BY GEMMA BROSNAN
WHEN it first emerged that Easy Star All-Stars were planning on tackling the greatest albums of all time, it was widely dismissed as a gimmick and seemed like a project destined for disaster.
But New York’s finest reggae musicians did more than prove everyone wrong with two dub reggae albums that smashed the Billboard chart, maintaining a delicate balancing act by making albums that rock fans embrace, without alienating the hardcore reggae audience.
Responsible for the critically acclaimed, genre-defying remakes of Pink Floyd's ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ – (‘Dub Side of the Moon’) and Radiohead's ‘OK Computer’ (‘Radiodread’), Easy Star All-Stars upgrade classic, infamous tracks, turning them into polished, vintage reggae.
‘Dub Side of the Moon’ was undoubtedly one of the most successful reggae albums of all time, spending more than five years on the Billboard reggae chart, while ‘Radiodread’ has achieved similar acclaim.
The group, which operates as a collective with a rotating cast of musicians and singers, was put together by Easy Star co-founders Michael Goldwasser, Eric Smith and Lem Oppenheimer and fans of their efforts include Radiohead and Pink Floyd.
Currently on a worldwide tour and about to release their reinvention of The Beatles' classic ‘Lonely Hearts Club Band’ album, we caught up with producer, musical director, arranger and guitarist, MICHAEL GOLDWASSER to find out more.
Gemma: Michael, you guys are touring at the moment. How’s it all going?
Michael: It’s been good. We are actually leaving for Australia today which should be fun as it’s our first time in Australia.
Gemma: So what are your expectations?
Michael: A lot of kangaroos and kolas....we expect it to be great because we’ve had a lot of fans there ever since we put our ‘Dub Side Of The Moon’ and we’ve finally got around to a tour so we are ready and raring to go.
Gemma: What do you enjoy most about being on tour?
Michael: I don’t actually tour with the band that much anymore because I’m so busy producing these albums, but what I do enjoy when I’m touring is playing to all these different audiences around the world and it helps you realise how universal music is.
Whether we are playing in Moscow or South America or in Europe, we meet so many great, interesting, nice people and they all love music and it’s a really nice feeling.
Gemma: So you enjoy the idea of music being able to transcend all divides?
Michael: Well yeah, I don’t know historically 1000 years ago if it could, but certainly in modern times it has and for me, that's an amazing thing.
Gemma: Which city has been your favourite so far?
Michael: For me personally, it was when we played Tel Aviv because I have a lot of friends and family in Israel so it was like a homecoming for me and it was great to be able to play there and speak with the crowd in Hebrew.
Gemma: As New Yorkers, what do you think of our city?
Michael: We love London, we’ve been to the UK at least four or five times and it’s fantastic. We have a really special connection because all three albums that we have adapted happen to be by British bands, first Pink Floyd, then Radiohead, now the Beatles so we certainly have a big connection with the UK.
London is such a cool city, so many great people and fans and I personally a huge fan of British reggae acts such as Steel Pulse who I worked with on this new album, Aswad and some of the lesser known bands like Black Slate.
Gemma: Your ‘Lonely Hearts Dub Band’ album is set for release April 14. Were you nervous about taking on the mother of all concept albums?”
Michael: As strange as it may sound, I wasn’t really nervous about it because it seems that fans and critics alike really appreciated what we did with ‘Dub Side Of The Moon’ and ‘Radiodread’, so at this point I feel pretty confident that I can produce a really great tribute album to whatever album we take on.
I don’t mean to sound big-headed, I just really feel as though I know what I’m doing and know that I can give people what they want.
Gemma: Are you happy with the way it’s turned out?
Michael: Yeah, I’ve been a fan of ‘Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band’ ever since I was a kid. I used to listen to it incessantly when I was about 10 years old - which was quite a few years ago - so for me it was a great, personal project to be able to take this music, deconstruct the songs then reconstruct them as reggae and play some of the parts such as George Harrison’s lead guitar lines which felt like such a nice way to pay tribute to him Putting down a nice orchestral part on ‘A Day In The Life’, the Indian instruments on ‘Within You Without You’, these are all things that I never imagined I would be doing in my career but it is very rewarding.
Gemma: What’s your favourite Beatles song?
Michael: On this album, my favourite song since I was a kid has to be ‘Lovely Rita’. I know isn’t one of the more popular songs perhaps, but for some reason, I always really liked it - even though I probably didn’t understand what it was about when I was a kid - and I loved the way our version has turned out.
Gemma: You’ve tackled Pink Floyd with ‘Dub Side of the Moon’ (2003) and Radiohead with ‘Radiodread’ (2006). Although you’ve earned praise from the artists themselves, have you ever had any negative feedback from their diehard fans, as I assume the purists aren’t that keen on anyone touching their music?
Michael: In terms of purists, I have never really met a musician or anyone who really loves music who is a purist, so obsessive fans need to take a step back and work out what they are obsessing about. It’s just music and music was made to be played and reinterpreted and enjoyed and there should be no boundaries in music and I think most musicians would agree with me.
Everyone has their own taste in music and that’s fine. There are always going to be people who dismiss the project before they even hear it, but we’ve been able to turn a lot of people around and there are a lot of people who have said to us ‘I’m a big Pink Floyd fan, I thought ‘Dub Side of the Moon’ would be terrible, but when I heard it I realised that you guys really respected the original album’ and they end up really liking the album and it gives them a new appreciation.
It was the same with our adaptation of ‘OK Computer’ so I’m hoping for the same from the hardcore Beatles fans, who at first may mistrust our efforts to pay tribute to the album.
Gemma: Do you find that you end up turning some of the rock fans on to reggae who previously wouldn’t have even thought about going near it?
Michael: Oh yes, this is a big part of our overall mission. When we were teenagers, we all loved reggae which is why we started the label, to bring it to more people. We found a way to do that with these albums because our fans are not just reggae fans and we’ve really been able to cross boundaries so we feel pretty good about opening up a lot of people’s minds.
Likewise, it actually turned a lot of reggae fans on to Radiohead and Pink Floyd and it’s always funny to meet some hardcore Jamaican reggae fan telling me that these Radiohead guys are pretty cool so it definitely works both ways.
Gemma: Is there any album you would love to work on which you haven’t tackled next?
Michael: There are several and we hope to continue the series but I’m going to have to keep it a surprise. Let’s just say I have a few on my wishlist.
Gemma: So when are you coming to London?
Michael: First we have Australia, but we are really looking forward to Europe and will be in London at the end of the month.
Gemma: I’ll look forward to it.
Easy Star All-Stars play Koko Tuesday April 28
http://www.koko.uk.com/gigs.php?event=749
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