PipemanRadio Interviews The Skatalites at Punk Rock Bowling XXIV

0:04 Hey, you have done to the censure. See why crazy? Youll d wake up America. It's time for the Adventures of White Man on W four c Y dot com. West pomp Beats is number one internet radio station. Here's your host, the white Man, it says the pipe Man. Here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio. And I'm here with Ken Stewart and Nae Frenchy from Scott the Lights. Yes, here at punk rock bowling Man. You guys killed it out there. That set was amazing And what a circle scat dancing pit you guys had. Well, how does it look like when you're up top there watching these people dance to your music?

1:26 Well, the marsh pit goes way back to well, I guess punk rock, but we see it a lot in SKA. You know, it's been going on for forty years or so. Yeah, and so what brought you guys into SKA? Like, what when did it happen? Where they you felt that that was your music. I was asked to audition for reggae bands, and I was playing reggae for about a year and someone said, oh, you got to catch this band that come into town for the first time. The Sky you know, like what the English Beat played, which I loved the English Beat, but when I ultimately listened to what the Scatellites music was, I said, wait a minute, this predates the English Beat by about twenty years, you know, just the fact that they played vinyl when they played it on the radio, like, hello, that's right, nineteen eighty seven and you're playing vinyl on the radio. Like So when I got to the show, I was amazed, and I was like, how can this exist? And I don't know about it, but you know, that was the beginning of what's now known as the third wave ska movement.

2:50 And there was bands from Boston like the bim Skal of Bim, and there was the Toasters from New York and Let's Go Bowling, and you know, there was this the spawn of a revival of this stuff, you know, going on. And all of a sudden, I was playing in this reggae band, and all of a sudden, the drummer of the Scatellites became our drummer. Whoa, And I was like, what are you doing here? Man? Like I just saw the band. I thought they'd be touring the world, you know, and all of a sudden he's playing in this little rag reggae band in Rhode Island. But that's what did it for me.

3:34 Once I heard the band. Once I said to my friend at the show, I was like, if I could be in any band, this is the band. It's like wow, combination of jazz and all of a sudden it happened by accident. You know, I love that. What great story? How about you? All right? I was I'm from France, what part oh? I wasn't born in Baldeaux. I grew up in that Rica listening to reggae music early eighties, and I moved back to France and then I started music reggae music, had my own band, and then I moved to New York and I freelance for about ten years in New York. As soon as I reach I started to work as a freelance guitar player and I played for everybody in reggae music, from your Right to Tooths and the Metals from Sisla, all the can Booth, Alton Ellis, that's the name in reggae music, like legends. So it was a good experience for ten years to freelance and one day I get a call from Leicester Stelling who was the original Catllite sax player, and I got a call to come sub for the guitar player for couple gigs in Mexico. And while they kept me, the dorma at the time was loudib the original drama and they asked me if I could stand and do some work, so I thought, all right, And

5:09 it's been wow, how long? No? Seventeen years? Sixteen? Wow? Time flives too, right, I know? Speaking of time Fline sixty year anniversary, what the hey? I mean like that is amazing milestone and you guys just celebrated it recently with the show. Yes, well, you know, I would like to say big up the original Caatellite for creating this music, you know, back in the days nineteen sixty four in Jamaica, you know. And we all just joined the band along the way with the original. But life everybody passed away right now, so we are like a legas see band. But we all play with the original and we keep the It's important to keep the tradition and we love the work and with the best we can and keep the tradition going on. And isn't it amazing? Like I saw it here a punk rock bowling you guys played and you played like one of your original songs from way back, and the crowd was like going nuts. And No Doubt played that song at Coachella this year, did they really? Wow? You used to open for us No Doubt Coachella. Wow,

6:43 that's pretty cool. It's a theme. It's a movie theme song, you know, but we made it popular. And then the Specials covered it and Amy Whitehouse like no, maybe no because it's not a vocal. I don't know, but you know, the last Punk Bowling I did media coverage four, the Specials played and they played are you ready for this? Ghost Town? When did they do that live? They never do that live? They did it here. Like, that's pretty wild to me because I was gonna be I was gonna be bummed if they didn't play that song, you know. And I'm glad you brought up about the third wave because I think a lot of people don't realize all the waves of sky. And we used to have like a ska show on our station. This dude was a genius.

7:34 Like I didn't know about all the waves. I just knew I liked the music. I didn't know the evolution of ska to where it is today. So I think a lot of people should know that, because I think they just lump everything together and they don't know, you know, well, I mean there was the evolution from scott to rock steady to reggae, and then the Brits caught on and they started throwing rock and they were also playing you know, English white musicians playing with English Jamaican black musicians. That's where they got the name two Tone from the guy started the guy from the Specials, the keyboard player started the label called two Tone. And then after that comes the third wave where it started catching on in America. And I can remember the first sky band that and I didn't know that the word SKA.

8:33 But I remember this band we had in Boston called Double O seven and that was like late seventies, early eighties. I think I remember that band. They were pretty good, man. I used to go, you know, but that was they were playing it like punk shows and stuff because there was no scat see anything close. Well, it's fine that you say that, because I remember in the eighties, like SKA was made almost a synonymous with punk, you know, because of exactly what you're saying, you know, so a lot of oh and because the band's like Rancid and a lot of the hardcore scot Core as they call it. I can't, you know, it's not really my cup of tea, so I can barely even name them.

9:20 But there's so much stuff that's, you know, much much less mellow than our music, you know, but it's just something for everybody, right. And one thing I do love about your music and others like you is the mosh pit, because I'm like, I'm a metal head, I'm a punk. I love sky, I love industrial all that, and I get into the craziest of pits, but I have a lot more fun than a ska pit like that. It's just I can't explain the feeling you have. It's just pure happiness. And what were you gonna say? Well, yeah, But the evolution of Scar in Jamaica, it was a couple different style of ska with different bands already, but you can hear the first wave through the recording quality. You know already the style of how they played the music, and when you go to England it's played a little bit different. And then when you go to the third wave America or South America, it's different.

10:26 So many you have the punk SKA the rock Sky you have the scatellite which is more sole and all those English bands and yeah, so but you can hear the difference in the song. Oh yeah, when I did that the show on my station, he started off from the beginning, the original SKA and he was playing a music. I was like, it sounded like something from like the forties with you know, that kind of record player type of thing, and I just I mean, maybe I'm on school, but I think that's cool. You know, that sounds like there's something about that analog sound that has that smoothness opposed to the chop of the digital that's missing all that middle part. Right, So sixty years now, what what's the next milestone? Like, are we going to one hundred? Now? Well, we are, you know, in the we just released two tracks last week and there should be a complete album probably by the end of the year.

11:37 And you know, we just continue to travel the world and hopefully play some new countries that we haven't been to, and you know, it's we try and revisit the Our biggest Latin our biggest market really is the Latin people. If you go on our Facebook, there's close to three hundred thousand likes and about two d of fifty thousand or more Latino n What do you attribute that to? Well, this is I was going to actually say that about the evolution of the music. I mean, the original ska was very very much Latin influence, especially because of our drummer, because he played all that stuff cha cha ringue and rumba, salsa, every bit of it, you know. And you had to because if you played on the hotels in the north coast of Jamaica in the fifties, you had to play everything calypso and everything in between, you know. So and they played like Glenn Miller stock arrangements when they played big bands and all this kind of stuff that would play for the tourists, and they had to play everything, you know. Nice I like it. Also Scatlite hopefully one hundred years and why not because Scatlite is an institution. Is like Buena Vista Social Club. It is like come Busy Orchestra. It's like, you know, representing the music. You know.

13:11 So now it's become like an institution. It has for sure, I mean fully, yeah. Catalytes forever, Scatellites forever, for sure. How do people connect to you guys? On socials on the web or what have you buy your merch check out your show dates, get your new music, all that good stuff. Well, we've got the usual scatlites dot com that's s k a t A l I t e s. And we've got Facebook, slash scati Lights, Instagram, slash Scatillits, Twitter, the whole heap, all of it. You know, we're on Pandora and Spotify and everything.

13:54 You know. I mean, Scatelllits is like an institution. It's the godfather of reggae. And the creators based or the I'll say they didn't necessarily create SKA. A lot of the chief members of the Scatellites did, but they perfected it. There you go. And especially the big change with Lloy NIBBs the drama. He changed a bit from the swing to the most straight sky. That's what we play more and that's what we dance, So that's what we danced to, right, Yeah, So that's yeah, I love that was that change? You know? Yeah, Well, you guys killed it here at Punk Rock Bowling and I didn't expect that in last but it is amazing to have you here. And thanks for being on the Adventures pipe Man. Well thanks thanks you guys for having us. It was a pleasure and we hope we'll be back. We love you, We love Vegas, big up, big up the show. Yeah it is. It is one of my favorite playgrounds. Yes, it's been a big play measure and uh you know, we love coming here to perform for everybody. And it's been a pleasure meeting you. And thanks a lot. Oh my pleasure, and I hope we do it again. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipe Man. I'm w for CUI Radio. Hi, this is Ken Stewart

15:28 from the scot Delights and you're listening to W four c y Heypeman