‘We’re spreading our wings’
ROB FIDDAMAN TALKS TO GREG ROBERTS ABOUT SOME EXCITING NEW MUSIC PROJECTS THAT ARE ENABLING DREADZONE TO BRING IN ‘DIFFERENT PEOPLE’
AMID their UK tour - which includes a Sugarmill date on November 27 electronic and dub masters Dreadzone very kindly lent me Greg Roberts for a chat to fill me in on what is happening with the band and his goodself. Formed in London almost 30 years ago, Dreadzone came about when Big Audio Dynamite’s drummer, Greg, and bassist, Leo Williams left to form Screaming Target before forming Dreadzone.
Alan Mcgee signed them to Creation, they left before Oasis became big, went onto Virgin’s label for a stint and are now working on their ninth album. They have got a compilation series and their own label Dubwiser which releases Dreadzone music.
Greg said: “A couple of years ago we did Dumbwiser Volume 1 which is like different artists and different collaborations, people from the wider Dreadzone family, including Professor Skank, Louchie Lou & Michie One who play drum and bass for Dreadzone and a new act called Sub Mantra, which is me and my son. So, we’re diversifying and spreading out.” Through lockdown rather than work on the new Dreadzone album as the guys were not able to tour with it, Greg decided they should do Dubwiser Volume 2.
“We’ve been collaborating on the Dubwiser 2 with a young lady called Emily Capelle who is represented by the same agency and management as us which is DMF. I’ve known Emily for a while and we started working together over lockdown. We did a track called Flamingo which is about model and icon Christine Keeler and the Flamingo Club during the 60s. I then went on to remix one of Emily’s tracks before doing a track together called Dread Town, which we’ve played live a couple of times. Emily came and guested with us on Beautiful Day. So yeah, that’s one way of expanding what we’re doing with Dreadzone. So Dubwiser 1 & 2 has given us a good reason to just spread our wings and bring in different people. And, it’s very exciting.”
Greg has also been doing a Facebook live show, something he started back in February 2017 as a fortnightly session on a Thursday night where people would tune in and have a chat and Greg would play some music.
During lockdown Greg extended this to a two-hour weekly show attracting a gathering of regulars to whom he played Dreadzone, Dubwise plus other music.
“I’m Djing for the [live] shows as well. People come up to me, saying how much I helped them out over lockdown by having something like a community of people tuning in. “The live session is on Dreadzone’s Facebook so you can tune in any Thursday. A lot of people send me stuff, breakbeats, the kind of Dreadzone type music.
“And then I was doing one on a Sunday as well, which was a more chilled out session, but it’s increasingly hard to keep these up every week. However, it’s been a great way to communicate with people, and it’s very inspirational for me to put something together, put a set together and then play it for people. It gave me a focus through lockdown as well.”
‘There’s a great spirit in our shows. And it’s great to be back out on the road after an 18-month break’