"I was the experimenter — the innovator," says Hopeton Overton Brown, the audio engineer more commonly known as Scientist. “The different ways of how to do things, the unknown, the crazy, the unheard of."
In the studio — his lab, if you will — Scientist developed and iterated on the engineering, mixing and mastering techniques that would inform the sound of dub, an even bassier subgenre of reggae which uses the studio itself as an instrument. Dub records often repurposed, stretched and inverted existing vocals or riddims, creating distinctly new tunes which would lay the foundation for hip-hop and much contemporary electronic music.
"Make no mistake about it: Dub music was the first electronic music," Scientist declares. "Dub mixes, they're more popular than the original track that it came from, and they have a longer lifespan. [Dub is] more relevant now than then, because of the computer age that we live in and the age group that keep latching onto it — [that’s] what I find makes it timeless."
Scientist has touched many of those timeless tunes, having worked his way through most of Jamaica's major studios in the 1970s and 1980s. At just 16 years old, Scientist displayed a prodigious talent for working with and repairing electronics, and found himself in the studio of dub progenitor King Tubby. He eventually secured an apprenticeship and later replaced an "unreliable" engineer, thus beginning his journey as a pioneer behind the console.
As the sound of reggae and dub evolved — and as Scientist's technical prowess developed — he began doing vocal and dub work at the legendary Studio One, Channel One and Tuff Gong studios. His imprint can be heard on tracks by top Jamaican artists like Freddy McGregor, Sugar Minott, Michigan & Smiley, Johnny Osborne, Yellowman and many others, as well as musicians Sly & Robbie and instrumental group Roots Radics. Often, he’d work on four to five songs a day for different artists, back to back.
While Scientist kept busy in the studio, "the dance hall was our test ground," he recalls. "We would watch how people react and we would listen to the quality of sound – which one sound thicker, which one sound heavier. When we can hear bass vibrating and shaking the place… then [the musicians and producers] slowly start to adjust."
Scientist's own albums — many of which have a space or horror theme, such as Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires — are beloved among dub collectors and occasionally subject to unlicensed reissues. Six such albums were the subject of litigation with UK imprint Greensleeves after Scientist alleged copyright infringement in the early 2000s.
Yet Scientist remains particularly cool about his work. He alternately compares engineering to working as a cashier or in an airplane, where songs, like people, pass by in fleeting encounters. Creating the sound of Jamaica was simply a job, he contends. "I don't do it for me, I do it for the public. I do it for the atmosphere. I give each one the same treatment."
Scientist left the island in 1985, as the sounds of dub made way for dancehall. He landed in New York, engineering in a variety of studios before departing for California to work with Soul Syndicate and Michael Rose. Today, he mixes and engineers records for artists both in and outside of reggae — including a forthcoming Paul McCartney/Michael Jackson remix — and does live dub mixing at shows across the country.
Next up, the dub legend will return to New York for a Halloween performance, aptly titled Scientist Rids Brooklyn Of The Evil Vampires, where he'll set up a mixing console in the middle of the dancefloor and dub for singer Coolie Ranx. Ahead of the performance, Scientist looked back on some of his most memorable works.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Bob Marley - "Music Gonna Teach" (orig. 1971)
Bunny Wailer came to Channel One Studio with a Bob Marley tape, "Music Gonna Teach." He gone everywhere with it, and nobody didn't know how to get [the song] off [the tape]. Nobody didn't want to take a chance and handle that tape, because the tape was so old and brittle.
It took me hours. I put the white editing tape over the old tape so it would have some support. The two track machine at Channel One was down, so I was like, how the hell am I going to get this vocal off? So I was like, let me take this two track tape and put it on the 16-track recorder.
I just want to play it one time, getting it level, and have one shot to get the transfer to something else. [But] it’s not strong enough to rewind — if you try to rewind, it might break.
So you have to take time, cue up the tape, and then hit record on the four-track machine, then play on the 16 track machine. We only have that one window to get it right, anything else you won't know what will happen. Then after you run that out, then the recording musicians dub around Bob’s voice. I think it was the Roots Radics that played on that track — Bunny Wailer is not here to tell us anymore.
Barrington Levy – "Collie Weed" (1979)
I was self-taught. When I first was at Tubby's, I was just fixing [equipment]…. the original engineer that used to be there was very unreliable. I wanted to go to a real studio to see if the theory that I have in my head was correct, because I was thinking I could build a mixing console. [Eventually, I] become a trusted person.
And I’m telling Tubby, "Hey Tubby, I think I can do that." [He says] "no man, no man." I begged and begged and begged. "Nope, I'm not doing it." Eventually, he reluctantly let me [engineer] and guess what happened? It was a hit — No. 1.
In the early '70s, I went to Tubby’s to tell him about [an idea I had for] a console where the faders were moving by itself — [he had an] old time a dial board. We didn’t have computer technology like [we do] now. Microprocessors… all these programs, we didn't have that there [yet].[Tubby thought the automatic fader idea was a fantasy.] They were up there saying, "You’re crazy. Stop smoking that [weed]."
When I first was trying to get a band to use headphones, everybody laughed at me! I was at the studio but I already knew the problems that the monitors caused. Thirty years afterwards, all these things that I have been talking about come in.
Lone Ranger - M16 (1980)
I started working with Lone Ranger at Studio One. The people who played on that Lone Ranger record were the "gurus" at that time, but by then they were more willing to just let me do my thing and take recommendations.
If you listen to Willie Williams' "Armageddon Time" or Freddie McGregor at Studio One, they had very, very good musicians and composition, but what was lacking was the technical know-how that I came and developed. For example, the gospel that had been taught in the industry, worldwide, was you should always record flat without no equalization. And then I came to Studio One and changed that — I was the youngest one coming up with a different way of doing things.
What they wanted was to record with guitar amplifiers, but I'm an electrical engineer who knows there is nothing special about the guitar amplifier. I started plugging directly into the console and not through the guitar. A lot of people did not want to do it…but even now, I don't use guitar amplifiers at shows.
Michigan & Smiley – "Diseases" (1981)
[When I was engineering this song], the way I wanted to set up the snare drum, the drummer was reluctant. But after a couple records, everybody start getting more comfortable.
But [Roots Radics keyboardist and chief arranger] Steely in particular, Steely was the guy that made it gel. He would come up to the console, and he’s enjoying the mix and [saying] "yeah, yeah, that’s the right sound."
It was so much recording [with Roots Radics]. It was every day, we were coming to the studio; it's so many songs. If I was to hear the songs, I'd say "yep, that’s where it started right here — you hear the difference of the drum?"
If you listen to recordings of what came before and after that, you can hear — that is when people noticed, [and said] "we understand what's going on."
Yellowman and Fathead – "Funky Reggae Party" (1982)
One of his first records that I mixed, by Tubby's. Yellowman was just breaking out; he was in an orphanage home. He took himself somewhere — somebody who was abandoned to someone who was a worldwide known person.
This was six months to a year in between [when I recorded] one of his No. 1 songs, "I'm Getting Married." I mixed that whole record [his debut, Mister Yellowman].
Sugar Minott – "No Vacancy" (1983)
During this time, I had just left Tubby's and had gone to Channel One. Over at Channel One, they were used to a particular thing, and most people were not willing to make a change. But when the up-and-coming musicians came to record, they weren't into the politics — they were just happy to record.
So, all the young, no-name musicians, they end up getting better recording, because they were willing to take the technical advice I had and they just deal with music. So their recordings start sounding better than these so-called gurus.
Shaggy - "Bullet Proof Buddy" (1994)
I used to work in Brooklyn — right off Flatbush, on Cortelyou, Bedford Avenue — we used to have a studio down there, that’s where I first met Shaggy. His manager was Carlton Livingston, I knew him from back in Jamaica. Then he introduced me to Shaggy. I never heard a voice like that.
I’d develop all the techniques to record vocals – by the time I come there to Brooklyn, I know exactly what to do with Shaggy. A lot of engineers, they over compress the vocals. [They use] the wrong microphone position. Even if I tell you the technical things, these circumstances [are] always changing based on the acoustics of the place, the singer, the environment, there's a bunch of different variables. The only thing I cannot teach you to do is how to hear.
So, you have to know how to hear and identify what sounds good. Using all that technique that I developed over time, I apply that to Shaggy and just about any artist that I work with now.
Khruangbin – "Cómo Te Quiero" (2018)
I find myself doing everything [else] more than reggae nowadays. Laura Lee, the bass player [of Khruangbin], said the dub music that I was making is what influenced her to do style playing bass. So, she got in touch with me through a record label in the UK. They send me the tapes, We negotiated a contract, and we went to work. they just send the tape, and said, "hey, do what you do best."
I did quite a few of them, and they released some on that album [2018’s Con Todo el Mundo], with the intention to release more later.
Sublime - Sublime Meets Scientist & Mad Professor Inna L.B.C. (2021)
The people who got me involved was also fans, they work at Universal Records, and we negotiated a fair contract.
When I see people cover other people's songs, or imitate other people, to me it's a compliment. Because if it was not good, they wouldn't want to get attached to it. And everybody have got some influence from somebody — like I have influence through Tubby, even though he didn't physically teach me anything, but I was influenced by him.
I'm doing it for Sublime fans. My personal feelings, they don't have to get attached to it. I'm going to give it the same love, like any other record.
Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson - "Say Say Say" (unreleased)
These people find me; I guess they probably heard about what I’m doing with other music and all that stuff. They approach me and you didn't need any lawyers to read that contract. It was just cut, dry, plain.
One of them is Michael Jackson's "Say Say Say" and [another track is] "Frank Sinatra Party." They are different versions, A side [remix and a] B side [dub] mix using the techniques that I have developed. [Dub], in a way, breathes new life and brings back somebody that cannot speak from the dead.
I'm a fan of all good artists and all music. I like music that has nothing to do with reggae; music is music. [But] reggae is Mike Tyson and these other genres is Peewee Herman. [Laughs] So if you can fight Mike Tyson, then you know you don't have to worry about fighting Peewee Herman. You can just look at him and he tip over.
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