THE French city of St étienne is known for its industrial power and a competitive football team. It is also home to reggae band Dub Incorporated.

Formed in 1998, the quintet’s members are drummer Grégory ‘Zigo’ Mavridorakis, Moritz von Korff (from Germany) on bass, guitarist Jérémie Gregeois and keyboardists Frédéric Peyron and Idir Derdiche. Singjay Bouchkour and deejay Komlan share vocal duties.

Zigo told Splash that he was influenced early on by rock music and hip hop but all that changed when he heard Culture’s weed anthem, International Herb.

He later discovered Marley, Black Uhuru and Steel Pulse.

“I fell in love with that music because of its nice drum and bass sounds, the mood, the message,” he said.

Valentin Zill, the band’s publicist, spoke about reggae in St étienne via e-mail.

“France is very centralised, so everything that happens there is happening in Paris. Dub Inc from St Étienne are almost an exception, since they come from what Parisians refer to as ‘province’.

The group’s latest album, Paradise, was released this year. While largely roots-reggae, it also has hip-hop, Arabic and dancehall elements.

Among its tracks are Paradise, Better Run, II faut qu’on ose and Revolution which Zigo describes as a “very powerful and strong” statement against pollution.

Dub Inc has visited Jamaica twice. They played the Plug and Play live series at the Wyndham Kingston Hotel.

The experience, says Zigo, was memorable.

“When we were supposed to start the show, the keyboards had problems so we had to wait for the engineers to fix it. The audience started to laugh about the ‘French fries’ on stage! But when things got fixed, we played a massive intro, and immediately saw some gunshot signs in the audience! People asked for pull-ups when our two singers started to sing! It was really great! I think Jamaican people enjoyed that we don’t just copy Jamaican music, we add our flavours. I’m sure we can do a great tour in Jamaica one day.”

— Cecelia Campbell-Livingston