Hello Neil, looking back at Ariwa’s story can make a lot of music producers look unproductive. How did it start for you, a young boy who left Guyana at 13 years old to join his dad in England?
I always had a huge interest in electronics and in music. I was curious about how technical things worked: about the radio; the light bulbs. I quickly taught myself about resonance and diagram. I then made a guitar for myself, teaching myself the keys and tunes. When I left school in England I got myself jobs fixing things: radios, techs, mixing decks, etc. That’s where I discovered the proper standards of this kind of work. At 21 I decided to build my own studio and started to get musicians to record their music on Sundays. It took off. I worked there on top of my daytime job. Then, I got sacked…
ArrayWhen did music production become professional for you?
Around 1979/1980. I realised most emerging black artists had no proper studio to record reggae and other music genres of their own, so they quickly found me. The first proper record I did at Ariwa was with a young boy called Sgt Pepper, called ‘Come Back Again’, a lover’s, rock-ish tune. I had met him after a gig in Brixton at a party in Stockwell; he was only 14 years old but he started singing in the taxi on our way back and his voice was so interesting that the following Monday he was in my studio!
Then in 1982 I released my first Dub Me Crazy album that the DJ John Peel really loved and played on BBC Radio 1. I later did a session with him in Maida Vale. The session was recorded and became my Dub Me Crazy II album. This one sold 100,000 copies and entered the chart.
Which artists defined the sound of Ariwa Studio?
Our first major success occurred in 1985 with Sandra Cross’s ‘Country Living’ single, then her album Country Life. From 1982, I worked with Lee Scratch Perry. We had our ups and downs but worked a lot together, same with Horace Andy. We recorded ‘Life in the Ghetto’ in the early 1990s. Then came Tippa Irie, Vivian Jones, Mikey Dread, Johnny Clarke. My own music was mainly reggae and dub, Caribbean music. But for the studio work, I recorded any type of music: punk, rock, and a lot of other stuff.
I worked with white and Indian people, but Ariwa was modelled on Tamla Motown Records in a way. I was examining records from Britain and the USA and how they were made. Motown had a particular identity. Jamaica had this thing, everyone in the Caribbean would go there to record, even the Trinidadians like Mikey Sparrow. I wanted to do something for Caribbean artists here in the UK.
ArrayYou’re also known to be the dub remixer master. Most of the artists you worked for, from Sade to Massive Attack, did they come to you?
Most of them, yes. Sometimes I never even met them. For Sade, I remixed ‘Love Is Stronger Than Pride’. She called me to say how much she liked it. Then in 1994 Massive Attack’s management approached me to remix their tack ‘Sly’, the first extract from the second album, Protection. This quickly evolved into mixing a second tack, a third, and then we decided to remix the whole album.
That album, No Protection, has since been the most successful dub mix album of all time, if I’m correct?
Yeah, it sold a million copies! And suddenly I received calls from all over the word, Japan, New York. I also Nicolette, their vocalist on ‘Sly’, and toured with her, etc.
Massive Attack finally recently released the dub version of Mezzanine, but that one was produced more than 20 years ago, wasn’t it?
It was! No one really knows why it took so long t come out!
What’s your next project?
I’ve produced an album as a tribute to Aretha Franklin. I’m also DJ-ing a lot; I tour the world not with vinyl but with my own technique and master tapes. Then of course we’ll have a big party for Ariwa’s 40th, in March in South London!
Mad Professor will be in London at All Points East on 24 May 2020 in Victoria Park with Massive Attack and Neneh Cherry.
