JAH WARRIOR
Interviewed by Jesse I -- March 22, 1999

This was a pre-recorded phone conversation with Jah Warrior (aka Steve Mosco) in London, for airplay on "Chant Down Babylon" with Jesse I, on 94.9 SRA-FM in Melbourne, Australia.

JESSE I : With me right now I have have Jah Warrior, Steve Mosco, on the line. Thanks for taking the time out to speak to me Steve.

JAH WARRIOR: Yeah, no problem Jesse. Greetings to everyone in Australia.

JESSE I : Respect. Okay, so for the people that aren?t so familiar with your music, how would you describe your setup and what you do?

JAH WARRIOR: Well, what I do is really roots reggae with a lot of emphasis on dub. We don't do any slackness, everything we do with Jah Warrior is cultural. It's kinda very influenced by the traditional reggae of 20 years ago, but we use a lot of modern instruments as well, a lot of modern technology, maybe you could even call it techno sounds... a lot of people seem to like the blend of the modern techno sounds with the traditional roots reggae style... and that's something which also goes on a lot in England now as well. I think in England we really kind of lead the way, in terms of doing dub nowadays. You don't get a lot of dub coming from Jamaica nowadays, most of it comes from England. That's what we're really into here.

JESSE I : I've noticed your music has a very digital sound at times, but it still manages to be very rootsy. Where do you reach the balance between live and computerised instruments?

JAH WARRIOR: Well sometimes we use drum samples, sometimes we use actual real live drums as well. We just kinda blend it, and we have real musicians as well... my latest CD with Tena Stelin, that?s got real horns on it, real guitar, melodica, live percussion... so we just kinda blend and mix it, y'know, to get the right balance.

JESSE I : That's great. And I know.. you mentioned England being at the forefront.. I know certainly in the dance scene England is sort of leading the way.. how much do you think you've borrowed from the dance scene there, and how much has dub influenced that in return?

JAH WARRIOR: I think the thing which has influenced everyone over here more than anything else is a sound system called Jah Shaka, who you may have heard of. He's been around for just about thirty years now, and when all the roots music kinda died in the 1980's when the raggamuffin sound came in, Jah Shaka was the only one who kept going. He played his dances in the tradtional roots style, and even though there wasn't a whole lot of people coming to his dances then, he stuck to what he believed in, and he's kinda reaped the dividends now, because when roots music and dub music became popular again in the early 1990's, he was there. He'd been doing it all along, and people started coming back to him. At some of his dances now in London.. you can get two, even three thousand people there. They're really phenomenal events. I myself have been greatly influenced by him, and I know most of the people in the business over here, and I can tell you that virtually everyone else has been influenced as well.

JESSE I : Right, so he's more of an influence than the old guys like King Tubbys and Scratch Perry and so on?

JAH WARRIOR: Well it's that as well, but it's the fact that Shaka kept on playing those sounds as well. Those sounds have obviously always been there, Lee Perry, King Tubbys, Augustus Pablo, etc. Those kind of people I really loved, but I think if Shaka wasn't there throughout the 1980s and the early 1990s, a lot of people just would have forgotten about those artists like Lee Perry, etc. Also Shaka just really brought them back.

JESSE I : Okay, well I've heard a rumour that he'll be out here in Australia later in the year, so I've got my fingers crossed for that one.

JAH WARRIOR: Oh, I'm sure that'll be wicked if it happens.

JESSE I : So what actually inspired you to start making music?

JAH WARRIOR: Well, Jah Warrior was a sound system for about 12 years or so. I sold the actual equipment recently, but it was running for about 12 years, and the reason that I really got into producing music was becuase I used to start doing a few bits and pieces just to use as dubplates (which are like exclusive mixes to play on the sound system), and then I had all this material lying around which I'd done, and I?d never really thought of doing anything other than using it on the sounds. Then I suddenly one day thought well maybe I can do something else with it, and I started thinking about releasing it. I saw that a lot of people in England was starting up their own small independant labels, so I thought well, I'll give it a go as well. And that's how it happened. I started off with one single, and it kinda grew from there.

JESSE I : So the first single, was that was the Naph-Tali single?

JAH WARRIOR: Yeah, "The 22nd Book". Yeah, and that was really successful, it sold really well over here.

JESSE I : That's good. So you've done a lot of collaborations with others as well as your own dub stuff.. what artists have you enjoyed working with the most?

JAH WARRIOR: Well, in terms of the singers, they're all pretty good. Tena Stelin... he's going to be on my new CD released next month, and he's just about the most established of the new crop in England. He's been around for about 12 years or so. Then you've got people like Hughie Izachaar, who is from Jamaica originally, but he's kind of a veteran of the scene here; he's worked wih Mad Professor, Jah Shaka, and he's even toured live with Dub Syndicate as well. He's been really good to work with. And we seem to pick up new singers all the time. There's a guy called Tony Roots, who is also from Jamaica. He actually went to school with Luciano, but he's living over here now. I've just put out a single with him. And Naph-Tali... there's a lot of people really... who I've worked with and will continue to work with.

JESSE I : That's great. So is there any work that stands out as being particularly memorable? Any of your own dub stuff that stands out for you?

JAH WARRIOR: Ah, well it's kinda difficult... It's difficult to put a finger on it. I kinda chop and change my ideas - what I might have liked a year ago I kinda consider old hat now, and I'm going on to new things all the time. I think it's hard to say what my favourite thing would be, but if the people are interested in checking it out, any of the dub albums they'd probably enjoy if they're into dub.

JESSE I: Yeah, I'm particularly down with the "Dub From The Heart" series, so I'm going to get into a little bit of that after this interview. And we got the new "Lion Symbol" album from Tena Stelin that you mentioned, so we're going to be playing that for the listeners very soon. But in the future, what can we expect from you?

JAH WARRIOR: Yeah, well at the same time as the "Lion Symbol" CD comes out, there's also going to be a new Jah Warrior dub CD called "Dub Storm" which is actually being released by a label called "Lush Records", from Sweden. They kinda licensed it off me, so that's going to be a totally seperate CD of previously unreleased Jah Warrior dubs. Coming out at the same time in April. Then later on in this year I'm going to do a showcase album, featuring various different artists like Tena Stelin, Hughie Izachaar, Naph-Tali, possibly various Jamaican singers as well. It's going to be both vocal and dub like all my vocal albums are - they always have dub versions on them as well. You can look out for that probably round about September/October time. Then next year, I've got an idea for doing an album of dub mixes of previously unreleased old dubplates which I used to hear on sound systems years ago. But I'm going to do them in my style, and try and introduce those musics to people who've never heard them before. So that's my plans for the forseeable future.

JESSE I : Sounds good. Is there any chance we'll ever see you down under? Are you going to bring some acts down here to let us enjoy the live sound?

JAH WARRIOR: Well, I think that depends if anyone wants to bring me over. I'm kinda in contact with a couple of people over in New Zealand, as well as yourself, so I think a few people are starting to hear about Jah Warrior now. If anyone was seriously interested in putting their money where their mouth is to bring me over, well, that can always be something open to discussion. But I just have to wait and see!

JESSE I : That sounds good, I'm sure it'll happen one of these days. We're building the reggae community up here, andit's doing ok!

JAH WARRIOR: (laughs) Oh excellent!

JESSE : Okay, we're enjoying your music Jah Warrior. Thanks for taking the time out to speak to us here.

JAH WARRIOR: Oh, no problem Jesse. Easy.