Through A Medium Glass and a Few Faxes: A Brief Exchange With Howie B
It's a hard knock life when you're one of the most sought after producers on the planet. My first encounter with
a Howie B production was mid-1994 - Tricky's classic second single, "Ponderosa," the soundtrack to the
worst Sunday morning of your whole life. I loved the ramshackle percussion, and then the runaway piano at the end
that sounded like it might have been lifted directly from an old Howlin Wolf tune, a Sun label proto-dub, or one
of those loose and carefree 1940s R&B albums that sound to me like a cousin of classic dub - there's a certain
recklessness, a total disdain for rules and structures. It's all about going for it, tweaking it massive.
"Yes I love R&B," says Howie. "And Yes it is a big colour in my musical makeup box. The piano
in question was actually played by both Tricky and I. I played the top and he played the bottom, it was a great
laugh."
Since then, Howie B has latched onto the dub virus, spreading through our listening culture, lurking in the production
room on several of the strangest and most high profile releases over the mid to late 90s. For instance, there was
the Passengers project which paired U2, Brian Eno and Pavarotti; production work on Robbie Robertson's Contact
From The Underworld of The Red Boy, in which Robertson explored his Native Indian roots in a dubwise soundscape;
a recent remix of Steve Reich; one of my favorite tracks on Bjork's Homogenic; not forgetting those weird production
tricks that littered up Ry Cooder's soundtrack to Wim Wenders' End of Violence (Q: How has working on soundtracks
changed the way you listen to and make music? A: Space, environment, no rules.); and U2, again, DJ-ing the Popmart
tour and extensive engineering/mixing work on the Pop album itself.
Not particularly well received after its 1997 release, U2's Pop now strikes me as one of those more inventive albums
of the decade, a signpost to future days. Listen close to it - in the tradition of Primal Scream's collaboration
with Andrew Weatherall on Screamadelica, dub, rock, electronica, and blues are blended together. You want to talk
about 'post-rock,' well then this is it. Sure, it's not without fault, but what other high profile group in the
nineties has actually broken new sonic ground? And Howie B deserves credit.
"When I produce," says Howie, "My intention is to bring the listeners ears the artist's music. If
you can't hear them, then you can't hear me. It is about expressing themselves, No method."
His sound is etched onto Pop tracks like the squelching, frenetic "Do You Feel Loved," the perfect bass
sounds and tight zooms of "If God Will Sound His Angels," and the totally sonically subversive "Miami."
The effect of Howie B is clear when you stack Pop on top of Sly & Robbie's Drum & Bass Strip To The Bone
by Howie B. The propulsive and funky lead track and single, "Superthruster," on the latter sounds like
it could be from either album. Suggested by Chris Blackwell, the latter arose from sessions in Kingston, Jamaica
in February 1998 between Howie B's programming and keyboards team, Naked Funk, and the legendary Jamaican rhythm
section, Sly & Robbie.
(Q: What is it, do you think, that makes Sly & Robbie's sound distinct, amongst reggae rhythm sections? A:
You can hear them talking to each other, and most of the time their conversations are universal.)
Essentially, the two camps improvised with each other, while Howie B mixed live. "'The dub aspect of communicating,'"
is Howie B refers to it. "By that I mean Robbie plays a bass, I react by delaying and distorting it, fucking
it up, then he reacts to that and so on and so on."
(Q: Do you think it's fair to say that the role of dub reggae, though acknowledged at times, has been undervalued
in the development of what might be called 'dance underground' (for lack of a better label to capture house, drum'n'bass,
triphop, etc.)? A: It doesn't matter that is History. What matters is, does it have a place today? And now I think
it has!)
In different interviews, Sly & Robbie gave huge praise to Howie. In Toronto's Exclaim magazine, Sly Dunbar
says, "It was very exciting to see the way Howie B worked. He reminded me of Scratch (Lee Perry). You know,
that kind of excitement while a track was being played. I think it was great, because he was using the stuff like
I've never heard - all this outboard gear. I mean he'd wring everything out of it. Serious! He would just go for
some crazy, crazy thing, you know? It was fun." (There's some wicked mid-70s footage of Scratch recording
the Upsetters, while dancing and jumping around in the producer's booth - how can so much energy be packed into
one guy, and a small guy, at that?)
On Sly & Robbie's "Softcore Surge" and on "Cook For You" from his most recent solo album,
Snatch, the richness of Cuban music lies in the centre of music. It's a country which, like Jamaica, has one of
the most vibrant musical cultures in the world. Howie calls it "the melting pot of Afro, Caribbean and Latin
music with a touch of Classical." Cuban music's also the perfect analogy for Howie B productions, which are
always a melting pot of sounds, but with dub at the root there's nothing that can't be embraced.
What can I say? He's got the skills to pay the bills. My brother Jim asked my advice recently on what CDs he should
bring to test out a new stereo system in the store. Howie B's Snatch was top of my list. I can't think of anything
else I own, which flies out of the speaker in such a fucked up way.
In his last words: "I think in challenging myself which in turn means I am challenging the listener."
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