JFK & The Conspirators

JFK & The Conspirators

Genres: Skinhead, ska, rocksteady, Canadian, Winnipeg

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About JFK & The Conspirators

Potentially the longest running and quality ska and reggae act in Canada, JFK & The Conspirators have recharged the batteries and are on the take. After huge success with their 1998 release “Mayor of Ganja City” (Stomp Records), JFK (Dave Adams) moved to Montreal to join the legendary Kingpins. In 2002 he returned to Peg City, ska capital of Canada, picked up some of the best reggae and ska players in town, and in June 2004, released “Mash up the Dance.” The new album has received amazing reviews and has charted all over the country. With recent appearances at the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Jazz Winnipeg Festival, The Victoria Ska Festival, Canadian Music Week, NXNE and the Calgary Reggae Festival, The Conspirators are becoming a crowd favorite. Currently, JFK & The Conspirators have been performing double-duty, backing up Stubborn Record’s recording artists King Django. Look for JFK and the Conspirators all over North America in 2005!! THE HISTORY OF JFK Many moons ago, before JFK was JFK, he was an odd teenager who either wasn't interested in popular music, or did not notice it. Then one day, my mother asked if I could help out a friend of hers who was doing some performance art. It was the first show ever at the Plug-In Art Gallery in Winnipeg. I was to cue the tape of sound effects and the odd musical selection corresponding to the artist’s performance. On the tape was a selection that was so different than anything I had ever heard before. The selection was "Draw your Brakes Brother" a version of a Derrick Harriot number emceed by "Scotty". I had no idea that this was black music made by Jamaicans - I just wanted more (Note: I use the term "black music” loosely since Jamaica is a very multicultural island full of blacks, Chinese and Brits whom all speak patois. Also, one of the tightest ska/reggae pioneers was Byron Lee and the Dragoneers - Byron Lee being Chinese). Upon finding more of this style of music, there was a slight disappointment that this was "other peoples music". Despite this feeling, I could not help how much this music moved me. The funny thing is that it was a few years later that I even heard of Bob Marley. And even at that, it took me a while to get used to his sound since I was originally and instantly drawn to the "Dancehall Style". Around this time in Winnipeg, there was a group called "The Dub Rifles" (still the most original sounding group I've ever heard even up to this day). They were a punk band with a reggae influence. This was when "punk rock" was very innovative - not dominated by overbearing, distorted guitar whose only melody was "the chord progression" itself - which I prefer to call "power pop". Sorry kids, but Black Flag, Exploited and the like, I consider to be "power pop" or "bubble gum" - the kind you find under tables. Anyway, the "Dub Rifles" owe their reggae influence to two things. First, the punk rock in those days, coming from the U.K. was influenced by reggae, with artists like The Clash, Elvis Costello, Johnny Rotten, XTC, Ian Dury and a handful of others working with various Jamaican artists. This was a natural progression since London's huge Caribbean population lived side by side with the "punk" population. Similarly, a small scale version of that was happening directly in Winnipeg. The Dub Rifles shared a building with a Jamaican who ran the first Reggae record store which was a gathering spot for many Jamaicans (the rifles lived and practiced upstairs). They partied together and it was quite common to see a handful of punks at other Jamaican speakeasies. It was in this environment that I heard the record "Dance Craze" and one of his all time favorite bands "The Specials". This was a turning point for me. Here there were white people playing ska and reggae without seeming in the least that they were trying to be something that they were not. It was as much their own as it was Jamaican. In fact, it was years later that the general public even realized that The Specials, The Selector, The English Beat etc were playing straight up covers out of the 60's and 70's from Jamaica. Terry Hall's heavy cockney identity, over Jerry Dammers "straight outa Jamaica" sound, made The Specials the "coolest band" ever for me. It is a shame, that the 3rd wave of ska did not realize how closely those bands represented the sound of Jamaica. Instead, they had to make sure it was a "infused" with as much "white" as possible, to avoid ever coming across as trying to be black. Also because it is hard for most people to have "the feel" for it - (even for Jamaicans I might add). I can understand this fear because of the phenomena of white niggas and wiggas. I myself, am very embarrassed by those white musicians who's sound just proves that, "a white guy can't play reggae" (I won't mention any bands here). In fact, Jamaicans are the first people to recognize when some one "has it", Jamaican or not. It is because of this that I could break through the barriers of such a creativity-choking stigma. It was men like Tuffest, Moses, Bonzo, Mellow, Paxton, Lincoln, Jah Vibes crew, RMP Sound and others in the Jamaican/Reggae community that existed back then that told me that I had the "sound". In those days I met a Jamaican called Tuffest. He was an incredibly tasty guitar player. He was way too independent to play in a band but he loved my bass playing so we would play together all the time. After a while, Tuffest invited his younger cousin Clive over to play the drums. Clive and I were both just learning our instruments at the time but we had the solidest grove. On Saturdays people would come over, partake in "the sacrament" and get mesmerized for hours when we played. We would play rhythms for 20 minutes with no vocals or much else happening, and people would be rocking back and forth with their eyes closed, rolling to the back of their head. This became quite a ritual and the people involved were a combination of friends and various family members of Tuffest, Clive and myself. From this group a few people would try their hand at playing. All of us were just learning how to play our instruments - except for Tuffus. By this time, Tuffus left the playing to "the youth" while he hosted, cooked and guided the party (The sound that the "Conspirators" have today, is the same sound as then). A girl friend of Tuffus’ came over a few times. She thought that we were so cool. She wanted to hire us at a bar she worked for. I knew we had a good groove, but we were a far cry from being able to perform in public. All we had was a bass line, a drumbeat and a chord strum - two chords were complicated and we had no changes or vocals. We agreed to do this, but as the time approached the group was getting nervous. Every one was frozen and did not know what to do. Clive had an amazing voice and his style was very cool but he was too shy to say anything. So I suggested a few songs that I loved that happen to be right up his alley. Songs by Sugar Minot, Ken Booth and those types of styles. The rest of the band asked, "how are we going to play them?" This is no exaggeration. The guitars, some one would be able to hold down a few strings that seemed to harmonize. I would make up a bass line for it and we would play on that for eons. If we were lucky, the guitar player could slide that position up and presto ... we had a number with two chords. When we wanted to play in another key, a different person would take the guitar and play his finger combination (This is why we played in a lot of minor chords at first - you could just put your finger along the last 3 strings of the fifth fret and behold...an A minor chord). To overcome this, I would learn the chords off of the record for guitar and keyboard parts, and literally place the fingers of the other players (with my hands) in the right positions on their instruments. After getting comfortable with one and two chord progressions, I would introduce numbers that had intros, changes and eventually bridges. We never quite made it to the ending parts. This is where my ability to play various instruments and to hear the whole structure by its individual parts, came into play. Thus, I became an "arranger" as well as a composer. I just have to add that I did not have to show anything to Clive on the drums. It was him and I who held down our sound...or shall I say the "Tuffest" (Tuffus) sound. We "got it together" and we played our very first gig - a weekly Saturday afternoon jam session at a local bar. It was an extension of our Saturday afternoon rituals at Tuffus’ place, which went from about 30 people to 200. We would play our one set that we learned and the next set would be a jam session. By that time there were so many spirits flying around that it did not matter what happen from then - it all sounded good (hic). I am thankful for everyone who came on stage to sing or rap so that we could "extend our repitoir". This also made us the first "dancehall" band in this city. Now the time came for us to play out of town. We couldn't bring out all the jam session players with us to bail us out so we had to rely on ourselves to do more vocals. Clive did not want the burden to fall on him so the rest of us had to sing as well. Nibs, the guitar player had a few songs that he wrote and sang, and Ions, the keyboard player was emerging as a great singer and mc, but will still needed as much material as possible. Thus of course, I was encouraged to sing a song as well. It's not that I would not sing, it is just that I had never sang a song on stage before and here I would be, this white guy, singing a reggae song with these Jamaicans who had exceptional voices. Plus, the audience was mostly Jamaican. I carefully picked numbers that were neutral and non-cultural for obvious reasons. I went and did it. Now it was the Jamaicans who encouraged me to sing. We started playing for a Jamaican bar owner called Paxton. At practice, Ions would say, "Paxton wants us to play on ____” and they (the band) would have to make me sing more songs. It was almost a stipulation. As time went by, the original members of the group had dissipate, moving out of town or what have you and new members came in (That group still exists and is active to this day). I moved on to form my own group, Corner Stone. With this group, I could bring that "Tuffus" style along with more structured arrangements. In other words, make it sound more like the records. We also shared the vocal responsibility when we had to, but primarily, we fashioned ourselves to play for other singers and mcees. I promoted our first show. This was in the day when reggae bands in North America played "roots, rock reggae" and Bob Marley covers. I wanted a dancehall show like the ones I had seen on the posters that people would bring back from Jamaica. So I hired a singer, a singer/mc, two mc's and a host who introduced each one, and called it "Reggae Showdown". With all local and virtually unknown entertainers we sold out the venue as well as turning away 150 angry people who were waiting outside. The only white people there were my friends and family. After this, a Jamaican guy called Lincoln, moved to Winnipeg from Chicago. Lincoln approached Bonzo. Bonzo is a hard core Kingstonian who is like the godfather of the Reggae community in Winnipeg (He is the sheriff on the cover of "The Mayor of Ganja City"). Lincoln told Bonzo that he wanted to promote reggae music. Bonzo told him, "if you want to deal with reggae, go see David mon". This was a real boost of confidence for me because there were other reggae bands in the city, who were run by Jamaicans, but Bonzo told him to see me - a Canadian. Upon seeing us, Lincoln agreed - we were the Tuffest act - even by Chicago standards. Our relationship with Lincoln gave us the opportunity to play for U-Roy, Frankie Paul, Pinchers, Supercat and a handful of Chicago reggae entertainers. He was also planning an eastern tour from New York down to Fort Lauderdale during spring break. This never panned out because my drummer and keyboard player moved away to go to university that year...lame. Corresponding with this time, some Canadian friends of mine were getting together to play some ska covers for an eviction party at a friends studio in Winnipeg. It was supposed to be a one-time thing but the warehouse party was so dangerously packed that we became an instant hit. Thus we gigged around the city for the next couple of years. We were called The Operatives and I had no idea that a third wave of ska was upon us. We were just re-living our teenage days. Just as things were starting to get big, most of the members wanted to be more "rock" oriented - to the point were they did not even want to play ska. Well...I didn't want any part of that. With Cornerstone gone and The Operatives going into a direction I did not like, I thought I should start my own band, where I would be the lead singer. After all, I did like singing, but I felt self conscious about singing straight up reggae. With the Operatives, I could see that ska was becoming popular again. This was the perfect opportunity for me to sing "black music" without the stigma of a white guy singing black music - since it was taken for granted by the general population that most ska acts were white. Thus, I started the Conspirators with one of the guitar players from The Operatives. We had received some criticism, from some members of The Operatives, that we were starting a new band and excluding them. Well, yea - but they were the ones who did not want to play ska. Hence the name The Conspirators. We were conspiring against them. Both the names The Operatives and The Conspirators were coined by the guitar player that joined forces with me, Mikey B. Mikey went on to suggest that we call the band JFK and The Conspirators since back then I used to come on stage after the band played a first number. And, because it was the 30th anniversary of the assassination of JFK, all you heard in the media was, the conspiracy this, the conspiracy that, JFK this and JFK that (We thought we'd cash in on all the hype). We played our first show at a Frat Party. It was a jammed packed sweaty affair where people danced until they were drenched. From that point, people were calling for us to play and we did five shows within the next two months. At this time I had problems with a couple of members in that they did not really have the feel for the music. I was young and too nervous to replace musicians back then so I would just "give it up". A year had passed and I tried new people. Again a successful first show turned into more, but it still wasn't quite right. Again, I "gave it up" for another year. Finally the third time, when someone wasn't working out, I just had to "give him the axe". It was the hardest thing I had to do (music related), but today - don't even think about getting in my way. You see, not many people can play ska and reggae with the proper feel, and in a smaller city like Winnipeg, it is almost impossible. We had tried out almost 40 drummers ranging from studio players to beginners and none made the grade. Everyone who plays in The Conspirators receives extensive training from me and I guess the ego of most drummers is unquenchable. They would give me their excuses; that they have their own way of doing it, or I was trying to oppress their creativity...but all they could show me was a far cry from a "Tuff" sound. As it stood my sister Roxy was on the keyboards and Mickey B was on the guitar. They had been with me through all incarnations of The Conspirators. The third inception brought in General Dubwise (Chi Chi) on the bass; a man called Ramone on the slide trombone, Vic Notorious on the trumpet and Kerry Collins on the Saxaphone. This set of musicians was fabulous and if they are not working with me today, it is only because they moved on to other careers or interests. It was at this time that I received a phone call from Stomp Records. They were a new independent record label looking to make a compilation of Canadian Ska bands. They had inquired with a local club owner if he knew of any ska bands in the city (Surprisingly, the Operatives had spawned four ska bands in this city - The Conspirators, Black Velvet and the Blue Beat, Whole Lotta Milka and The Umpires). Stomp said to send them a recording and if the production was half decent they would put it on "The All Skanadian Club". We sent them "Boom Sha La La". The All Skanadian Club did very well and this gave us national recognition. Stomp offered us a record deal so the following year we came out with our first full length CD, "The Mayor of Ganja City". Stomp records began setting up a promotional tour called "The All Skanadian Tour", which we were chosen to headline. It was 29 shows in 31 days with 3 bands from Stomp Records; JFK and The Conspirators, Gangster Politics and The Undercovers - making 21 people. This could have been a recipe for disaster but had turned out to be one of the most amazing times of our lives with all of us becoming one big family. I would say that 80% of the dates were sold out and it was the first tour for all of us. When it came time for us to come home, it started sinking in. Oh no, we have regular lives and jobs to go to. That was so depressing for me that when I got an opportunity to play guitar for The Kingpins tour later that summer, I took it. The Kingpins used me on a few of their tours. Sometimes on guitar, sometimes on keyboards, and sometimes as lead singer when Patty couldn't make it. This led them to ask me if I would move to Montreal so that they could tour full time. At that time, the members of JFK and The Conspirators had other commitments that prevented us from cashing in on the momentum created by the first All Skanadian Club tour. The earliest anyone could take time off for another tour was a year later. Because of this and because of personal problems that I wanted to run away from, I packed up and moved to Montreal. I enjoyed a brief stint with The Kingpins but I left because they wanted to go in a musical direction that I wanted no part of. I briefly tried to start my own project there. I thought that it would be easy because there were more musicians to choose from. Well, there were, but most were too pretentious to capture the "hardcore" sound that I was looking for. Also, even though it is a bigger city, they weren't as progressive as some of us here in Winnipeg (I am only speaking of the ska/reggae musical community here, not the general population. In fact Montrealers love straight up dancehall reggae). I know first hand that many were still under the illusion that you had to be Jamaican to play reggae - they told me so themselves. Go figure...you have all these white guys playing reggae, telling me that you have to be black to play reggae - now that's what I call a wigga (if you think like that, then don't bother play reggae at all). Believe me kids, I had brought the same arrangements to these musicians as the ones The Conspirators play and the difference is like night and day. This is why I had to come back to Winnipeg (It is interesting to note that there are hardly any Jamaicans in Montreal compared to Winnipeg). I still loved Montreal and it's people so I stayed for another 2 years. I got my musical fix mcee-ing under the name of "Vortex" in the Drum and Bass scene, playing places like Angels, the Sona, the Stereo and the Blue Dog. However, I finally came home to Winnipeg. My personal problems were waiting for me, just where I had left them. That, and the sadness of leaving Montreal, took away my zest for music at all. Within a couple of months of being home I was asked if JFK and The Conspirators would play an all ages show at the West End Cultural Centre (The best venue for all ages shows). I was blase about it, but we took the gig. I did not expect to see a sold out hall with people rushing the stage when each act would start. This phenomena was the work of Bacteria Buffet Records. They had generated quite a scene here. Rusty, the mastermind of B.B.R., asked us to record another record and started booking small tours for us. On one of these trips my guitar player (Mikey B.) phoned me the night before we left and said that he was in the hospital. I called Rusty to tell him we couldn’t go and why. He understood, but canceling a tour on the same day the tour starts is more than extreme and, him being the "booker", would be the one who had to deal with the venues. Thus, he came with us to play guitar - talk about pressure (he was the guitar player for the Royal Winnipeg Porn Orchestra). The crazy thing is that on the first gig of that tour, we had to play set sets. Rusty "pulled it off" (in more ways than one) and has been our guitar player ever since. 8 years had passed since the release of "The Mayor of Ganja City" and we definitely needed to record a new album. I had always wanted to record a new album because I did not feel that our first one properly captured our sound - but as I was saying...I could hardly lift my feet off of the ground. After discussing the particulars with B.B.R. I agreed to start production in the spring of 2003 (Both of my deals with Stomp Records and B.B.R., were verbal contracts...no paper wasted). I kept putting it off and putting it off and with growing pressure from my band mates and B.B.R., I finally started production in February of 2004. It was the kick in the ass that I needed because once I started, it became an obsession - working 10 to 16 hours a day for 2 months. We released "Mash Up The Dance" at the end of March 2004 and I was truly happy with the outcome. Thanks to The Conspirators and B.B.R., my passion for music has returned in full force. As of today The Conspirators are: The Continental on the trumpet, The Invisible Man AKA Delta Force on the trombone, CoCo Loco on the keyboards, General Dubwise on the bass and Rusty on the guitar. The greatest news from JFK and The Conspirators is that we finally got a drummer. We acquired BenJAHmon in December 2004. It is a whole new ballgame with myself up front and the best dancehall band around behind me. Look out Ring Ding and King Django - "Me come fe kill dem all!!”

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