Style, you're one of a small list of famous Jamaican drummers, but where did your story start?
Style Scott: "I didn't grow up in Kingston; I grew up in the countryside in the parish of St. Ann. My grandfather, an ex-R.A.F. man, played the Hawaiian guitar (also known as the steel guitar, a type of guitar or the method of playing the instrument. Developed in Hawaii in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a steel guitar is usually positioned horizontally; strings are plucked with one hand, while the other hand changes the pitch of one or more strings with the use of a bar or slide called a steel, generally made of metal, but also of glass or other materials, red.). He taught me to play that instrument as well, but even in those days I was already constructing my own drums from clay pots and denim fabric. I always counted myself lucky to have grown up in a musically inclined family. At one point I left my grandparents' house to go and live with my father, who was living in Montego Bay on the east coast of the island at that time. This introduced me to a more urban way of living. I must have been around 18 or 19 years old at the time and got a job as a waiter in one of the hotels. They always had bands playing there and when I was on my break I used to sneak behind the drum set every so often and befriended some of the drummers. One of them was called Wade Hampton aka. Monkey Man, a very good drummer who taught me a lot. However, I then signed up for the army and during my enlistment I joined the army drum corps. During that period I started listening to a lot of rhythm and blues and that drum style influenced me a lot as well. After I left the army I went to live in Kingston and started hanging out at Channel One studio and Studio One. You had this street corner in downtown Kingston commonly known as Randy's, where most of the musicians used to hang out. There I met Gregory Isaacs and after a while we became good friends. He owned a record shop on Chancery Lane (African Museum Record Store) and put a drum set there for me to practice on. I will never forget that! Around that same period I became a member of the Roots Radics together with people like Bingy Bunny (guitar, red.) and Flabba Holt (bass, red.). From there it really all kicked off and I never looked back!"
It must have been around that same period that you teamed up with Prince Far-I?
Style Scott: "Prince Far-I was one of the greatest! He was the very first artist in Jamaica to make the coarse voice popular. These days everyone thinks of Buju Banton when you talk about a coarse voice, but Prince Far-I was the original. He was one of the first artists willing to give me a chance. Actually, it was through going on tour with him that I got the opportunity to meet Adrian Sherwood. In the United Kingdom we first formed a band called Creation Rebel and out of that band Dub Syndicate later developed."
It's pretty clear what Adrian Sherwood saw in you, but back then Adrian was, to put it bluntly, just an eccentric cockney white boy. What attracted you in what he was offering?
Style Scott: "Adrian started out in the business selling and producing records. In the early days he used to drive around in a little van, driving to different record shops in and around London. He didn't do that for the money, but simply because he loved the music. As I already told you, I met Adrian through working with Prince Far-I. Sometimes after we'd finished a tour I would stay behind in London. I liked Adrian's character, so I used to help him out with his record selling business. After a while Adrian also started experimenting with sound engineering and that's when we got Dub Syndicate going. We always worked with samples, because Adrian was weary of going into business with Jamaican singers or musicians. Until the third album, 'Tunes From The Missing Channel' (On-U Sound, 1985), I wasn't even on all the tracks yet, because Adrian used a lot of computer generated sounds."
From your perspective as a drummer, what was the big difference between your days with Roots Radics and Dub Syndicate?
Style Scott: "Working with Adrian taught me a lot of stuff I didn't know yet, technically speaking I mean. The things he was experimenting with were very innovative at the time. On the other hand Roots Radics was where everything started for me, so without that band you probably wouldn't be here talking to me today."
What do you prefer playing, the synth-drums or an acoustic set?
Style Scott: "I bought a Simmons SDS 5 (The Simmons SDS 5 or Simmons Drum Synthesizer was the first viable electronic replacement for acoustic drums. It was developed by Richard James Burgess and Dave Simmons, and manufactured initially by Musicaid in Hatfield, red.) way back when it came on the market and for me that was just another musical experiment. Personally, I'm not too fond of synth-drums, because with these pre-programmed sounds the feel you get isn't that great. At that time Sly Dunbar and I were the only two drummers in Jamaica who owned a synth-drum and played it on a professional level. I now also own an AKAI sampler which I use occasionally when I have to work in a studio that doesn't have the facilities to play an acoustic drum set. To me the acoustic drums are still my favorite, though; they're a lot more versatile."
Over the years Dub Syndicate has worked with a whole host of vocalists. One of the most remarkable ones, I think I can even say eccentric ones, has to be Lee 'Scratch' Perry. What's your take on the man?
Style Scott: "Well, I think I can be clear about that. I'm very glad I got a chance to work with him, because to me that man is a genius! Nuff said!"
For the 'The Rasta Far I' album, you worked with a lot of popular Jamaican artists, people like Luciano, Capleton, Big Youth and Gregory Isaacs to name but a few. What inspired you to record this more Jamaican style of album?
Style Scott: "The thing was that my partner in crime, Adrian Sherwood, was really occupied doing other things - among other things Adrian is these days touring as a deejay - and with the music business in decline you have to think ahead before starting a music project these days. As they say: "The only thing that lasts is salvation!" Records are just not selling anymore the way they used to and doing an album with popular artists like Luciano and Capleton was my way of still trying to put a sellable product out there that would at least get me a small profit."