Couleur Café: Omar Perry teams up with his father

Couleur Café has come up with a reggae dream team this year, bringing together the legendary producer Lee “Scratch” Perry ( who worked with Bob Marley, the Congos, Max Romeo, and the Wailers), his son Omar Perry, and England’s leading dub producer, Adrian Sherwood. A world premiere. “We’re going to work magic, the three of us!”

We met Omar Perry on a terrasse on Sint-Goriksplein/place Saint-Géry, in the neighbourhood where he lived for years before moving to Schaarbeek/Schaerbeek. This will only be Omar’s third time onstage with his father. “The first time was in Ghent, at his birthday party, with the Congos and Max Romeo, and the second at Dour. It was unplanned and completely improvised. I never thought this could happen. Not many sons have had an opportunity to perform live with their father.”

What should we expect?
Omar Perry: It will be our first time doing an entire concert together; we don’t know exactly how it will turn out. We will let ourselves be seized by the moment! The past, the present, and the future of reggae music will be brought together onstage. We are playing with my group, the Homegrown Band, and with Adrian Sherwood on sound. Adrian will look after the mix and the sound effects, which is incredibly important because we want to give a sharp show. It will be three the magic way!
Is he still “The Upsetter”? [The title of a Lee Perry track on which he took his revenge on a dishonest producer – BT]
Perry: You always have to be careful with my father, but he has become more tolerant about some things that would have made him angry in the past. He lives a quiet life, recording his own sounds, but not doing any producing, except for a few little projects. He doesn’t have Black Ark any more, the legendary studio where all the great reggae artists made so many successful records.
Is he still regarded as crazy?
Perry: Pfff… To survive in this world, to have some success in life, you have to have a touch of madness! To create music and effects like he did, working with four tracks that sound like 24 tracks, you have to be crazy! Down the years and through all those emotions, his path seems consistent to me: being The Upsetter, setting up his Black Ark studio, working with all those artists, Bob Marley, Max Romeo, the Wailers, helping them to create their music, showing them how to play and how to sing… You have to be a genius to know how to do all that! Today that kind of producer-all-rounder doesn’t exist any more. You have guys with money who tell a producer what to do. That destroys producers’ creativity.
Your first collaboration with Adrian Sherwood was for the production of your first single, “Rasta Meditation”.
Perry: Yes, that was in 2003 and we have another project lined up now. You’ll find out more about it soon! These days Adrian is mainly involved in making his own music. He tours all the time. He has reached a point where he no longer wants to spend too long in the studio. A time comes when you want to give people more and feel the direct contact with the public.
You have swapped your Brussels group for a French group. Is it too hard to do reggae in Belgium?
Perry: In Belgium, it’s not only reggae artists who have a hard time of it… You have to be very special or know someone who has good connections to succeed. Brussels has a number of good reggae artists and lots of sound systems, so there should be a market, right? Especially as international reggae groups are almost guaranteed to sell out here. Why don’t local artists manage to fill venues?

Tell us…
Perry: I did some promotional work for Belgian groups in the past; I tried to help them develop, but here in Belgium you don’t support your reggae groups. Really, the media couldn’t give a damn about them! I suppose Belgian reggae isn’t interesting enough to talk about it. You see nothing on the television, you hear nothing on the radio, so what do you expect? When I saw the reaction I got once I had myself produced in France… that said it all.
Your third album, The Journey, which came out at the end of 2011 – was it a sort of autobiography?
Perry: Yeah, I wanted to do an overview of what I have experienced up to now. I have met some good people along the way who joined in on this album: Mad Professor, Sly & Robbie, Dreadzone, Anthony B, Earl 16, Kiddus I. There are 18 tracks, because I wanted to satisfy fans of the whole reggae spectrum: roots, dub, hip hop, acoustic, and dancehall. It’s all there!
Before moving to Brussels, you lived in the Gambia for four years. The Back-to-Africa movement is one of the pillars of Rastafarianism – was that what prompted you to go there?
Perry: No: if you know the history of Jamaica, you’ll know that it’s a country built by African slaves. Everyone in Jamaica considers themselves African. The Rasta movement picked that up later. Me, I just wanted to get to know my motherland and meet the people. You know, in Europe you have everything; in Africa they have nothing. But in Europe people don’t give much; they keep everything for themselves, whereas in Africa, despite having so little, they share. What a contrast! It was a great awakening for me. It doesn’t matter whether you are rich or poor, what’s important is to help other people in life.
What do you think of the banning of reggae concerts in Belgium (Sizzla this year at the Vk*) because of homophobic lyrics?
Perry: The Rastas took their dogmas from the Bible, like the Christians. That’s where they go for their opinions on homosexuals. Me, I’m not interested in talking about gays like some reggae singers do. Life is for everyone: let’s live and let live. At the end of the day, those people who beat up gays are collecting the fruits of what they have sown. As an artist, you should talk of positivity. The times are hard, people are suffering, the mentality of the young leaves a lot to be desired. If Bob Marley is still the absolute benchmark, it’s because people still believe in his message, a combative voice raised on behalf of his people. We have to keep going back to the essence of reggae, not musically, but in the messages. We have to rediscover the conscience.

> Lee & Omar Perry ft. Adrian Sherwood 
& The Homegrown Band, 29/6, 23.30, Univers

Couleur Café • 29/6: 16.30 > 1.30, 30/6: 15.45 > 1.30, 1/7: 15.30 > 1.00, €36/44
Thurn/Tour & Taxis rue Picardstraat 3, Brussel/Bruxelles, www.couleurcafe.be