In A Rub-A-Dub Style

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Sunday 22 February 2009 (Michael Bugeja - The Sunday Times of Malta)

“Our first gig was in a hall near the Tarxien football ground. The hall could hold 500 people but so many more turned up on the day that a good number had to stand outside and listen to us”. The ‘us’ in question actually refers to Malta’s first (and to date possibly the only) authentic reggae band, Mind’s Eye, with whose originator David Magro I met up recently to talk about his love of the Jamaican music and his current project, Mind’s Eye Dub.

Magro goes back to the band’s early days. The story of Mind’s Eye all started with an advert he placed in this very paper, calling for anyone interested in starting a reggae band to get in touch. “It was around 1987, and two lads from Valletta, Andrew and Simon, replied”, he continues. “It was pretty much jamming sessions at first, but we set ourselves a target – to hold a reggae night on the anniversary of Bob Marley’s death the following year”. That gig worked like a dream, and with such strong support behind them, Mind’s Eye decided to start holding reggae nights more regularly, with the average turnout of well over 300 people per gig.

Eventually, the energy holding the band together started to ebb, but as Magro was going to pull the plug on Mind’s Eye, two musicians he had been playing with in another band, Martin and Joe told him they were interested in joining, and so Mind’s Eye was kept afloat. More reggae events followed, including gigs at Radio City, ABC and the Scouts HQ in Floriana, Rick’s, Sticky Fingers, Best in Town, Marley’s and the old Rock Café in Paceville, and of course, the annual gathering on May 11, the day Bob Marley died. “It was lucky for us that we were a sought-after band, because we never really promoted ourselves or looked for gigs. This was probably because I had always wanted to have a bigger line-up for the band so I kept putting off fully promoting Mind’s Eye until I had achieved my dream formation” Magro confesses.

That dream however never materialized, largely because it was quite difficult to find musicians who didn’t just like reggae, but had a true passion for it. “In reggae discipline is king. There is no room for individual showmanship in the way that say, rock music gives space for solos. Reggae isn’t about the musician, it’s about the ‘feel’ so no musician is more important than the next – they are all equally vital to creating the reggae vibe”, Magro explains. The band eventually took in a fourth member Keith, who took over vocal duties, during which time Mind’s Eye got to support Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers when the latter came to perform here.

This wasn’t Mind’s Eye’s first big experience either. “We had supported Aswad in Marsaxlokk back in 1989 when the British reggae band played at the Give Peace a Chance concert which coincided with the Bush-Gorbachev Malta Summit that took place here that year”. Magro has fond memories of spending time with Aswad mainman Brinsley Ford at the time. “We took him around the island in my beat-up old little car”. Incidentally, Magro’s car was also a protagonist when he also drove Wailers Aston Barrett and Junior Marvin around Malta a few years later. “It was amazing to meet these two guys”, Magro continues with an evident sparkle in his eye. “We even got to jam with them – imagine that, two of Bob Marley’s closest associates having a jam in our humble garage. It is something I will never forget”.

That however was then, and these days, Mind’s Eye has evolved into Mind’s Eye Dub, which is essentially a one-man show. “At some point, we had become a trio again and I took on the singer’s role from behind the drum kit. I’m not the best singer, but I certainly had a feel for it, and this was quite clear from the response we got during our live performances”. Unfortunately, the number of places to perform at started to dwindle as their regular venues brought in DJs, karaoke nights and so on. The band strived against the flow, staging their popular reggae nights with the support of popular radio reggae DJ’s like Pierre Borg and Manwel Tabone and their staunch following. In the end however, they decided that all the time and effort they were putting into the band wasn’t translating into enough gigs, and the band dissolved.

With a load of equipment now stored in his basement and a newfound passion for computer technology, Magro began to experiment on making music on his own, essentially focusing on the largely instrumental dub element of reggae integrated with the sound of the melodica. He sent his first efforts to MP3.com, which was then still a bonafide independent online label. They liked his songs and signed him up, meaning that he would get begin to get paid according to how many people listened to or downloaded his songs. Thanks to this arrangement he generated enough funds to finance his first three albums.

“The first one was self-titled, off which the songs Mental Slavery and Fly away home went to No.1 in the MP3.com charts”. Magro had found his calling and chanced upon a similar site called Vitaminic. “They picked out Fly away home for a demo disc compilation promoting a new minidisc player that Phillips was launching”. Magro never did get paid for this, but he insists that the exposure he got from the deal was astounding. “They put up a banner on their landing page linked to my page, and the amount of hits I got was incredible”. This surely helped propel his consequent successes on the MP3.com charts, among them Morant Bay Rebellion and New Kind of War, with both songs making the site’s Top 10.

Branching out into other musical networking charts such as Versionist and other reggae forums, Magro established firm contacts with other reggae artists and sound systems, the latter a pivotal factor in the reggae world. Among the collaborations he has featured on are songs by top reggae acts such as Alpha & Omega, ADF, Kenny Knots, Kris Naphtali and a project with Reuben Abib also featuring General Smiley, Dillinjah and Ras I Natural. Locally, he also collaborated with (now defunct) electronic duo Particle Blue on a track from their acclaimed 2004 album Generation Hope.

He has also produced dubplates (unique remixes for reggae sound systems) on request but his latest project is the brand new album I Wanna love U. “This is my fifth album to date, and I have tried to experiment a bit more, sampling and reworking vocal bits from popular reggae songs for example, to try and break into the mainstream”. In fact, Magro released the title track to radio last year, but while it did go down well with some stations, the main commercial radios totally overlooked it. “One of the big stations contacted me as they thought it was an interesting release, but it didn’t get any further than that. I doubt they ever played the song” he says with a hint of disappointment.

Interestingly, Magro has made the album available as a free download from his website. “Yes, I got the idea from Chris Blackwell (founder of Island Records). He always said that most artists don’t make their money from the records but from the live performances that follows and the merchandise”. Given that Magro’s one-man show won’t be venturing onstage anytime soon, this would mean he hardly stands to earn even one cent for his efforts. “Not exactly”, he begs to differ. “Some people do eventually order an original copy, but the thing is, I am not making music to earn a living. I make music because I love reggae. I love the fact that people around the world are listening to my songs and hopefully sharing the same vibe that I get from playing and recording them”.

But is dub as effective in conveying a message as traditional reggae music? “In my case, it may be less obvious, but the title of each song suggests what inspired the music. I get my inspiration from various areas – books I’ve read, places I’ve visited, people I meet and so on. Then I try to instill sounds into each song to project the theme and the aura that inspired it. Ge’ez Dub for example is about the ancient Ethiopian language; Hergla is about a secluded Tunisian city I fell in love with. The name Mind’s Eye was after all inspired by its core meaning – imagination, and this still plays a big part of the music I make”.

Minds Eye Dub website