Israel Vibration ADD

Israel Vibration - Interview with Lascelle 'Wiss' Bulgin | Part I – The History

02/28/2025 by Angus Taylor

Jamaican Roots Reggae music is often about creating positives from adversity. And no group embodies this like Israel Vibration.

Originally a harmony trio, “Wiss” Bulgin, “Skelly” Spence and “Apple Gabriel” met at a rehabilitation centre for children affected by the polio epidemic of the 1950s. Upon graduating from school, they found few Kingston producers or studios willing to audition them. After an abortive recording experience at Channel One, they eventually gained funding from the Twelve Tribes Of Israel Rasta organisation for two singles, Bad Intention and Why Worry.

The success of Why Worry led to them cutting two LPs for producer Tommy Cowan. These were their internationally acclaimed debut Same Song, and a follow up, distributed by EMI and recorded at Tuff Gong, Unconquered People. An acrimonious split from Cowan, and a subsequent disagreement with producer Junjo Lawes over him adding additional personnel to third LP, Why You So Craven, saw them relocating to the USA, where their roots reggae harmonies, by then out of fashion in Jamaica, might be better received. This proved to be a wise move, as their tours with legendary session band the Roots Radics, and a series of albums for Dr Dread’s RAS Records, cemented a new fanbase that continues to this day.

In 1997, the group ruptured when the troubled Apple Gabriel left to go solo (he died in 2020). Skelly and Wiss continued as a duo, working with French agency Mediacom before their current association with Brazil’s Riddim Agency. During the making of latest album, Reggae Music Never Dies, Skelly fell ill, succumbing to lung cancer in 2022, leaving Israel Vibration as Wiss alone. The completed project, now released, contains the final songs written and sung by Skelly, closing another chapter in a long and determined career. 

Angus Taylor interviewed Wiss via video call from his home in Austin, Texas. In their nearly 90 minute conversation two things came across: Wiss’ work ethic and insistence on professionalism at all times. 

Part 1 of this interview looks at the group’s history. In part 2 they discuss the new album, produced by Aston Barrett Jr, son of Family Man Barrett of the Wailers, who Israel Vibration worked with at Tuff Gong back in the day. 

Tell me a bit about your history. Which parish are you from originally? Was there music on your mother's side or your father's side?

I come from Trelawny. I usually say my granny and my mother. They would go to church. My granny used to play the drums. You know those church people. Some of them have their tambourine. Some of them have that little drum that they put underneath their arm and they have two sticks and they play that. And then they have the little maracas and stuff like that. My granny used to play the drum and usually sing. My brother used to play the drums also and they'd sing in church. 

But as I got older now, like when I was maybe 17 or 18 years old, I went to the Chestervale Youth Camp in St Andrew, the trade school. They had a band. That was where my musical thing started right there. After graduation, Skelly and Apple and myself, we kind of connected musically. That was like in the early-mid 70s. 

You said in another interview with Reggae.si that when you were little, as a child suffering from polio, you could hear sound systems playing from your yard. 

Yeah man, when I was a little youth. The whole of Jamaica in those early days of my life. Sound system was everywhere. Everywhere all over the island. Every parish you go, you hear music a play. Bare sound system, jukebox, the music was everywhere. So I used to stay yard and music would play, man. Loud loud in the early days. All the way. The whole of Jamaica full of music. Long, long time. It's a musical place man. Long time thing, you know?

Not so much these days. With the noise limitations and the curfews and things like that.

Yeah right, it's kind of limited but the music is still there. Even if they play it low, the music is everywhere. In their car. Everywhere, same way.

So who did you meet first out of Skelly and Apple?

Basically I would say we met at the same time. Because of the outbreak of the polio. We have this institution where the boys and the girls were in the same institution. We all met at the same time but I would say I was more familiar with Skelly. More than Apple. Because Apple was kind of like out more. Sometimes he was sent to a different location, you know? Other than where most of us were. Because at some point he was sent to the Alpha Boys School.

A famous place. Why did they send him to Alpha? 

Ok. He was kind of on the disruptive side. He was one of those kids who was like restless? He can't stay one place for too long. He sit here then he run and he gone. Run out of the school, run out of the class. So they said ok they're going to send him there. 

How did you get the name Wiss?

Well, me give that name to. I take that name. I took that name because I look like a plant. (laughs) I look like a skinny wiss.

This institution, the Mona Rehabilitation Clinic, like Alpha, had a lot of music there.

At the Mona Rehab they had a band there. And the name of the band was The Hotlickers. And it was all disabled people in the band. At the time Skelly was in the band also. I wasn't in that band. All those guys were much older than me. And when the older guys are a certain age after graduation when they leave then the next set of guys they would take over. But slowly after that some instruments were still there. There was an acoustic piano. There were a lot of kids that had the talent to sing but for some reason after a while they all went to different schools and everything kind of got scattered up, you know? But it was maybe at the age of like 13, 14, 15 and then when I was 17 I went to the trade school. And it was after trade school now when me and Skelly and Apple met [again] when we were like 19, 20. That's when me and them link up now.

And what was your trade?

Tailoring. 

I heard Skelly in the same interview saying that part of the inspiration for the name Israel Vibration was Bob Marley's album Rastaman Vibration.

The name of the group? Well, not that I can remember. I remember we were saying we need a name that is kind of powerful and has a strong meaning. And then we were there trying to come up with some names and coming up with all different kinds of names and then he said “Israel Vibration Israel Vibrates”. That's what Skelly said. So when he said that Apple said “No man, it sound too long. Leave off the vibrate part of it. And just say Israel Vibration”. So that's where it comes from.

There's a lot of conflicting information online about how exactly the group came into the music business. I know you auditioned at Channel One but can you take me from what happened there to Twelve Tribes and how you recorded your first tunes?

Ok first we started when we were going downtown. Looking for something to happen. We started all the way from Orange Street coming from Niney the Observer, Prince Buster, all the way down to Bunny Lee. Passing all them people and all those people are saying they're not doing anything.

They said they weren't doing any auditions?

That's what they said right. And then we went down to VP.

Randy's.

Right. And then they said they were not taking auditions also. And the same Joe Gibbs blah blah blah. And when we got to Orange Street now we didn't have any more bus fare. Because we come in all the way from Papine. And luckily now across the street from Randy's there was a furniture store. The bass player from the Chestervale Youth Camp band, he was working over there. he came over and he said "Hey Bruck Up”. Because that's what they called me at trade school. Bruck Up. He said “Bruck Up, what you a do down here?” I said “We're going to look a little studio and talk about recording”. And I said we wanted to reach Channel One but we have no bus fare. And he went in his pocket and he took out some money. And he gave it to me. And that's how I could pay for myself, Skelly and Apple to go from Orange Street to reach over to Channel One. 

And when we reached Channel One we saw Blacka Morwell. Blacka Morwell said he was doing some auditions and things, and said to make him hear the song. We said “We can't just sing the song in public like that. So we'll go in a private area”. So we went in a private area with him and we brought out a little song for him and he got excited. And he went and he told Ernest or JoJo them. The studio people them. So they called us in and we went inside and we sang the song for them they got excited and said “Yes man, we didn't hear anything like that yet”. They didn't hear any kind of singing like that. They gave us a dub plate and said “Come back within two weeks time”. So we came back within one week time. And we played the dub plate and we sang to it. And they said “What? Okay” and they got pure excited about it. So we made some kind of arrangement to come back and record. And we went back on the recording day. But when we went back there were a lot of artists there for the audition also. So when we went in and did the track and it was like Bad Intention.

So you did Bad Intention at Channel One. 

Yes. And then we were supposed to come back and make a deal with them. Some contract or whatever. When we went back, I think one week after that, as we entered the premises we could stay out and hear the music playing. So when we went inside there now it was our song playing and there was some other musicians listening to the song. So to us it seemed as if something wasn't right, you know?

Like they were going to try and make over your song?

Uh huh. Something wasn't right. So then we got in a disagreement with them. We told them we didn't want to be involved in what was happening again. We told them that they should erase our voice from the track and they erased it. So we didn't follow up with Channel One.

I imagine some reissue labels are very sad that they can't find and reissue that early version of the song! 

Right. But then we did it over anyway. The first recording of it was done by the Twelve Tribes of Israel. On the Orthodox label. Originally the original track Bad Intention. It was two tracks Bad Intention and Why Worry. Played by the Twelve Tribes of Israel band.

Who was in the band? Bagga?

Bagga wasn't playing the bass. It was Junior Dan.

Sydney Gussine. 

They called him Left Toe. He played the bass. Sangie on the lead guitar. Malawi on the drums. Pablove Black on the keys. Original Twelve Tribes man. Jerry Small on the percussion. 

That first Twelve Tribes recording of Why Worry is wicked. I went to Notting Hill Carnival and after they did three minute silence for the Grenfell Tower that was the first tune the sound system played. 

Yeah man, that was the original Why Worry. And then Skelly still went and did it over. Did it over with Robbie playing the bass. But I still tell him say that the original will always be the original.

So you linked with the Twelve Tribes through Rasta?

We already had the name Israel Vibration before we were members of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. So before we started recording we usually would be in the bushes rehearsing by ourselves. We have no instruments. We would just sing and work amongst ourselves. There was this playing field, the university playing field. And there was a shortcut. Usually a lot of the Twelve Tribes brethrens walked through the shortcut to go to the playing field. So they could hear us singing in the bushes. And then they would come and find us. So that's how we first got in touch with the Twelve Tribes now. The brethren who we saw there was Brigadier's brother, we called him Jeremiah. Because Jeremiah, Kafinal and another brethren named Rebel, they started telling us about Twelve Tribes and how they would like us to come to a meeting. And so we kind of got involved.

And, after the Twelve Tribes sessions, how did Tommy Cowan get involved?

Tommy Cowan got involved with us after we did those two tracks with the Twelve Tribes, Bad Intention and Why Worry [through] the brethren who got us to the studio, Hugh Booth. Boothy said he wished he could have followed up with what he had started. He was not really in a position to follow up, but he knows someone who he would like to introduce us to. Talent Corporation which is Tommy Cowan. We met Tommy Cowan through Boothy. By this time Tommy Cowan was working with Inner Circle on the Top Ranking label, with Jacob Miller and all those people there. That's how we kind of got connected with Tommy. And then Tommy dealt with the Same Song 45 first. From there we started dealing with him again and we did the Same Song album. And then we followed up with the Unconquered People album. 

But on the Same Song album he didn't use Inner Circle. He used different musicians.

Yes. In that time we used what they used to call a pickup set of musicians. And we picked up some of the best you know?

Sly and Robbie.

Yes. Sly and Robbie were there. But we had Fullwood.

Fully. 

Yeah Fully was there. Max Edwards. 

Soul Syndicate brethrens. 

Right, and you had Calvin McKenzie. He played upon Same Song. Bubbler on the keyboards. Augustus Pablo. Robbie Lynn. Keith Stirling. Winston Wright. To name a few of them.

So I wanted to ask about the Unconquered People album. Because Bob would have been 80 this year and you've just done an album with Familyman’s son. Tell me about how you ended up working at Tuff Gong through Tommy and the experience with Fams and Carly from the Wailers.

After the Same Song album, when we got to the Unconquered People album, by that time Tommy was working at Tuff Gong. He had a connection at Tuff Gong. So the arrangement was that we were going to do the recording at Tuff Gong. So he got in touch with the musicians and it was kind of like we said before, a pickup set of musicians again. It was like a mix of The Wailers and some other people who we were familiar with. Carly was on three tracks. One for me, one for Skelly, and one for Apple. And then for the basslines now, Familyman played all of the basslines. And then the drummer now, Cornell…

Cornell Marshall. 

Yeah, he played most of the drums. Like I said, Carly only played three drums, one for me, one for Apple and one for Skelly. And then you had Tyrone and Wire on the keyboards. And I think Bubbler was there also. When we were recording the Unconquered People album Bob Marley was upstairs. He stayed upstairs but he could hear the recording coming through and I was told that Bob ran down stairs and Bob said “Yeah man, this the music that have to play in the place!” That's what they told us Bob said. So we weren't particularly close but we knew Bob and Bob knew we and things like that. So everything was cool same way. 

But we never really did a lot of recording with The Wailers like we did a lot of recording with the Radics. Well, we knew them but we never knew them like to sit down [with Fams] and talk with him. It was more like we had a session and all right then we go in the studio. We would sing and him a play. That was it man. It was not a lot of verbal exchange. But we saw that The Wailers had the ability, man. No doubt about it. The Wailers could play. We knew that. And then in those early days we did one or two concerts also with The Wailers. I remember when we went to the Prison Oval in Spanish Town during the '70s, we had a concert when The Wailers were playing. They were backing other artists and we were on the show also. In the Prison Oval at Spanish Town. So we had a nice little vibe with The Wailers.

You mentioned that Bob said he liked hearing your music in his studio. By this time at the end of the 70s the music was changing. There weren't many harmony groups. There were more deejays. The lyrical content was starting to change as well. But you were still holding firm in the harmony style with conscious lyrics. 

Those vibes can't change. You can't change from being original. You have to stay original. You have to set an example. So the example is going forward. There is a trend and there is a way to keep it going. It's like if you have a box of puzzle. And all the pieces are there but they are all jumbled up together. Not until you put the right pieces in the right place then you can see the picture. Just like the music. The music is like a box of puzzle. And you put the right lyrical content in the right place and then you see the formation. Like I said we can't change from who we really is. If you are someone positive it's best to keep going in that direction. Because you have people who are looking at you and people who are taking an example from you. So if you keep changing switching, switching, switching you'll confuse them. You don't have to confuse them. You have to keep conscious.

Flabba said something similar when I interviewed him. He said that when the music went digital and there weren't so many sessions for him, going on tour with Israel Vibration and working with RAS Records was a very important thing. How was it for you? 

Well, the same thing happened. You see how the people them, it all has to do with the fans also. Because you start out this way. This is how we started out. We started out saying these things. And then the people, the fans, gravitate onto what you started out saying. And then it starts to build up an impact on them. They've started getting connected to those lyrics. So when you keep feeding it to them it's like you are building up their confidence you know what I mean? It's the same thing now, the more you give it to them in a positive way, is the more that they're reaching out for it. So that's how you keep it flowing you know? Yeah man, you just keep it flowing.

So how come you moved to the United States?

For the three of us, when we were in Jamaica things kind of got slow musically. At the time there were a lot of things taking place abroad musically. So we said “Ok then we should try and see if we can make a difference” you know? So you should know that we had this album that we did with Junjo, the Why You So Craven album. And then there were little differences and disagreements between us and Junjo. Because what happened was Junjo, the tracks that we did, he wanted to have other artists on the same tracks. So we said “No, we don't want no other artists on our tracks them”. So there was a bit of a disagreement between we and him. 

Anyway, Junjo turned the album over to Sonic Sound. So we went to Sonic Sound and we said to him could he give us a letter of recommendation to take to the embassy so we can get some visas. And so he asked “Why do you want that Rasta?” and we told him we were trying to promote the album. He said that he thinks that's a good idea. So he wrote us a letter of recommendation, Eddie Lee, and we went to the embassy with the letter. And we got three visas. Skelly and myself, we got indefinite multiple and Apple got a six-month visa. And that's how we flew out of Jamaica. So when we got in America here we never had the work permit. To work in America. So we overstayed and everything kind of got different, you know what I mean? We ended up in America and it was a long story.

But you settled in America and you got a lot of American fans so it ended up good.

Yes. It kind of worked out ok in the long run. But in the beginning part it was kind of a little rugged, you know what I mean? It wasn't so easy.

You mentioned that Apple had to go to Alpha because he was being disruptive. Why did Apple leave Israel Vibration? Was he being disruptive in the group?

Apple was kind of unstable. Like sometimes he'd make some decisions, where like for example he wanted to do some songs all by himself. And then he'd stick you up. If you didn't want to do things his way. More than one time he'd leave the group and go and do some things differently and then he'd want to come back. When we were on tour and he'd want to go on stage. Sometimes we'd be getting ready to go on tour and he knew about it and everyone else was ready and we were waiting for him. Waited for him and we couldn't see him and he'd be hiding so we'd have to leave him. Everyone else was there except him. And it's not like he didn't know about it. He knows about it. He knows about it ahead of time. At the appointed time he's not available.

But the music you did in that time with RAS Records did well. Strength Of My Life, On The Rock, people love these albums.

Yeah man, yeah man. We did some good work. Because most of the time me and him did the harmonies and stuff like that. We do the harmonies in the studio and everything was okay. Me no have no problem with him, you know? I had no problem with him. It was not like I hate him. It was just that sometimes now he just had this way about him where he had to do this and he had to do it his way and if you didn't have it his way then he was going to interrupt it with xyz. I'd like I told him “Things can happen both ways, you know?” 

And we didn't force him. When he said he wanted to go solo, that's what he said he said he wanted to do a solo thing right now. We didn't stop him. We said “Okay" and he went. But things didn't really work out how he planned it. He was the one who left. We didn't run him away. He was the one who left. And then what happened was he tried to come back. When he tried to come back by then we had a different album that we did without him. With some ladies singing also. So when we're on tour he came to one of the shows and then he wanted to come on the stage and we had to say to him he can't just come and interrupt this moment. He can't just come on and do this kind of thing, you know? 

And then we said ok let's try and see how the best way things can work out again. And then he passed remarks. He passed a bad remark about Skelly. Just as we were trying to make things kind of come back around he passed a remark about Skelly like saying he was going to do anything to bring him down. So when Skelly heard that now, Skelly said it seemed like nothing changed about him, you know? What is the sense of taking him back when it's gonna be the same thing again. In my mind I wouldn't have a problem with him. I wouldn't because I know how to deal with him. But Skelly just took it different. So I said “Alright, I cannot force Skelly to deal with him. If he doesn't want to deal with him then I can't force him to deal with him”. So I just had to let it be you know? Skelly “We're going to work and we’re going to work same way, you know?” So that's how it go.

READ PART 2 - THE NEW ALBUM HERE