By Keith Walsh
With their folksy, jam-band style, there is something about the music of Jerry Garcia’s Grateful Dead that lends itself to reggae interpretations. I asked Nate Bridges about this very endeavor and his just-released works of this nature.
Released under the banner Black Market Dub, the tunes on this tasty four track EP find Bridges, along with Wise Owl (Brandon Niznik) and Sam Small creating new sonic spaces that show off the brilliance of the original tunes while presenting them in a novel light.
Working remotely between their LA studios and that of Bridges’ High Noon Audio in Nashville, Wise Owl (bass, guitar, and organ) and Sam Small (lead guitar) contributed their top notch instrumentation to the project. Nate Bridges plays guitars and keyboards on the tracks. He also plays the mixing board like an instrument. I had the chance to ask him about this feature of dub music, as well as other aspects of the Black Market Grateful Dead project.
Synthbeat: You’ve wanted to do a Grateful Dead dub for a while. Did you ever dabble in it or did you know the time was right because you have recruited Brandon and Sam?
Nate Bridges: “I have wanted to dub Grateful Dead since the very beginning of this project, but I have never tried it until now. The Dead has a crazy catalog and rabid fans, so until now I was always intimidated to take it on. Ironically, this collection of songs was recorded very loosely, and it was really fun. Brandon provided an extremely solid foundation and Sam really brought all the character you’d expect to hear from a Grateful Dead project. I might have done it eventually on my own, but I’m really glad I waited until I had Sam and Brandon.”
Synthbeat: When you say you play piano, Wurlitzer (electric piano I assume) and clav are these emulations or actual instruments? What gear are you using?
Nate Bridges: “Yes, typically those parts are split by Brandon and myself. Brandon uses unique presets and patches made for his Korg, and I use a Nord Electro 6 for all of those sounds. I’m not always thrilled with the sounds of the Nord, and usually, that’s when Brandon will step in and audition something from his setup that might fit a certain part better.”
Synthbeat: “The Dead’s music lends itself well to these remixes in a reggae style. What is it about The Grateful Dead’s sound that makes it work so well?”
Nate Bridges: “The Grateful Dead is a reggae band in all but the style of their music. They share all the qualities of a reggae band in spirit, attitude, community, and relentless positivity. The music is different, of course, but it’s loose, jammy, and catchy – which will always translate to reggae. Of all the artists I’ve covered, The Dead is the group that could have most easily just been a reggae band had they really wanted to. Jerry Garcia is as much of a Bob Marley-type figure as anybody in the hippie music lexicon.”
Synthbeat: Can you comment on the idea of a studio as an instrument in itself as it pertains to these mixes and Black Market in general?
Nate Bridges: “This whole project sprung from the idea that the recording studio, and the recording engineer, should be the focus of the project. That used to be extremely prevalent in the 70s with dub music, Brian Eno, and even into the 80s and 90s with Dr. Dre and RZA. All of these artists were performers, but half the time the majority of the value they brought to a project was on the production side – and that is what sold their albums. Sure, I’ll check out an album that features Dr. Dre. He’s a good rapper. But an album produced by Dr. Dre? That album is a must-buy. My recording studio is constantly growing and expanding. It started with plugins, then to a console, then outboard gear, and now I’m starting to get into buying synths and drum machines. The recording studio is like a brain – but a brain alone is just a pile of goop. The brain needs eyes and ears. It needs to be fed information, or in my case music, in order to be as functional as its potential.”
finis
www.highnoonaudio.com
Blackmarketdub.bandcamp.com/
Black Market Dub On Patreon
BlackMarket_Dub on Instagram
High Noon Audio on Instagram
Wise Owl on Facebook
Sam Small on Facebook
Percussionist photo by Photo by Nathaniel Tetteh on Unsplash
