INTERVIEW : LP INTERNATIONAL
Interview by : Paul Bastrot
Pictures by : Frank Casali
on Tuesday, February 28th 2006 - 11 525 views
Formed in Brooklyn in the 80s, LP Sound (short for Love People) is a legendary sound of the Big Apple. A veteran of dances and clashes, LP can boast of having taken part in the great era of the nights at the Biltmore Ballroom. Withdrawn from the clash circuit until 2004, LP has been back in the arena since and fully intends to make a name for itself all over the world. Booked for the first time in Paris, LP granted us an interview in Munich on the occasion of their victory at Riddim Clash 2005. Puma, founder and owner of the sound, answers our questions.
Reggaefrance / Puma, can you introduce LP Sound to us, its creation, its members, its evolution?
LP International / I started playing music in Jamaica when I was a teenager and I left for New York in '82. There I met people from my neighbourhood, Blacka P and Baby Lu, who came to my place to listen to sounds and sometimes deejay. We started getting booked for dances. We played every Thursday, then Rayvon, Red Fox and Shaggy joined the crew and we became more and more popular.
In '90, I was playing with Supa Don most of the time, we had a clash lined up with Afrique and Supa Don couldn't be there. So I offered the MC role to Stereo Fish, who often came to my place. I played the records and gave him the arguments. He did very well and so joined the crew. We mashed up Afrique and from that moment on, we clashed all over the place, at birthday parties, at dances, as far as Jamaica against Bodyguard, Killamanjaro, Bass Odyssey…
Later Stereo Fish decided to leave the sound, he wanted to have a juggling sound. We then hired Lee Major of Earth Ruler for a few jugglings but he preferred to go and play in England. So we took things back in hand with Supa Don. The latest recruit is called Terror, he had been in the sound for a long time and decided to get involved at another level, so he is our new MC.
What was it like in the 90s in New York, in clubs like the Biltmore?
Back then, it wasn't just the Biltmore, everybody talks about the Biltmore but there were lots of clubs at that time: there was also the Starlight Ballroom, the Tillnight Ballroom, the Flamengo, but it's true that the Biltmore was the most important, with lots of dances and clashes from 1990 to 1996.
What's it like today, what has changed?
Things have changed. Back then a sound that played Dennis Brown was considered a big sound. Now I sometimes feel it's a matter of money. The same goes for the atmosphere: everybody partied, the girls came to the parties a lot, now everyone dances in their own corner. But one thing has changed: the violence. There was a lot of violence in New York in those years, a lot of guns, shootings in the clubs, now that's over, it's one of the best things.
The crowd at clashes and at jugglings isn't the same. It's younger for the regular parties, whereas at clashes you find massives who were already coming 10 or 15 years ago to the memorable Biltmore clashes. Sounds evolve too, new ones appear then disappear, but you must always remember the old ones. When you start out nobody wants to block you, but once you reach a certain level some sounds feel obliged to measure themselves against others, there's too much bad spirit sometimes. Our aim is to share the music no matter where we come from, that's what matters.
Do you have your own studio in New York?
I don't really have a personal studio, I have a small home studio where I can do quick takes, but I record dubs pretty much everywhere. When an artist is somewhere and I have a job to do with him, I'm there. Whether in New York, in Jamaica or even here in Germany, if an artist was in town and his tune could be decisive for tonight's clash, I'd find a studio to record it. What matters is to play the right tune first and at the right time.
You've been recording dubs for a long time, can you tell us what has changed and why?
In the 90s lots of sounds were making dubs, there was more money in the business in general than now, artists were sometimes more flexible. Now you have to have good relations with the artists, we've always tried to maintain that so we can keep on playing new tunes all the time. Sometimes I can pay for the dubs but sometimes the artist must also make a gesture, give you the strength to keep on letting the massives hear him.
Can you name some artists you like, some of your anthems?
It's very hard to talk about our anthems because almost all our tunes have become anthems (laughs). I love all the artists, I have no preference, all the artists are my artists. I don't play bad dubs from an artist because if I flop, I'd flop the artist too. So I take care that the artist records his tunes well. At one time some artists took their money and left, now they realise that if the sounds play their tune around the world, they'll become more important.
We have lots of anthems, I could talk about them for hours. I love the music, I'm proud to have these dubplates, because they're unique. We have a combination with Peter Tosh, Cocoa Tea and Capleton, it's a huge tune in England, also Dennis Brown and Capleton, our dubs by Buju Banton, by Dennis Brown and those by Michael Palmer, they're all artists we really appreciate.
What is your best memory of a clash, and your worst?
I can't really name a bad memory but I remember two clashes with Poison Dart in Florida. It was always problematic, fights, the sound, a biased crowd, every time in Florida, so I told them to come to New York because I don't like that kind of thing. We play music, we're not making war, even in a clash.
Otherwise my best memories are the clashes LP against King Addies at the Biltmore and LP against Bodyguard in Jamaica with Dennis Brown live, those are great moments of music.
Listening to some tapes of your clashes from the 90s, you sometimes hear gunshots during the big forwards, it's quite incredible, can you tell us a few words about that?
(Laughs) No, it's not war. It's just that sometimes the massives are proud to glorify their sound when it plays well. It's the way some fans of the time did it. LP has its fans, King Addies has its fans, Earth Ruler too. You know, it's part of the business because the fans bet like crazy, they're the ones who create the buzz around the clashes. It's still music, it's not something negative.
Which sounds do you like and why?
I'd say Stone Love first of all. Even if it's a juggling sound, they showed the sound business to a lot of people and they've been guides for everyone. I think it's the number one sound, all categories combined. I like Saxon a lot too, on another level. Sturgarv and Jammys are good sounds as well.
Which sounds inspired you?
I'd say Saxon, Stereo-One, also Volcano but also Jack Ruby and V-Rocket from England.
What are your future projects, your goals?
I'd like to be able to travel and play jugglings all over the world, I should have gone to certain places a long time ago and certain people prevented it.
Now I'm going to have my sound play wherever people want to hear us and clash every sound that wants to block our way, I'm afraid of no sound.
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