INTENSIFIED.
This interview was done by Janne Lepisto with Guitarist Steve Harrington for Banana Fanzine.
1. Tell us a brief history of intensified? What's the current discography of the band? What's he story behind the band name?
Intensified started in summer 1990, a group of friends/skins/ska-fans.
We had been supporting the "new" ska scene for a few years, watching potato
5, Hotknives, Loafers etc and decided to give it a go ourselves. We had
all been heavily into it since 2-tone, and wanted to mix our live package
between original '60's sound and 2-tone and 3rd wave of ska; Gardually
we found we enjoyed playing '60's styles better, which really pleased me
and our horn section improved and grew.
We had one big line up change 3 years ago, but since then we've gotbetter
and better.
Our releass so far include: 7"-Marguerita/These feelings (swing easy
'93)
Sea of love (free with skinhead times'93)
Boss a botheration/look pon you (Black Pearl'95)
Fat cat/You better run (Black Pearl'97)
Glamour girls/Tell me baby (Black Pealr '99)
12"-ep unpack the dominos (swing easy'94)
LP/CD - Don't slam the door (a comp of 7"'s etc) (Grover'96)
Yard Shaker (Grover'97)
Faceman Sound (Grover'99)
The band name came from an Island compilation LP - we couldn't decide so we had a vote!
2. How many gigs have you done and what bands/artists have you played with?
Lots! I realy don't know to be honest, but someone in the band is currently
compiling a full list from local newspapers,fanzines,flyers etc!! a hard
job! Probably about 300. We've played across England in the early days,
but less so in the past years - just London or Kent. That's because we
play more abroad - Belguim, Germany, Italy, Holland. They tend to be better
gigs with large crowds, good clubs that provide changing rooms, food, drink,
(lots of it!)good hotels and good money!
Over the past 3-4 years Ossi at Grover has given us lots of great gigs
in Europe. We've played with lots of good bands in our time, which is all
part of the fun: Skatalites, Pioneers, Laurel Aitken, Dawn Penn, Hopeton
Lewis+phyllis Dillon, Dave Barker, Jimmy Cliff, Dennis Brown, Dr. Ring
Ding, 100 men, Durango '95, Toasters, Hepcat, Malarians, Bim skala Bim,
Hotknives, Maroon Town, The mood, Loaded, too hot, Selecter, Bad Manners,
Nutty Boys, Xplosions, Cosmics, Rico, Trojans, Pato Banton(1), Frantic,
Mistakes, Riffs, Too many crooks, Ngobo Ngobo etc...
3. What are your influences with the band? Do you like or listen to any other music styles than ska/rocksteady/reggae? Any personal favourite artists?
Intensified is purely influenced by the sound of '60's Jamaica. We all love and listen to original ska, rocksteady and reggae, and it never fails to inspire us. We all listen to other sound occasionally - the jazz, A.J (trombone) likes Jazz and indie, Terry (drums) buys all types of music from punk to hardcore to classical, Pete (sax) likes jazz-funk, Lewis (bass) likes acid-jazz and some indie, Paul (vocals) likes Louis Jordan, lovers rock and dub etc, but wee all have one common love! Favourite artists would have to be, personally, skatalites, maytals, crystalites, hot rod allstars, slim smith, Pat kelly, Dave Barker, Prince Buster etc and currently we all love Hepcat and the Slackers.
4. Do you have many skinheads in the band? I mean your playing the Chalmers' skinhead train as a cover song...
Most of us grew up as skins, so its something we all relate to. Pete rembers the early '70's when his brothers were into it, buying reggae and going to clubs. Terry, Lewis and me were into it at school during 2-Tone - Lewis got into scooters. Terry + me got more into skinhead, playing in oi! band Betrayed and collecting old ska/reggae. Its important to the band, but its not as importnat as making the music and keeping it alive. If it inspires interest in the true skinhead value, then thats excellent as well. True skins are the root of our fan base and that makes me proud!
5. I suppose that there's a couple of band members who collect Jamaican/UK reggae vinyl? Is that true and if it is then do any of you work as reggae DJ's?
Yeah, wel all have collections of some sort. I'm the biggest collecter - I've been buying reggae and ska since the fall of 2-tone, and I still get excited when I get a new list through the post-box! I love it - its my drug! This music just lifts me all the time - I could listen to it night and day, and I'm always the first on the dance floor if a boss tune is played! Lewis has an excellent but small collection including some real rarities I really want! Terry buys a lot of reggae and is always listening to music. Paul has some nice records too, including some stuff he got from his dad. Lee has a big collection, but mostly on CD. Lee does DJing every week but not just ska/reggae. Paul and me have done some Djing in Germany as well as a club here in Kent.
6. As your sound is very close to original '60's ska. I'm forced to ask what do you lke about neo-ska bands like Liberator, The Buster etc? What are the best bands of today's scene in your opinon?
Personally, fas ska does nothing to me, but each to their own? I think the imortant thing is just to have good songs - I mean the Hotknives aren't '60's style but they have superb written songs, good melodies and thats why they're a great band. Some bands are very good, but not strictly ska - Bosstones, MU330, Edna's Goldfish, maroon town - all have different stlyes I like, but they're not ska bands! But I prefer a band doing their own style, than all these fast, non melodic, nursey school, 2-tone rip-offs, they're all 3rd rate copies of bad Manners. Best today are Hepcat, Slackers, Stubborn Allstars, Dr. Ring ding & Ocean 11.
7. How's the UK ska/reggae scene?
not very good really. There;s more bands playing now, say than 5 years ago though and more interest in ska because of the punk crossover. Gigs in London by Hepcat, Dance Hall crahsers, Bosstones, Pietasters etc have all been packed out recently. It's good for the bands and hopefully from thi the scene will grow. Most English bands play just to scooter crowds, which isn't going to help it grow, or to pubs full of people wanting to hear Madness covers, which is also a waste of time. we need bigger and more diverse crowds to spread the true word.
8. What do you do as a living? Are any of you married with kids or something? What about hobbies? Just beer and football or what?
We have A.J. who runs his own pub in Oford, Pete is a fireman, Paul workes on the railway, Karl works on web-sites (check out http://www.intensified.net POaul and Pete both have 2 kids. Hobbies include football, DJing and collecting records.
9. final comments?
Thanks for your interest, Turku Reggae boys are Boss!