№ 131
Next up on The EDWIN Music Channel, is producer, songwriter, and DJ, Gavsborg, a member of the Jamaican recording and performance collective Equiknoxx, which has been active since 2015.
№ 131 - Gavsborg
№ 131 - GAVSBORG - The EDWIN Music Channel
Together with his friends Shanique Marie, Time Cow, Bobby Blackbird, and Kemikal Splash, he injected his Dance-hall music particles via elements of field recordings, Hip-Hop, Soul, and Dub.
Since 2017, Gavsborg, who currently resides in Berlin, Germany, has released solo music, elevating experimental Dancehall and Reggae to a new plateau, whilst using all the manifold electronic techniques, that modern music production brings along. You can hear Techno's traces in his music. Dub elements are all over the place and soothing rhythms fly high, without catering to the usual dance patterns.
Joining forces with the Equiknoxx OG, we have released an exclusive cassette tape “Select”, into the wild, featuring unreleased mutant Dancehall intensity by Gavsborg.
A 45-minute-long rhythm voyage, that refines his Dancehall roots along percussive extravaganza, Soul, House, and speedy footwork sensibilities. A diverse musical gathering of polyrhythmic steppers. Spicy, and always surprising.
The tape is released alongside a limited T-shirt, raising funds for the institution 'Jamaicans For Justice', which serves hundreds of Jamaicans each year by providing legal services in response to human rights violation.
To celebrate the release of the exclusive tape and tee, we sat down with Gavsborg to discuss the driving force behind his creativity, role models and all that Dancehall.
Q. Gavsborg, could you introduce yourself a bit to our readers? What have been some pivotal moments in your life that have led you to what you do now?
A. I’m Gavin Blair aka Gavsborg, I am a Jamaican music producer, DJ and songwriter. From Dancehall to Hip hop, Electronic, and Soul I have been experimenting with different styles of music as far back as I can remember and have been doing this work full-time now for almost ten years.
I founded the Equiknoxx collective back at Wolmer’s High School with friends back in the day which grew to where it’s at now which is a performance and recording collective and the Equiknoxx Music label.
Q. Growing up in Jamaica, what music were you exposed to? And do you still remember your first musical memory?
A. Some of my first musical memories were of my grandma in the kitchen cooking big pots of Jamaican stew beef and green bananas while singing “What a bam bam“ by Toots and the Maytals. I was also exposed to all sorts of music via a program that used to air on Hot102 FM called the “Friday & Saturday night house party”.
Master Wayne, DJ Lippo & Bones would serve up mostly Dancehall and Hip-hop and through their selections I would dig a bit deeper into hip-hop songs trying to find sample sources which ended up putting me on to other sounds. For example, finding out about Wendy Rene thru RZA & Raymond Scott & Stan Getz through J Dilla etc.
Q. Do you have any role models, inspirations, or benchmarks for the creative work you do?
A. When growing up I used to be a huge fan of Dave Kelly from Mad House Records, he felt like a hometown hero of sorts as he apparently grew up not far from me in Vineyard Town, East Kingston. Ward 21, Blaxx, Teetimus, Jazzwad, Daseca, Leftside & Esco were also fundamental to my earlier years.
I can tell you about a few non-exhaustive important moments for me.
I went to Sugar Minott’s studio at age 16 and understood some of the processes and the discipline it takes to commit to a life of being in the studio in Kingston. Also, meeting Alty Nunes aka Lil Joe/ J.O.E and learned so much from him, from learning how to write lyrics to songs and understanding how to prepare demos for vocalists etc. We used to write lots of lyrics and present them to different vocalists locally, one of those was “Jim Screechie” by Spice. Spice loved our demo and added in some of her own lyrics and it has become one of her performance staples. And finally: meeting both Billy and Gussie Clarke, with Gussie being my first publisher and Billy being a good friend similar in age group. Billy had access to Anchor Studio and would invite me and others in, this helped me to gain a lot of the hands-on experience that I have now. Billy also had access to a car, that I would sometimes sleep in after long nights of driving from town to town trying to be heard by Jamaican audiences.
I can tell you about a few non-exhaustive important moments for me.
I went to Sugar Minott’s studio at age 16 and understood some of the processes and the discipline it takes to commit to a life of being in the studio in Kingston. Also, meeting Alty Nunes aka Lil Joe/ J.O.E and learned so much from him, from learning how to write lyrics to songs and understanding how to prepare demos for vocalists etc. We used to write lots of lyrics and present them to different vocalists locally, one of those was “Jim Screechie” by Spice. Spice loved our demo and added in some of her own lyrics and it has become one of her performance staples. And finally: meeting both Billy and Gussie Clarke, with Gussie being my first publisher and Billy being a good friend similar in age group. Billy had access to Anchor Studio and would invite me and others in, this helped me to gain a lot of the hands-on experience that I have now. Billy also had access to a car, that I would sometimes sleep in after long nights of driving from town to town trying to be heard by Jamaican audiences.
Q. Can you tell us a bit about the tape we released together? When/How was the music made, is there a philosophy behind it and how would you describe the sound we hear?
A. All the music for this tape was made by me right here at my home/home studio in Berlin and mainly features some of the sounds that I have been playing in my DJ and live sets over the last few months. Often, I get asked for track IDs of the sounds I use and figured it would be cool to release some of them. It felt like this was a good opportunity to share some of them exclusively on this tape.
Q. The tape is accompanied by an exclusive T-shirt with a special design. Can you tell us the story behind it and for what good cause it gets sold?
A. I thought that this could also be a beautiful opportunity to raise funds for an unprejudiced & non-partisan organization back home in Jamaica (JFJ) Jamaicans For Justice. So, I hit up good friends Eóin MacManus & Gustavo Dao and shared my vision with them and they sent me a couple of designs which I was feeling straight off the bat.
Here is some more info about JFJ:
" JFJ serves hundreds of Jamaicans each year by providing legal services in response to human rights violations, working on legislation and policy, campaigning for social justice causes, and conducting high-impact research that shapes the national human rights agenda: www.jamaicansforjustice.org "
I respect the work that JFJ does and have partnered with before, and I am always thinking of ways to partner with them.
Q. What is the driving force of your creativity? And what or who inspires your work generally?
A. A lot of my work is inspired by people close to me plus strangers that have left some impression on me. Back in the day, a joy of mine used to be when I would make a track and imagine people close to me like Ico, Alty, or Angie enjoying it and then play it for them and see if that was their reaction. One of those tracks was called “Step Out” and it made its way from being a track for that purpose to ending up being the breakthrough song for Jamaican vocalist Busy Signal. I still do that now with my friends and family.
Q. What is your view on the value of music today? In what way does the abundance of music change our perception of it?
A. I find that in light of abundance I still only gravitate to specific sounds, so though there is so much to pick from, what I end up picking from it all may often be very little.
Q. If you were to predict the sound of tomorrow, what would it be?
A. So far, all the 'music of tomorrow' that I heard always sounds like yesterday, and it sounds good.
Q. What exciting projects do you currently have in the pipeline? Is any new Equiknoxx music coming?
A. Excited about new solo projects as well as new projects with Equiknoxx, not sure when they will be released but so far just enjoying the creation process.
Q. Do you think that future generations will remember the music you release like we remember the music of Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart?
A. Haha! Good question, while that is not an expectation of mine. For posterity, I will indeed do my best to make it available to my audience and what happens to it after it reaches their hands is totally up to them.
Q. How does living in Berlin shape the atmosphere of your music?
A. Berlin is cool in the sense that I get to meet other like-minded people but from different walks of life, That’s something I never had much access to back home.
Photo credits: Moïse Youmba
You can purchase the Tee & Tape via Gavsborg's own Bandcamp page or at one of the retailers listed below:
BOOMKAT
HARDWAX
Ergot Records
SKYDIVER
HHV
Audiopile
Clique Records
JUNO MEDIA
Rubadub
№ 131 - GAVSBORG - The EDWIN Music Channel
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