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What made you want to start making your own
reggae tunes, to make the transition from reggae
fan and writer to music maker?
 I
wanted to make a version album back in the late
seventies early eighties, but when I checked out
the cost of studio time and musicians - I dropped
the idea - but then I bought a bass and Dr Rhythm
drum machine - and started to build record bass
and drum tracks on my cassette deck, and did about
12 tracks but then the deck stopped working it
couldn't deal with the bass! But the tape was
given to Rae Wackies (footnote),
who really liked them. I was hoping to be able to
transfer them onto a multi track, but the tape got
lost and that was that.
To get the sound I wanted, I knew would take
some a lot of studio time which costs money. And
by the mid eighties - Tero Kaski at Black Star in
Finland thought it would be a great idea to put
out a book. Which was to be More Axe - and that
meant setting up a business (Muzik Tree) and that
took every penny I had. So the thing was put on
hold.
Did you have a guiding musical concept or
philosophy when you started?
The sound I had in mind was that raw sound of
the early seventies - Version. It was minimal -
and was driven more by keyboards and guitars, then
bass and drum.
 By
the 1994, the cost of computers that could handle
music had come Down to a good price - I wanted an
Atari, but couldn't get one. So ended up buying a
Brother Disk Composer, and a Yamaha keyboard with
midi - It took a while to adapt from playing bass
guitar to keyboard bass - but within a while I had
a number of rhythms built. It was then that I
asked Dave Katz to come and play some melodies
over them - he did . I thought what he did was
great - he got the sound I was after very quickly.
I then tried to mix the tunes and it couldn't be
done! The only way to mix midi then, was to
transfer it to tape, track by track. And then mix
it. The cost of this was way too much.
So I just left it again, and kept an eye on the
cost of 4 track tape Machines to my total surprise
Yamaha put out a 4-track Minidisc machine! Being a
big fan of Minidisc. I had to get this machine, it
was like a dream come true. Ira at Jammyland in
New York was looking to buy old 12" and so
that was that. By the late summer of 2000 I had
the Yamaha MD4S.
FOOTNOTE: Rae
Wackies is the Mystic Red Corporation, he produced
the first 'UK Roots' tune 'Seven Seals' with
Manasseh before they were Manasseh. His own album
'Between Zero and One' is a roots classic. Check
out Idlers Rest for more info.[back]
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