Danny Pepperseed

Author WorldaReggae.com

E pepperseed@worldareggae.com

Biography

Danny Pepperseed first got introduced to the sound of reggae at a young age by pop hits from Clint Eastwood & General Saint (“Stop That Train’), June Lodge & Prince Mohammed (‘Someone Love You Honey’), Monyaka (‘Go Deh’) and Black Slate (‘Amigo’). However, it wasn’t until his father borrowed the UB40 albums ‘Signing Off’ and ‘Labour Of Love’ from a friend in 1986, that Danny was listening to reggae music fulltime. Soon he started to collect other albums by UB40 and inspired by their ‘Labour Of Love’ series he was looking for the originals of the tracks recorded by UB40. At UB40 concerts, Danny was also introduced to dancehall by artists like Shinehead, Papa San and Shabba Ranks as they played this music over the PA before the concert. The rather limited reggae selection in the record shops in his hometown Helmond also limited Danny in discovering more reggae and dancehall.

A few months after the start of the first Gulf War in August 1990, Danny discovered David Rodigan’s radio show ‘Rodigan’s Rockers’ on BFBS. Rodigan’s shows were so informative, that listening to them was like going to college. Soon Danny started to tune in to Rodigan’s Rockers every week, recording the show on cassette to listen it back on his walkman over and over again, whilst going to school or doing his homework. In the meantime, Danny started to buy records from Greensleeves Mail Order department in London, building up his music collection. Listening to Rodigan inspired Danny to discover more about reggae music and after a concert by Sugar Minott, Frankie Paul and the 809 Band, he made a bold move to walk backstage. Much to his surprise, nobody stopped him and he immediately ran into saxophonist and bandleader Dean Fraser, who introduced him to the artists and musicians backstage. That was the start of building up his huge network.

In September 1994, Danny started to write for a Dutch magazine called Update and a few months later he started his own Dancehall Vibes radio show on Stadsradio Helmond, the local radio station in his hometown. This enabled him to meet more artists and to have access to the latest releases. He also travelled to London regularly to get the latest pre-releases at shops such as Dub Vendor and Blacker Dread. With his network still growing, Danny visited Jamaica for the first time in October 1996. Even though he only stayed there for four weeks, he met an incredible amount of producers and artists and visited nearly every studio, making even more links for his radio show. Danny also started to play out as a selector himself.

In April 1999, Danny finished his master in tax law and went back to Jamaica. He set up his label Ovadoze Muzik and started to produce. In July 1999, he returned to the Netherlands with a lot of new releases and some wicked remixes cut to dubplate, which he played in a pub called Le Beat International in Eindhoven. There he met Kriss and Mr. Scissors, with whom he would start Ovadoze Movement later that year. Ovadoze Movement went on to play in a large number of clubs in the Netherlands, as well as abroad. Up until today, Danny still hosts his Dancehall Vibes radio show and act as a selector and MC for Ovadoze Movement.

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