Ben Glass

What did you do before joining dBs?  

The most significant work I’ve done is producing music as Dubkasm with my best friend, Stryda. We grew up in Bristol, getting into the same music in our teens, record shopping and attending roots, dub, and reggae dances. It was about spending time with other musicians, building trust, and late-night sessions.

Starting with basic analogue gear and cutting dubplates for Jah Shaka and Aba Shanti, we founded our label, releasing over 30 vinyl records. Branching into other scenes, we’ve collaborated with artists like Lee “Scratch” Perry, Mala, Ishmael Ensemble, Footsie, and most recently, Bristol legend Tricky, co-producing a track and recording Concrete Flowers, written in our studio.

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Why did you first get into music production?  

I studied piano, guitar, and saxophone from a young age but became truly captivated by music technology at ten years old. I started experimenting with the Yamaha DX11 synth, deciphering its poorly translated manual and storing my patches on cassette. Around the same time, my dad, who was designing buildings in Kuwait, brought back a collection of eclectic bootleg cassettes. One of them, The Dub Factor by Black Uhuru, would later sculpt  my musical direction forever. After experiencing Jah Shaka’s soundsystem in the early ’90s, I began creating dub tracks on my mum’s dresser and we had our first release on the Nubian Records label in 1996. We were 18 at the time!

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Any special areas of interest?  

It has to be using the mixing desk and effects as a musical instrument and manipulating it as a form of improvisation. John Coltrane and Miles Davis were the first musicians to inspire me to play sax and I have always loved improvisation in both music and storytelling. To me, dub mixing is a kind of calculated chaos where every take is unique - unpredictable - and I think that is quite akin to jazz. I am half Brazilian and have always been a massive fan of Brazilian music. I lived in Brazil for 8 years where I played in several bands and waged war on mosquitoes.

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What do you love most about what you do?

I get a lot of joy from seeing people inspired by things I’m passionate about and watching their ideas bloom in real time. I’m also very grateful for the wonderful people I work with at dBs. In music, it’s more about the people and what happens around you. Stages, hotel rooms, and crowd sizes are transitory; it’s sharing food, laughter, and stories that truly matters. People often measure success in less meaningful ways and lose focus on the music itself—the things that first hooked you in.

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Tell us about your proudest career moment?

I think taking our Dubkasm project on the road has been something I am very proud of. Stryda and I have performed across 28 countries including over 50 European cities as well as in Canada, New York, Japan, Brazil, Russia and as far as Siberia, where we landed on a snowy runway!

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What do you get up to outside of your role at dBs? 

I work with disabled musicians as an Associate Musician with Drake Music. I was honoured to design and develop the first BTEC music course adapted for disabled EyeGaze and switch users, which was my first project with Drake Music and introduced me to assistive tech. Since then, I’ve worked on some wonderful projects, including a collaboration with deaf percussion virtuoso Evelyn Glennie in Singapore. Helping musicians overcome physically disabling barriers is one of my passions.

Tell us something our students may not know about you?

I used to be a children's storyteller in London and recently recorded a podcast story called ‘Jingo and Plod’ with my two daughters. It’s a rework of a joke I used to record for my friends as a teen, and I’ve never laughed so much during a recording session! You can find it on Spotify in English and Portuguese, or on the planet Zorcon.