Tomorrow night is the 3rd Anniversary bash for NYC’s groundbreaking dubstep event, DUB WAR. To help warm people up for the celebration, Frank151 took a minute to sit down with Dub War’s founder, Dave Q, and reminisce about three years of heavy basslines and white label dubplates.FRANK151: So, let’s start from the beginning. How did you get turned onto dubstep?DAVE Q: I’ve always been into dub reggae. I was a big dubhead, and I was into roots reggae and all of that. I was into hip hop. I was into jungle in the 90s, and I used to go to the bigger jungle raves in the late-90s up until 2000, but by 2000 I was starting to get a little bored.The music that was coming just wasn’t as interesting to me. And I used to go to the Drum & Bass Arena, this big online message board, and some of the people on there posted about how this UK garage stuff was cool — I mean, a lot of people hated it, especially in the drum & bass scene in the UK, but some people said, “Oh, it’s kind of interesting.”So, I checked out this artist, Wookie. He was one of the producers for Soul II Soul back in the 90s, and then he started producing garage and two-step stuff, and so I checked out — actually, there’s one particular tune of his, called “Battle,” which is the one tune that, when I heard it, I was like “Wow, this is some really interesting shit.” Because it had the R&B influence going on, which I like, it had the hip hop influence, it had some of the palette of drum & bass and dancehall — it was just this fusion of different sounds.

From that, I started checking out more and more of what was coming out of the UK garage scene. And at this point, it was just when some of the producers were starting to experiment with some darker, deeper, more dub-influenced sounds…

So, just from the internet, I start tracking that stuff down, through this scene called dubplate.net, and Big Apple Records. I used to order records from Big Apple which is based in Croydon. Big Apple Records is actually owned by DJ Hatcha, who was one of the first dubstep DJs. So, I just started buying the records that way, and I started talking to people through the forum at dubplate.net, and little by little I got plugged into it that way.

Also, from reading Kode9’s writing on the Hyperdub website — which, back in the day, used to have a lot more theoretical stuff, about soundsystem culture, and it was just a mix of music theory and social criticism and all this other stuff…

The fact that it was this completely undiscovered, mysterious thing, and nobody here knew much about it, made it even more exotic that way, you know?

FRANK151: Of course.

DAVE Q: So, in 2001 I went to London, and I went to Black Market Records, where, at the time, this guy Jadaflex worked, who was part of the Ghost Records Crew, which is run by El-B, who was doing this early dubstep stuff that, at the time, was just like the best shit I ever heard. So I ended up coming back from that trip with — well, Jadaflex hooked me up with a stack of early dubstep white labels.

So, from there, I came back and decided to start spinning it a little. I was playing dub and dancehall mostly at the time, and I just started mixing a little bit of dubstep in here and there, and it always got a pretty good reaction. And also I was playing at various dub parties, and I got to know the Shadetek guys through mutual friends, and we ended up playing at the same rooftop parties, that sort of thing, and so [Matt Shadetek] was into the stuff I was playing, and I was into the stuff he was playing, which at the time was a lot of experimental dancehall and a lot of early Bug stuff, so through him, he started this party called Bangers & Mash, which was way at the beginning of grime. And that was, for me, the beginning of when a scene started to form, and heavier music started to come back into the New York nightlife.So, he asked me to play at this party, and I just decided, screw it, I’m going to play an all-dubstep set. It was the first time I’d played just all dubstep. And the response was great. People went off. So, I was like, I’m going to roll the dice and start an event focused on dubstep. The only other DJ I knew who was playing it at the time was Joe Nice, from Baltimore. We were kind of friends through the forum, so I was like “Why don’t you come up and play? We’ll just play all dubstep, and see what happens.” So he came up and we did that summer, the summer of 2005. We did it at Sputnik, in Brooklyn, in the basement there — which is actually a really nice space.

Dub War’s MC Juakali

Juakali was a dancehall MC from Brooklyn, and he just seen a flyer and asked if he could come MC, and I was like “Sure.” I had never met him before the party, but really it all kind of just gelled from there. It was really lucky, in a way, the way all these factors just coalesced at the right time.

FRANK151: Synchronicity.

DAVE Q: Exactly. I mean, the first party probably had, like 30 or 40 people, but every one of those 30 or 40 people left thinking, “Wow, I just witnessed something special.” And word just kind of spread from there. And Joe is such a phenomenal DJ, music that otherwise could seem very brooding and dark just becomes more fun and infectious the way Joe handles it. Also, Joe was the first person in the US, to be cutting dubs from the people in London — the DMZ guys, like Skream and D-1 and the people on Tempa recordings. So it was kind of a rare opportunity for people here to hear things that were being made by people in London before it was released — before you could hear it anyplace else.

DMZ [in London] had actually only just started their night a few months before ours.

FRANK151: Actually, when I was out there in March, I went to FWD>> at Plastic People, and everyone knew about you guys. People were like, “Do you know Dub Wars? Do you know Dub Wars?” all over the place.

DAVE Q: Really? That’s great. I mean, from doing it, I’ve become friends with most of the people who are the main DJs and producers over there, and the DJs all know about it, and they want to come and play. They know we have the right idea about how to present the sound, you know? We’re throwing a party, I guess, that they feel represents the sound in the right way.

FRANK151: So what are those specifics, in your eyes?

DAVE Q: First of all, a good soundsystem. No bullshit. No attitude, no exclusivity. Just really trying hard to create a positive experience for everyone there. A celebration, no attitude. And also, being as open-minded as possible about as many different interpretations of the sound without letting it become too narrowly focused… basically, all different styles that share a common state of mind, and share that 140 tempo and a lot of sub… and from there, you’re free to put on top of it what you want to.

I think people have been excited, and keep coming back month to month, because you never know what you’re gonna get. And that gives the DJs room to experiment — having the crowd come with an open mind, so they’re ready for whatever the DJs come with. I think we’re very fortunate that it’s continued to be that way, three years in. I’ve traveled and gone to other dubstep parties where it’s just monotony for 4 hours, and I can’t imagine how people do that, month in and month out.

Dave Q and Joe Nice

FRANK151: In light of that, can you speak a bit about what kind of a gap you see Dub War filling in the New York scene?

DAVE Q: For me, personally, the music scene in New York sucked from, like, 2001 to 2005.

FRANK151: What do you think changed that?

DAVE Q: Well, first of all, everyone got hit by 9/11, no question. But also, all of the rebirth of electro clash, and the rock revival, all that stuff — to me, it just had no… let’s just say it didn’t interest me at all. And it coincided with when the deep house scene started to disappear. Before that, I was into going to Body + Soul, and Shelter… those kinds of parties. I was into drum & bass up until around ‘99, 2000, then that started to get boring for me, and at the same time it sort of died out…

Then, just for a brief minute, there was a great two-step scene, just for like six months in New York. It was great. I used to go to all the parties, like Preschool, Drive-By… the Limelight occasionally would have parties in the Chapel. It was great, but after like 6 months it was just gone. And when 9/11 happened, the whole music scene just died.

FRANK151: There was also a reinforcement, under Giuliani, of the cabaret laws after 9/11, wasn’t there?

DAVE Q: I think that was already starting to happen before 9/11, but yeah, the police at that time were definitely cracking down on the clubs, but 9/11 was such a huge hit to the economy that a lot of places just went under, and eventually most of the bigger places, with the good sound systems, just kind of disappeared, too.

There was also the real underground scene, that I loved, up to that point. I don’t know if you remember a thing called Soundlab… The Cooler on 14^th Street had really interesting stuff… and people like Badawi, DJ Wally, DJ Spooky… there was this whole kind of experimental music scene that was a bit of hip hop, a bit of jungle, a bit of dancehall, all kind of mixed up with some kind of avant garde stuff thrown in. It was really interesting, but for some reason it just all kind of died out around that time. What it was replaced by was just totally boring.

It’s interesting — a lot of those people, who were involved in the scene then, in the mid-90s, have started coming to Dub War, and some of them have started producing again, kind of realizing that there’s an audience again for music that’s more influenced by dub and soundsystem-oriented music, and it’ll be really interesting to see what they come up with.

Badawi is a great example of that. He’s someone who’s a really talented musician, a really interesting producer, who was doing this really deep, heavy music in the 90s, and when the scene in the city kind of changed, he started focusing more on traditional Middle Eastern music and also avant classical music. But since the dubstep scene has been building up, and he’s been coming to Dub War, he’s gotten back to doing — well, he’s basically producing dubstep now, and getting back closer to the dance floor. The stuff he’s been doing has been great.

DJ Olive has started doing dubstep. Loop, who was like — Olive and Loop were called WE.

FRANK151: Meat Beat Manifesto has been doing some dubstep now, too.

DAVE Q: Yeah, totally. Badawi and Juakali, the MC from Dub War, they opened for Meat Beat Manifesto when they played on their tour here [in New York], actually.

But it’s just like, in the last few years here, there’s been more music again that comes from that sort of soundsystem lineage. You know, a little bit deeper, a little bit heavier… more reggae influences, more experimental… It’s just become kind of an incubator for all of these sounds. It’s great. And it’s cool that a lot of these people are telling me that they’ve been coming to Dub War and they like what they’re hearing.

FRANK151: Yeah, that must be rewarding.

DAVE Q: Yeah.

FRANK151: So, what were your initial goals, or your early hurdles, when you were first starting up Dub War?

DAVE Q: Well, no one really knew about [dubstep] in the States yet, and I hadn’t been to any of the nights in London at that point, either. So, Dub War was my attempt to recreate what I imagined their parties are like, without having actually been to them.

But now that we’re at Love, I feel like we kind of have the space and the sound system and the whole setting for it that’s right — whereas, in the past, we made the most of whatever we had… Like when it was at Rothko or Sputnik, those were great spaces that were very raw, and the vibe was great, but there was always something slightly wrong, like maybe the sound wasn’t quite right. But at Love it’s amazing, the fun we have. With the dark room, the huge sound system — no frills. It’s really cool.

FRANK151: Right on. And now, this Friday, you’ll be at Love again, celebrating Dub War’s 3^rd Anniversary.

DAVE Q: That’s right.

FRANK151: So, tell me — three years in, has it changed? Is it easier or harder to put Dub War together now?

DAVE Q: It’s still a lot of work, but it’s less terrifying than it used to be. I mean, I used to be really frightened, every single time.

FRANK151: What were you frightened of?

DAVE Q: I was just terrified that no one would show up, that there would be problems with the venue, that there would be problems with the sound, that the DJs wouldn’t get into the country…

One thing I can say now is that it’s gotten to the point where I’m confident that there will be an audience, who will show up and who knows about it. The venue is great, so I’m much less worried about problems with the sound, that sort of thing. The main challenge now is just, month in and month out, keeping the music interesting, keeping the crowd interested, and keeping myself interested. I mean, that’s a big thing, really. When it starts to really become a routine, you have to challenge yourself — you have to surprise yourself sometimes.

But, so far, I think it’s been good and I think we’ve continued to be able to do that. I think Juakali and Joe also both bring something different to the dynamic of it, so collectively things are working really well.

FRANK151: And you guys are doing one of the free River To River concerts this year, too, right?

DAVE Q: Ben Neill, who used to produce trip-hop in the 90s, has been making some dubstep lately. He’s also really well respected in the avant jazz scene, and he books one of the stages at that festival, and he was interested in having Kode9 come top play, and decided to basically do a dubstep showcase on one of the stages. Since Dub War was such a fixture of the dubstep scene in New York, he asked if we would support Kode9 and put together this whole dubstep bill, and that’s kind of how it came together.

I’m excited about it, because I really like to play the music for people who have never heard it before, or who you wouldn’t really expect to be into it. Because, more often than not, people like it. It’s so diverse and interesting and mysterious — people who you might not think would be into drum & bass, but if people like reggae, if people like hip hop, if people like experimental music of one form or another, you know — they can find something in dubstep that they can respond to.

And playing in the World Financial Center, which is a big glass building, for families and small children — it’s fun. It’ll be exciting. You never know how people are gonna respond to it.

FRANK151: Will you guys be presenting more accessible tracks — or different types of tracks than you normally play — for that audience?

DAVE Q: In general, no. Myself and Joe, we always bring records of all different styles, you know? Some more mellow, some more aggressive, and play what we feel like playing based on the particular mood of the night. So, I think it’ll be no different with this. Maybe it will be a little mellower than your average Dub War set, but I think that the tunes we play will be the tunes that we’d have at the average Dub War night anyway.

In general, almost everyone loves reggae, and so in situations where people have no frame of reference — they do not know dubstep at all — if you can hook them with some reggae references, then from there they might be a little more attentive to where you take them, you know?

FRANK151: Like the opening to your podcast.

DAVE Q: Exactly.

[Ed. Note — the Dub War podcast can be found on iTunes, or right here. The edition of the podcast we’re referring to here is the very first, with Dave Q on the decks.]

FRANK151: Speaking of which, why have you slowed down in producing those?

DAVE Q: We actually have 3 being worked at simulatenously right now, it’s just been slow getting them finished. I have the next one, actually, it’s done. It’s by an artist from New York called Overcast Radio. That should be up by the end of this week, or early next week maybe.

But also, the idea of the podcast is to not do a set that you would do in a club or on the radio, and not think of it as a live performance, but think of it as a 45 minute long piece of music that you think of as a whole, and work on like it’s an album or a release. And so, demanding that standard means it’s not something you can just bang out in a few hours. It’s something you have to put some real time and thought into, and it’s a lot to ask of people, so it just takes longer.

I’m kind of okay with the haphazard nature of the podcast, because, every time one comes out, I feel really good about the fact that these are mixes people will return to over and over. If there’s not a release coming out every few weeks, it’s okay, because when there’s one coming out every few months, people are really happy to get it.

The podcast has been a really fun project, because no one else in dubstep is really doing that sort of thing. There are lots of podcasts, but they tend to be recordings of radio shows, or one-off DJ mixes. But we also encourage the DJs to experiment with technology in different ways, so they don’t think of it like, “OK — you have to do an hour long mix on two turntables.” We’re like, “If you wanna use Ableton, do that; if you wanna do some edits, do that; if you wanna use effects, do that. Use the technology art your disposal, but in ways that you don’t have the luxury to when you’re in a live situation.” And I don’t think there’s anyone else out there who’s been doing that yet in the dubstep scene.

I’m really excited about the next one coming out. It’s all his own productions, he’s from New York, and he’s really got his own sound. That’s really important to me, because it’s really tempting sometimes to just try to imitate what you hear the London producers do. But it’s important for people from the States to try to develop a sound that’s more natural for them.

FRANK151: It’s certainly common, in these globalized days, thanks to the internet, for the individuality of a local scene to disappear… because cross-fertilization is just so easy.

DAVE Q: Yeah.

FRANK151: Will we be seeing a Dub War record label in the future?

DAVE Q: I started a label a couple years ago, but I wasn’t happy with the distribution, and generally felt like I didn’t want to rush into it, so I put the plan on hold for the time being. I’m sorta channeling that energy into doing the podcast instead.

FRANK151: So let’s talk about Friday for just a second. You’re headlining two amazing artists, Chef from RinseFM, and Skream, arguably London’s top dubstep producer — certainly the scene’s most prolific. Having Skream come back is sort of bringing you full circle — wasn’t the last time he was here playing Dub War, was two years ago, at your first anniversary?

DAVE Q: Yeah, that’s right, that was 2 years ago. Skream was actually so young then [Ed. Note — he was 20] that we had to keep slipping him beers all night, you know? It was ridiculous. We practically had to slip him in the door.

But we wanted to have Skream back because we love him, and he was long overdue to return to Dub War. He’s the biggest artist in the scene, so it seemed fitting to go extra big for the birthday bash. And he’s done so much in the two years since he was last here, we can’t wait to hear how he’s evolved.

FRANK151: No doubt — if his new work is any indication, it should be crazy. See you there….

TICKETS TO DUB WAR’S THIRD ANNIVERSARY ARE ALMOST SOLD OUT, BUT YOU CAN GO TO THEIR SITE AND PICK SOME UP STILL BY CLICKING HERE..

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And check this footage of Skream at the 1st Dub War Birthday Bash … It’s merkage!

Big up Ashes57 !!

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 10:31 am and is filed under Music, Events, Interview, UK. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.