Member Since: 10/22/2006
Band Website: versionist.com/members/dubability
Band Members: my mac, an akai mpc 500, a Korg Kaoss Pad 3 ... and me
Influences: i had to think a lot about the influences. and maybe i have to change datails fom time to time. i can't tell whether these influences can be heard in my tunes or not. if so, it happened unconsciously.
the first music i remember is the italian music of the mid/ late seventies my father listened to. there was "drupi", "mastrovito", "antonello venditi" and the italian opera.
then came the 80ies with the "neue deutsche welle". i think i was most influenced by a german (cologne) band called "BAP". there was also a quite popular italian music wave during that time with people like "i pooh", "ricchi e poveri", "pupo", and later "gianna nannini" and even later "eros ramazotti", not to forget, "totto cotugno".
one of my friends in the late 80ies was an big elvis fan. so i knew his music and with it the whole music of the late 50ies and early 60ies.
at that time the radio station "drs 3", a quite independent swiss radio station (i has changed unfurtunately in the meantime) had big influence on my musical development. i heard "steve earle" and with him discovered country music. the station played also french music so i was influenced by "renaud" and "jean-jacques goldman". other bands i discovered at that time were "dire straights" and "U2" .
when i grew older i was allowed to go out. we were always a big bunch of people and often went to concerts. thats when it happened! in a club concert i was seated just next to the stage, next to the percussionist. and he had a huge suitcase and he took out all kinds of instruments, small percussion out of it and it was him who did the magic to the music! i can't tell neither the name of the band nor which kind of music they played. but i remember very well that it was this event which influenced me most in my musical life. i have always been playing an instrument but one or two weeks later i bought my first bongos. and we started a band. that s when i began to meet music people who introduced me to jazz, world music and everything. we listened to rap, hip hop ("yo!mtv raps" was a quite cool show at that time!). the "new" r'n'b came up and with it we learned about its roots. i became familar with names like james brown, otis redding, percy sledge. but also charlie parker, john coltrane, dexter gordon and dizzy gillespie became important to me. we saw concerts of all kinds, we even went to the "hilton" bar to listen to bar jazz stuff (which was of really good quality, we wouldn't have gone otherwise). gang starr came up with his jazzmatazz project.
i took percussion lessons and was introduced to african roots and cuban music. mongo santamaria, johnny pacheco, poncho sanchez and celia cruz only to name a few.
writing this i realize that there is one point when i can t no longer tell what/ who was first it all gets mixed up. but one thing i can tell is that - from the beginnig - as soon as it got the reggae riddim in it, i liked it better than the rest.
there is two names i did not mention yet. you may think it's stereotype but they are my all time classics. one - a living legend. i saw him in zurich, i was squeezed, pushed and torn between 1st and 3rd row. but it wa unbelievable. carlos santana.
the other name - THE LEGEND - Bob Marley.
Record Label: unsigned
Type of Label: None