It was a Friday afternoon and I was sitting in our local Caribbean take away (Cool Breeze) with Hylu. He’d just got back after spending a month out in India and Zambia. It was also great news to hear that Suns Of Dub were on their way around with Jamie Rodigan for a link up and studio session. No sooner than ‘Hylu’ had let me know that they were coming through, Jamie walked in the door with Ras Jammy and ‘Jah Bami’ just behind him. A bit more food and a short drive later and Bami was already in the booth laying down a vocal for the Ghost Writerz. I really enjoyed meeting them both, so I decided to run a quick interview.
Suns Of Dub – In Their Own Words
JAGO: Is there a mission statement behind the music you make or a message that you carry?
RAS JAMMY: Well, there’s no mission statement per say, but the message is Rastafari, positivity, good vibes and positive feeling. Do good and live right, you know…
JAH BAMI: So I guess that it’s just a everyday living. It’s not a persona that can be put on and then you take off when you get home, you know. The message is in the way that we live and the message we bring forth. Rastafari is a way of living, so that would be the message.
JAGO: How did you meet each other and come together to form ‘Suns Of Dub’?
JAH BAMI: Well I had known Jammy from Trinidad cos were both Trinidadians. I’m much older than Jammy and Addis. With Jammy I was someone who’d gone through the industry from before, so I was there giving them ideas about how the industry is really built. So, he took what he knew naturally, went to Jamaica and before I knew it he had linked with Addis which was kind of amazing. Through Jammy I met Addis almost six years ago.
RAS JAMMY: From there works, works, works, works. It wasn’t till 2013 that we linked up on the road though, Amsterdam and all that.
JAH BAMI: Yeah, I was on a tour in Finland and happened to be there the same time they were in Europe. So we decided to link up in Amsterdam.
JAGO: Being in the right place at the right time yeah?
RAS JAMMY: Yeah, we haven’t been separated since then. We’ve been on the road for three, almost four years now.
JAGO: The album that you recently dropped, where was that built?
JAH BAMI: That was produced partly in New Jersey.
RAS JAMMY: The composition was done in Jersey with Dub Assassins band, Tim P Dub. Vocals were done in Jamaica and lot of the mixing was done on the road and then back in Jamaica you know.
JAGO: So just wherever you were you’d keep building it, that’s the way man. What do you think of the current Jamaican Reggae scene and how does it differ to the scene here in the UK and Europe?
JAH BAMI: Well we travel a lot in the Caribbean. I would say that in the UK it’s a lot more absorbed and you can like the raw authentic vibes that some parts of the Caribbean miss. It’s good to see that the people from outside accept it so much that it can have the people in the Caribbean create more just to feed the demand and the request for the music. The Caribbean is much more controlled by the media, they feed the people what they think they wanna hear. So sometimes they bypass their natural roots and the culture that they themselves were raised on. It’s like the UK have a wider grasp of the music that comes from the Caribbean than the Caribbean actually understand what it is. If that makes sense you know.
RAS JAMMY: We’ve got a lot of young talent coming from all over the Caribbean right now, that the people are really appreciating. We’re trying to create our own little events and festivals in the Caribbean so that we can invite everyone else from Europe and the U.S to come. So, that’s what we’re on right now.
JAGO: In the UK there is a definitive connection between Reggae, Dancehall, Hip Hop and Jungle. What do people make of Jungle over in the Caribbean, how is that viewed?
JAH BAMI: You’d be surprised how musically advance people are over there due to the Internet and technology. It’s easy to find what genre you want to be involved with, so there’s nothing alien to anyone to hear Jungle or Dubstep and whatever. We’ve been listening to Jungle for at least ten years now.
JAGO: You’re playing all over the UK, U.S and Europe on the regular. Which cites do you enjoy the most?
RAS JAMMY: Well it’s difficult to say really, but every time we play UNOD there’s always a good vibe. Every time we play in Germany it’s always a good vibe you know. The other day we visited Czech and it’s just such a nice place you know. So, it differs and it just depends on the crowd and the people. We’re gonna play in Barcelona next and it’s gonna be 100% Rockers set and the next one will be a completely different set. Switch it up, different vibes carry different swing.
JAGO: What plans do you have for the future?
RAS JAMMY: This year probably not as many shows but a lot more releases. A lot more work behind the scenes in terms of getting the music out there. Releasing new music, creating new music, new mix tape projects, new LP projects, new EP projects. Working with a lot of artists and collaborations you know. We’re gonna be releasing stuff from artists that our under the ‘Suns Of Dub’ camp you know. So, you’ll be seeing releases from ‘Jah Bami’, ‘Roots By Nature’ and lots of others. So works are in the making.