By Keith Walsh
The word “reggae” comes from the Jamaican phrase “rege-rege” which means both “quarrel or protest” and “ragged clothes.” These are just a couple of coincidental commonalities between reggae and the punk rock music and attire of New York’s punk-then-disco band Blondie.
Working remotely between Nashville and Los Angeles, Nate Bridges and Brandon Niznik (Wise Owl) of Black Market Dub have cooked up some tasty dub mixes of popular artists. Their Blondie remixes are no exceptions. An added attraction is percussion and drums by the legendary Horseman. In our conversation, Bridges and I break down some of the similarities and differences between disco and reggae, and get insight into the processes of creating dub.
Synthbeat: What were some of the challenges of adapting pop disco to a reggae beat? From 1-2-3-4 to syncopation?
Nate Bridges: Disco lends itself really well to reggae actually. They’re essentially both just forms of dance music, so it actually worked really well. The most difficult part actually was that in several of these Blondie songs there are odd meters in the middle of the songs! All a sudden there is a bar of 7/4 during the middle section that almost derailed one of the remixes. Luckily the way these songs were designed you would never even notice if you weren’t listening for it, so I was able to seamlessly integrate the odd meters without much trouble. It’s a fun problem to have when dealing with reggae and I always look forward to those kinds of challenges.
Synthbeat: Your bass on the “Heart Of Glass” remix claims the song for reggae. Same thing for Brandon’s bass work on ‘Call Me’ and ‘Atomic.’ Would you agree that the bass style is essential to getting that dub groove?
Nate Bridges: Reggae basslines and disco basslines are so very different from each other. They each have their own set of rules that need to be followed in order to adhere to their respective styles. That made adapting the “Heart of Glass” bassline difficult because the nature of that bassline is so different from what you would play in reggae. I tried my best to make it my own and I think it really worked. The true test for me is if when I offer a song to Wise Owl (my partner on this EP) and he decides against rerecording the bass! That’s a huge vote of confidence for me since he is such an accomplished bass player. He absolutely nails the bass on the other songs, they are so much fun to listen to.
Synthbeat: ) When did you first fall in love with Blondie and Debbie Harry? (we all did!)
Nate Bridges: I had a huge crush on Debbie Harry in high school. As I’ve gotten older my appreciation for Blondie has only grown. Something about her is so cool and she makes the perfect frontwoman. On one hand she is this hyper-feminine looking, Marylin Monroe-esque beauty – and on the other hand she is this gritty, dirty punk rocker. She is just supremely cool to me, and has always been one of my favorite singers. Her voice is a powerhouse too. I just love her!
Synthbeat: You had some fun with the guitars, getting a little psychedelic in “One Way Or Another.” Is your style of dub something entirely new?
Nate Bridges: I couldn’t say my style is ‘new’ but it is definitely my own. Since I’m so involved in every step of the process in making these EPs, I think my footprint on the final product can be more pronounced than other producers. For instance, I play certain things on the guitar that I know I will treat a specific way once I get to the dub portion of the mix. Same goes for the bass – I might EQ it a certain way when I’m tracking because of how I know it will be treated in mastering. That’s the cool thing about dub though. All producers sound so unique and different from each other, its just a really fun way to make music.
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