Renaissance
Most nations regard the highest point of their culture’s relevance or importance to the global society as their ‘Renaissance’ period. So it should come as no surprise that during dancehall music’s most influential period, both within Jamaica and the world at large, a sound system would adopt that title and use it to good effect. For over twenty years, Renaissance Disco has been successfully bridging the gap between hardcore dancehall fans and lovers of hip hop sometimes converting a few from each group. BACKAYARD sat down with Renaissance’s co-founder and by far most visible member Delano Thomas
Most nations regard the highest point of their culture’s relevance or importance to the global society as their ‘Renaissance’ period. So it should come as no surprise that during dancehall music’s most influential period, both within Jamaica and the world at large, a sound system would adopt that title and use it to good effect. For over twenty years, Renaissance Disco has been successfully bridging the gap between hardcore dancehall fans and lovers of hip hop sometimes converting a few from each group. BACKAYARD sat down with Renaissance’s co-founder and by far most visible member Delano Thomas and had a candid if not revealing talk about his sound’s place in history and what plans they have for the future. Fortunately for you, we left our mics on, here we go again …
How did renaissance get started?
From the start I was born into a musical, electrical, sound system family. My father was an electrical engineer so we used to have sounds around. From mi a likkle boy, mi a bruk him needle pon him turntable, yuh nuh, in him electronic shop a fix equipment. I used to pretend I had a sound system so I used fix ‘my sound’ equipment. I did come from Vineyard Town still so when I came of age, yuh nuh, high school maybe before that prep school. My father mek mi play pon him sound called Plus X. I used to add another X on it call it X Plus X used to other X to mek people know it was the junior sound. So mi usually play in Vineyard Town, I mean, even at prep school, St. Theresa when we had class party. I had to carry it outside because it was too big and jus have a school party. So it was jus in my blood, having a sound or jus dreaming to have a sound. With that the sound was jus in Vineyard Town alone and couple office parties and then I link up with Lejeaux . Mixmaster Marvin did come and hear mi play and seh “Yo get Delano on Lejeaux ”. Then I started playing for Lejeaux , I started engineering, I started doing everything for Lejeaux . I was like a one man band. I linked up with Mixmaster Marvin and a bredrin name Devon Chin too. After awhile we start get popular and Devon seh “Yo mek wi start our own sound”, and I seh yeah that is what I waan do. So in 1989, everybody from over Lejeaux ended up coming over with me and that is how Renaissance got started.
What were the challenges of starting a new brand?
Well, for me it was easy because we were the front players for Lejeaux . So when we were doing this Renaissance ting everybody knew we were moving on. And we wanted a sound name so we sent a request to all the schools we usually play for: Holy Childhood, St Andrew … Immaculate, to come up with a name. Immaculate came up with the name and because we seh whoever came up with the name, we play for all of dem sweet sixteens, free. It was promo at the same time so we played at all of dem sweet sixteen so we became a sweet sixteen sound. We were doing it for fun at the time; I guess that is why it developed because we were doing it for fun. We went out and play we all had a car wid a sound in it, yuh understand, me did love it. So mi did wah buy the latest speaker box dem and wi put up wi money together and rae rae rae. It was more of a fun ting until it become a business.
When did it become a Business for you?
To tell you the truth, when we started to get popular and I started to do remixes. The thing about it how the remixes come along, it was because at the time we couldn’t afford dubplates. So I seh I am going to start do some tings and that is how we got popular. They wanted to put us wid Stone Love for a big dance because Legend was the sound that play wid Stone Love back inna days and they gave me one of those nights. I drop some remix the whole night it jus explode from there. So the remix was born and Renaissance was born all over again in 1991-92. We started doing remixes for other sounds: Stone Love, HMV… everybody. People used to line up at mi house door waiting for me to do remix and paying mi, walking out wid money inna mi pocket like crazy… (Everybody Laughs)… That is how we got more popular and then Stone Love start to tek us on and bring us to the other side of tings. I remix their stuff and they started premiering my remixes at House of Leo so we got known in the dancehall and the uptown tru I love disco and love hip hop that is how we get dominant in the uptown market. We STILL name Renaissance Disco now. When Stone Love start put us on some of the dances, we brought the hip hop to the dancehall. Basically we break hip hop in the dancehall, in terms of the remixes and stuff like that. That was how the popularity started growing from the dancehall, it started growing from the remixes, it start grow from the uptown parties. It jus start grow but we had to find a way to develop the sound. We try keep a party and it flop, we pay bills for the rest of that year. Although the sound was building we were still going through wi struggles in terms of figuring out how we were going to make it profitable in some way. Those you didn’t have computers you didn’t have things to do remix wid. I had to find ways of doing remixes and look up and read how can I do this so a next man caan jus go round the turntable and do it. There was no CD it was turntable and record box and whatever, you understand. That was how I was sort of untouchable when it came on remixes because nobody could understand how I got that to work with that and mix with that because I jus went out of the box. That is a next thing that help me because people started saying that from Delano do it it mus crazy.
How does that process work?
Alright sometimes we didn’t get acapellas, I buck up on a mistake one time. Were I was playing a cassette deck or a DAT machine and it short out and all the vocal came off and the riddim cancel. So I work wid that too, that was one of the trick dem. I got a four track machine, four track to tape so we could get four individual tracks to cassette. I had sampling machine and mixer until I graduate to a drum machine. So I mean it was jus that I was young, fresh and I jus wanted to learn. I was an electronic engineer so I felt that nothing was impossible so anything I waan do I jus get it done. It was jus the urge and the love, it was jus that I was a hip hop head still so I jus mixed it with the dancehall and it work. That is the main help of the popularity, it carry mi places where nuff of these DJs or selectors don’t even get to face or experience, you know what I mean. It was jus my time I guess and the right time because everything was jus building. I guess it would a grow even if I wasn’t doing anything. It would a grow anyway but I guess I catch it at the right time.
Which year would say was the turnaround point for your sound?
It had to be between ’94, di ‘hol a di nineties and di ‘hol a di 2000s coming right up to’05. You see ’94 now we started to be at a lot of sessions, yuh nuh, we, Travelers and Stone Love. Any hip hop artiste come down is we deal wid dem but wah happen now is the incident with my eye. In ’95, everything happen in the April come right down to November when we create ‘Delano’s Revenge’. Basically, it was saying Delano is coming to take it back because I was missing off the scene for couple months, which seem like a year to me because mi jus lock up caan do nutten. Dehso it start back over again and get bigger because di revenge come out, mi start do more remix and more tings. So di late part of ’95 into ’96, we become big now.
What would you say has changed in the Sound System Business?
The main thing that has changed is that you have to have a sound to be a DJ now. Once you have a computer even if you caan play. I am coming from the old school weh yuh haffi have a sound and I still have a sound. I still have equipment box, maintence crew, driver, electrician, engineer, I still have that. So I did have a bigger responsibility than most other sounds. Next thing again remix is not even that important because anybody can do it, unless you going to do something different. Like how di guy remix ‘Di Bus Caan Swim’… (Everybody Laughs)… I think is one of the wickedest remixes that me hear from dem time deh til now. The man tek reality and joke and mek into supp’im wah mek sense. So yuh haffi do something that is different and somebody caan really do it. It is so much easier to do anything now but what him do, is that him do it fast and run at it and get it done. Now people know him for that. The value of DJs drop because of that because yuh have so many Djs. I know my value is still up because I can still get what I charge but some DJs what dem playing for now is like dem not seeing the future. My son turning a DJ now and I am still meking him try to get a likkle old school vibes because I tell him if him going to do this, him don’t want to be playing for likkle or nutten. That is di next ting that change, the value.
When did Renaissance become a production house?
The first time I started to produce in 99 going into 2000 it was costing mi a bag a money. Cause studio time and this and radio man fi play it. So we wait and build wi studio in 2002 and that is how we brought out di first riddim ‘Rebirth’ in 2003. Then we get a buss, Jazzy T was producing before him did have couple tune pon di road ‘Icebox’ wid Killa. Then we come out wid ‘Thunderclap’, well ‘Rebirth’ was built first in this studio wid Factor, our engineer. Him did go weh a school and come back and is him really push mi to build the tune. So we come up wid ‘Rebirth’ and all di artiste dem come gi wi dem support, yuh nuh. Wid ‘Thunderclap’ now, I was jus in my bedroom fooling around and mi come up supp’im and mi call Birch and seh come listen this. Mi did play 90% of di riddim and mi seh come tell mi if di key waan change. Him seh “Nah man dis bad.” And me seh ok and jus add on him ting and that was one of the biggest Kartel dem ‘Tek ’or ‘Tek Buddy’ however you waan seh it. So that is how it start and that is how we start pushing riddims now. After that was ‘Steps’, which… let me tell you the story about ‘Steps’ now. It was ’04 and everybody did voice on ‘Steps’, Sean Paul voice last. Which I didn’t even know that it was Lenky’s song, when Sean Paul voiced the track I was away so when I come back now. I seh it waan some of our flavour inna it so mi chop up him vocals and move di chorus and rae rae rae. So mi call Serani, before him turn artiste, and mi seh yo mi need some breakdowns and him gimme some breakdowns and mi seh yeah it sound good. Well yuh know seh some artiste nuh like when yuh change up dem ting. So mi call Sean Paul tell him mi have supp’im fi him to listen to but mi fraid fi mek him listen to it. We never know seh him a go like it but we love it and mi seh to him seh if this a go mek we friendship done then bwoy it sticky… (Laughs)… So him come and listen to it and we deh inna di car wid him and mi nuh hear him seh nutten and then him start it over. So mi ask him if him like it and him seh yeah man mi love it. So we do di song and everything now and then it start play a foreign. Apparently it wasn’t supposed to go on his album, the executive of Atlantic call him and seh yo Sean we need to get this song on the album so you need to do it over. Change di lyrics because it was talking about what it was talking about. So we go back in and change it up and it end up number 5 on the billboard charts. It was one of our most successful riddim on di road.
The video did bad too…
Yeah, dem invite mi. It was done in Las Vegas in the desert. ‘Hol day, scorpion was crawling on the ground and di sun was a hundred and add degrees, no shade. Yeah man, terrible terrible video that, sweat all over… (Everybody Laughs)… That was an experience still because mi a tell yuh di honest truth, you see when di video start show, cause me is a man weh sleep wid him T.V on, mi jus a dream bout di song and mi wake up and mi see it. Mi start call everybody, mi jus start sleep wid mi TV pon MTV and every morning it wake mi up. Because it wasn’t real to mi, is like it never feel real. Mi end up meet one bag a different people and tour di world and dem thing deh. Then we do ‘Icebreaker’ in ’05, that di gwaan wid a ting wid ‘Nuh Junjo Nuh Deh Deh’. We do ‘hol heap likkle productions even my first one drop riddim, which nuh people nuh even know, name ‘Legal’ inna ‘07. It deh pon Sean Paul latest album, but who voice first on it was Gentleman from Germany which did really good inna Germany. So that was my first and only one drop so far.
Are you the one responsible solely for the production?
I call in musicians but me is a man still, yuh see di ‘Legal’ riddim mi and Dups from Black Chiney was fooling around and then I put it together. You see wid di ‘Steps’ riddim, mi call in Serani fi help mi wid di phrasing and stuff. Even Bling Dog come in and touch two ting so mi always have people helping. Factor help wid ‘Rebirth’, Blacks who pass on help us too cause we used to help him mix fi him riddims. I mek sure when I am building riddims, I have a musician telling mi fi I am going somewhere wrong wid it. Mi have a ‘hol heap a people my bredrin inna Miami Sean Wedderburn, Shiah Coore and dem man deh who do so much to help wid di production.
What is the future for Renaissance?
We have a big sound system, is me do all my party dem. We play on other people sound but when I am doing my personal parties I use my sound. Not everybody book my sound but it is there available for them. You have the younger generation of the crew which is my son who is 19 and other young people who putting their input. We still do alot of corporate events and sessions. Production is the future, I am still touring the world still playing music. The thing about it, as a DJ dancehall already jus stays the same place and the DJ on one level. Most of my bredrin who do hip hop jus gone pon a different level. So my thing for the future is trying to find a way how to get dancehall to move on a next level. No matter how many selector yuh see in Jamaica it still on the same level. Everybody fighting for the same level, we need to move up. My bredrin who is a Jamaican, plays for the Miami Heat, DJ Irie. Him have him own sneakers and him have him own this and that. These are the things where yuh moving forward. I played for Steven Stanley already in LA, I played in the House of Blues, Sublime. Some of these DJs don’t do that dem jus go back inna dem same ting. So I jus make sure I am aligned to people, I was signed to Delicious Vinyl in the nineties. This is where DJs need to go. That is why I seh I wanted to go to London to play because it will be before 25,000 people. It not jus the regular session yuh should want to play for, we need to make the DJs get more respected. In terms of the future that is what I want to do, I want to make sure I am not stepping back. It frustrating when yuh feel that yuh jus deh a one place, it is standard. So that is the biggest problem we have inna di music industry even di artiste cause the artiste dem stagnant too. So is jus the whole industry need to move forward and how we a go mek it move forward. That is the question.
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