Mad Professor

Since he was a teenager Neil Fraser was known as the Mad Professor, a moniker owed to his passion for electronics and experimentations with sound. Today he has lived up to his "professor" label, managing a prolific career of recording, touring and running the Ariwa label and studios in South London, but far from being mad, Neil Fraser has carved out a movement in music as relevant today as in its origins with King Tubby in Jamaica. Cristina Dio caught up with the Mad Professor at his Ariwa Studios in London.

The Mad Professor has earned a reputation over the last 20 odd years as one of the best and most prolific reggae producers in the UK, with artists such as Massive Attack and The Beastie Boys seeking him out to give their work the "dub" treatment. Through his original work, the Professor has explored more nuances and styles of instrumental dub than most would believe possible. Today he continues to release ever-creative interpretations of dub, in addition to a relentless international touring schedule. Recently in London I managed to pin down Neil Fraser for a chat at his studios in South London. I discovered that as well as having a profound talent in his chosen genre, here was an artist with a deeper consciousness.

Cristina: Why do you think dub is so appealing? You tour all over the world to huge crowds and whenever I've been to your shows people are so into it!

Mad Professor: I think the reason dub music is appealing widely its because its got a different approach from other forms of music, you know. Other, music for years has been the traditional song with the verse and the chorus, midlaid structure and where the singer is the centre of the performance. Dub music totally rewrote the rules of what a song is and dub music removed the idea of the verse and the chorus. Dub music basically brought in the fact that the engineer who was normally the guy you don’t normally see or hear, to a position where at least you hear him even if you don’t see him.
Since the first time I heard dub music I felt, this is somewhere I could wander uninterrupted. This is somewhere wherein I don’t necessarily have to battle with egos. This is somewhere where music becomes the king, not the egos of the artists becoming the king. So this is great, I could really wander. I think that’s what a lot of people get from it. You see them and their minds are wandering. The music is the vehicle that takes them to their own space.

Cristina: There's no denying the influence reggae and dub has had on more recent dance music...

Mad Professor: Dub music is really the first form of techno music. Dub music is what influenced, you know, drum n’bass, influenced house music, techno music, because before then music wasn’t as free as it has become. Before then you never hear echo or reverb at any excessive level, you know it was really, really taboo, strict taboo that echoes and reverb gotta be at realistic levels on a recording… so you’d never hear someone saying (he sings)…”At this top is hop, hop, hop, hop..” (he echoes, trails off). You’d never hear nothing like that. It was too artificial for music. In the 60’s..it would be very clinical conditions but dub music came and make everything totally unreal but gives the listener a chance to wander in your mind….that’s the great thing about dub music, you can take it where you wanna take it… so dub music doesn’t prejudice your mind.

Cristina: Is there any limit to what can be dubbed?

Mad Professor: Anything can be dubbed. You could dub classical music, you could dub pop music, you could dub trip-hop, you could dub rock music. I dubbed Depeche Mode, you know, I dubbed Sade! (he laughs), you know, I dubbed All Saints. I even dubbed dancehall. You could dub anything, man. I mean, I dub Latino music, I dub Brazilian music, I dubbed Russian music… you could dub anything you want!

Cristina: I always wanted to know, how did you get your name the "Mad Professor"?

Mad Professor: Yeah, the Mad Professor is a name that went back to when I was in school in West Indies. What happened ..because when I was at home with all the kids and I was building radios and so forth when I was 7 or 8, I was very much into electronics, so I’d be there with big wires all around me and my solder and I’d be putting things together and all the guys would come in say "hey Neil why don’t you come out and play football, or why don’t you come and play cricket?" I’d say no man I’m working on this radio…I’d have my glasses on and that… and they’d just say “oh, lets leave him man, he’s mad, you know, you see he’s the mad professor" and it started from there.

Cristina: So you came to London in your late teens and later on started the recording studio. When did the dubbing come into it?

Mad Professor: What used to happen you know, I’d be in the studio recording a band. It could be anything because there was a time when the studio was a commercial studio and we’d have rock bands coming in and punk bands and r n’b bands and all sorts of people would put down a thing.. and because I was into dub they’d come and I would do a mix and then regardless of what it was I would do a dub mix … like I would have a band like Potato Five or Rosteezy, which is a punk band and I would do the dub mix and while I would do the dub mix I noticed people always looking and fascinated. “Oh, how did you do that? Could you do it again?” and so at the back of my mind from the onset I thought maybe there’s a potential somewhere to have a dub show. Have a show where people are fascinated by what you do and they would look and they could dance and they could soak it in.

So what happened …. every year we would do shows with whoever’s on the label, we would have U-Roy or Sister Audrey or Macka B and Koffi or Pato Banton, but at the start of 1994 something strange happened. From January 94, I realised we had no bookings – then I realised maybe people have seen enough of our packages and by then the studio business wasn’t as active as it used to be… so I said this is bad, I’d better do something. But three things happened that changed my whole career. I had a call from John Pell who ran a club in Brixton called the Vox. John said to me, I’ve got this club and I’d like to invite you to play some records. Well, I said I’d love to come down but I’m no DJ and I’m sure there’s an art to being a DJ… and he said that doesn’t matter just come down and play your favourite songs and I said no that’s not me, really. I’ve got friends who are DJ’s but I’m not a DJ. He said “oh, it would be nice if you could do something, so I said I’d be interested in coming down and bringing my 16 track machine and plugging into your mixer and remix live…so he said yeah come down and do that. So I went down there, a bit nervous, I took a singer with me and we made a show of it and people liked it and John said can you come and do it again and so I did and someone in the audience saw me and said can you come and do this in France and the next thing I know the dub show is on its way.... The next thing that happened I was contacted by Virgin Records to remix Massive Attack you know and that went pretty well …it moved form a situation remixing a single to an album situation where I remixed the whole album “Protection” and that became a phenomenon. Then the third thing that happened that actually changed the whole face of '94 is that I got a call from a guy in America from Capitol Records to come down and do a project with Beastie Boys and a project with a new r'n’b singer Tracey Spencer, so suddenly I moved to a situation of high activity.

Cristina: It sounds like you took some risks initially... starting up the label...

Mad Professor: I’m a risk taker. I’m an Aries and Aries are spontaneous, impulsive, we’re definitely risk-takers. We’re also entrepreneurs.
I didn’t wanna run a label in the first place. I basically started a studio because I built a mixing desk and I wanted to try it out. You know I got sucked into the whole thing. I got a drum kit and a piano, I started to put together things. I bought a four track machine and then I invited musicians to play and I recorded them and as I recorded more tracks and those people came in to sing, people like Ranking Ann, Sister Audrey and Sergeant Pepper. They encouraged me to start a label as there weren’t many local labels around, so we recorded a few songs but we went with “Come back again” for the first release.

Cristina: You've seen a lot then in the last couple of decades in the music industry and socially as well...

Mad Professor: I’m born in the 50’s, a black man born in the mid 50’s in South America with West Indian culture who emigrated to England at the end of the 60’s. So I’ve soaked in all the civil rights stuff from the 60’s, that black America was going through. I’ve soaked in all the black awareness of the 70’s like “Say it loud, I’m black and I’m proud", and all the anti-apartheid and all the hippie freedom that existed in the 70’s so I think people like myself who had the pleasure of living through the 60’s with all the news, Martin Luther King, John F Kennedy, Malcolm X, afro hairdos.. you know…black and proud or rasta scene…natty dread…. People like myself who experience all these things first hand…we have got a certain amount of political awareness and political consciousness, that probably was lacking in the next generation, who took things for granted and didn’t have to work so hard.

I mean, as a black man, my hero, my main hero is not Selassie, but more Marcus Garvey. I’m more of a Garvey-ite. I’m more into the policy that unless you work for something its not gonna happen. I'm more of the policy that unless you re-orientate your mind and think positive about your race, about your skin colour your gonna occupy that negative stretch and you may contain all the negative values that has been associated with our race, so that other people could benefit, and not only has been associated with our race but has also been practiced by even many people of our race because they’ve developed inferiority complexes and because they’ve developed an acceptance of a negative role. I bring that approach into whatever I do. When I was working for people, I would expect to be treated 100% just as if a white man come in. I’m not accepting half a percent less in any way in terms of attitude, salary or whatever and likewise I brought that into the world of business.

When I started my business I maintained that attitude that I would expect 100% dealings as a record label and from the onset I had to kick down some doors and write some letters and show a few people that I mean business because I run a legal business and I’m not gonna accept any kind of second class treatment and I maintained that policy from when I started in '79 until now and its not a policy that says go out and kill white people, it’s a policy that says we expect 100% equality and we will not accept anything else and yeah, that’s what drives me. I talk and I deal with all sorts of people. I deal with Japanese people, Chinese people, Indian people, I deal with men, with women, with homosexuals. Doesn’t matter, but I expect 100% fair dealings.

Cristina: So who are your musical heroes?

Mad Professor: My musical heroes are probably people like Mighty Sparrow, Bob Marley, people like Gamblin’ Huff, Berry Gordy, Sylvia Robinson, Tom Bell… I love people who are like architects, architects of sound…people who’ve learned the craft and who’ve learnt that by carving out the right sound they could seduce and audience with the right sound. They’re my heroes, any architect of sound is my hero.

(above: Lee "Scratch" Perry live at the Metro, Sydney. Foto: Shane Rozario)

Cristina: How did you hook up with Lee Perry?

Mad Professor: I met Perry in the early 80’s when he left Jamaica. He went through some trauma. He had some big personal issues and he realised he had to come out of the situation he was in with his studio Black Ark and with his label. And he came to London and we were introduced to each other with a view that he could work more or less invisible away from certain attention. Because he was always a natural studio man and he needed some place to develop his ideas though at the point when we met he was just beginning to start his more vocal approach as opposed to hands-on mixing and composing that he was doing.

I guess at that stage he decided to be less of a producer and more of an artist so we started work and I was keen on learning and I’ve learnt quite a bit from him as well and he came to the studio with another engineer, a guy named Sid Buckner who used to be at Studio One with Coxsone Dodds and we went through my studio and rewired a few bits and I started to record some tracks with him. Soon after that we hit the road with our show. We did a load of stuff in '83 and '84 and it was great because I saw the potential in Lee.

Cristina: He really comes up with some crazy stuff doesn't he?

Mad Professor: One thing about Lee you get to realise is that he’s very active mentally. He’s near 70 years of age but he’s still very active mentally and he gets bored very easily…so when he comes up with crazy things he's more or less maintaining his mental stimulation, you know, he’s not into boredom. He’s very much into action, stimulation.

Cristina: In your experience and knowledge, how did the dub movement evolve out of Jamaica?

Mad Professor: Dub music basically started with King Tubby’s. There are different stories and opinions but from what I know it started with him and he had some four track equipment from another studio, Dynamic Sounds and he built his studio and basically proceeded to remix records primarily for the B-side for the Part 2 generation. Now the Part 2 and B side generation was coming from the late 60’s when people like James Brown would put an instrumental on a B-side so that the rappers and the jive talkers who were emerging at the end of the 60’s could then perform in a dance or in a club, so you get something like “I feel good” part one, which is the vocal, part two, the instrumental. “Sex Machine” part one, the vocal, part two the instrumental.
So in a dance now the DJ would flick it over and the rapper would (he launches into a rap to the tune of “I Feel Good”) “Come on baby, wake up to all the people,,” and performs over the instrumental. What King Tubby did, he took the part two a little bit further and probably bored weith just running instrumentals he started to drop out parts of the rhythm track, because remember he had four tracks to play with. He would then drop out the rhythm section and introduce reverb and echo and excessive levels and suddenly it created a new sensation and it was dub dub.

Cristina: How is it all fitting into the UK music scene?

The UK is a scene where if you know the right people and you make the right connections, you make the right progress, so if we analyse that statement what I’m actually saying is, if you’ve got the right friends and you do the right deals you could make the right progress, but there’s only so much room for so many people. Everybody can’t fit through the keyhole and you have to remember too the UK has never embraced reggae and black music properly you know. They like it when its diluted with a bit of white or something, you know they don’t really like it – the media don’t like it. The people like it, the people love it. The people in England whether black or white or brown they love black music. It’s the media that doesn’t like it and doesn’t play it as fairly. They would play it if it iis tied in with some business like its on a major label. Its amazing how a record is on a major label could suddenly become okay. Well, if its on an independent its definitely not okay, so you know, things like that I guess separate the men from the boys.

Cristina: So what have you got planned for the future? Are you winding down?

Mad Professor: I’m not winding down, I’m just getting more dangerous. I think I took a back seat for the past few years. The past 4 or 5 years I took a back seat and I analysed what I was doing and now I’m ready to take some well-aimed shots (he laughs) ..but quite a few things I’ve got up my sleeve!