The Real Tropical Equiknoxx

Dancehall, although often branded as the bastard child of Jamaican music, was born out of innovation and a collective ambition to expand the boundaries of reggae music. Despite an active and constant stream of controversial content, a lot of the sounds within dancehall currently lack the bravery necessary to wield the full innovative potential of the genre. One group that has been building and adding to the variety of the dancehall soundscape for some time now is Equiknoxx. Famous for songs such as “Step Out” by Busy Signal, “Hundred Stab” by Aidonia , the “Jim Screechie” riddim and a multitude of others. Equiknoxx continues to blaze their trail, reminding audiences worldwide of the essence of dancehall sonics. Their most recent collection Bird Sound Power is proof of this, and it came as no surprise to find out that few of their efforts are aimed at breaking boundaries. A recent chat with the group revealed the secret of their uncanny sonic language and the organic nature of their work process.

Equinknoxx has been around for a while now, the name itself is really interesting. How did you guys decide on it? Does it have a meaning for you that’s different from the actual word or was it a coincidental situation?

Gav: To be totally honest, we were just at the library one day and just looking for a name. We just literally opened a book and saw the word, and was like yeah this is a cool name. We didn’t even know what it meant at the time. It’s funny because we were in the library but we were being absentees; truancy and we deh inna di library a skip class because we did want something more. So we found the name there.

It’s a really powerful word too, it means different things in different contexts, but for the most part it has to do with seasons, change and balancing the natural environment. I feel like your music also kind of takes on that. Because the themes in the music, and in general sometimes the arrangement of sounds that are conflicting in some ways. Even the most recent project, “Bird Sound” has that cadence. So speak on that.

Gav: It’s definitely divine because we never initially had any control over what we create, when we create or how we create it. Is just really a group of people that have been put together by some higher order. We know that we work best together, and us working together, it lets us have this kind of energy.

Definitely the sounds are very diverse. Personally, I feel you are making strides, because to begin with dancehall came out as a very unique kind of sound that’s very similar to what you guys are doing now. Which is might come off as strange to contemporary Jamaica, because they are used to hearing only a specific range within the full potential of dancehall music. But I feel like dancehall really came out as a genre that didn’t have any real boundaries and I feel like you’re bringing that back to the fore.

Gav: I mean, when you get caught up with radio culture, remember originally it was really about a physical space where people can go and appreciate music that represented them. But I think when radio culture came, it started to create some boundaries and people started to produce for the radio. Which, I think you should just produce and if it gets popular or whatever the radio will play it. But people now start producing for the radio, so we just stick to our influences.

Yea I feel like the sounds in the production can seem jarring because it’s not typical of what Jamaican artistes are used to. So I can imagine it takes some courage.

Gav: Yes, but with dancehall it was never business as usual. It was never what you’re used to, you know? The only thing that did make it sound like home was really the vocalists, and if you strip that back and listen to it, it’s always some wild weird things.

Time Cow: Even some of the compilations from 2000s like more wax, where the vocals are stripped, when you get to listen and it’s just the riddims. That actually got a lot of people listening to dancehall again.

Bobby: I think also one of the things with us, and this idea of mainstream versus what we doing, is not like we go out of our way to say, oh, “Wah dat dem a do ova deh so? Mek we try do sumn different.” I think if more people were actually true to what they really feel like do, then you would get more variety in the sound. But because everyone is saying well this is the new thing, so let’s go somewhere along that vein. We never really had that mindset and we never had the money to pay any big artiste to say we going with the sound and we’ll pay that artiste to jump on the track. So we just stick to what we liked to do and anybody who liked it, we work with them. If you notice, we tend to work with the same type of people over and over, is just a familiarity or a chemistry. Other than that, it’s not really a big plan thing.

Time Cow: Yea exactly we never really pree like let’s go with this sound or let’s try to be weird. (Laughs)

I feel like dancehall has been that way but people have become conditioned over time and they forget. I think the way you guys approach the music, by doing things like stripping the vocals, it gives people an opportunity to really listen to the production more keenly. But with Bird Sound Power, how do you feel about it? Was there any point during the process where you just felt like an artiste could really light up this instrumental?

Gav: The artistes are always in house. Is either Shanique or Kemikal. But we don’t generally have to go too far for vocalists because it’s really a camp of musicians and vocalists. So, if you even listen to some stuff from “Bird Sound Power,” you hearing little snips from the in-house artistes.

So how do you guys put together stuff, especially if it’s a project where it’s more than one of you on it. How do you get the input from each? Do you have listening sessions where you exchange ideas for production?

Gav: Informally (laughs)

Time Cow: Yea, like two nights ago I was working on something and I sent it over to Nick to get his view.

Tell me about the experience coming to the fold as a vocalist, when most of these guys are producers that make very unlikely music. Do you think about your process differently from theirs?

Shanique: You know funnily enough, I don’t really think of my process differently from theirs because I consider myself an unofficial producer as well. I work very closely with Gavin on a lot of the riddims, discussing chords and so on. In terms of vocals, it was never hard really integrating into this group, I almost feel as if it was a godsend. It was just organic, fate really. It was just natural how I fell into place, and I mean that’s a story for a whole other interview (laughs). But I will say, and I say this to everybody all the time, that I would not have it any other way. Because we are like the X-Men or the Fantastic Four. We are super people, with very unique and creative minds, and we’ve all been brought together by the universe. So it has been a very interesting process, being able to work on things that the ordinary musician may not necessarily understand and I’ve also grown a lot and learnt a lot from these guys. A lot of the times Gavin will put something together and I’m like ‘Gav that’s weird what is that?’, and then by the time he’s finished with the product, you’re like “Damn, how did I not visualize that?” It has allowed me as a vocalist to broaden my horizons, how I compose and approach my songs.

Kemikal: Well, working with Equiknoxx is fun. Always. There’s never a time where I’m thinking like this is something we plan. Because is music we do, we nuh do tricks (laughs). Because music inna we bio matrix, naturally so our thing always organic.

You working on anything solo with these guys?

Kemikal: Well we actually went into the studio about four days ago to listen some riddims and while listening to the riddim. I’m thinking, “It bad, and it weird,” but I’m not done with it yet. I can’t say exactly when something is coming but we are working.

What about you Shanique, anything Solo on the horizon?

Shanique: Well, if you don’t already know, which I’m sure you do, I have an EP out now, it’s called “Uno, the Deluxe Edition”. It’s ten tracks, really great and diverse stuff. A mixture of several genres, mainly looking at Jazz, Reggae and Dub, and a likkle Dancehall. But we’re always working, we’re always in the lab, so we do have some new tracks that we working on, and we leave again very soon but we have a lot to get done.

How do you guys feel about the fact that you didn’t put too much effort into a campaign in Jamaica for “Bird Sound Power,” as opposed to abroad where it’s getting a lot more attention and support?

Gav: To be totally honest, is really just a matter of gravitation. We didn’t necessarily set out to make this popular, it’s just time and place. It was popular at that time, that was it. But we’ve never really officially set out on this extensive campaign. It’s generally a more organic thing.

Bobby: I was gonna say earlier that is the best word to describe us. You keep asking how we work, how we choose who we work with – everything is just organic. For better or worse we don’t really plan a lot of things, we just tend to say alright, we getting love, nice. So Europe was one of those places that reach out and say you know we really fascinated with what you guys doing, would you be interested in maybe coming over and doing something. So we say you know what? Let us go. One of the things with this music thing is it really reach out and connect to people. We just vibe with who vibe with we. There’s really nothing more to it than that. It’s not like we not good like that with selectors here, we just never been that set of people.

Gav: People are like ‘yo unuh nah do streets?’, but is like where are the streets anyway. I’m in the streets every day. Every day I’m in the real streets, the real real streets. See South ova deh so, see Matches Lane ova deh so, see Garden ova deh so, we in the real streets. At the end of the day, for example the song “Bike Back” by Charlie Blacks, I released that song in 2014, and it was playing in the streets every day. Every day from 2014, right? For two years, til in 2016, two whole years later, the radio was like we actually listening to the streets for once, and we going play this song. That song is like a dancehall anthem right now. So, sometimes it’s good to go in the real streets, with the real people, and not this kinda designated space where it subject to hype, payola, all those things that kinda tarnish the art. So we’re real people, in the real streets, just like weh we deh now.

So, you think there is a disconnect between what’s being played in the street and what gets played on radio?

Gav: Is like mi ask a artist the other day, where his songs were being played and his response was that it’s being played in houses. That is a very real ting. You have songs that just play in people houses, songs that play in the dance, songs that play on the radio and songs that play on the road. You have situations where a song is being played in all these spaces at once, but is a rarity. Like Step Out by Busy Signal was a yard tune, it buss inna Supa hype yaad. But yea, we inna di streets every day.