We sat down virtually a few weeks ago with Darrien Williamson (he/him), otherwise known by his stage name, Scarien for a brief interview. Darrien, plus his partners Ky, Gabe, Justin, Jack and the Groove thief, took on the ambitious task of building their own sound system to the liking of those found in the Jamaican born sound culture scene. What began in October of 2017 was the culmination of years of inspiration, exposure and dedication to a culturally rich yet globally influential kind of dub. We wanted to hear about Darriens own exposure to UK sound culture, his thoughts on western systems and the special components that set his crews project apart.
We’re here with Darrien Williamson, a 25 year old DJ, engineer and one of the co-creators of the DemDeya sound system. Darrien is currently based out of Denver, CO and you most likely know him by his stage name, Scarien. So Darrien, would you like to introduce us to DemDeya Sound?
It’s called DemDeya sound system, as in Dem over Deya. It is pretty much a hand-built sound system. By myself and a couple of friends. Its just about good vibes- which is kind of a cliche term, but that really describes what reggae is. It comes down to how you digest music and why you’re there. I feel like that’s a large part of the mission that we’re introducing - because it’s something that’s always been there. Its nothing new, but it is new at the same time.
Want to explain DemDeya? Whats the significance in that name?
It was something that just kinda just came to mind. Its funny because if you already know about reggae, you know what the name means.
When you put people on to it, they’re like, “Oh, I get it.” It shines a light that there’s more that’s going on.
You guys have been super conservative generally sharing details about your system. Who else is on the project?
I’ll start in the order of involvement, so to speak. So it was myself, Ky, Gabe, Justin, Jack and the Groove Thief.
Ky and I were in the UK. We were both over in the UK together. We came up with the idea when we moved back here to Colorado for the first time. When we got out here we pretty much met everyone else in our crew.
We’ve got my buddy Gabe, and then Justin and Groove Thief — we all got together because we were collecting records and hanging out. It was kind of just one of those things that felt right.
When did that “right time, right place” feeling hit you guys?
When we started bringing up the idea of the sound system, it was about October of 2017. We bought boxes from somebody in London — and this is somebody who’s the equivalent to a sophomore in high school — we buy four boxes from them. He pretty much has been building these speakers for Jamaican sound men.
It’s crazy — It’s cool. We bought these boxes from him and then get them shipped with all of my stuff back to America. And then that’s when we start putting speakers in it. We were pre-ordering this stuff, buying amps, and speakers while we were in the UK.
Cuz we were like, this is going to just have a small amp. A small little sound system with, you know, two scoops. It wasn’t until we got here and, I figured out people were associating sound systems with something else and that it needed to change.
That’s when I was like, I’m going to build in four more scoops. So we make the sound system bigger and then we make it even bigger. It was just one of those things to where myself and my partner, me and Ky were just like, “Yeah, it’s just something we got to do.”
That’s where we took over the engineering aspect. When it comes to these kinds of sound systems it really is about having control over it as opposed to how big it is. Because when you see a lot of these systems traditionally, when they’re playing, they’re in the crowd. The speakers are on oneside and you know, the people are performing on either side or on the complete opposite side and the crowd is in between.
March, 2020 is when we said- finished.
Was there a learning curve when it came to sound engineering? Did you guys run into any obstacles setting up the system?
It was a lot of research for myself, honestly, because I was like, “All right, if we’re going to do this then we gotta do this right. Let’s get it built ourselves and make it our own as opposed to trying to copy anything else that somebody is doing.” When we got the first top half built for us and sent, the obstacle that we were more so running into was just making sure I knew what I was making and making sure that I knew what I was doing.
I was doing so much research over and over and over again, to make sure that the final product would turn out to what it would be. I knew a little bit just by getting into getting into DJing, and I also was a plane mechanic. My general knowledge on low voltage systems was a little bit of a upper hand. There was a little bit of simplicity. I realized this is something that I can take step by step and learn along the way — and we came out with a good product. When you want to talk about the main brain of our sound system, I guarantee you, this is something that no one in America necessarily has, unless they are the same kind of sound system.
Because we’re running a preamp’ — and it’s a reggae preamp’. So the controls that you have to individually buy for most modern sound systems, you can’t really get, or you can’t really get an all in one scenario, someone has to build it — shout out Dub Sonic. They’re the ones who built our master preamp’ and they’re out of France — it took them nine months.
It’s pretty serious when you start getting into it with other people doing this thing. You’re not necessarily doing this for reggae per se, but that respect factor.
Do you feel like your time in the UK shaped the way you guys are operating your system?
Yes, that’s pretty much the foundation of this whole thing — is that me and my buddy, we were going out to raves and all these different events. And we really didn’t pay attention to like necessarily the sound systems then, but it was different, when you were going to like a sound system event. Channel One sound system, they’re just a crew of people who’ve just been around for, I want to say 50 years — they’re somebody who we would see almost every single month when they were playing.
The vibes are just so different. You’d be in front of these sound systems and you would be hearing a genre that was just, you know, not necessarily considered electronic music at times. It was more so,very deep, very cultural music coming out of these very, very strong speakers.
How was experiencing that? You mentioned to me earlier you went to a few events lead by Channel One Sound?
When I went to the UK, that’s when everything kind of just switched and I just got introduced to all this stuff. I saw people playing stuff on vinyl that I’ve never heard. And they were like, yeah, you’ll never hear it again. And what they were telling me wasn’t so much gatekeeping, but it was just more so like, yeah, this is my dub.
I was already collecting records cause I was just like getting into just collecting music and just listening to stuff. But I never started putting the two and two together, until I just went to a certain event- and that just, that just changed everything. It was pretty much just two turntables all night, primarily the Channel One sound system.
When it comes to sound system culture in the UK, they are definitely, in my opinion, just the top, just the top tier — they’re probably responsible for everything we’ve done. I’m very thankful to have been able to go to those sessions.
Cuz that changed my life forever. We would go every month — they had a session like relatively every month, then you’d see them in the summer and you see them at a festival.
What are some of the major aspects from those moments that you carry into your own work with DemDeya?
It was just like, it was never necessarily about them or their sound system. But it was literally about the music to a degree. There’s so much behind the music- when you talk about reggae music, beyond getting into the aspect of Rastafari, but just reggae, period.
To just get drowned in it was insane. We love that music. We still play that music and it’s still going to be a big part of why we’re moving forward and we’re going to appreciate that to the most high. It was very enlightening to hear, like- wow, I can listen to music differently and it’s all good. You know, it’s not necessarily the fact that it’s on vinyl or anything, but that’s how the sentiment is carried. That’s how the values carried.
With your introduction to this being overseas, what are your thoughts on the current state of what we are calling sound system culture here out west?
Yeah, I think it’s something that it’s just like, you know, it’s a victim of circumstance: something that just moved too fast to where, a certain light never got to shine.
It’s not necessarily that it was supposed to get shined- do you know what I mean? At the end of the day it’s about coming together. I think people just got to get learned up and just slow down. Instead of trying to think that they got to speed up to be the best at something that’s coming out- so they can be at the top. We’re all literally out here- everyone does this shit too.
Yeah. I feel like people are just too quick to just put in the work to identify with something. And that’s with more than just music. You know, you can just like chill out really. Like you really can just chill.
We’re not going to come out here and saying we’re tops out in that. At the same time we’re really just making sure we can do this right. Do right by the culture and just continue to just have parties to where you can be there forever when it comes to years and years and years down the line, rather than it being something you want to only associate with your younger years- just because of how people chose to digest the music. It really is about just creating that sort of community. A sort of genuine, genuine gathering.
Therefore, years down the line, we can all just continue to appreciate it in the same light, because it’s still being digested the same way. You know, like eventually you’re gonna have to put the Coca-Cola down or it’s going to be bad for you. That kind of mentality.
I love that. That’s true. The community around it can be something that is build into the legacy. It doesn’t have to burn itself out. It’s all about putting your roots down into a community.
Are you excited about that for yourself and your system? Do you see that, becoming bigger piece of it over time?
For sure.
Because we’re connecting with other sound systems that are, you know, doing the ting’ proper on the U.S front. And you can see them on the mixes and on the current radio show on Subtle FM Boom — big up, I was playing with them, back in London.
They kind of just showed me the way where you don’t got to be out here trying to say you’re the best when you know you’re not, or just trying to be the best at something cause it’s the quickest route. Like when it comes to these dub plates, you’ll be able to hear them, but you’ll only hear them when our sound system or from people in my crew.
What do you think are some good ways for people to get involved with these kinds of communities?
You can be involved just by buying the music. The second you buy a record, you’re straight up putting money into that. This is a global team. That’s a big part of it.
You’re involved the second you grab the music yourself.
