Planet Notion - Dub Pistols

Suited, two-tone booted, and fuelled by Jack and Marlboros, Dub Pistols duo Barry Ashworth and Jason O’Bryan are being surprisingly compliant for Notion’s photographer. Despite warnings from their agent that early morning

press sessions aren’t their thing, Barry relaxes in a leather throne, contentedly surveying these suitably stylish surroundings through tortishell shades, while Jason revisits the bar. Touted, amongst other things, as ‘intergalactic hip hop,’ the Dub Pistols’ new LP ‘Speakers And Tweeters’ enlists the MC majesty of Rodney P – he’s running late – while also spanning ska, punk, reggae, techno and indie. What’s more, legendary Specials’ frontman Terry Hall offered up ‘Gangsters’ for a DP revamping, while lending his distinctive vocal style to no less than four tunes on this accomplished and lively album.

Once the shoot is through, Rodney wrestles back into his civilian gear while Barry jokes that with his suit being a tad tight, the MC ‘didn’t want to come sit next to you and squeak!’ ‘Yeah,’ Rodney affirms, ‘I’d lose cool points for that!’ If ‘cool points’ can be racked up for the number of cult references and covers a crew can cram into a record, then these guys are comfortably on the rocks. Thick and fast banter continues as the trio get comfy – it’s clear that some of this boisterous energy has been bottled by ‘Speakers And Tweeters,’ with its upfront attitude and party-brewing beats. Another round arrives and it’s time to get to business.

LET’S START WITH THE RISE OF DUB STEP. HAVE YOU BEEN PAYING ATTENTION?

BARRY: Those guys are so worried about protecting their music that they won’t even release records! They take taxis too, so that they don’t have to pass each other’s territory... RODNEY: I go to Forward at Plastic People, it’s a local thing, real stomping music, but I wouldn’t play it in my house! Maybe if I was pissed off, under a red light in the corner...

HOW ABOUT GRIME AS A SCENE?

RODNEY: I like the energy, I’m a bit too old for it, though. If I was 19 I’d be the big man on the grime scene, I’d be the fucking man!

HOW MUCH WEIGHT DOES THE ‘DUB’ ACTUALLY CARRY WITH THE DUB PISTOLS?

JASON: We use loads of dub, it’s definitely at the core... BARRY: The ‘pistols’ bit is important too – that’s for our punk attitude! RODNEY: With the dub, it’s not just old reggae, it’s making it a bassline and doing something different with it.

WHY ‘SPEAKERS AND TWEETERS’? BARRY: You know what that was? After 2 years of making and thinking about an album, getting to the last week, sat in the pub, and not having a title and then... RODNEY: Eureka! JASON: It’s one of the edgiest tracks on the record, a paranoid affair!

IT’S PERFECTLY TIMED TO BE A SUMMER SOUNDTRACK...

BARRY: I think with reggae and dub, people naturally think of summer...And so from ‘Peaches,’ to breasts, to Rodney! He wrote that lyric in an hour. RODNEY: You gotta get in where you fit in, know what I mean? And yeah, we don’t function well in the cold and the dark... BARRY: Everything sounds better in the summer, looks better in the summer. I get away for winter, have Christmas on the beach... RODNEY: Bah humbug! I hear that... BARRY: We’re not for dull winter people, but an English fucking load of people, standing in a festival field, that’s my definition of a good time! England is the only place where complete mayhem rules, I love it!

I’M SURE YOU’LL BE LIVING IT UP IN STYLE! SO ARE YOU ALL SINGLE?

BARRY: (reluctantly) No, we’re not single... RODNEY: Well, come back to me on that one!

BACK TO THE LP, WHAT A MASSIVE HONOUR WORKING WITH TERRY HALL...

JASON: He’s the godfather of the scene, we grew up with him. It’s been six years now since we’ve been able to work with him, to have him endorsing what we do is just amazing. Terry is a big influence on what we do... BARRY: And then to have him in your frontroom - which is where we mostly recorded the album – he sings you down effortlessly, that voice! He’s one of those guys that gets cooler with age, everyone adores him. RODNEY: That Specials album was when I was at primary school, I went wearing a pork pie hat because of him! And now, working with him, I try to hide it but I’m like a little kid, I’m like this is a blessing, this is fucking unbelievable!

DO YOU RECKON THAT ‘GANGSTERS’ HAS EVEN MORE RELEVANCE TODAY?

BARRY: Oh, definitely. Terry actually suggested we have it on the album as a Specials tune to do live. I was worried, like is this a bit too fucking close to the bone here, but Rob Da Bank said we had to use it. JASON: You wouldn’t think it but the original actually didn’t have horns on it, we brought it up to date but added a more conventional ska vibe...

ANY OTHER TUNES YOU’D LIKE TO FLAG UP FROM ‘SPEAKERS AND TWEETERS’?

RODNEY: It’s about ‘Peaches’ for me. I probably wouldn’t have written a tune like that for myself, but after working with these guys, my new album is going to be a little different. Tits and arse, always a good subject! But I didn’t want to take it too far from the original, to keep that like Benny Hill, tongue in- cheek vibe. BARRY: Terry does the choruses on that tune, too. But I love all of the tunes of the album; the problem was leaving stuff off! And from Blade (‘Speed Of Light’) to Rodney, all of the lyrics are really thoughtful. RODNEY: Yup, there’s no ‘shoot you up,’ no mass murdering, no platinum chains, no dogs on housing estates – an ‘acoustic’ kind of hip hop! JASON: We nearly had to take the Blondie cover (‘Rapture’) off at the last minute, but thankfully it got sorted. We added an Arabian sounding melody and made it 25 bpm

faster, then Terry agreed to sing it in the pub, he ran with it! Another good thing was adding an English brass band to a hip hop track, and using the melodica, harmonica, double bass, whatever we fancied.

HAVE YOU ANTICIPATED A NEW GENERATION OF LISTENERS ENJOYING YOUR STYLE?

RODNEY: You’ve got to give the kids credit for knowing their shit these days. JASON: I’ve got an 11-year-old who is really into two tone, it’s just the way he’s gone. He came on to do ‘Gangsters’ with Terry Hall at last year’s V Festival.

Imagine that! BARRY: We came out with this underground breaks thing and were everybody’s darling, then it was like we were the sound of Norman (Cook)’s jock strap! Now we’re just doing what we like and if the kids like it, that’s great.

HOW DID YOU ARRIVE AT SUNDAY BEST AS THE LABEL TO BE WITH NOW?

JASON: Everyone there is passionate about music. BARRY: We had offers that were better financially, but especially with Bestival and how open to all music it is, this was right for us. I actually jumped in Rob (Da Bank)’s car on the way back from their ‘Judge A Band,’ competition, and made him listen to the album all the way home!

‘SPEAKERS AND TWEETERS’ IS OUT NOW (SUNDAY BEST)