. wearing bondage, a tack jacket , and dreadlocks.
Since you two are releasing an item featuring Don Letts, I would like to know more about him.
Hatchuck: Don and I started a clothing brand called "Level Dread Hardware" in May of this year, and I have always been a fan of his work. We connected at a party at Stussy, and we've stayed in touch ever since. When Don comes to Japan, we hang out together, and vice versa. We have been friends for more than 18 years now.
Hatchuck: What I admire about Don is that he is always open-minded. There is an episode in the CRASH story about how he let fans into his dressing room when they came to a concert, and he is like that, always open with everyone.
. You were on the staff of Acme Attractions, which used to be in London.
Hatchuck: Public Image Limited (PUBLIC IMAGE LIMITED *hereafter P.I.L), a store that Don ran with Janet Lee, a former member and now president of Rough Trade Records. . opening at the same time 400 meters from Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren's "SEX." . the "Acme" had a salon-like atmosphere where punks, who would become known as members of the Sex Pistols and The Clash, would gather to listen to the hardcore dub reggae that Don would play at his bombastic pace.
Hatchuck: Don brought reggae to the British punk scene that everyone knew, like the Clash, the Pistols, and the Slits, and it created a lot of chemistry. He was the only one of Jamaican descent in a punk community that was all white at the time. . he was wearing bondage, a tack jacket, and dreadlocks. He said that "music" such as reggae and punk and the "anti-establishment" stance were the common denominator between the punks and Don.
Punk music began as a form of working-class rebellion, and his roots in reggae are also rooted in rebellion. Then the two genres met, and the Clash incorporated reggae into their music, and the Pistols (John Lydon), who had a vertical groove, developed a sound like P.I.L., which was greatly influenced by dub reggae. Don Letts is at that point. The influence of dub and music like P.I.L. can be clearly felt in today's club music, can't it? . I think he is important in the sense that he was at the starting point of that.
Did you know Don Letts?
Konno: I found out about it from BAD, which I mentioned earlier. There was a red corduroy cap with "BAD" written on it. I don't remember where I saw it, but an older colleague told me about the band, and I later learned about the connection with "Stussy.
So that's where the dots are connected.
Konno: There was a party called "Future Terror" in Chiba, and one of the original members of the party was Ryosuke-san, who played me BAD records. I was originally unfamiliar with UK music, but BAD made me want to learn more about it.
Hatchuck: Interesting musicality. A group that brought the hip-hop sampling technique to rock. Then there were the Beastie Boys and others, but they were kind of the pioneers. Don once filmed footage of the Beasties freestyling at the launch of BAD's NYC show before their debut. They were mixing lines from the movie and such into the songs, and Don was producing them.
Have you always been a producer?
Hatchuck: I was thinking about how to present the whole thing, what kind of sampling I would use, and so on. He's also a filmmaker. . So he's been active for a long time, and recently he seems to be DJing overseas every week. . He's finally becoming known to the world, and at 67 years old, he even released his first solo album (laughs).
. but he has a really broad and deep knowledge. He pays attention to politics, music, video, fashion, and everything else. He outputs his knowledge in a creative way.
