interview: julian

Recently Urban Dub have hooked up with the long time dubster Fairshare Unity to produce the ultimate Live Dub Meets Sound System Show. The show features the vocals of Julian Fairshare, the live jazzy saxophone of Marjorie Urban Dub and the live effects mastery of Roop Urban Dub. Our good friend Louise went along to interview Fairshare Unity (otherwise known as Julian).

Julian: Yeah, I was playing in Italy recently and they did a video of it. I've got it down stairs if you wanna watch it. Then Foundation in Norwich sent me a cassette copy of a dance we did there. The last part of the dance was booming. If the roof could have went off, I'm telling you it would have went off!

Louise: What's so good about the Fairshare Unity Sound Featuring Urban Dub Show?
Julian: According to my taste, Urban Dub have produced some good music. This was before we decided to fuse our forces together. They've got a great style and a style that suits Fairshare Unity. Fairshare Unity has a good knack for picking out good music and having a good crowd response. We guarantee you a great performance. If we're on the bill for a show, our project will play with any other types of group who play different types of music! That's what we call "Cross-Over". Urban Dub Fairshare Unity music and performance. We take it to whatever horizon it will take us to and we're confident in ourselves that we will create a great vibe for the audience. The name Fairshare Unity is about equal rights and justice for everyone. The Sound System feels that it has a projection to bring that to everybody. If there's a war, Reggae Music can be the mediator for peace. It can be a remedy. Fairshare Unity Sound System entails playing music like that where-ever. It's an international project. We've got a tour in France with Alpha and Omega. In 1985 we went to Holland, France and Germany. Then later we went back to Germany again and in to the Eastern Block. We went to Lithuania and Poland. Then we came back to London. We got a booking once in Arnhem. In 1991 we played in Niagara in Canada, then we went to New York to a place called Water Street. The gig was in a big house in one room. We went out to buy the turn-tables. There were two big stacks and we connected them up and made a show of it. All sorts of people turned up. I don't know if you've heard of Doctor Israel, Leo Tribal, Rocker T and Vivian Goldman who wrote the book about Bob Marley. They all turned up and it was a good night.

Louise: What equipment do you use on the Sound System?
Julian: Fairshare Unity in itself has it's own backbone. It's quite independent regarding its own speakers, pre-amp, amplifiers, wires. The main part of the tools is the music and the vibes. We use certain effects as well. The good thing about Urban Dub and Faishare Unity is that we're good at what we do. There is space and time where we can all individually do solo performances. The people can enjoy what Urban Dub and Fairshare Unity is about. From my explorations, I've been to different gigs. I've been to big concerts. I've been to contemporary digital styles of live acts. I've seen most of them and what you find is one starts it and then they all do it. They all jump on the band-wagon. But we're the trend setters because we're coming with something different.

Louise: So what is this different thing that you are coming with?
Julian: Right, we got Urban Dub performing with a mixing board. They got a unique way of mixing down. You can get the effects that people are familiar with from Urban Dub featuring their talented saxophonist Marj. She plays in a gifted way so that's quite exciting. But mainly the difference is that, yeah, we've seen a sound system on stage before. We've seen Zion Train and Iration Steppas bringing a mixing board. Yes, we've seen that before. We've seen live instruments played through a sound system before. But what I haven't seen, and I haven't seen any of the dub circuit do this anywhere, is bringing the mixing board, live instruments and the actual TOWER, what we call it. In sound system talk we call it the actual Tower. It's a pre-amplifier and the effects. Fusing that with the mixing board and the live instruments. Now THAT is slightly different. We've seen King Tubby's with a reel to reel before, and the Mad Professor. We've seen DAT machines and Mini-Discs, but what Fairshare Unity Sound System and Urban Dub do is slightly different. What we've got now is quite new. People in the sound system crowd say that reggae and dub music needs to be more developed, more professional. It needs more people to get involved to get people to realize that sound system is not about HUM. You get people complaining that there not enough people that follow sound system. It should be greater than that because of what sound system is about. That's where Urban Dub Fairshare Unity come in and say, fair enough, why not bring sound system to the stage crowd - get it to the people who love concerts. Let's take the sound system and let's display a performance that one would do at an underground world event, but perform it on stage. THAT is what's different. You wouldn't go to an underground sound and witness a mixing board. No, you wouldn't because the traditional way is not using the mixing board. You would use a thing called a pre-amp. THAT is what I'm using. I'm using the old traditional formula and applying it on stage to demonstrate to concert people, rockers, ravers, punks and everybody the flavours of the underground. THAT is a different concept. We're bringing the concept out of the dub circuit and into the rock circuit. Another thing as well in addition to what we have discussed - what you find is other groups who has a sound system who plays live, if they play live they do certain mixes exactly like the record. This is not what we're doing. We're doing it THROUGH the sound system. We're gonna do everything different. I will explain how the Fairshare Unity Sound System operates. Urban Dub will be doing exclusively live mixes. I usually make an introduction and the audience tune in to Urban Dub. Marjorie does her performance and I have control of the pre-amp with certain effects exactly what you would hear in a sound system field. Boof the bass up exactly what you would get in an underground sound, you would hear it on stage! Which group anywhere performs like that? It's a brand new concept.

Louise: What exactly is a pre-amp?
Julian: A pre-amp is where you would connect all your equipment. That's what delivers the sounds. But, sorry, let me carry on explaining this concept to you. When I spoke with Urban Dub about Fairshare Unity becoming involved with Urban Dub, I thought it was a great move, you know. I thought yeah it's different. I'm the type of person that likes to move on, you know. I like changes. The creativity of different styles. I've got a lot to say about sound system - heaps - I could spend a whole day talking about just that alone. Sound system is not about trouble, it's about performance. Sound system is one of the best channels for people to express themselves. Sound system is one of the greatest methods enabling people to be themselves. So for those purposes I believe that sound system should be taken in to different areas. Skateboarders, people who listen to garage - they should have the opportunity to hear us. What you find is that the live group is just one line, then you've got another line within those lines because of what you can do with the sound system. We wanna find a way to get the interest of people who aren't familiar with the sound system scene. Sound system already has its foundation, you know. You go to Notting Hill Carnival. That's a prime example. It's been said that over the years, if it wasn't for sound system, it wouldn't bring the masses of people to the festival. Even though some people claim that the carnival isn't about sound system, the irony of it is that if it wasn't for sound system people wouldn't turn up. Not in that abundance, no way. So the sound system has got too much to offer and has been underestimated for the amount that it offers. There's too much of a bad rap for sound system and they don't deserve it. It's done me well and many others. Everyone's got feelings, we've all got art and we've all got tone. If a sound system can help people to express themselves, why put a downer on the sound system. That's totally wrong. When I'm passed and gone sound system will still be here. Music will still be here.

Louise: So you could say that Fairshare Unity Sound Featuring Urban Dub is a new concept?
Julian: We were the ones that started this, it's ours and that shall be respected. It's like Shaka. Shaka has a style. He saw everybody else with their style. But he said, right, I wanna come with something different. BOOF. When we do a certain style and people are familiar with that style, you associate those moves with Shaka. That's the way it goes. It's like Coxan. The great thing about Sir Coxan Sound was their technology. They were well in advance more than the other sound system and musically as well. When it comes to the dub scene, they were the first to start it.