Interview Of Hopeton Brown (Scientist) by Mike Pawka Begun 11/17/98 Hopeton Overton Brown, Jamaica, West Indies Scientist burst onto the reggae scene in the early 80s with a reckless mixing style that seemed to outdo even King Tubby's wildest extravaganzas He began his career as an engineer at King Tubby's Studio. Shortly afterwards he became a protege of King Tubby, and swiftly gained a reputation with his fresh mixing style In 1980 the UK-based record company Greensleeves began to release the productions of top Jamaican producer Henry 'Junjo' Lawes Lawes, finding success with new singing sensation Barrington Levy, used Tubby's studio for his voicing and final mix-downs and offered Greensleeves a couple of dub albums mixed by Tubby's sensational young engineer The Scientist v Prince Jammy (1980), mostly consisting of dub mixes of Barrington Levy tracks, was presented as a 'Big Showdown' between the two dubmasters. The combination of heavyweight Roots Radics rhythms pitted against one another. Greensleeves followed this with an album proclaiming The Scientist to be the Heavyweight Dub Champion, a similar brew of Roots Radics/Barrington Levy rhythms Dub albums mixed by The Scientist soon began to appear with bewildering regularity from various sources Greensleeves, in particular, continued to issue album after album. MP: How did you get started in electronics? HB: Mike I got started at the age of fourteen experimenting with old electronic parts I got from my father MP: Was Electronics your father's occupation? HB: yes it was his full time job MP: How did you get started in the music business? HB: In the 80's I started building sound system audio amplifiers. I would then test the amplifier with the test instruments to determine how the amplifier was performing. Everything would look normal, but when I played reggae music through the amplifier, it would over heat. The plates of the KT88 would run red, especially when I played a mix from the great King Tubby's that had subsonic drum and bass frequencies as well as razor sharp high frequencies. I would have to re bais the KT88 and make other changes in order to accommodate reggae's wide frequency response and high slew rate needs. I noticed when I played other types of music the amplifier would respond normal; I found that to be strange. So I used King Tubby's mixes as a platform to ensure that the amplifiers would not break down under extreme conditions. I was fascinated by his exclusive style of mixing and unique sound effects. It was the "Roots of Dub " dub album produced by Bunny Lee that became my favorite test album and also inspired me to want to meet him. One day, I was repairing a television for a friend who had worked for King Tubbys. we needed a transformer and King Tubby's was the only place who had those particular types of transformers. I was so excited to meet this brilliant man and considered myself very lucky to have had this opportunity. After that, it became a regular place for me to buy special made power and output transformers for the amplifiers I was building. King Tubby s became impressed with my electronic skills and abilities at such a young age. I told him I wanted to build a console and at that time it was like a real joke to him. We joked about making mixing consoles with moving faders and automation. He made a joke to Bunny Lee and said, "Damn, this little boy must be a Scientist". Twenty years later It became a realty in Neve's moving faders and SSL automation with total recall. After coming to the studio frequently, I started doing odd and end jobs for Tubby. Jammies, who was the regular engineer, didn't show up for a session that day. Barenton Levey and producer Henry Junjo Laws became very frustrated after waiting a very long time for they're recording session. I told Tubbys I could do the session and he laughed and carried on and said " It took Other engineers a long time before I could leave them in there by themselves to even over dub vocals, how in the world a little kid like you, think you could go mix somebody's record". Everybody started cracking up. He made me a bet that I could not even turn on the power. Using my electronic experience and being exposed to the musical surroundings, I mixed my first song, "On my way to Marvaley" by Barrington Levy which went number one, and stayed on the charts for few weeks. How does reggae music help the electronic industry? Back in the late seventies a lot of radio stations record-mastering plants was scared to play reggae on their equipment because transmitter would over modulate and record cutting machine would go into protection mode to prevent the high frequencies from burning up the cutting heads. Spider man at Dynamics Studio in Jamaica would have to use extra helium to keep the cutting heads cool. Reggae is like the Indy 500 racing driver to audio equipment whenever an audio system can handle reggae's wide frequency response and high slew rate you know you have a good system. Reggae music pushes audio equipment to the extreme. Back in England and Europe companies like Tanoy, SSL, Neve, Goodman, Studar and all the major brands dominate our recording industry in the US. They have bin using reggae to final test audio equipment long before us in the USA. A few company in the USA like AST audio in New York uses reggae to show off Crown's superior performance Crown is one of the best amplifier in the world made in USA when ever I use a Crown amplifier I don't have to worry about overheating or the amplifier clipping they can handle allot of abuse. MP: What are the functions of a recording engineer? HB: The function of a recording engineer is to record artists and musicians onto a multi-track tape with a recording console. The engineer is responsible for set-up of all necessary equipment needed to perform and produce the best recording and sound quality possible for each individual task. Sometimes, less experienced groups relie upon the experience of the engineer to give them musical guidance. MP: Who were your early musical influences? HB: Baga walker Pablo Brack Freddy Mcgregor at studio one MP: Tell us about your first major sessions HB: My first major session at Channel One was intense, Working at Channel One is like working at a live concert I was on my own with only the experience from Studio one days doing overdubs, I applied some of the technique to the sessions at Channel One Studio MP: What were some of your memorable sessions at Channel One? HB: Working with Oswards, Earl China Smith and the High Time Players they are so good to work with they are low profile no egos people. MP: Tell us about working out of different studios for different producers. HB: Working out of different studios some times is very challenging some times they don't meet the requirements and I have to use what is available especially when they are out of town,the producers depend heavily on me to solve problems and it becomes another day of the unexpected. MP: What about the 1980 elections effect on the Jamaican Reggae Scene? HB: Elections in the 80's confirmed that politician are only out for them selves, it had influence musician to use the weapon of music to remind the world that they are people who live in the best homes drive nice cars act like they are God's perfect children never had another woman other than there wives pretend to be so holly defend there constitution and continue to use weapon of mass distruction to rool and disrespect mother earth. MP: Did this have any lasting change or effect on reggae music? HB: Yes it resulted in a lot of anti cultural music that had demoralized some of the people. MP: Are you saying that this still effects the music today? HB: Yes MP: How about working at Tuff Gong? HB: Working at Tuff Gong was very enjoyable. Rita Marley, Errol Brown and the rest of the staff was very professional and organized. Bob Marley's and his empire was not about exploiting the music like other studios. It was a place where musicians felt at home and didn't have to worry about the gangster runnings. I wish Bob Marley was around to enjoy what he had started. MP: Tell us about your other work thru the 80's HB: Working in the 80's was a good time, it was the time of analog recording live music and high end audio equipment I am glad that I was a part of the 80's music it gave me the opportunity to work with some of the best musician and recording equipment. MP: That's good to hear. What would be in your mind some of your best Dub Singles? HB: Rid the world of the vampires. I hope one day this could really happen. MP: How about best dub albums? HB: My favorite is "Rids The World Of The Evil Curse Of The Vampires" it shows Reggae in action chasing them crazy ball dead out of town. MP: What is The Scientist doing now? HB: I have been working out on the west coast doing live and studio gigs MP: Can you give us details? HB: Reggae angels Andrew Tosh, Bob Marley festival Long beach and Santiago Mikey Dread Chico State University and more. MP: Did you work the mixing board at Long Beach? HB: Yes I did on both shows MP: What are your plans for the future? HB: I rather not say right now. MP: I understand. Thanks very much for taking the time for this Mr. Brown Completed 05/24/99 Mike Pawka Nice Up Enterprises Jammin Reggae Archives http://niceup.com