Piratedub

Piratedub Well actually I didn't really choose, I was lucky enough to live in a town where the fee for enrolling at the music conservatory was calculated on household income, so at the age of 5 my mother signed me up for music theory classes, then trumpet a year later.... That was the first step!
The second step starts when I was 15/16, I discover reggae, it's a revelation for me, I drop classical music right then and there, and I get into North American music with no regrets .... and I haven't come down since!

Piratedub The Natural sound was born in Montpellier in 1997, a joint initiative between my great mate Big Totof and myself. I had discovered the sound system movement in Paris in the late 80s and I'd told myself that one day or another I'd have to do the same. It also matches the time when christophe and I were coming out of a big political disappointment in a student association where we were activists, so at the same time we filled our lack of a means of public expression with our sound system.... for 3 years flat out, then a bit less afterwards for various reasons, we pounded the Montpellier pavement day and night putting up our posters ( we'd had good training in our political organisations!! ). We did sound systems in universities, in the street, in concert venues, opening slots ( Omar perry, morgan heritage, ras michael, blood and fire etc.... ) sometimes we even had several thousand people in front of us... pure bliss.... We played quite open, back then there was no dubplate war, which didn't interest us anyway, I even think that when we started we didn't even know what a dubplate was... we didn't have any and we didn't give a damn!! The natural sound's range was very varied, we could do hard-core sounds just as well as full dub or rub-a-dub, for the record we introduced lord Zeljko and stand tall to montpellier for example... it went down pretty well...
We were pretty laid back, we always finished with an open mic, money didn't interest us, we rented decorations ( One time at the Rockstore in Mtp, we rented about ten palm trees and some bamboo for the decor, we were over the moon ), we made sure we had big rigs, like no less than 7 / 8 Kw. We brought in the operator principle, because back then you only ever saw DJs on their own ( techno culture is dominant in the region! ), there too we made an effort, we brought out the sampler, the echo chamber and the whole works.
To wrap up on the Natural Sound, you could say it's not very active anymore today, but we still keep doing the fête de la musique every year in the rue de l'université in Mtp, this year again we held the spot until 7 in the morning................... jah love

Piratedub That's not quite how it happened, let me explain, what interested me first of all was reggae and more specifically sound system culture, because in reggae sound systems back then there was a very special atmosphere floating around, downright mystical even.... I had a passion for jungle rhythms from the very first track I heard more than 10 years ago, and actually at that time the building blocks of jungle were sped-up breakbeats and then bits of Jamaican classics, I found it super modern and innovative, I jumped on board straight away... In fact, reggae aside, I took everything full in the face all at once, ragga hip hop, jungle, pure dub roots and novodub, I was already a very very big consumer of music back then... So to sum up, the means of expression I've chosen is dub but with black music influences, I draw my influences from jazz just as much as from bob marley or BB King.... in short everything except rock, which has never been my cup of tea.....

Piratedub I have different ways of working, there's no universal one for me, I can compose just as well with acoustic instruments like piano or guitar as with a simple computer midi editor. There's no magic in computer-assisted composition, for me it's just a simple tool to save time and money, the skills required for composing have no direct connection with these tools, except in the harmonisation techniques I learned at the music conservatory and in my musical culture.

Piratedub My new album is quite simply my first, so it really means something to me!!! How to define Up tone down town????? I think the artwork and the title are pretty representative and fit the music on the album perfectly! Actually my definition of the record is a phrase I like to say: up tone down town is a condensed shot of North American music with a strong rastaman leaning, packed into 19 tracks, 13 on the CD plus 6 on the CD-ROM.

Piratedub Neither one nor the other, the problem lies in the fact that my job is to produce records, not to distribute them... The head of the record company listens to your music and slaps a label on you that will stick, that's all.... You know, at the fnac for example the dub section isn't even next to the reggae one, what can you do, for me there's no musical difference between dub and reggae, the skank is in the same place, 2nd and 4th beat of the bar, the kick on the 3rd etc...
You find my album in the electro dub section or in the electronic music section, today I'd lean more towards obstacle, given that this market isn't really being developed by the traditional record companies, and that this same section is often well hidden... with one reservation though, because it's already on the shelves at the fnac and at virgin and for me that's what matters ( thanks to the Nocturne label! )...... Anyone who wants to discover my music can find it easily, just ask the nice gentleman or the nice lady for the album with the horns on it, "up tone down town".

Piratedub It's very important to go and meet the public, to deliver reggae's message of love, peace, tolerance and respect. Paradoxically it's not where I'm most at ease as a sound engineer and studio rat, but I still have faith in the sound system and I always do my best to go into a trance and become one with the music I'm playing so that people have a good night.

Piratedub Yes I can tell you more. Putting an interactive track on an album isn't a new concept! what's a new concept is my aim of transparency about what electronic music is, on top of 6 extra tracks, I give a source file of a mix of the track Up tone down town and the sonic foundry acid 4 software, in agreement with its maker, as a demo version ( I want to stress that! ). It's a window on one side of my working methods, I don't know why but I felt like handing out a little something extra, so that people can poke their nose into my stuff in a way. I give a small sound bank and I show how I use it, anyone is free to transform the track their own way, pretty nice, no?

Piratedub A second album, strictly reggae dub, already in the works. I'm looking for a booking agent so I can go and defend UP TONE DOWN TOWN on stage with video and artist performances, wherever I can!