The Dualers

So ahead of their gig at UEA LCR on October 23rd 2021, we caught up with Tyber

Hi Tyber,

Thanks for sparing us sometime during your busy schedule

So you’ve now finally been able to embark on your tour. How has it felt doing live gigs again?

It is quite tiring as you’ve been out of practice for a while, I guess it is a bit like going to the gym for a year and really getting yourself fit and used to it and comfortable and then not going for a year and then going back into it again so you need to build up your stamina, which I think I have done now but the first 4 or 5 gigs were quite tiring! Still it feels really good to be back and I don’t think I quite realised how much I missed people and being around people and plugging into their energy and them plugging into mine. It’s been very, very good and you know what you were born to do.

It is quite a tour you have, so how many places you playing on this tour?

I think in total it is about 29-30 and each year we are going to be looking towards not doing so many gigs so we can have a bit of a life. I think I have been slogging away for the past 10 years of my life pretty much working every single weekend …. but I also have a life and I want to see the world and enjoy my weekends with friends and family.

One of your early releases, “Kiss on the Lips”, was more remarkable as you achieved that success with no industry backing, That must have been satisfying.

Yes, very satisfying. It was never my favourite song but I was still just absolutely gobsmacked at the amount of support that we got from the general public. That was, sort of like the foundation or the building block to The Dualers, ….

You’ve played alongside some of the best in Ska & Reggae, including Toots and The Maytails, Jimmy Cliff and UB40, that must have been exhilarating?

Yes, incredibly exhilarating having watched them while I was growing up on “Top Of The Pops” to standing next to them, having a conversation with them. I think I will always be quite shocked and honoured to be in the position I’m in. It is also quite funny noticing how much taller I am than some of them. In your mind you always think of these big, large celebrities that are really tall. So, yes it is completely exhilarating but I never stop being in awe of these people, I wish I could just go up to these people and just chat normally but I will always go “Celebrity and then there is little me!”

You’ve played sell out gigs, across Europe the UK, what differences do you find with these audiences?

I don’t think I have played enough in Europe to give an honest answer but from what I can see, I think that Europe tend to be a slightly younger audience. I think that reggae is largely more accepted with the younger audience in Europe and in UK ska and reggae tend to be a slightly older generation. They are the people that grew up in the 1960’s with Trojan Records and then you have the Two Tone Movement in the 70’s and the 80’s and Trojan in the 70’s and 80’s as well. But in Europe it does seem to be quite a young person’s music so I guess the big difference is just the crowd seems to be quite a lot younger in Europe than it does in general in the UK.

Where has been your favourite gig, and why?

Oh that is a good question! I think one of my favourite gigs was the Manchester Albert Hall because I’m just mind blown that we have a big fan base in Manchester which to me seems to be the other side of the world and it is such a lovely venue and I met some very lovely people backstage. There is a story about this guy who with his partner came backstage at the Manchester Albert Hall and he had a scar on the back of his neck and after the gig they came up to me and said “We are so sorry to bother you but we just wanted to tell you something” and they were both teary eyed. “We booked tickets to come and see you and then he was diagnosed with throat cancer but all the way through the only thing we both wanted to do was to come and see you and didn’t want this to beat him before he had a chance to see The Dualers. But I am now here and I beat it” I was so moved that the one thing that kept driving him forward to beat cancer was to come and see us. That will always stick in my head and the actual Albert Hall is just stunning venue that I love.

Back to the beginning, what was it like learning your craft in South East London?

It was like mucking around with my brother on a high street. Just as if we were at home, mucking about except there was an audience there and we didn’t really care if people liked us or not. I wasn’t even sure if I was a good singer, I was just being a bit of an idiot on the high street and for all I knew I was just making people laugh. We were just jumping around and never really took ourselves that seriously. So, it was like jumping off a cliff with someone you were very close and you have been mucking around with them for all your life and bringing that onto the high street and singing the songs that our mum and dad had brought us up with and people seemed to like it. It was a lot of fun and I got to the stage where I was dependent on the money so I had to go and stand out in the rain quite a lot. And obviously, we were brothers, siblings so we argued quite a lot but in general it was a really good laugh. It was incredibly tiring as we had to get onto the high street quite early to get our pitch.

Who influenced you most ?

There is not one person who influenced me – it would be anyone from Sam Cooke, Bob Marley to Otis Reading and Dean Martin. Also the comedian Mike Reid. Also Frank Sinatra and Toots Hibbert from Toots and The Maytals and also my brother as he was older than me and a bit more forward and confident than I was.

Growing up in the 70’s I loved ska, reggae and two tone, often I think the genres simply merge, what is your take on that?

Yes they did as that is what it was derived from. One has a punk element to it which is two tone and is quite political and reggae in the 70’s wasn’t political so yes they do merge but one is kind of a youth movement and one is very much melodic and sweet music. We tended to go more towards the reggae sweet music as my mum and dad were not into political songs and two tone although I was aware of it and my brother and I quite liked it.
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Clearly you guys enjoy your gigs and creating a positive and upbeat vibe. What motivates you at your gigs?

People. 100% people – just to hear them shouting and cheering and to see them dancing and filming and just to see their reactions. It is the crowd – I plug into them and they motivate me constantly.

For those who may not be familiar with The Dualers, what can they expect if they come along to your Norwich gig?

A total high energy show, you won’t stop moving and you will come out and feel like you have been to a health bar and left all your problems for one evening and you will come out feeling a lot better than you did when you walked in and that will have a ripple effect into your weekend so a bit like a drug that we all feel like we’ve been on a journey for a day or two and you’re buzzing off it for that day and night and possibly the rest of the week.

What is on the horizon for the Dualers?

Oh where to start! We are playing Wembley on 14thMay next year. We are releasing an album that will come out in August 2022. We have quite a few more gigs with UB40 featuring Ali and Astro and I’m bringing out a book at the end of next year as well

Thanks for your time and look forward to seeing you at UEA in October

Thank you so much!