In Defense of Ska Ep 84: Victor Rice (The Scofflaws, New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble, Easy Star All-Stars, Firebug)

Victor Rice studied music at Manhattan School of Music intending to be a New York City session bass player. That is until he got talked into joining The Scofflaws in 1988. From that point forward, he became immersed in the world of ska. In fact, after doing a fantastic job producing The Scofflaws' first album, Bucket started hiring him to produce Moon Ska albums. He produced Skavoovie and The Epitones' Ripe, The Pietasters' Oolooloo, The Slackers' Better Late Than Never and The Adjusters' Before The Revolution.

Today we speak to Victor Rice about his time in The Scofflaws, producing Moon Ska albums, and playing bass in the New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble. But we also cover his time at King Django's studio Version City, where he and Agent Jay (The Slackers), worked on many a brilliant album like Rocker T's Nicer By The Hour. And we also devote some time to talking about dub techniques and dub history, as Victor has become a master of the genre. His dub name is Strikkly Vikkly.

We also talk about Victor's TWO Latin Grammys, some of his work with The Skatalites, what it's like to stay at European squat houses, why he moved to Brazil in 2002, and what it was like to do a dub remix of Hepcat's From Outta Nowhere album. We also talk about Victor's four solo albums: At Version City (1999), In America (2003), Smoke (2017), and Drink (2020)

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If you like our theme song, go download the EP Lives by Slow Gherkin. They wrote the opening and closing songs for our podcast. You can get both tunes from their Lives EP. Also, check out Dan P and the Bricks two LPs. They provided the mid-roll ad transition music. 

Support the In Defense host Aaron Carnes by purchasing a copy of his book, In Defense of Ska. The 2nd, expanded edition of In Defense of Ska will release in Oct 2024. 

Co-host Adam Davis has a band called Omnigone. Their latest record, Against The Rest released on March 31, 2023. 

The In Defense of Ska editor Chris Reeves runs a record label called Ska Punk International. They have new releases coming out all the time.