mistakes like that, to find out in which direction you should search.
Alex: Records were cheaper than now, but it was harder to find them: it was much more involved with personal contacts. You had to have the right connections to find certain records. We diverted everything from Shaka tapes : sometimes we were walking around for weeks with a snippet, to find out the track was an unreleased dubplate (laughs). But I have a good sense of hearing: after a while I could judge by feeling whose track it was.

NOT JUST REGGAE, NOT JUST SOUND

How did you develop from selectors to soundmen? What’s the difference between Dread Pressure and Soul Remedy?
Vinnie: Actually we have always been doing the same thing. There hasn’t changed much, except for the fact we own our own equipment now, and aren’t dependent on the sound from the venue anymore. We are in control of how we sound to the people.
We learned quite a lot about the technical aspect of audio. We were gathering info for two years, before we started building our system. In Belgium, nobody really understood what we tried to achieve. Fortunately Russ Disciples was a very patient support to us. It wasn’t evident to build the sound, it took a lot of time. Our mids, tops and scoops were built in Belgium. We chose 18 inch scoops because they have a larger frequency range. Every time we played it, we learned more how to control it. You can’t learn to use it well without doing any harm: you can be sure you’ll break some gear during the process.

"A  soundsystem is like an instrument: you need to learn how to play it. "

Has the attention for soundsystems in Belgium grown ever since, or does this remain status quo?
Vinnie : It remains an underground phenomenon. I’ve got high hopes, because there have been many new sounds arising the last few years. You see a very motivated hardcore crowd, but I don’t think the roots audience has grown very much.  

Are you dissapointed the large succes stayed out?
Alex : That wasn’t ever my goal anyway. I know perfectly what I’m doing: I always worked from passion and faith in music. I want to show people there’s music with a different message, that can touch your soul, and you’ll never hear on the radio.  

The message

What keeps you going? From an economic point of view, a soundsystem is a big investment without a lot of return.  
Alex: I’ll give you an example: I heard Shaka play a song in London, that blew me away. It was only when I came home I found out I had it on record myself : the difference with normal speakers is that big.
The impact of the songs and the message behind them, becomes much larger when played on a system. You can mix your track live and manipulate it: you choose when the bass is large, you filter channels so others come more to the front...that’s how you guide the massive to the message. You can make the lyrics perfectly comprehensive to everyone. Every soundman has a personal relation to the songs he plays, that’s what makes the difference. Everyone can buy and play records, but not everyone can handle a soundsystem. You already need the will to build one of your own and learn how to control it : this takes a lot of time. It’s not about making people go wild on a heavy bass and damage their ears: your selection and the way you present it is most important. Your buildup needs to be fluent, you can only follow your feeling in this. Lyrics take a role in that, but also keys, chords, the kind of instruments...I never make a set playlist before I go playing, I just take double the amount of records for the time I can play. Not even that long ago, I always brought my entire collection: I want to have complete freedom of choice when I’m selecting.
Vinnie: A DJ needs to know his records. What happens in between the recordplayer and the sound from the scoops, is completely dependent on the soundman’s relation to the music.  

You want to do more than just blow the speakers ?
Alex: The balance is very important, every aspect of the music needs to be lighted out. People need to hear what you’re playing, not just hear loud noise.

Dubplate business

What I personally appreciate in your selection, is the balance bethween obscure and recognisable tracks. Dubplates and specials become more important these days, but without recognition there ain’t no vibe either.
Vinnie: I agree. It’s much easier to find dubplates nowadays than it used to be. Playing dubplates all night long might be impressive, but it’s not much of my interest.
Alex: Dubplates don’t really exist anymore as the exclusives they used to be. Only a few sounds got special versions from tunes that were pressed on acetate. These days they’re easier to acces as a CD or just as MP3.  

Still, musically there hasn’t changed so much. In the end, new productions remain due to the heritage of roots music.
Vinnie: Not really. Digitalisation opened a lot of new doors: producers like King Alpha or King Earthquake make fantastic, heavyweight dub in an exciting new style. Plus, thanks to the internet and media like Myspace, this music can spread much quicker, and can stay independent.

You have a music studio yourself?
Alex: Since a while I have been making stepper tracks with D Minor 7. It’s more of a side-project: we play these tunes on our sound, but I don’t know if I would publish them.  

Not just a selection

A lot of young sounds look for rare records they heard on a session. On eBay, these records sell for high prices. How do you feel about that ?  
Vinnie: It’s a fact that a lot of people are hunting for the same records nowadays: a bit of a pity in my opinion, and a big difference with the early days. I’ve seen absurd prices for vinyl on eBay, sometimes even 300 dollars for a rare roots 12”. If people can afford it, I don’t have a problem with it, but the consequence is a certain selection becomes totally overpriced. You used to find these tunes by lucky coincidence, now they all find their way to eBay because of their higher value.
Alex : I oppose the idea you would chase a record because it’s rare. Some people just find these tunes on the net, burn them on CD and play them in session: I can’t really respect that.
Vinnie : But what if these records are impossible to afford ?
Alex : In that case you shouldn’t play them. I’m quite basic in this : after all we’re talking about reggae music. You can’t play dubplates you found without permission of the artist either. Roots music is about respect and experience: you’ve got to respect yourself and the artists.

"It doesn’t work like hiphop, where everything is just being remixed an sampled for commercial purposes. You keep each other’s work in honour. "

What about rasta then

So you can’t just play anything?
Alex: Exactly. You’ve got to back the selection you play.  

In that case, how do you feel about white Belgians flirting with the image of Haile Sellasie? After all, this man has not a lot to do with our Belgian history.  
Alex: I don’t have a problem with people who convert to rastafari, but I dissociate from the abuses of this image.  

Vinnie, how important are your dreadlocks to you ?
Vinnie : I could talk to you until tomorrow morning about that. See, you don’t need to believe in Jah to play a song about rastafari, neither do you have to be rasta to wear dreads. I do believe in the values and standards of rastafari: treat others like you’d treat yourself and find your own way, for example. But I understand your question: a lot of people use the image, without really living up to it.
Alex : It’s not always an advantage we don’t use this image, because people have it harder to place us. You need to think for yourself and play what suits you as a person. You can’t wave a Lion of Judah flag around while you’re listening to guntalk and slackness.
I know what I’m talking about when it comes to rastafari religion. Amongst other scriptures, I’ve read the bible. The book of the Old Testament is a document from another time, and not historically accurate, so we don’t interpret these scriptures literally.
Vinnie: But we integrated these values, and carry them out in our lives. Any man could find himself in the Ten Commandments, without the belief God carved them in those stones himself.
Alex: I follow a conscious lifestyle, which reflects in what I do and don’t eat. Consequence is important : you need to know yourself and live disciplined. That counts for relations as well : I treat everybody with respect. Why would you blame somebody from slamming doors, if you do it yourself ? There is less and less tolerance in these times. It might be hard living up to these principles, but I ‘d rather stay true to myself.

words and pictures by andreas