As the good book says (or one of them at least)…“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,” Getting biblical on your asses for their Subculture debut this Saturday are the Dope Jams duo of Francis Englehardt and Paul Nickerson. We were lucky enough to get invited into their church of dope jams and were treated to a sermon showcasing their love of good music, street art, vinyl sleeves and maple syrup…
The New york Times recently featured the Sub Club in their ‘36 hours in Glasgow‘ video diary. What would you recommend for someone to do with 36 hours in NYC?
Eat breakfast at Shopsins. Eat a burger with bacon at Peter Lugers. Eat pizza at Difara’s. Go to the nearest car rental joint, rent a car and get the fuck out of that millionaires playpen – your soul depends on it!
For anyone who doesn’t know, fill us in on Dope Jams and how it all came about?
Dope Jams was born out of our frustration with shopping for records in NYC. Most of the stores in NY had closed or were graveyards at the time we decided to open the store. Just about everyone in the NY House scene had given up on pressing records and we just couldn’t believe that no one in NY was going to help try to give some fucking life to the city, so we decided to do it.
At the time we didn’t have enough money to buy sandwiches at the local bodega but we just went for it. It’s kind of strange that it’s taken till now to see some of the labels getting into re-releasing the old stuff they should have been pressing all along but we are glad it’s happening. Now if only these labels would start putting some dope new records out!
What do you miss about Brooklyn since moving the store?
Will Burnett.
After all this time in the industry how do you keep motivated? Do you ever feel you have “been there, seen that, done that?” Are you still fortunate to have a passion for it?
We laugh at the entire fucking thing, it has become a complete caricature of itself. However, you continue to have passion for anything you ever cared about if you can separate what it is you love from the hype and bullshit. At the end of the day we couldn’t give a fuck about press or money.. we want to sit down, throw on a dope song and get chills. The rest is completely irrelevant. So as long as there are songs out there that are making the hair on our arms stand up, we will be ok.
How did you get involved in exporting Maple Syrup to Sweden?
Our confidentiality clause prevents us from really talking about it but we smuggled some syrup from the maple trees of Greene County into Scandinavia and upon tasting it the Swedes turned back into the Nordic Vikings of yore..
What are your top 4 Vinyl sleeves?
Beggars Opera – Act One
X-Clan – To The East, Blackwards
House Of Gypsies – Samba / Kool Life
A Tribe Called Quest – The Low End Theory
Armand Van Helden EP
Street Art and Graffiti pops ups in the store and label output. Do you have any particular favourite artists? Can you link us up to some of their work?
Alert (DCK/5AV/IC) – Check it HERE.
What’s your single biggest frustration in the music industry right now?
That their is no one whose opinion you can trust. It used be that whether it was at a store, distributor or magazine their was always someone there who knew dope music. They could suggest something and you bought it blindly, without giving it a listen, and every time it would be spot on. Everyone seems to be floating around lost, nebulous, these days.
We hung out on your last visit to Sub Club. What was your last impression of our Glasgow basement? What are your expectations of returning to the city and to Subculture?
The Sub Club is exactly what a club should be. No frills! Just a dope sound system, a staff that love what they do and an appreciation of complete debauchery.
LISTEN UP TO A RECORDING OF SLOW TO SPEAK’S LAST VISIT TO THE SUB CLUB EARLIER IN 2014 FOR KRYSTAL KLEAR’S LABOUR OF LOVE PARTY…
Which Record never leaves your bag?
Krimp – House Of Pain
You have the chance to have any line up of bands and DJ’s you want at an all day music event – the bands or DJ’s can be past and present in any location you wish. Where would this be, who would the artists or DJ’s be and what would be the running order on the the day?
It would be in the Boston Garden, circa 1986. Performing would be Lynyrd Skynyrd with Neil Young ; Ed O.G. & Da Bulldogs ; Kate Bush, Alice Coltrane and Don Cherry together! Larry Levan would be on lights. DJ’ing would be Joe Claussell, Theo Parrish and Jeff Mills back when they still gave a shit. And their would be an encore by Michael McDonald & Tom Petty with Phil Collins on drums!
The gig is done, and your enjoying some relaxing time… share with us your top three home listening favourites…
Van Morrison – Veedon Fleece
The Laughing Light Of Plenty – The Pulse
Dead Can Dance – How Fortunate The Man With None
Ahead of the event, the downtown duo recorded this exclusive 20 years of Subculture mix for Harri & Domenic. We hope you enjoy listening as much as we have.
We’ve been hyped for this one for ages, Saturday promises to be a no holds barred session if ever there was one. Advance tickets on sale from RA & in store or online at Tickets Scotland.
***Photos by Alberto Caputo***