7-July-2004 :

Manicmalta gets in touch with a new but influential band on the scene. A band with a message and a recently launched CD after hogging the airwaves. Please welcome dub-reggae-in-punky-hiphop-tempo ... Dripht! ...

What is really behind the name Dripht, and how would you explain your style of music?

Nick - Dripht basically means dub-reggae-in-punky-hiphop-tempo, but we like to drift to any thing we like and makes us feel good. 


Are there future plans on the drawing board or are you taking it one step at a time? 

Nick - Well we're going to promote the Dripht EP as much as possible - we have lots of live gigs this summer. Hopefully we' ll record some more tracks later on this year or next year. 

Name three of your favourite bands and the best album ever, in your opinion...

Nick - Very hard question, !!!!!!............................. ok  some of the bands I really like are The Mars Volta, Incubus, At The Drive In, Nofx, The Strokes, Muse, Jovanotti - there are too many sorry I have to stop there , there are many more I will never end 

Caution: Dripht gigs can have some side-effects

Do you feel that your involvement in politics sometimes hinders what you really want to say as a musician?

Mike - I think that my role as an activist in Moviment Graffitti and my role as a musician in Dripht (and Norm Rejection!) are actually complimentary. I think that art, in this case music, is a powerful medium of expression and can be a form of creative activism. Art as a dream. A unique project, yet within a situation or a system. An inspiration for liberation. 

Tell us who in your opinion, is the best band in the world?

Mike - There are so many great bands! But my all-time favourites definitely include Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Rage Against the Machine and The Clash. All four bands have been of great influence in different ways. Through the years I've also been inspired by many different bands, ranging from Faith No More to 
Gang of Four, from Dio to Black Uhuru, from Cozy Powell to Sly & Robbie, from Deep Purple to AC/DC, and from Bob Marley & the Wailers to The Prodigy.


You are the last member to join the band and joined as a bassist as opposed to your guitarist role with The I Skandal. Has taking on the bass with a totally fresh set of people, opened a whole new door for you?

Fre - Well, playing the bass in a band has been something which I always really wanted to do sometime or another. So there is it. With regards to the other members, I've known all of them before I joined the band, so it was not a totally "fresh set of people". However, yes, I think that playing with them has opened a big door for me, musically. Although with The I Skandal, we are quite open minded with regards to punk and ska music, we generally attract a "limited" audience that likes ska and punk. Dripht's audience is a bit more complicated because while we usually cater for the punk and ska audiences, we also get metal-heads with our heavier stuff. Some songs also have hip-hop influences. So there is it. 

Can you tell us which bands, if any, influence you?

Fre- Lots of bands influence me. I grew up listening to The Beatles, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin and also some 80's stuff from Dad's vinyl turntable. Then there was a time when I became obsessed with punk rock, and that was when I first listened to The Clash, Sex Pistols and Dead Kennedy's. That led me to American punk hard core and the underground. I'm also a big fan of Ska and rock-steady music especially those that pre-dated reggae music. I'm influenced by dub acts such as Burning Spears, LKJ and Sly and Robbie. However it's much more complicated than that. I never really got stuck on one style for ever. For example, I've always loved that hip-hop vocals on heavy guitars, such as Rage Against The Machine and Red Hot chilli Peppers, or the Beastie Boys. Other bands which deserve a mention are local bands Mind's Eye, B.N.I., Norm Rejection, and The Rifffs. 


The lyrics in your songs are obviously very pro-active! Do you feel that the message is getting across to the people that attend your gigs?

Patrick - Well I think that the message does come across. People do understand that we're a 'political' band. Mark Barnsley is a perfect example. A 4 minute song seems to have raised a lot of awareness about the particular issue. Maybe not everybody actually 'knows' the story of Mark Barnsley but I'm quite sure that the 
fact that injustices of the sort occur in our world gets across through the song. 


Do you have an all time favourite song? Explain what it means to you....

Patrick - It's a bit difficult to come up with one song. Different songs express different emotions and I don't think there is one particular song that fits all circumstances. It all depends on the mood I'm in. One song that comes to mind that I never tire of is Tangled up in Blue by Bob Dylan. Others like While my Guitar Gently Weeps by the Beatles, Washington Bullets by the Clash and Bullet in the Head by RATM have a special meaning that I think will be useless to try to express in words. 

www.dripht.com

Interview for Manicmalta by Simone Niro (Reciprocal Records) http://www.reciprocalrecords.com/