UK Dub Files: Vibronics

Hello Steve, welcome and thanks for being with us. First of all, where it all started for you: I heard it was about some kind of production of yours on a cassette tape which was picked up by Aba Shanti, and he played it on dubplate, right?
Steve Vibronics: Yeah, it all started years and years ago in just the most basic kind of studio you can imagine, just really rubbish second hand equipment. Nothing to master the tracks on to, just recording really basic tracks, recording them on to tape, and then I gave them to a few people. One of those people I gave them to was Aba Shanti. And then the next thing I'd heard a week later: he loved it, he cutted it on dubplate and he was playing it on big dances in London. I went down to check it out, too see what was going on, and there he was playing my tune. It was just an amazing experience to hear for the first time the music you made in a little studio played on a big soundsystem, hundreds of people, big dance in London… It was like amazing! I still remember it now.

It must have been a confirmation for you to go through with it.
Just to hear your music alongside other people's music really makes you think "Ok, maybe I can be accepted as a reggae producer and maybe it can work for me for sure." When you are listening to it at home, or playing it for your friends or crew, most people say "Yeah, sounds great!", because most people are just interested in the fact you do music, but when you can really think "OK, maybe it ìs going somewhere"…

Your music got really introduced a little later by Zion Train. Can we speak about a similar vibe with you and Neil Perch, production wise?
There's definitely a link, and I learned a lot from Zion Train, but you know, the same way I learned a lot from Aba, having my music played on the Aba Shanti sound system in the beginning. I learned a lot from Neil and from the whole Zion Train crew when they were collected working together, because I didn't know anything about how a studio worked really or how the music industry worked, distribution and releasing, and so on.. They've always looked after themselves, rather than working with agencies or with other companies, and they've kind a showed me how it all worked. I stilllearn from them now. They're still working really hard, and we still talk regularly about projects and stuff.

Can we say the success of Vibronics is partly due to the wonderful voice of Boney L?
She's got an amazing voice, indeed. Definitely one of the best singers I've worked with. At the time she was just my friend in Leicester and it was like "Yeah, she can sing!" She was been singing in reggae bands and it was like "Yeah, let's do some recordings!" and it sounded great! Only years later though I really realized what an impact it had on other people, because when it was released there were just a few singles. Few ones said that she sounded great, wikkid tracks, but then people were saying that about other tracks as well, but years later it was like they've really kind of last it, and that's definitely part of the success of how it all took off. People were like "Wow, you got this great female singer!" Female singers are really popular in reggae, especially British roots reggae. There's a whole huge history of them like Aisha and Rasheeda, you know, and Boney L kind of continued that tradition really.

Is she still working and performing with Vibronics?
A little bit, now and again. She is busy, she is more into like folk music and stuff like that. She still writes music and she is still really busy with music, but she is not so into the kind of roots scene, and she is not very found to perform live, but in the studio… We might play some new dubplate stuff tonight, that she did for us last year, so..

Can you explain us what your usual crew is nowadays to perform live?
I am lucky because I live in Leicester, which is a small city, but it got a kind of vibrant small reggae scene, with a lot of guys I've worked with. I work with Madu Messenger and Echo Ranks, who are both here with me in Belgium today. I also work with Parvez, Jah Marnyah, I-Mitri and a horn section which is based in Leicester, melodica players, … These people I am working with are all kind of Leicester people, so it's like a family crew really, so we are lucky from that point of view.

Our deep condolences about Richi Rootz, who passed away. It was quite sudden news, but nowhere we could read about the cause of his dead…
Well, Richi had a stroke about 4 weeks ago and he died from complications of that stroke. He was still young, only 48. It's terrible… Like I said about the Leicester crew, it's a family, you know. We were talking about it on the train on the way in today with Jah Free, who is here at the dance. He was at the funeral last week as well, and you know, Iration Steppas were there, other reggae people were there as well. It's something that touched us all really deeply and, I mean, the good thing for the music fans out there is that Richi has written a lot of music for me over the years. There are piles of stuff that me and Richi worked on over the years and never got released, never even got produced, so..

Your label is called Scoops label. That's of course because the music is best heard through a sound system with 18inch scoops. Did you ever think about creating your own sound system?
Creating my own sound system is something I've talked about for years, for like twenty years or more now. I would like to do it. It's a wonderful thing, a sound system, there's nothing like it, but my thing has always been about making music, so the studio and the productions really have to come first. If you check it, most people who run a sound system don't really produce music. There are a few people who manage to do both, but most people are in a crew where one of the guys runs the sound system. Look at Aba Shanti. You know, his brother Blood Shanti looks after the label and the studio, and Aba looks after the sound. It's kind a too much really for one person to do everything, so for me for now it's definitely focussing on the productions and the music really. We are lucky, because there are always other sound systems all over the world now. We got invited to play on them, so we kind of get the best of both worlds!

Can u tell us something about your future plans?
There are always new plans, always like cooking up new ideas and things. I mean, at the moment there's a whole lot of productions with different vocalists we are working with, and that will be released hopefully later on this year, 2011. Next year, 2012, is a big France remix project. We have remixed a lot of French artists, some of the bigger names like High Tone, Kaly Live Dub, Zenzile, Blackboard Jungle, the guys who are here, and Weeding Dub, Webcam Hifi, OBF, Kanka, … A whole lot of French artists I've remixed tracks for, and that will be released on an album next year. So, we will be playing some of that stuff tonight.

Then a more personal question: what does Rastafari mean for you in your life?
Well, I love reggae music. I love roots reggae music. I have done for many years. The music teaches me in a way and has an effect on me that no other music does. I've been listening to it for years and years and I still love to listen to it. I'm not a Rastafarian, but I feel very honoured that my job has to deal with this precious thing like roots reggae music and Rasta music. It feels like a kind of reponsability to make sure that it's looked after well, and hopefully it's in safe hands, with me and the guys working on it in the studio.