(reggae music)
- When people see Lee Perry,
they're feeling this guy's just soul pouring out.
He hits on something that's just magical.
- Lee Scratch Perry's a magician,
he's a madman, he's a music maker, he's one of a kind,
there's never gonna be one like him again.
When I work with Lee Scratch Perry
as his bandleader,
he was like an idol of mine.
I never thought I would meet the guy.
I didn't even know if he was alive.
Scratch is kind of like Yoda, but he's also like a child
inside an 80-year-old man's body.
- Yeaaah.
Woo ooh, woo ooh, woo ooh.
- [EMCH] In many ways, I feel like he's underappreciated.
He's a guy who has touched so many people,
- Bob Marley, Paul McCartney, The Clash, The Beastie Boys.
Keith Richards once said that Lee Scratch Perry
was the Salvador Dali of music.
- Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
- [EMCH] It's amazing to see this guy who's 80-years-old,
who's just like this creative force of nature.
He's never without a computer.
Now, he's even said sometimes the computer is part of him.
He's constantly reacting to what's around him
and processing it and it comes back out
in one way or another.
(laughs)
- He always talks about people
being either scientists or magicians.
Everything I'm doing with the computers
and twisting the knobs, he's like, "you're a scientist."
(electronic reggae music)
This is actually how I wrote the bass line to this track.
Around me is all this gear from decades past,
not unlike what Scratch was using back in Jamaica.
In the same way Scratch used the mixing board
as an instrument to shape a new form of music,
now we're using the computer to shape
a new form of musical performance, so it allows
us to take all this on tour and take it on stage.
- [Voiceover] We're about to give you
the vibes of Mr. Lee Scratch Perry.
How does everyone feel about that?
Does that sound all right?
(applause)
(swelling music)
You guys ready?
(slow reggae music)
- [EMCH] Often times, people see me on stage
and they think I'm just DJing,
but in fact, what I'm doing is
very demanding on the computer.
We're creating kind of a new blueprint for live performance,
because we're using a combination of live instruments,
elements of the music in the computer,
and of course, elements of improvisation live.
Every night we perform it, it's different.
It's living art.
The science, the nature, and the spirituality
all coming together in one.
That's what anyone can learn from Lee Scratch Perry,
whether they like his music or not,
is to look at the world like a child and never stop
experimenting and pushing your creativity forward.