Dub | Med Dred

The Interview

IRIE. Tell us the story behind your name, Med Dred?

Med Dred: I was talking with a sound system guy and we were like discussing stuff. I was like I need some kind of name to come up with. I didn’t know what to use but I always wanted like a dread title as in “dreadful”. We thought of Eastern Dred because of my middle eastern location, but then people might think of far east as in China or Japan. So I decided on Med as in Mediteranean and Med Dred was born.

IRIE. Your style is reminiscent of the old dub masters and sound engineers of Jamaica. You’ve manage to assimilate their sounds and transform it into something completely new and original. Who are some of your past and present influences?

Med Dred: Well definitely King Tubby and the Scientist. They influence my sound. Lee ‘Perry’, Bob Marley… the melody side. That’s the melody of reggae that I think is really missing in today’s reggae. There’s Black Uhuru. I love Sly & Robbie when they play with the band Israel Vibrations. There are too many. I love Gregory Isaacs. I listen to him a lot even though most of it is Lovers Rock. it’s the sound behind it. It’s just so there… it’s where I want it to be as well and sometimes I can’t do it and I get frustrated. Sometimes you need that whole, old full analog setup studio and you bring a drummer in. But a lot of that sound is down to musicians as well, especially Lee scratch, studio one and allof the original sounds… Coxsone. Those original sounds came from top vocalist and top musicians… Horace Andy… too many to mention. When I was a teenager, I used to go to bed listening to Black Uhuru albums.

IRIE. What equipment do you use in your studio?

Med Dred: My Med Dred studio kit has been developing over the years. The software I use are as followed; Protools, Logic Pro, Nuendo, Reason, Wavelab and iPad. My favorite sequencer software right now is Reason 8 because of its amazing Audio tools and mixer.

My hardware kit are as followed; Delta 10/10 Sound Card with Digital lightpipe i/o converter, AMT8 Midi interface, Yamaha 02R mixing board, Tascam DA DAT, Focusrite valve preamp, Rode NT2, AKG C3000, SM57 microphones. Alesis Monitor ones and Yamaha NS-10 mini’s monitoring. Beyer Dynamic headphones DT-100 and DT-125, AKG & Seinheiser headphones HD25 MK II.

Hardware sounds; AKAI CD3000XL fully loaded , Ensoniq ASR-10, Ensoniq ASRX-PRO and Korg MS2000. Bleeplabs Bleepdrum Analogue drum machine, Bleeplabs Nebulophone, Korg Monotron DUO and Korg monotron Space Echo. I also use a lot of live African and middle eastern percussion and acoustic instruments which I always record in my mixes. Electric guitar (Lespaul clone), shakers, hi-hats, snares, woodblocks, and last but not least my Melodica’s x 2.

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