Interview: Highness Sound System

After being on the fringes of Nottingham’s club scene with their lively roots session, Highness Sound’s profile has been growing and growing, and they now have a regular night at The Social. We spoke to Ben Highness and Raffiki back in 2006 about their roots in reggae, the future and taking things to the next level...

How did the Highness collective begin?
Ben: I came up to Notts from Cambridge and met a guy called Peter and we started playing music together because we couldn’t find anywhere that played the music we liked. I had bought two speakers in Cambridge and began to play out with these. I then bought another speaker from Big Apple records in Nottingham. Along with Peter’s equipment, we played as the Highness Majestic sound system.
Raffiki: This was about September 1998. Me and Ben had met at Wisbech college in Cambridgeshire in 1997. Ben was doing horticulture and I was studying animal care. I used to MC jungle when I was 17 with Ben playing records in his bedroom. One day he put on a Welton Ire record and I was struck by how simple but heavy it was. It was just some drums, some bass and just that voice. It totally inspired me. It slowed me right down to what the solid foundations are of music and emceeing.
Ben: It was really amazing seeing this voice emerge from Raffiki. Sometimes we’d be  playing and then these lyrics or this great voice would appear and I’d be like “where did that come from?”

What happened to the Majestic sound system?
Ben: Well Peter (Little Dread) moved down to Brighton and bought half of the Good Vibes sound system from Ben Shakisha. Ben, who we didn’t know at this time, then moved up to Notts from Brighton in 1998. He came to a Highness night and noticed his old sound system at the gig. We then played with him, after becoming friends and then as Highness Skakisha. Sometime later I bought the rest of the system from him and it is now the Highness sound. Ben Shakisha taught me so much about operating and managing it though.

What is involved in managing a sound system?
Ben: All sorts of stuff. Storage and maintenance is a big thing. It has to be constantly updated and improved depending on the room you are going to use it in. It’s in my garage at the minute and my car is parked on the road - I’ve got my priorities right! The actual logistics of it are a big part, organising people to move it for nights. You’ve got to prepare everything right.
Raffiki: There’s a lot of lifting involved, getting it to the right place on time. There are six core members of Highness, not including lifters and other selectors. They are Blue Cat, Jeffers, Boysie, Lenny Ranks, Tim Beatz, Jah Bundy and Baron D, as well as Ben and I.

How will your new nights at The Social differ from Blueprint?
Ben: Blueprint will remain our roots session. Everyone knows it’s the first Thursday of the month and has been for ages, so we don’t want to change that too much. We’ve got Highness DJs at the Golden Fleece monthly and at those nights you can hear a lot of soulful sounds and ska. The music at The Social will be UK sounds, UK dubwise and new Jamaican sounds, but it will still be a Highness night. We won’t be playing any grime or bashment, it will still be true to our sound. We can expand what we’re doing in a venue like The Social.
Raffiki: We know a crew in Norwich called Foundation and we’ll probably get them down as our first guests. That way we can exchange gigs and take Highness on the road a bit more.
Ben: Blueprint has levelled out a bit. We don’t actively publicise Highness, as it is more about word of mouth. We love playing to about 80-100 people in Blueprint because of the atmosphere that is created. We deal with the music and everyone else involved creates the rest. With The Social, things can get a bit bigger for us.

With Nottingham’s reggae heritage, are you surprised the roots scene is not bigger?
Ben: At one time you had a sound system in many areas of Nottingham - Clifton Hi-Fi or St Anns Sound, for example. We play roots music and people come down for that. Our crowd is a mixed one, different classes, different ages, we get the old rastas come down to hear us at Blueprint. There are other soundsystems in Nottingham who play to the black community such as V Rocket and Success who play at the Garvey. Their sound is very different to ours though and is more modern in terms of the music they play. We stick to dub and roots music. There’s been the potential in Nottingham for ages to take it bigger like Iration Steppaz in Leeds, Jah Shaka from London or Aba Shanti have done. They
have larger systems, but I think Highness is ready to go to the next level at The Social.

Have you always been supported in what you do with roots music?
Ben: We know other selectors around the city, like the boys at Crucially Blaque records for example, but again they are doing different things to us. We are friendly and we all support each other, there’s no rivalry.
Raffiki: Dub Judah (bass player for Jamaica’s Twinkle Brothers) and Percy Dread of the Naturalites are based in Nottingham and they have always helped me and nurtured us. I was quite nervous at first chanting in front of these men, but now I have the confidence to stand shoulder to shoulder. I might wear a hat and have the hair but I’m not a Rasta, I sing about the things that are important to me and are relevant. I write lyrics all the time and sing from within.
Ben: We feel the message comes through our music and is relevant today. Politically and ideologically we are not concerned about spreading a message ourselves as our music
will do that for us.