Down to a Science: Chatting History with Krack Free Media's Mark Cowen
It’s not often that you get to chat with people who were part of something when it started. Depending on what that something was and how long ago it happened, its innovators are usually deceased or too important to talk about humble beginnings. Thankfully, hip hop is young enough that time hasn’t claimed all its originators and old enough to offer some perspective. Hip hop started in the mid-80s in America, but Scottish hip hop has its own vibrant, creative origin story that with the exception of Loki’s History of Scottish Hip Hop hasn’t been given much attention. Making sure its stories aren’t lost, Delaina Sepko jumped at the chance to chat with DJ Science aka Mark Cowen from Krack Free Media about being in one of Scotland’s first Britcore groups (an early hardcore UK hip hop sound defined by its pace and aggression). He discussed how they developed their unique sound and how hip hop made him a better man.
There aren’t many photos of the group but I did find one (see above). Can you explain who’s who in it?
The guy at the front is Paul Smith aka Krash Slaughta, or as we used to call him: DJ Smiz. [The guy in the pink jumper] is Chris Palazzi. He used to be known as Swift C. I don’t think he ever used his name on any of his songs. Chris used to write all the lyrics. [The guy in the green jacket] is me! And the guy with the blue jeans is Evan Bruce who’s also called Kryptic.
How did you guys get started?
The original two members were Evan and Chris. Before I joined they used to go to 23rd Precinct Records in Glasgow [Ed: an iconic record store that closed in 2009]. A lot of people who were into hip hop would go there because they could get the American imports. So, that’s how we used to meet up. Chris and Evan were there one day and they bumped into a guy called Davey Anderson aka DJ Davey Ace. They got chatting to him and found out he had turntables. Technics 1200s and 1210s were really, really expensive and here’s this guy who had proper turntables! So, they joined up with him. Davey came into the record store one day and he had Evan with him and he was telling me all about joining. One day Chris and Evan just turned around and said would I be their DJ? I asked: ‘what about Davey?’ And they were like: ‘well, aye, but we want you.’ We were young at that time. Davey was alright about it but I felt really, really bad.
What year did you join the group?
That was probably about ‘87 or ‘88. Chris and Evan were about 15 so they started it up round about ‘86.
And what were you guys listening to when you first started to make tunes together? What were you going down to 23rd Precinct to buy?
It was all American stuff. Everything was American before the UK scene hit. You had a few really, really old school UK artists. You had people like MC Buzz B, City Limits Crew and Family Quest. You’re trying to get used to the English accent compared to the American because the early stuff that you listened to was all American. It was a big influence. When Public Enemy hit, they had a different sound and I think most people would admit that Public Enemy were something completely different. That was totally different from all the funky stuff that you had heard from other artists. I think Public Enemy were a big influence on the Britcore sound. Later on, you had artists like Hijack and Gunshot.
Is there a story behind the name Krack Free Media?
We were introduced to a guy from Wales, a graffiti artist called System. So. in ‘87 or ‘88 just after I had joined Krack Free Media, System designed the Krack Free Media logo. He sat for about an hour and drew the whole logo out there and then. It was totally amazing. It was a fantastic logo. At the same time, we’d got the group’s name. I think it was Chris who actually came up with the name Krack Free Media. We were like what does it mean? And he said that we were different so it meant to break free from the media and the stereotypes. It made sense to him! So, we just went: ‘yeah that’s fine. Krack Free Media it is.’
Did you guys pick up any more members over the years?
After I joined them, Evan told me he got a new guy. He said we thought if we were doing gigs that having two DJs on stage rather than one would be something different. I think I asked his name and he said it was Paul. Evan came to meet me on the train that day. When I got into Glasgow and I asked him where Chris was, he said he was with Paul at 23rd Precinct. As we were heading towards 23rd Precinct, we popped into another record shop just around the corner called Fopp. When we walked out, Chris and Paul – DJ Smiz mentioned at the start – came around the corner. I looked at him and we just pointed at each other and went “ahhhhhh!” We started laughing because they didn’t know I already knew Paul. It was bizarre they had got him to join us and I knew him. I’d known Smiz for quite a while and I used to go through to his. Then he moved away and we lost contact. And then he joined the group. We walked around the corner and it was like “I know you!” We just had a good laugh about it. That was it: the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Fantastic! So when did you start gigging?
At the time, there weren’t really many places. It was all techno and rave and stuff like that. Clubs weren’t really interested in hip hop so you’d get a venue maybe on a Wednesday night and maybe underagers. We didn’t get many gigs at all. We did one in Saltcoats: a big rave thing - and the guy who was the manager knew Smiz. He gave us a slot at one. It was like a massive big nightclub and it was an all-day rave. We went on kind of early in the evening and I think we went on a bit later at night as well.
How did the ravers receive Krack Free Media?
Good! They were alright! We did really well, which was kind of strange. I think most of them were having fun.
Well, Britcore is a very energetic, rousing kind of style.
It was quite fast rap and stuff.
I don’t think it’s a million miles away from some EDM tunes, at least in spirit.
I think some of the early Britcore stuff like Gunshot and ourselves and II Tone Committee (another legendary Scottish rap group) was all very politically charged and very hardcore. Some of it was dark as well. Some of the heavier stuff that we did and Killa Instinct – another group from England – did was quite dark as well. There were dark undertones to the songs.
Killa Instinct is a group that I’ve come across. I’ve gotten the sense from them that there’s an edge to the lyrics but not a lot of swearing overall. Nobody feels the need to drop F bombs. That’s a huge difference to what you were hearing coming out of America.
Yeah, that’s right. At the time, as the Britcore sound kind of kicked off, you were getting N.W.A. Every second word was an F bomb. There were swears. Younger folk thought maybe that was quite cool, but as we got a bit older, we realised you don’t need to swear all the time. It doesn’t really kinda help your song if you’re swearing all the time. I think when we were young, a lot of the people when we were doing our breakdancing were into the American stuff. You liked all the American stuff, but I think eventually you got to the stage when you got a bit older when you realised this doesn’t really relate to my country. This doesn’t relate to what’s happening in my life. I think a lot of the young UK guys when they started getting into rapping, they were trying to rap like the Scottish guys. Major Threat. Big Div. They were trying to find their own identity within rap. They were trying to do rapping in Scottish accents, which for like years and years was looked down on. People would criticise it, but the same thing would happen with UK rap. A lot of English rappers would rap with an English accent and it would always get put down. I think it’s just people’s ears getting attuned to it.
That was a point that came up on a recent panel about grime and hip hop in Scotland. On the topic of accents, the panel were asked if Scottish accents were becoming more accepted these days. One replied “well, have they been accepted?” The implication being that they didn’t really think that was the case. But there were other thoughts about how it just takes time to develop that ear. I have to admit that I had had this hurdle.
Just with the language?! [laughs]
Not even that! You have to give yourself the time and the space to learn how to listen to different hip hop. It’s a process. And the more that you expose people to it, the better their ears get at hearing it. You know? I can see the effect of that though. That is, that there weren’t that many opportunities for gigs. If there isn’t a need or want to book those kinds of bands, then you’re not going to get the gigs, are you? And then it becomes even harder to get people on board. When did the vinyl start coming out? A lot of it was published late, wasn’t it?
I was approached by a guy called Boris. I think he was involved with a record shop at the time called Vinylism, but he also had his own record label called Naked Ape Recordings. He was doing a compilation album on vinyl which had lots of UK Britcore and Boris asked if he could use one of our songs. Of course, I said yeah. He was the first one to put us on vinyl for Underground United Vol. 1. He included Difference Dealer and it was released in 2009. And then I think it was in 2013 or 2014 another guy called Thomas, who I knew from MySpace got in touch via Facebook. He said he had his own record label and wanted to remaster and press up our stuff. He went through all the tracks off of the Anthology CD and decided that there were too many for one release. He decided to do two separate mini-album: Tomes and Scriptures and Quatrains and Parables on his label Britcore Romance.
What are some of the things you’re most proud of as a member of Krack Free Media?
I really enjoyed working with Evan. Just the two of us. In the early days we started off using a reel to reel tape machine and we layered stuff by hand. It was later on I got a Casio RZ1 drum machine. We migrated from just a 4-track and turntables to a drum machine and some FX. I had an old Archimedes A3000 computer we’d use. Snake Of Scent was the first song we made on the computer. In fact, that was the first one me and Evan did just the two of us and it was the first time Evan had written lyrics as well.
Knowing what you know now, all these wisened years later, what advice would you give to your younger Krack Free Media self?
Easy! Turn off the monitor [laughs]. We were doing our mix downs and we had this awful problem where we were getting a bit of a buzz. We could never figure out where it was coming from. It wasn’t until later on that we realised that it was the monitor. The computer monitor! It wasn’t earthed. We had to switch it off before we pressed the play button. It really bummed us out and took us ages to sort.
Also, just enjoy what you’re doing. Don’t worry too much about record deals and that. If you’re doing music and even if there’s a small group of people that like it, then that’s enough. I’m just quite stunned that there’s people in Japan and Australia who’ve heard of us. I can’t believe it. I think you’ve got to enjoy what you’re doing and if you like what you’re doing, if you like the stuff that you’re putting out, then there’s bound to be other people who will like it. I’ve always been pleased with the songs that we did. It’s something that I’m quite proud of. Now, even more than when I was younger.
Is there anything else that you want to mention?
I’ve met a lot of people. That’s the great thing about hip hop and the culture. I know it’s always had a lot of negative press but if you ask anybody that’s into hip hop, they’ll say it gave them a sense of being part of something. Along the way, you meet people that you otherwise wouldn’t have met. It opens doors. It opens your eyes and you feel as if you’ve contributed. The whole culture – your graffiti artists, your breakdancers – everybody’s part of that culture and part of the history. You hear these stories about everybody and that’s how the knowledge is spread and people get to know each other. I think a lot of people have been brought up better because of some of the stuff people have listened to in hip hop.
What a refreshing perspective. Normally, when I hear people talk about hip hop it’s usually got some sort of negative tinge to it. You know, the language is violent or it’s misogynistic or homophobic.
Because they’re on the outside. They see it from the outside. They haven’t been involved. They haven’t had the journey, the involvement of meeting and speaking to people who are into hip hop. You’ll find a lot of the people that are into hip hop, especially some of the older guys, have this experience. Ask us and we’ll probably say hip hop made us the men we are today.
You can check out Krack Free Media’s work on Spotify.