Gus Chin

Gus grew up in Kingston, Jamaica. Some favorite songs in his youth included Israelites and Shanty Town by Desmond Dekker and The Aces. He also enjoyed the music of The Dragonaires and The Skatalites. Of his favorite music he said, "It was played quite regularly, especially in the heart of downtown, in the Kingston business district. You had a lot of little shops and bars that had jukeboxes, that would be open and played [the ska] from mid morning till late midnight."

English and Kelly Brooks

English and Kelly Brooks created and hosted a show on KRCL 90.1 called Huzzah for Ska. On Saturday nights, they would spin ska tracks from both local and national bands. They also interviewed local and national artist including King Django and Dr. Ring Ding.








We talked about the local ska scene the year they ended the show. Kelly said, "I think in 2004, even though ska had simmered down quite a bit, there was still a lot of fans. When we left, we heard from a lot of people that were bummed because it's still really good music."

Dave Hillyard and Vic Ruggiero

I was able to get an incredible interview with Dave and Vic of The Slackers. They freely shared insights from their first exposure to reggae, to being mentored by Roland Alphonso, Tommy McCook, Lloyd Knibb and Lester Sterling of The Skatalites. They also talked about continuing on for over 15 years.
Vic - "The Slackers were lucky, because we never fit in, ever. And it's always been good for us."
Dave - "We had to find out own path, and that's what we encourage other bands to do. Instead of relying on the scene we just went out and played...In the long term, it payed off."

Caleb Chapman

I met with Caleb Chapman at The Music School in
American Fork. Caleb founded the private institution back in 1998.

He also played alto sax in the band My Man Friday. He stated, "I remember playing at the last Stretch show at club Omni...it was a packed house with thousands of people. As My Man Friday took over...we gradually built up that fan base...and were back playing for two and three thousand people at shows."

Impromptu Interview

This last weekend, I met Josh Summers at a local music festival. He is a huge Stretch Armstrong fan. I had all my gear in the car, so we sat down for a quick interview. He said, "I saw [Stretch] open for Offspring and Guttermouth, which are pretty well known punk bands. In my opinion, [Stretch] got the crowd moving more than the national acts were."