Al Rankin talks to Natana from Bada Bing Sound System, a crew dedicated to bringing reggae and bass music and culture to Heretaunga.
They run through the history and approach of the crew, musical inspirations, next moves and their mission to play good music in the way it is supposed to be felt and heard.
To kick things off please tell me your names, where you’re from and some background info about the crew.
The nucleus of the Bada Bing whanau consists of Operator A-On and his heavy lifting crew, Teariki and myself, Natana.
Our Akina Vinyl bredrin, foundation selectors Freddy Jay and Professor Dynamite, curate the crucial vinyl-only selections for Heretaunga Dub Club from their notoriously deep crates.
As the Heretaunga Dub Club name implies, our immediate crew are all from the wider Heretaunga area – Hastings, Mayfair, Akina, Raureka and Flaxmere.
We’ve also been blessed to have others from our rohe join us in session, including DLT, P. Digsss, Lil B, Margot Pierard, Goldyknox, Chris Karaitiana, Nat Lover and many others. They’re all part of the family now.
What or who inspired you to build your custom-made, hand-built sub stacks?
That’s a story in itself. I blew up my girl’s Bluetooth speakers and decided that I should build some speakers. I then went down a wee rabbit hole of early Jamaican sound systems and the UK dub scene.
One night at a party in Waimarama, DLT shared some stories about New Zealand sound clashes in the 90’s and the missions to source dubplates. It was pretty much fait accompli at this point and we set out to build three scoop bins in September 2023.
Shortly after I took a trip to Ohakune to meet Austin of Double Drop Sound System and came back with some mids and tops! Teariki and I built the scoops, and the rest is history really.
Since then, we’ve built another scoop, some new tops (horn and bullet tweeter combos), and upgraded the drivers in the Roy bin mids. It’s an ongoing journey for us and we feel immensely blessed to be in the midst of it.
You could summarise our initial inspiration as the early Jamaican sound system pioneers, the UK rigs that followed the migration from Jamaica including icons like Jah Shaka, and also friends like DLT. We are also massively influenced and inspired by crews like King Shiloh Sound System, Iration Steppas, Aba Shanti-I, Channel One, OBF and so many more.
Currently the inspiration comes from seeing all of the mahi happening in the Aotearoa sound system scene. There are too many good rigs and crews to list but you know who you are and you got our respect.
What style of music best suits your sound?
It kind of depends who you ask! I mean Teariki is always going to say roots and heavy dubs, while I would probably say jungle followed closely by dancehall or dubstep. But then A-On would come along and throw a cat among the pigeons by saying, “House sounds wild through the rig with the reflex kicks!” To be fair the only music that gets a look in is stuff we’d be buying tickets to anyway.
As a thought, some Nyabinghi drumming with a horn section, like Count Ossie and the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari, might possibly be the best sound. Origin stories and all that and of course respect where respect is due. Jah Rastafari.
To answer the question, Bada Bing Sound System pushes a warm, rich and full sound with the clarity you’d expect from a rig running four or five ways. So the obvious genres that suit our rig are those that evolved alongside sound system culture, like reggae, dub, jungle, dubstep, UK garage and the many sub-genres.
That said, we’ve had some epic house and tech adventures with our Arkadien peeps and some wild Amapiano sessions with Nat Lover and Morning Steppa’s respective crews. Huge shout out these peeps, nothing but good times to mahi with, bless up family.
How do you feel about dubplates?
Excited! Dubplates are a tangible, physical product like vinyl, so it’s impossible to replicate that user experience with noughts and ones on a USB stick. Additionally they have a certain air of mystique and exclusivity about them and in a way they also showcase a commitment to the sound system game and to bringing fresh music to the people.
There is of course the significant historical value too, with dubplates and specials forming an important part of the story of sound clash, dub and jungle cultures.
Professor Dynamite has been putting in mahi on his vinyl cutting lathe. At the last Dub Club event we got to collaborate with DLT and drop an unheard dub of his award winning single “Chains”, with P Digsss adding the live vocals.
This was a truly special moment for us with DLT stating, “I think very few people could understand that a kid from Hastings playing a record cut in Hastings that he made, being played on a real sound system from Hastings to a room full of happy people from Hastings is a dream realised. This is what I dreamed as a kid 40 or so years ago when dancing to Parliament’s “Flashlight” at the Scouts hall discos on the same damn street”.
That sums it up right there, ‘nuff said!
How important is having a solid crew and good interactions with venues and fans?
Having a rock-solid crew is everything. For us, we all have our strengths, so we get to do the stuff we’re good at and like doing. We all rely on each other to get things done to a high standard so we can focus on our specialist areas. We’ve never really verbalised it, so I guess the structure has just evolved organically as we’ve grown.
In a sense we’re lucky, we’re not sound reinforcement for hire. All of the people we work with are old friends and new friends, so we just get together to play music and make memories. I guess our crew are the people we choose to be around, and really nothing beats hanging with your peeps, playing good music and sharing the vibe.
In terms of fans, we’ve never thought of the people at our gigs as fans. It’s more like they’re friends and people we get to share positive vibrations with. If you step back and look at Dub Club, we all get together and dance, meditate, give thanks and praise and really just fill our cups. So yeah, it’s absolutely critical to connect with the people and really humbling to know people want to share the bass heavy goodness with us.
How has community involvement helped you build more diverse ties?
Great question. We seem to have embedded ourselves in the local music and arts community though all of the amazing people we’ve met on the journey.
Again, this wasn’t through any strategic planning, it just kind of happened by meeting like-minded people. We really just set out to play good music, the way it was supposed to be played, so people could experience what music really feels like. I guess our vibe resonated with people and we’ve had an awesome level of support from a wide range of people both locally and further afield.
This hit home a few months back, following an earlier merchandise drop. We got sent photos from people who had been to our gigs wearing our merch in Rarotonga, England, France, Italy, Germany, Croatia, Japan, America and Qatar. It was very humbling for us to see this.
Doing local community events like Fringe in the Stings is a great way to share our thing with the public at no cost, and hopefully this will bring more people into the positive scene that has evolved here.
Your art department is absolutely amazing. What are your processes for creating such eye-catching designs?
With all of our projects we believe strongly in leaving the creativity with the artist, whether that be artwork, building a new cabinet, tuning the rig, selecting tracks, filming the events etc.
In terms of the artwork specifically, our usual modus operandi is to articulate our ideas to the Professor, who then does some wizardry and creates something far exceeding our expectations. He describes his process as, “My buzz is simple, I hate to fuck around and I like to do things in house. It’s all about getting it done and I’ve been in it 20 plus years across the board with production, merchandise and music. I’m in it deep!”
What future plans and aspirations do you have for yourself and your sound system?
Essentially the plan is to carry on doing stuff we enjoy and only the stuff we enjoy. And that really sits around exposing more people to good music the way it’s made to be felt and heard. It’s fair to say we’re not fans of the compressed files and limited frequency devices that have become the norm out of convenience.
Our immediate plans leading up to Christmas include the following:
- Sound System Suite – 10 October at Common Room. Featuring Ohakune’s Flowback, BMC and Akina Vinyl
- Fringe in the Stings – 22 November at Carnival in the Park, Albert Park. Featuring Sammy Dubs, Akina Vinyl and guests
- Heretaunga Dub Club – 20 December at Meeanee Hotel. Featuring Downtown Brown (Sunshine Sound System), Lil B and Akina Vinyl
After this it’s looking likely we’ll be back locking down the Main Stage for New Years at Arkadien, along with a day at the Bridge Pa Wine Festival in mid-January 2026.
Longer term we’re looking to further develop sound system culture within the Heretaunga / Kahungunu rohe, as well as continuing to collaborate with other like-minded artists and sound systems to bring events to the Bay that were traditionally limited to the main centres.
It would be remiss of us not to give thanks and show our respect to all that have helped us along the way. Again there are too many to mention but you know who you are and we salute you.
More info:
Bada Bing Sound System Instagram
