Ghetto Palms Speaks With Truck Back Records

Start me at the beginning. What’s your background?
My background is music! Technically I’m a musician—started out playing in Kaushan band.

What instrument?
Bass guitar.

How long had you been doing that before Truck Back Records came about?
Let’s see, from I was in school…I don’t know how long that is! I start playing bass when I was in school and from that put a band together and start tour Africa, Europe all over the place. We played with Gregory Isaacs, Shabba Ranks, Bounty Killer—we’re a support band.

So would you say you’re a live musician more than a studio musician?
Yes, because I came up in a live band. As a support band you learn to play with anybody.

So Truck Back has been around for about two years now?
From ’05, ‘06 we been doin stuff. We were close with Elephant Man and he was just always there. We worked on a lot of stuff for him; myself, my brother Adrian Locke and Andrew Locke. There’s 3 brothers—6 boys in all but 3 of em’s in Jamaica. So we start recording, you know, experimenting with things.

Before this you were working out of somebody else’s studio?
Yeah, we work out of whatever studio before that and you cyaan work because you watchin the clock, you keep on watchin the clock (when booking time at somebody else studio)—all dat stuff. Cyaan do dat. You cyaan make music on a time, you haffi have chemistry there’s no way you can do it if the first thing is negative energy.

So from what I’m told Truck Back studios is actually in the back of a container truck, correct?
Yes it is

Where in Kingston is it located?
In the heart of New Kingston, close to the hip strip and all those things.

How did you come to build it in the back of a truck?
What happen is, a lot of people have studios like in a room; little studios. I’ve seen you can even set up a little studio in a hotel room. What consist of a studio? Your recording tools, two speakers, microphone, headphones, what you get done. You can build a little studio anywhere, a lot of people dem have a little personal studio. We were like we just need a building right now, cause we’re workin at other people’s space and racking extra time. I had the truck parked, we used to use the truck, as a matter of fact, to move a soundsystem. That situation kinda fell off with the soundsystem, like the truck is just parked so I said, Hey! Soon as me put the two speakers in there. Set up a little thing in there and we just build it, just pack it out and sample the sound. “Ah what if we just build a little more over here?” Like that…until it just become an entity.

For the full story visit TheFader.com