MIND POWER — (left to right) Dr. Know, Darryl Jennifer, Israel Joseph-I, and Mackie

By GREGG KIRK
Big Shout Magazine, December 1993

Don’t think for a minute that the so-called crossover bands like Living Colour, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fishbone, and Faith No More were the first to come up with the idea of mixing genres like rap, hard rock, funk, reggae, and ska to form the hybrid sound that has become so popular these days. No, while these bands were mewling and puking in their mothers’ arms, Bad Brains were alchemising the unlikely elements of punk, reggae, and Rastafarian ethos somewhere in their basement in D.C. during the first punk invasion in the late 1970s.

After a string of releases on respected hardcore labels like Alternative Tentacles, Caroline, and SST (beginning with their own self-financed single “Pay to Cum” in 1980), the Brains are enjoying their first major-label outing with the release of Rise on Epic Records. Though the band itself has experienced several personnel changes over its long history, the group’s course has not strayed from presenting scathing guitars and punk intensity within a Rastafarian lyrical backdrop.

Before they hit the Trocadero in Philly this month, we had a chance to talk to their new lead singer Israel Joseph-I over the phone.

Big Shout: When and how did you get involved with the band?

Israel: The middle or end of ’92. It was more or less an understanding, you know, the spiritual battle.

BS: Are you a Rastafarian?

Israel: Well, you know, I strive to be every day. Rastafari is a state of mind, not a thing to be. It’s a work every day. So with that understanding, it’s more of a meditational vibe than just going, “Okay, I’m going to go sing in this band.”

BS: How did you come in contact with them?

Israel: They held auditions in Manhattan, and a friend of mine who was there gave them my number. It actually was a surprise to me because I didn’t know she was doing that. They called me about a month later and asked me if I wanted to come up and play, and I said, “Yeah, mon.” And that’s how we got together.

BS: Where are you from originally?

Israel: Trinidad in the West Indies

BS: When did you come to the U.S.?

Israel: When I was about 12 or 11

BS: Were you familiar with Bad Brains?

Israel: Yeah, coming here I was open to a lot of new things and a lot of new styles of music. I discovered Bad Brains when I was about 14 or 15 years old. So I was very familiar with the music when they called. And I was excited on a certain level, but I also knew it was a great work to be done, and things start revealing themselves as far as hindsight and physical and spiritual preparation for something in your life. You start understanding the reason for certain things, and you start understanding what you were getting ready for in life.

BS: What was going on in your life at the time they called you?

Israel: Just dealing with musical runnings, and getting myself spiritually together every day. I was playing in an all-reggae band — all roots and culture — called Uprising on Long Island.

BS: What would you say is the philosophy of the group?

Israel: Well, the philosophy of Bad Brains is to destroy everything that is down-pressive and oppressive — everything that causes strife, you know. We have a name that sums that all up, and the name is “Babylon.” So to destroy all of that is our main objective, and not to entertain people but to make people aware what is happening in their lives — as far as governments and society. We can’t be trained. It’s not the time to be trained, like dogs or something in this babylonistic society. We gotta keep stronger than that and know ourselves… discover who we are.

BS: Before you joined the band, Bad Brains had kind of a history with Henry Rollins. Are you guys still in touch with him?

Israel: Well, Henry Rollins has always been involved with the Bad Brains as far as coming to see shows. I mean he was about 15 years old coming to see them and he used to roadie for them, and they were very good friends. Everybody grew up into being who they are, but still it didn’t change the friendship.

BS: Do you remember the last time you guys played in Philly — I think it was last summer?

Isreal: Yeah, I remember it, man. It was very good, actually. It was pretty positive vibes. As far as sonically, I remember that show being a little crazy because of some monitor struggles that we usually have to deal with. Philly’s one of our favorite places to play, actually. We have some real good friends that live there, like Chuck Treece. Actually, he used to play with us for a long time. That was real cool, man. Chuck is the man. He is a brilliant musician, and he played drums with us for a few months. And we know all the Goats — Max and Swayzak and Derrick and all them. We’re actually going to work on some things in December and collaborate with the Goats.

BS: What’s that going to be all about?

Israel: On their new album, we’re going to try to collect some vibes, you know… make some noise. We just got off a tour with them in Europe, man — them, us, and Fishbone. It was very cool. It was wild because we all got to jam at the end of the night. We co-headlined with Fishbone, and whoever was done, we’d all come back out onstage and just play together. Unity, man, unity. We didn’t really get to be friends — brothers as we are now — until we played together in Europe for two months. We definitely became very close. In fact, we plan to see each other when we come through Philly.

BS: Where did you guys do your album, and what was the whole vibe going on when you recorded it?

Israel: That was recorded at the Power Station and mixed at the Hit Factory in New York. It was very positive vibes. It took us about five days to record it. This was my first time recording with them, and I had never done any album work before so this was like a new experience for me. I’ve learned a lot through doing it, and I’ve learned a lot since then.

BS: What goes on when a Bad Brains album is recorded?

Israel: A lot of reasoning. A lot of jamming and stuff. They sometimes may write the music, and I write the lyrics later, or we could do it together. Or even the other way around — you know, like I write some lyrics and sing it to them and they write a tune around that. When we got together, they had written songs, and within a month of us playing together we decided that we dint’ want to use those songs but write some new ones that would be more organically in tune with this group. So it worked out for the best.

BS: Do you have a message for the people of Philadelphia?

Israel: Just stressing the points that the music being about revolution, not about entertainment. Hopefully, anyone who’s reading this article will start thinking for themselves and start questioning life around them. That’s all we can hope for.