Reggae.hr: You are one of the few jungle producers that record vocalists as opposed to just remixing reggae tracks. Tell us something about this approach.
Jacky: When I started listening to jungle music back in the 90's I heard the tracks original nuttah, fire, and incredible, that featured real vocals and not samples...but other than that pretty much the whole genre was completely sampled. And in those samples was "dubplate this and that" but they were samples from dubplates, not real. I wanted a real thing and something special nobody else had, so I started voicing artists when i built my first vinyl cutting room - Chopstick Dubplate , in 1998.
Reggae.hr: What are some of your favorite vocalists that you have worked with?
Jacky: Its hard to say really theres a lot of great singer. But in terms of live support definately Demolition Man . and in terms of studio its gotta be Topcat, (however those new tunes are dubstep).
Reggae.hr: Why the name "Chopstick Dubplate"?
Jacky: Originally I had a party collective called enter the Dragon crew, then we changed the name to Chopstick crew, then I bought the lathe, and it became Chopstick Dubplate...
Reggae.hr: You are one of the few non UK jungle/D n B artists that have had gigs in England. Is this a rare thing considering the UK has so many of its own artists in the scene? Where have you travelled to with your music? Any truly memorable moments?
Jacky: Yeah UK gigs are nice...best one i had to date was in Liverpool, those kids are crazy...i toured Russia three times, one with Demolition Man, and once with General Levy..me and demo got arrested onstage in Kiev Ukraine...that was pretty memorable.
Reggae.hr: How long have you been producing and what was your first big break?
Jacky: I been producin various music types for about 15 years, been engineering music about 20 years, mastering music about 10 years. i never had a big break yet, maybe one will come ! :)
Reggae.hr: Your new album is coming out on triple vinyl! Are you still supporting the format and what do you think the future has in store for the format?
Jacky: As long as they make it I will support vinyl to the fullest. I was a rabid record collector from 1984 till 2004, then i started selling more records than i bought..
Reggae.hr: Tell us a bit about your new album, all the tracks have vocals on them, not a regular thing for a jungle album...
Jacky: Chopstick has never been 'pure' jungle per say. Its always been song oriented and always had a full vocal on it, as opposed to track oriented, and therefor closer to popular music. However, it was made first for the vision of what could be , and not to satisfy a record label or distributor...
Reggae.hr: Please tell us about your tune with the reggae legend Junior Murvin! How did the idea for this tune come up?
Jacky: This was the first release on my new label little Island Records. I started messin around with dubstep in 2007, and a bunch of tunes I made with kion got sent around as dubplate and played at big dances like DMZ, >>>FWD, and Dubpressure..
Reggae.hr: What can we expect at the shows in Croatia and Slovenija!?!?!?
Jacky: Jacky Murda pon the mic and the decks, a lot of energy, and a fuckin good time!
