Q: I assume you participated in many of his mixing sessions, how did that go about? A: What Scratch did, most time when we´re recording the track, it was mixing at the same time. Most of the tracks them recorded, it's mixed right then and there at that time. Because he´s pushing up all the EQ´s and reverb and...That was his trick, to do a direct mix for the tracks. He didn´t have to mix it again beca´ when recorded.. y´know, when pickin´ the track.. it was mixed. Sometimes he´s mixin´ the guitar with EQ or some delay or something. Sometime the drums even EQ´d, like ´Babylon A Fall´ an´ those tracks? But the reason he could do that was a small board, a four-track, and everything was right in front of him. Everything was four likkle t´ing, an´ he say "do that, do that"! And sometime a guy is over here doing "somet´ing like dat", and another guy there doing somet´ing, and that's what it is! And if we´re playing a likkle tape, sometime loping a likkle two-track tape, and might be playing with some percussion on it loping right through the track on very low volume - t´ ing like dat. But hear me now talking, man - I´m not really giving it justice! It sounded like 34-track sometimes! All I can say is that I´m so happy to be a part of it, that's what I say all the time. Q: Did the Ark change much during those few years in existence, between ´73 up to ´80, or thereabouts? A: No, it didn´t change that much, yunno. It was basically the same instrument and same equipment, same 4-track thing. Same Teac, didn´t change too much. Only thing I think change was a bigger drum set he got from London. And probably another keyboard, like a 3-4 active keyboard. And a couple of different mikes.. room-mike an´ thing - we use a lot of that, fe that big room-sound. But nutten changes too much. Q: The more regular guys that Perry employed, like drums and bass, was.. musicians like? A: It was Boris Gardiner on bass, sometimes Sly Dunbar on drums, an´ Mikey Boo (drums). You have Benbow (Creary, drums), and even Clinton Fearon use to be a bassie there, too. I would say everybody.. Hux Brown (guitar), Geoffrey Chung, Val "Dougie" Douglas.. everybody! Any name you can call on the records, now, was like a regular. There's Ernest Ranglin (guitar), Winston Wright on keyboards, Keith Sterling too and sometimes Wya (Lindo), when not touring with the Wailers. And sometime Zap Pow guys them being regular, too. He use great musicians - Vin Gordon on trombone, Herman Marquis, Bobby Ellis was a regular there too. Tommy (McCook) was there probably every day. Technically if we need some flute or whatever, we use Tommy or Marquis or Bobby Ellis - the regular guys. Q: Compared to many other studios it seems like Black Ark was more of a (musical) commune or "family" than anything else? A: Yes, it was a family.. you know why? When Scratch call a session, nobody talk about pay. You know, beca´ them know them gonna get "pay" more than what it is. We didn´t talk ´ bout money in those times. For instance, if you call Ernest Ranglin to another studio, is like it's more uniformed.. I mean, guys know how much they´ll pay them, is more like that. When Scratch call musicians, there was no pay-thing involved. You GET paid, but that was the last thing. Beca´ the fun is more than the pay. Creativity - number one. The reason why Scratch was like that, he have some way that he will say OK, certain t´ing he will restrict, certain t´ing he won´t. And I think like his bass and drum most time, he got a restriction on that, most time. I mean, we can go around it but whatever he comes up with, he restrict it. Sometime there's percussion he had idea with, right? So that he will restrict it. But he give the musician the free (?) way to go around and do what they want to do. So that musicians feel better of creating more stuff, different stuff. Because even Ernest Ranglin, if you listen to his guitar very well, he´s got a thing when he is playing the rhythm and the lead at the same time! Nobody has ever done that - that kind of style. Like two or three guys playing at one time - the same guy! Is only Scratch I.. on the early Studio One you hear that sound - I´m talking Ranglin now, is the early kind of work at Studio One you will hear that sound. Because he got time towards.. the freedom was there to create a lot of good music. I think the freedom there over all made the music sound that good. And again, you might be singing something and you hear it sound like it crack, and you say "let me do it over?". He´d say "no!" (laughs). That's what he want! Sometimes you think that you´re not finished, seh "okay Scratch - give me another cut?". He: "instead of wha´?".."Oh! That done!?" (laughs). You know "give me another cut"! He say :"Waaatty - I say dat finished!" You want to hear it and when you hear it, you cyaan believe it's you! But he´s a guy.. whenever he say its done, it done. So I think I learn the same thing from him because when I´m overdubbing now on the tracks on the new album here, when the musician want to do another cut, and I say "no man, it's the cut I want". And Scratch seh as long as you go on the note, and the timing, there's nutten wrong.

Watty in Central Park, New York. (1983)

Q: Strange still because Perry wasn´t a musician as we know it, couldn´t play instruments as far as I know, but anyhow such a musically inclined person? He could get what he wanted anyway? A: I think if he could play an instrument, it would be too much. He couldn´t go any further. If he could play an instrument, it would destroy another part of him. Would stop right there. And he knew too, yunno? Q: Now, this tune ´What A War´ (Micron) - was that a Perry production? A: Perry recording, but my production. He give me a cut of the ´Babylon A Fall´ track and then I would do something on it otherwise and take it to Micron, independently. But Scratch recorded it also. That came from the political violence, too. I was living in Kingston as I told you, and those things weh I see around me, then came lyrics like those.."What a war a yard, if its a tribal war I-man a go step for I & I na fret, and when the fire come you know you gotta run..". I don´t remember the lyrics much, but.. That's where it came from. What I´m saying is if the war will be continuing I have to run away - I don´t want to live inna it. I mean anywhere I can get away from it, I have to go. See, living in Kingston I happen to live in the rural part, like up in St. Andrew, up in Forrest Hills, out of the mainstream. Ca´ when I go to the studio I know I go to the studio and when I´m going home, I´m going in the country. Q: What was the scene around Washington Gardens like - an uptown area, or what was the surroundings there? A: It was middle, but in that area now where Cardiff Crescent.. is like a landmark. Because those times all the police respec´ us, also the bad guys. We don´t have no problem with nobody. We make sure that we, musicians, are safe. The police is there to make sure everything is OK. Even the bad guy who doing all bad t´ings make sure everything is OK, too. I mean, we were guarded by both.. everybody - the good, the police and the thief. Q: Another aspect of the music business is all the dirt that comes with it. Earl Sixteen told us about the Spanglers (then a notorious gang from the ghetto) showing up at the end of the Ark days wanting protection money and all that. What happened, what was your impressions about this? A: Yep, yep. Well, what happened now is - I know all those guys too. If they know you´re an artist, right? If they respect your music, they don´t bug you - they guide you. But, if you don´t like what they´re doing then you have a problem with them, they need a little pay-off, like. You know, you find those things anywhere too. In this country (America) they´d call it mafia, or whatever they want to call it. Everywhere you find people like those, weh you gotta pay-off. But fortunately I didn´t have to. I left out.. Q: What about this track ´Rise & Shine´ (available along with Watty & Tonys ´What A War´ on a UK compilation titled ´Rastafari Liveth Itinually´ on the Justice League/Ravensquire imprint, as well as ´Voodooism´ on Pressure Sounds) - you did that with Clinton Fearon (then in The Gladiators). What is it about? A: Oh, it's like when I was getting into the rasta faith: (sings) "don´t you know you have a net to capture the baldhead men dem..". It's like, if you wanna go in a bad way an´ you´re still a nice person but you want to explore different t´ings when you´re a good guy still, Jah holds us up and He love you and makes us OK, that's what it's about. It's about people turn bad, yunno? Because of the company. What I´m saying now, if you´re a good guy you need some lead way and you need somebody to guide you. Q: Did you write that one with Clinton? What year did it come out by the way? A: No, I wrote it but Clinton sing it with me. In ´75, I think. No -´74.. But all these tracks were before Congos. I was there long before Congos came, doing my singles.

Watty on his bike.

Q: Maybe it is pretty obvious, but.. Speaking about survival and financial rewards and all that, without saying that it's all in life, but how come you stuck with Scratch during these times since, after all, he wasn´t the most popular producer in JA at that time - compared to other people with higher sales figures, like Bunny Lee, the Hookims at Channel One, or Joe Gibbs? All this popularity surrounding Scratch now has been built over the years since the Ark was gone. It wasn´t so while he was still operating out of that studio back in the days.. A: Yeah, I could go with a lot more. Ca´ one time I went to Channel One, taking up audition. Even when the Meditations came to do this track ´Woman Is Like A Shadow´ - I´m the person who took that track. I´m the person who took that audition. Because they were paying me good money at Channel One, OK? And, I did the (Mighty) Diamonds album too, which I didn´t get any credit for. But I was part of the audition. Beca´ I was with Scratch and I say, "Scratch, you know what man? I have to leave for a couple months and see what happens". So it actually took me away from paying me good money to take up audition. It wasn´t the same vibe. The money was better, but it wasn´t the same vibe. Then I went to a lot of different studios doing work playing bass - even so at Randys, in North Parade. Playing bass for likkle producers an´ t´ing. But then I had to come back to Scratch the same year, an´ I say no, the money was good but the vibe wasn´t what I were looking for. So, I end up getting stuck in (again) with Scratch.. I wouldn´t leave! It was my home. That´s it. When he, for instance, would be mixing a track, he would make sure I´m there early in the morning, an´ he seh, "what's the other sound?". I always have my way to say it, seh "I think the bass is too hot or I think the drum need a little more..", and Scratch always look at me and.. always listen. Him tell me seh "what is it that makes you right?". But he always try it, always try what I said. And I didn´t know what it was until probably some ten years after. He tell someone seh I have a perfect ear. Him didn´t tell me personally, but that is the reason why he want me there while mixing, most time. I don´t wanna toot my own horn, but that's what he said. Q: Scratch told Black Music magazine in 1977 that "Jamaican ears are lazy to good music.. they aren´t ready for that type of music yet." A: Yeah, we know that. Q: That was simply the case then? The Black Ark was like a magnet.. for the musicians were drawn to that sound, regardless of payment or whatever. I think it's pretty fair to say that Black Ark was to the 70s what Studio One were to the 60s. Would you agree with this? A: It was the centre of the world musically, man! The centre of the world - that studio. But what you get from Black Ark.. nowhere else! But guess what happen? I have that sound. I have it in me. It stays with me, it stays right in my head here. And it's the sound I still want. I capture it. I mean, nah capture it.. Technically if I´m gonna introduce something it's gonna come out almost like that, if I want to. Q: But trying to recreate that very unique sound, which is impossible, must be pretty frustrating for anyone who ever recorded there - you can´t get that vibe back? And still - you want it! Want it back.. A: No, you cyaan get it. You can get something close if you come from that era. But something closer.. you´d have somebody say "oh, you sound like you were working with that guy, we didn´t know!". It sound like.. whatever, I would say very close. But, it's something there. If people like Max Romeo and certain people do their old stuff right now you´d hear.. Jr Murvin, you´d hear something a kinda "Ark thing" come from there. We all get a little bit of it. It goes right in the blood and it never comes out. Anyone you interview from that era, they could tell the same thing, too. Everybody. But I think I get the most! I think so (laughs)!

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Article: Peter I (Please do not reproduce without permission)

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