interview: easy star all-stars
Being in a cover band doesn’t tend to net you a whole lot of “real” fans. Altogether reinterpreting classic songs is perhaps an even greater risk, it is one that the New York City-based reggae collective, Easy Star All-Stars, has undertaken with passion, love, and success to boot.
Easy Star All-Stars have indeed become best known for their reinterpretations of albums including Radiohead’s OK Computer, titled Radiodread, and The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, titled Easy Star’s Lonely Hearts Dub Band. But they originally got attention through their cover of the seminal Pink Floyd album, Dark Side of the Moon, aptly naming their creation Dub Side of the Moon, and this is the album they are returning to Australia to play in full for the first time. It’s an exciting and momentous venture for the band, but their journey with this particular album wasn’t entirely smooth sailing.
‘Dub Side was definitely a labour of love,’ says touring bassist and vocalist, Ras I Ray. ‘We never imagined that it would get as big as it did.
‘When we first wanted to do it, we had to get permission, and at first … Pink Floyd camp was adamant against it. But we sent them a demo of the rough stuff that we did and they loved it. They had a change of heart when they heard the demo so that’s what gave us the confidence to go ahead with it.
‘Just for them to like the demo that we sent to them and give us the okay, that was enough to really just satisfy us, even if the fans didn’t like it, we were glad that the Pink Floyd camp liked it enough. They liked it enough for us to go ahead and re-make it so that was an honour in and of itself.’
Talking to Ras I Ray, it’s apparent that these aren’t just cheap words. His warm and gracious voice expresses a kind of inexplicable mysticism around their music; they have genuine talent and passion for music, but the technical side of it seems secondary to feeling.
‘Each night there’s something different going on because it’s so fluid, so flexible, that’s what I love about touring with this band, is because it never gets boring. I mean I don’t care if we play the same songs night after night after night, it’s never going to be the same,’ he explains. ‘I mean just the energy, how the crowd responds and the mood that we’re in, and I think that’s the magic of dub, it’s so open for re-interpretation with every show.
‘We’re going to be doing Dub Side in its entirety for the first time in Australia, that’s going to be fun! But I know it’s going to be like we’ve never done it before because it’s so spontaneous … it’s been magic, just to have the opportunity to bring it down to Australia again, we’ve been looking forward to coming there for so long again and now the opportunity came, we didn’t want to miss this chance.’
Although their Australian shows will see them playing Dub Side of the Moon, Easy Star All-Stars have also written recorded their own material. Far from having been pigeonholed as a cover or novelty band, it was indeed the fans who started asking for original material from them; a request that they happily fulfilled. In fact, Ras I Ray describes the most difficult aspect of creating their 2008 EP, Until that Day. The recording was embraced by fans, says Ras I Ray, and was released to an overwhelmingly positive reception. Nonetheless, their re-interpreted albums remain the best known of their catalogue, and it’s clear that the band holds no animosity about this.
‘Michael Goldwasser [the record producer behind the Easy Stars’ albums] worked his magic and here we are now almost 10 years later and the fans still want to hear Dub Side, they still want to hear Radiodread so that’s proof that he did a great job and I’m looking forward to years and years of playing his music because I love it and it’s fun. I mean, it’s just good to see the reaction from different fans – the Pink Floyd fans, the Beatles fans, and the Radiohead fans – I mean they really embrace every bit of it and it’s an honour.’
Easy Star All-Stars will be playing The Falls Festival as well as several gigs on the East Coast. Click here for all the information about dates and tickets!
