Obviously, the recording industry has experienced some major changes over recent years, due to the rise of music piracy and a shifting of focus from albums to the primacy of the digital iTunes single. Some of the biggest records from last year weren’t even full-length releases. When you’re writing today, are you still writing in the mold of creating a full-length album with its own context?

All the time. Yeah.

I know that your latest album Pro Tools started as a collaboration but grew into its own album.

Oh yeah, because after a while – I’m glad you noticed that – because, first of all, it took me several years to give this guy this album who, you know, I was doing the album for, Baby Grand. It was originally supposed to be a collabo, you know, a compilation, and I started thinking as time was going on and on, it was taking a while before I even recorded a song for that album. It was something I was doing, putting people on, and then I started thinking like…you know, I don’t want to just shortchange myself or anybody else. I think, if this has me on it, it’ll be good even though at the end of the day it still feels like they didn’t push it or go at it hard and all that. Sometimes, you know, there’s only so much independents can do. I just felt that it needed to be something good, something strong.

I’d also like to talk to you about the album Grandmasters you did with DJ Muggs of Cypress Hill. What was the concept for that album and how did it come about?

Muggs wanted to do an album, you know, he talked to me about doing the album. He said he had a situation, he wouldn’t mind doing a record with me, and I said ‘cool,’ and we talked about it for months. He came to New York one day. He had some songs on his computer. I picked about 14, narrowed it down to 12. We decided to go out, you know, record the album. We recorded it in about seven days, or maybe a little less. And, you know, I was writing at the same time, while trying to record some of the stuff. There was really a lot of pressure, you know.

Is that how you prefer to write, when a producer gives you a tape full of beats and you adapt your lyrics to that? Or are you writing all the time looking for the right beat to come along?

I’m always jotting down stuff, but usually when I start working on stuff, it’s usually pretty last minute for some reason, like it’ll be crunch time. Even with Pro Tools, I think I recorded it in three days, but, you know, I had a lot of stuff written down in notes, in certain things, and there were some songs I wrote. But with Muggs, you know, we were just vibing and working. You know, if I heard a song and got an idea, I would just go for it. It all came together and he just said, ‘we should call the album Grandmasters’. When he said that I said, ‘hmm, that’s a good theme.’ Then I thought about adding, you know, chess, little things from chess, chess terminology.

Is the chess game still strong these days?

Yeah, it depends on who I play. It may be weak to some and strong to others.

There’s a track on Grandmasters I wanted to talk about – the song ‘Queen’s Gambit.’ It’s ostensibly the track of sort of a lost girl, but it’s woven together with a series of football metaphors. When you write, are you usually looking for multiple meanings, going deeper than the surface?

Of course, of course. I always look for multiple meanings. I mean, have you heard ‘0% finance?’

Hell yeah.

Oh yeah, right? See, that’s kind of like Queen’s Gambit. It’s a story, it’s about a female… What’s interesting about it, what’s interesting about both those songs is that they’re songs about females, but it’s a song incorporating all the NFL teams, and it’s a song incorporating as many models and makes of cars I can incorporate. And I’m using car terminology. That song is 104 bars, straight through, and it doesn’t…it keeps escalating. It goes up through the whole thing, because I start talking about her, where she was from. I go into her great-grandfather – he was a Cherokee Indian. It goes into him, his brothers, they used to fish in Lake Tahoe. It goes into her friends, it goes into the friend’s boyfriend. And it’s 104 bars, straight through! And it never gets boring, in my opinion. I could be really big on myself right now, you know, coming off like that. But honestly, it took a while to write. I mean, I really put the time into it. It took a while to write. Just like ‘Queen’s Gambit.’ I had to figure out how I’m gonna use these teams. Usually when I use names of stuff, I use them where they have to have a double meaning.

Going back to the cheesy way, the easy way out of things, just imagine if I was to do the ‘0% finance’ song and everything would have been like, ‘ Yo, remember when we bought the Lexus? Yo, that’s when I crashed the Benz! Oh word, that’s when he was, you know, driving the Escalade! Oh, that’s when she sold the Volkswagen!’ And the whole song would be like that. ‘When I bought this, when we drove that.’ It would be so literal. ‘When he crashed that, when she washed this.’ You know, because it would be all that. ‘Wash the car, drive the car. Steal the car.’ You know? ‘Park the car.’ I’m not just gonna say, ‘He drove a Cherokee,” when the Cherokee is an Indian! So you want to bring the car to life, and you use the car as a segway to get somewhere, you know what I’m saying?

Hell yeah.

You use it as a metaphor, so it’s like her great-grandfather was a Cherokee Indian, explorer and navigator. I didn’t say he drove an Explorer or a Navigator, he WAS an explorer and a navigator.

They’re two fields that don’t normally go together, but when you go beneath the visible, constructed surface, the links are definitely there. I think both of those songs do that real well and bring them out.

Thank you, I appreciate it. You know, those songs, I love doing them. I usually always do something like that on every album. Just like with ‘Queen’s Gambit,’ I was talking to a friend on the phone and I was asking, where they watching the game? I was like, ‘Are you watching the football game today?’

And the response was, “Nah, those are not my teams. I don’t like any of those teams.’

I was like, ‘Oh, you like those Giants who fly on Jets, huh?’

And then I thought about it, like ‘oh shit, Giants who fly on Jets, that’s kind of slick!’ That’s how the song came about all the ways I can use teams and incorporate them, and use them to make them have double meanings, and sometimes triple meanings. That way it’s like putting hi-definition on your TV or something.

You’re a ten-I-see, you just need to Titan your game.

Yeah, you know what I’m saying? You’re a ten-I-see, you just need to Titan your game, right?

What’s got you writing these days?

I’m getting inspiration from books, movies, and that’s not saying that you’re not asking what movie right now, like I can just pinpoint something. It may be something from a book. It may be a line, it may be a page, it may be a chapter. It may be any song, I mean especially music. Music moves people like no one or nothing has ever moved anyone or anything. You know, I mean I get inspired by stories that I read or that I watch.

I mean, sometimes I watch stories of celebrities. They have certain programs like Behind The Music. They used to have Behind The Music on VHI, or they might have Driven, or The Biography. A lot of artists, we have similar stories, as far as our struggle to get on and get recognized, but just with a little different, you know, road or something that we travel to get to that one thing. Sometimes the stories are interesting yet similar, and you relate to them , and you also get inspiration from them. It can be its own story, it can be a documentary.

You know, you’re not gonna hear me say, ‘ I’m inspired by money. If it ain’t about that green, that paper, that’s what inspires me. Money!’ Fuck outta here. You know? How can we inspire you?

You did a show and record with the band The Blacklips. How did that one come about?

My boy Heathcliff, that’s been working with me on the road, he’s a publicist, he’s doing publicity for Wu Tang, you know, with the 8 Diagrams, and then he worked with me for Pro Tools. I met several bands through him and they were interested in doing work, and it’s really opening up with more doors. We kind of share some of the same fans and it’s a whole different vibe.

There have been some crazy rumors flying around about potential collaborators working with you on some tracks. Do you have any releases planned for the upcoming year?

Yeah, definitely, this year. I’m about to make an incredible album. I mean, incredible, especially lyrically. I mean, really beautiful, man, really beautiful.

You did the one album with Muggs and obviously, RZA is the god, but are you going to be working with any new producers or artists for this one.

Well, I want to do another one with RZA. I spoke to Muggs about maybe, perhaps doing it. I have at least four more things or concepts that I want to do, or I would like to, if I can. You know, some very uplifting stuff and when I say that I don’t mean…because sometimes people read that and they think, ‘Oh, look at this dude, he’s in church now.’ You know, there’s nothing wrong with being uplifted, but don’t look at it as if I’m becoming this nerd, this nerdy religious, clean freak. You know, it’s just hard to explain, but you’ll hear it.

When I told the producer I wanted to do ‘0% finance’ he didn’t really understand, even after hearing ‘Labels,’ ‘Fame,’ ‘Queen’s Gambit,’ ‘Publicity,’ you know, ‘Animal Planet,’ he still didn’t get it. I was like, ‘you’ll hear it.”

He was like, ‘How you gonna do a song about cars?’

I said, ‘You’ll hear it.’ When it started unfolding, it was like, wow. ‘In her tank, she loves to stash my tool.” After that line, he was like, ‘aw, it’s really, really, aw yeah! You slaying it!’

I’m gonna do something really beautiful. Something that has a great level of vibrations that’s positive. Just make you feel, you know, good.

You and RZA did that film Coffee and Cigarettes with Jim Jarmusch, a move that came off as a bit unexpected. What was the concept behind that role?

Jim Jarmusch is a good friend of RZA’s. He’s a big Wu Tang fan, and I think RZA actually met him, I met him the same time, right around when RZA was doing Ghost Dog. He’s a big fan, good writer, great filmmaker, and he’s a cool dude, really laid back, smooth. I guess he had this idea where he was working on some stuff for a while, and I was asked if I wanted to, you know, participate, and yeah, I was for it. It was cool. Got to meet Bill Murray, hang out and kick it with him. He’s a real cool dude, he’s really funny. You know, serious, dry humor.

Montreal is not traditionally listed among the great hip hop cities, but I can tell you that this show has definitely gotten a lot of people buzzing in anticipation. How have your previous experiences in the city been?

My experience in Montreal has always been great. I mean I’ve done, maybe within the last two years, four shows in Montreal and they’ve been great, especially the indoor ones where it’s a GZA concert, it’s not really outdoors or free or there’s a whole lot of other stuff going on. There’s a few opening acts of locals, like tonight there’s several local acts that I’m headlining and it should be a great venue. It’s always been good love. I mean, I did one show with Raekwon, I think Masta Killa, and Deck, I think it might have been Inspectah Deck, of and U-God in Montreal like a year and half ago and it was great. It was a large crowd, around 1500, it was good. Then I’ve done a show with RZA, the Jazz festival, but that was an indoor event, you know, the Montreal Jazz Festival. It was just myself and RZA on the bill that night and he had the band and he went on, I went on. It was, you know, a great response to the show. Montreal has been great, it’s been showing me love.

GZA LIVE @ FOUFS, MONTREAL - JAN 27

The Golden Child Disciple of J Dilla and Flying Lotus

Though his discography is rather thin, Hudmo’s status as the rising golden child of the UK Warp/LuckyMe/Wireblock community has long been established. He was Scottish DMC Champion and UK finalist at age fourteen, and the few EPs and compilations that have escaped his bedroom studio met with enormous critical acclaim. His Polyfolk Dance EP and his work with Mike Slott as Heralds of Change solidified his position as the heir apparent to Dilla’s legacy of chopped, distorted sample-based hip hop and Flying Lotus’ ongoing digital reconstruction of abstract hip hop production. At times listening to Butter, Hudmo seems to triumphantly achieve that “promised one” rhetoric, crafting furious, kinetic beats that tear forward through warped electronic melodies. Hudson bombards the tracks with layers of alternately polished and buzz saw synth lines, pushing them forward and gridding off their melodies with chopped vocal creations. Especially during the middle passage of “3.30,” “Trykk,” “Fruit Touch,” and “Zoooooom,” Hudmo seems to embrace and faithfully execute the dogma of turbo-charged glitch hop. At other times in the album, however, he seems bored by the limitations of the genre and transforms his vision into that of…

The R&B acid revisionist

At certain points throughout his career, Hudmo has expressed an infatuation with the potent pathos of contemporary R&B. His bootleg bass remix of Tweet’s jam “Ooops” is widely considered to be the song that directly preceded his signing to Warp. In interviews past, he has mentioned the looming possibility of joining Erykah Badu or Chris Brown in the studio someday soon. On Butter, his collaborations with vocalists Olivier Daysoul and Dam Funk stand in stark contrast to his other tracks; they operate under an entirely different aesthetic. Tracks like “Joy Fantastic,” “Tell Me What You Want From Me,” and the extraordinary break up song “I Just Decided” tweak the butter-smooth (no pun intended), nu-soul efforts of 80’s R&B classics like Belle Biv DeVoe by throwing their earnest hooks over enormously busy and glossy backing tracks. Hudmo’s effects work well enough with the flamboyance and vitality of his guest vocalists to give classic R&B a neon/day-glo facelift.  Olivier Daysoul in particular comes off like Slick Rick’s New Jack twin in his star turns on “Joy Fantastic” and “I Just Decided.” The eclecticism of Hudmo’s surreal subjection of R&B to his own eccentric means is eclipsed only by his turns as…

The Triumphant Abstraction

Two of the tracks off Butter that attracted the greatest prerelease buzz were the massive cuts “Fuse” and “Rising 5,” neither of which fit neatly into the artistic modes of Hudmo described above. These two are the true gems of the album. Both songs seem to incorporate elements of live instrumentation jammed through powerful electronic filters in ways that amplify digitally yet preserve entirely their   organic melody and vitality. They are too sprawling, too awe-inspiring to be considered hip hop; there is not an MC alive who could take on these massive constructions and make them his own. “Fuse” sounds as if some one took a triumphant yet tinny 8-bit synth line from an old Zelda game, remastered it a bajillion times and crafted a goddamn anthem out of it. Though Butter as an album is most likely stronger than the sum of its components, “Fuse” and “Rising 5” are its most exciting contributions. If these tracks are indicative of his newest assumed artistic identity, then we can expect exciting things in the future from Hudson Mohawke.

Though this cut isn't on the album Butter, it still ranks as one of Hudmo's most popular and innovative to date. Check out Hudson Mohawke's bass remix of Timbaland's beat for Tweet!

Hudson Mohawke - Ooops

LP:  During Pop Montreal, Megasoid will be playing the Red Bull MegaHurtz A/V experience, by far one of the festival’s most anticipated shows. Do you and Hadji have anything new up your sleeves for the event?

SR: Well, I suppose the main thing is that we are not be playing together as Megasoid. For now, I will be the visible representation of Megasoid. Most recently we made the decision (due to travel distances and responsibilities / pursuits outside of music on both of our parts) that it was best for the band for me to handle the live performance of Megasoid material, and for Hadji to be my creative studio partner. We have really had some amazing times together onstage, I truthfully have always felt more comfortable without the accountability of having 'players chemistry' all the time...

We are both pretty intense individuals and as such, it comes out in our personalities in and out of music... we are best as creatives that come together and make things and not people that should be surrounded by each other all the time.  That being said, Hadji is my favorite person in the world to make music with, I think he is an incredibly dynamic individual that deserves to follow his passions outside of music..  and that it will ultimately be best for Megasoid for me to be the live extension of our collaborative outlet.

Perhaps when the LP drops we might do another 2-man AV show, but who knows, I guess time will tell. Until then, I am busting ass to make our shows something that stands alone in electronic music, with a philosophy about it carved out by two people with similar passions.

LP:  Your Turbo Crunk events were definitely some of the best parties Montreal has ever seen. What do you think makes them so good and will we see a return anytime soon?

SR: Thank you! I am really glad you liked them. I think it was a very special time for music in general, but especially for Montreal, being able to be the visible alternative to all the 'club club' music that was dominating dance-floors for the last couple of years, and for Montreal to be worldwide contemporary to the visible laptop beat scenes.

I think that most of the people involved with Turbo Crunk have an expansive knowledge of music, combined with an amazing group of residents and locals (Seb Diamond + Hovatron [both ex-Mofomatronix]  Lunice, Blingmod, Ango, Ghislain, Khiasma) being supported/co-signed by everyone from Zoobizarre to High Food to Peer Pressure to Mutek and MEG really made for some exciting things to happen. I also take a lot of pride in being able to say that we taste-made a lot of people that did their first shows here, and that we have in-turn built up good fan-bases for them enabling alot of our good freinds to return and be on bills that are bigger than the events we have promoted....

Getting to play alongside people like Theophilus London, Machinedrum, 215, Hudmo, Rustie, Mike Slott, Lorn, Nosaj Thing, Glitch Mob, Modeselektor has been nothing short of amazing. I am actually planning to move to the west coast for a bit, and as such Turbo Crunk has been put on ice... That being said, the Super Aqua Club team has joined forces with Duval (who we all love) and they together will be promoting events under the 'Night Trackin'' Moniker... all of which I am sure will be exciting and well curated, and that deserve peoples support. I love my Montreal team, and would just like to extend a little shoutout to everyone that came, was involved, performed, rocked out, had a great time, or hated it... we couldn't have had such an amazing time with music without everyone that came.

LP:  This year’s St. Jean-Baptiste Bridge Burner Party, which you threw in conjunction with Khiasma and Poirier, was insane! How did the original Bridge Burner come about and how did this year’s compare?

SR: Megasoid did the first bridge burner a few years back, with just a PA in a Van, rocking out until the cops came. It was awesome. I mean, personally, I always prefer renegade events over sanctioned ones (Olivier's loft parties, Scott's rooftop, Our Pop After hours party were really my favorite events in this city)... but Bridge Burner has really become an amazing event, mostly because it has received support from a good diverse group of people... with great promoters getting on deck, Pop Montreal, RedBull, Mike D, Khiasma, Ghislain and a lot of heavyweight local volunteers. This years was the biggest, and most visible, and most successful, but truthfully, the first one will always hold the space in my heart.

LP:  Your design firm, Weaponshouse, is a Montreal cultural institution with work spread out over just about every creative discipline. Could you explain what it is you do at Weaponshouse and what drives you to do it?

SR: I have always considered myself a visual artist and designer first and foremost, but somewhere along the line, I got lucky with music and started paying my rent off it and it in turn got priority. I like to travel, like the interactions but mostly like performing for people, in both a DJ and musicians context.

Weaponshouse is a work for hire  creative house that does high end production work of all sorts... everything from graphic design to industrial design to custom jewelry and clothing for friends. I will soon be setting up a digital label and licensing house attached to it, and will be doing some textile work as well, in case anyone is seriously interested, the site has been stripped down to a bare bones resume, but will be back up with a new site soon. Megasoid's website should be up in a couple days as well.

Yes, there will be a visual component, but this ain't the dorky light show your weird 4th grade teacher with the harelip made you go on a field trip for. The MegaHurtz A/V experience is an unprecedented foray into what can be done visually in a live setting - literally.

After hearing those tunes supplemented by those visuals, we dare you to try to hold back. Lunice, MTL's own Street Bass pioneer, knows how to handle the MegaHurtz. After and before his set, don't be surprised to see these moves on the dancefloor:

If you see him, just give the man his space and let him go! Lunice's Lazerremix Vol. 2 drops this Saturday September 26. Stay posted!

๏ LOVE & ELECTRIK
Classic style but light years into the future, Love & Electrik are an explosion of flashing lights and glassy sound. Welcome to their universe where vintage synthesizers, vocoders & talkbox coexist with a voice that has a timeless soul. With the sexy, playful single, “Sex Video” released on Tremendous Records, the duo have already been chosen as the opening acts for the likes of Chromeo, Amanda Blank and Devlin & Darko (Spank Rock DJ’s). This is their first time leaving Vancouver where the band had a devoted following, dont miss it.

๏ BARLETTA
Dj Barletta has been at it in the Canadian Music scene since the age of 12. When he found electro/crunk/ghetto tech/house he just knew it was for him. This up and comer has already had his music featured on international blogs, had his bangers played around the world and with his new single "Whisper" set to drop on Tremendous records this is just the beginning.

๏ SEB DIAMOND (Night trackin' / Mofomatronix)