When Mouse On Mars were preparing to welcome Lee “Scratch” Perry to their Berlin studio in December of 2019, the occasion came with parameters.
“We were told like, ‘Three hours a day is the maximum Lee can do,'” says the duo’s Jan St. Werner, “and take care of his health, and no drugs or alcohol.”
The longstanding electronic act — St. Werner and Andi Toma — were prepared to abide by these outlines. Perry, then 83 years old, was not. “[The first day] he worked from 10 in the morning until two or three in the morning, and he was super happy about it,” says St. Werner. “Then he was like, ‘When do we start tomorrow,’ and we were like, ‘Whenever you want?’ and he said to pick him up at 10 a.m. He was just constantly going… The vibe after was like, ‘What did you do to Lee? He’s so happy,’ and we did exactly the opposite of what we were supposed to do.”
Mouse On Mars ultimately spent four long and happy days in the studio with the dub icon, who lived up to his reputation as a far-out musical genius. “I thought he was going to live for another 10 or 20 years, because he was very energetic, super concentrated and he didn’t seem to be old,” says St. Werner. But as it will for all of us, death caught up with Perry on August 29, 2021, when the artist died at the age of 85 in his native Jamaica.
