Mark Iration of Iration Steppas on New Album ‘Dubs from the Foundation,’ Introduction to Greensleeves Records, and More
GS: For those of our readers who have not yet come across your work, please can you introduce yourself?
IS: My name is Mark Iration from the Iration Steppas Soundsystem. I’m a DJ, producer, remixer, singer and I’ve been doing soundsystem for a very long time, from the eighties onwards, and my original sound was called Ital Rockers. Iration Steppas Sound System has been running for 35 years and is one of the top Dub Reggae soundsystems in the world. I regularly DJ many shows in the UK and around the world. Check Instagram and Facebook for forthcoming shows.
GS: You have been playing Soundsystem for nearly forty years, what advice would you give someone looking to get into Soundsystem business?
IS: The advice to newcomers in the soundsystem business, it’s not a race, it’s a marathon! So you just take your time to find out what you want to do, who you want to be, what music you want to play and how you want to play it. It can seem easy, but we only make it look easy because we’ve been doing this for decades. So just take your time, and good luck!
GS: What track introduced you to Greensleeves Records?
IS: My first Greensleeves… If I remember, I was at school, and we used to go to Sir Yankees Record Shop in Chapel Town, down Gathorne Street. And we were buying Capital Letters “Smoking My Ganja”, “U.K. Skanking” and Dr. Alimantado Best Dressed Chicken In Town… back in the days! Later on, Mystic Eyes ‘Perilous Times’ was a big one for me, but those were the ones that got stuck in my head when I first started buying records… School Days!. Big up Sir Yankees in Chapel Town everytime.
GS: This month will see the release of ‘Greensleeves Records presents Iration Steppas – Dubs From The Foundation’. Can you tell us a little about the project?
IS: This project is a huge honour for me as I am a huge fan of Greensleeves and have been collecting Greensleeves releases ever since school days. Junjo, Linval Thompson, Michael Prophet, Roots Radics… to many names to mention, but they have an incredible catalogue of music which I still play to this day on the soundsystem. I’m very honoured to be involved with Greensleeves’ Soundsystem series alongside Jah Shaka (Rest In Power) and Mikey from Channel One. The focus of the music industry has always been London so coming from Leeds, up north in Yorkshire – or ‘country’ as they call it, I feel proud to represent Leeds to the world.
