INTERVIEW : STAND HIGH PATROL
Interview by : Sébastien Jobart
Pictures by : Bichop & DR
on Thursday, September 01st 2011 - 13 907 views
Their place of pilgrimage would surely be London rather than Kingston. Since the birth of Stand High Patrol in Brittany 10 years ago, Pupa Jim (singer and songwriter), Mac Gyver (operator) and Rootystep (selecta) have developed an original style dubbed "dub a dub": a skilful blend of dub, digital, trip hop and new wave. This dub patrol produces constantly and tests its records in sessions, which makes it one of the few sound systems to offer sets that are thoroughly reworked at every performance.
Having celebrated their 10 years before the summer in their stronghold of the Espace Vauban in Brest, they can be seen this summer at the Vieilles Charrues, at Rototom Festival, and even in Finland and Croatia. We meet the men whom Tena Stelin nicknamed the « dubadub muskateerz » (the dub-a-dub musketeers).
Reggaefrance / Stand High is already 10 years old. In a few words, how was the crew born?
Pupa Jim / Mac Gyver: It started with Rootystep and myself. We used to go to London to buy UK digital records. Very quickly, we were joined by PuppaJim, who took the mic. \nPupa Jim: Back then, we weren't producing. At the start, we played records and I hosted. Then we made a production for one session, then a second...\nRootystep: The move into production happened gradually, it came about out of necessity.\nPupa Jim: We enjoyed playing our stuff in small bars, seeing that the crowd liked it. \nRootystep: That's what interested us when we went to sound systems: the new tunes.
What is the recipe for a good dub, in your view?
Mac Gyver: The bass!\nPupa Jim: Stripped-back simplicity. We're not virtuosos, so making a bass / drums / piano production that works is already good. Sometimes we add more, but afterwards we ask ourselves whether it adds anything. And most of the time, it doesn't...
When you listen to TV Addict, you obviously think of Horace Ferguson's tune...
Pupa Jim: I wasn't even thinking of that tune when I wrote the lyrics. It came to me just like that, when somebody advised me to watch a film one day... It's one of the particularities of reggae to recycle itself from the past. We did it a bit for fun, but Nova played it before we had even released it. \nMac Gyver: Normally there was another track planned for the B-side of the Business of War maxi. But there was big demand, so in the end we put it on.
 Chaque soirée est un mystère : on ne sait pas où on va, ni quels sons on va jouer. 
Why sing in English?
Pupa Jim: I started out singing in French, but it wasn't convincing. It's harder to write in French, I think. We're hip-hop fans and when you see NTM's lyrics, you realise how much work goes into it... There's more very simple, vivid wordplay in English. Besides, it allowed me to work on my English. And then if you translate English lyrics into French, it becomes terribly naive...\nMac Gyver: Not everybody understands English; the advantage is that the vocal becomes an instrument like any other, particularly in rub-a-dub, where the lyrics work a lot with onomatopoeia, repeated syllables...\nPupa Jim: It's as if in French you had a recorder and in English a saxophone (laughs).
What has been the best encounter so far?
Pupa Jim: Martin Campbell, even though we didn't record him.\nMac Gyver: He performed at our residency, it was a pleasure to bring him over.
And the record you are proudest of?
Pupa Jim: The next one!
An encounter still to come?
MacGyver: I'd like to work with artists who are little known in the reggae scene. Like Soom-T, for example. It's not necessarily about a legendary name that impresses us, it's more a feeling, and the desire to create an original tune rather than make yet another regular.
Pupa Jim, what is your production volume?
Pupa Jim: I produce a bit less now, but at one time it was day and night... We test them on the sound, but by the next party there are new ones, so we can forget some. Sometimes we replay certain tracks.
So you mostly play a lot of unreleased tunes at parties...
Pupa Jim: It depends on the volume, but we try to play as many new tunes as possible. \nMac Gyver: If the set is the same every time, people stop coming! \nRootystep: It's part of our identity as a sound, trying to bring that perspective, to offer something different every time.\nPupa Jim: We like that stance. In fact, we especially like the sounds that play that way. Every night is a mystery: you don't know where you're going, or which tunes you'll play. That's also what makes it exciting. We've done it two or three times, preparing carefully, notably for Radio Nova's Nuits Zébrées, but we don't do it often for fear of getting bored.
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