First of all, can you tell us how Channel One was born?
Mikey Dread: "It's a family thing from back in the sixties, seventies, and Channel One Sound System is family generated. The old man used to have the sound system and it has come down to we. We started around 1980, '81. Now, I first started to play sound system in '73, you see, when we were playing blues dances and things like that. That's the way it really started. Ras Kayleb never come in until 1995, but we've known one and other since the last fourty years and we've always been around the same area."
What is a sound system in your opinion?
Ras Kayleb: "We use it as a band, we call it our band. We use a sound to put up the music that we love, but in other sense you could call it a powerful PA, what is home built, handmade in most senses. The speaker boxes are handmade, the amplifiers are handmade, the pre amps are handmade, yeah. So they're made to our specification. Some people buy sounds custom made, but the majority of Channel One things is hand made. So when you say sound system, you could say it's a powerful PA that is handmade."
Why should we hear reggae on sound system?
Ras Kayleb: "When you go into a night club or you go to a big festival, usually you just see a load of speakers. You don't see what these speakers are, you just see speakers. If you come to a sound system session, you see tops, tweeters, mid-range, high mid, low mid, high bass, low bass... All them elements put together is for you to hear the music in its real essence! Instead of you're just getting one continuous noise, you're hearing every individual instrument in its real essence. And to hear the instruments in its real essence awakens your inner feeling to the music."
What is the link between the studio and the sound system?
Ras Kayleb: "Well, the link between the studio and the sound system could come from the producer. Because you see a lot of producers usually affiliate themselves with sounds, like with the top sounds that are going around at the time, so that's how they make their music heard. Because there's no point in making music and giving it to a sound that's not really doing anything, or you're giving it to a radio DJ who may not play your record. Roots and culture music, what Channel One play, is not music you hear on the radio, you don't read about it in the music magazines too often, you don't see posters, you don't see it in the newspaper. So the only way to hear it is through sound system. And as well, it's a broadcaster of news, real news, not false news. Yes I!"
Channel One is known for playing a lot of dubplates. What is their function in the dance?
Mikey Dread: "Well, the reason why it's important for Channel One to play dubplates, is because we haven't changed our stance, you know. Now everybody is playing CD's, Serato and whatever. When you go to school, you learn your trade, you learn your trade of playing records, playing reggae music, playing vinyl, you see. What happens is that when the youths of today want to know where we started, we can't tell them we started from Serato, and we can't say we started from CD. We have to show them the real thing, and the real thing is record! Now we want these youths to go and buy records, which they are even doing now in abundance, because most of the records that we play, it's old to we, but it's new to them. So they are searching all over the world now to get these type of records, so that's what it's all about. We're keeping up with technology, but in our form of vinyl."
Let's speak about your label. When did you release your first record on Channel One?
Mikey Dread: "I think the first tune we released was in 2006 (Tena Stelin's 'Words Of Thy Mouth', red.). We left from there and put out Kayleb's tune ('Each And Everywhere', red.) and Sista Patyma's tune ('Zion', red.). People say that Channel One doesn't put out a lot of tunes, but when we do, you know they fly off the shelves! It's something that has come very exclusive when Channel One puts out a record. And there's more to come!"
You're involved in the reggae scene for a long time now. Do you see any difference between how the scene was in the eighties and how it is now?
Ras Kayleb: "The difference in the scene now, that's yourselves! You're young, we're old now. That is a difference, but you see the vibes and the message is still the same! The people now that come to hear our music are younger, but the vibes, the energy is just the same. Yes I!"
There was a rupture in the reggae music around the mid-eighties, mainly between sounds that started to play the new digital style and sounds that stuck to roots & culture. What can u tell us about that?
Mikey Dread: "When it changed around '84, '85 with Jammy's and the Sleng Teng riddim and things like that, they could only go so far, and that was dancehall. With the digital form that came out, people was leaving the real essence of the music, which was live music, you know. Live drums, live bass and thing. This is what was happening, but now what's happening is that people want to go back to live drum and bass. They feel the real music in that drum and bass and not digital stuff. And that's why I think a lot of sound systems who are around today, who has just been built in the last three or four, five years, off to ten years, they want to do a lot of live drum and bass music, with live bongos and guitars, so you can feel that type of music now today. That it is what they have missed from before."
Reggae music is about Rastafari. What does Jah mean to you?
Ras Kayleb: "Jah, for me, he is the Almighty, and there is no other, right! You could say we live by his strength and we live by his love, so at the end of the day, to say 'Jah' is a powerful name and a powerful word. And for me to say Jah every day, I give thanks that I can say that, because it's my life, and that's what it is. Rastafari!"
How do you see the future of dub music?
Ras Kayleb: "It's growing, right! At this moment you can see roots, rock, reggae, roots and culture, dub... it's growing. It's the fastest growing music in the world at this moment. Everybody now is just drawing to it and you know why? Because it's real!"
Mikey Dread: "If you just look out in the world, right now you can't count how many sound systems are been built in the last ten years. Sound system is built all over the world now. Everybody wants to come. Rastafari!"
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