By Keith Walsh
Black Market Dub delivers another amazing set of David Bowie reggae style mixes, this time focusing almost exclusively on tunes from Bowie’s mid 70s records, with the exception of 1983’s “Modern Love.” Two of the tunes on the four track release are from “1976’s “Station To Station,” and the fourth is a dub remix of the title track from “Young Americans” from 1975.
These stellar tracks feature the engineering work of Nate Bridges of Nashville’s High Noon Audio, along with inspired sax work by Brian Wallace, aka Dub Robot, and additional instruments by Brandon Niznik. I caught up with Bridges about the work involved in producing these creative works of art.
Synthbeat: Young American’s original sax has a different feel out of context — there’s a different tonality? What about the process of making these reggae mixes led to this?
Nate Bridges: I wasn’t able to find the original sax part played by David Sanborn, I just take what I can get with these remixes and then ask my friends to help out with the rest. Luckily I keep Brian Wallace (aka Dub Robot) on speed dial for just these occasions, and he completely nailed that part. I basically told him to play something inspired by the original part but to make it his own. He’s such a fantastic player, and he’s been playing reggae horn his entire life. I’m never happier than when I can get him on my tracks.
Synthbeat: ‘Station to Station,’ how tricky was this? it sounds like there are some challenging rhythms there.
Nate Bridges: ‘Station to Station’ was the White Whale of Black Market remixes. I’ve literally had it ready to remix for probably five years, but I knew I had to wait until my playing and mixing ability progressed a bit more before I could tackle it. Station to Station is probably my favorite Bowie album so I knew I couldn’t phone it in once I approached it. There are sections in that song in 10/4 time, and the meter can get really odd when trying to fit it into the reggae box. I think it’s easily the hardest song I’ve tried to remix but I’m really happy with how it turned out.
Synthbeat: If and when the raw tracks for some of Bowie’s later albums, in particular ‘The Next Day’ and ‘Blackstar’ become available, I can’t imagine you’d pass up the opportunity!
Nate Bridges: I would love to do my version of Blackstar. I absolutely adore that album, and I think it’s easily up there with the best work Bowie ever did. I even recently got a Blackstar inspired tattoo. That album just really speaks to me. So many of Bowie’s albums he’s playing characters, but Blackstar is just Bowie, the man, facing the infinite void. It’s just incredible stuff. I know there is an acapella of the track “Lazarus” floating around, but as far as I know, nothing else has surfaced quite yet. When it does, I will be there.
Synthbeat: How do you manage the balance between keeping the original song and the temptation to go off on some abstract tangent?
Nate Bridges: I typically try not to get too weird with these remixes because the fact that they’re being done as reggae songs is already a tough hill to climb for most people. I just want to show listeners that “yes, this is a remix, but it’s still the song you know and love.” There is no point in coloring outside the lines when you’re already using an entirely different coloring book. I think the first Bowie EP is very weird, and I’ve always been surprised that people like it. Most of those remixes show zero resemblance to the original songs and what I learned going forward from that was that I needed to hold people’s hands a bit more. The soundtrack remixes I do can tend to get a bit weirder though. Like the Star Trek stuff, that is the kind of material that lets me just do whatever I want really.
Synthbeat: What are the roles of Wise Owl and Dub Robot on these?
Nate Bridges: I’ve known Brian Wallace for 15 years now, and I was actually interning at his Rockwell Sounds recording studio when he first created Dub Robot. I was about 15 or 16 at the time, and as far as I was concerned High School was just getting in the way of my time at the studio. I actually lobbied the school board to let me spend all of my Study Hall time at Rockwell at the end of every day. Wallace had been the school band teacher up to that point and had taught so many kids about ska, and rocksteady. Instead of a school ‘Jazz Band’ we had a school Ska Band. It was amazing. One of those kids in Ska Band was Brandon Niznik (Wise Owl) and he also formed a really close relationship with Wallace. Brandon and I were both super into reggae but it wasn’t until I moved back to LA after Spain that he and I decided to move in together and start a studio that we really started collaborating all the time.
Wallace is my first call for sax, and he usually will add something strange and unique I didn’t even ask for. On a recent remix of ‘I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times’ from the Black Market & The Beach Boys EP Wallace replaced the theremin part with a hand saw he played with a violin bow. He’s incredibly creative with stuff like that. Niznik is easily one of the best bass players and all-around musicians that I know. He has a knack for rhythm and arrangement that is unparalleled in my opinion. He will often add bass, guitars, keys, and synths to my tracks and I’m constantly learning from his technique. I honestly think if it weren’t for the time I spent living with him in Los Angeles I don’t know if Black Market would have become as good as it has. Both of these guys are mentors to me but more than that they are just incredible friends and I love getting to make music with them both.
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