5 Questions with Rags #56 - Makemdef (of Chuurch)

October 11, 2017 by Blake Morneau in 5 Questions With Rags

Justin 'Makemdef' MacLean came onto my radar as one half of the mighty CHUURCH. Their groovy, weird and driving 'Lean Bass' sank its hooks deep into my eardrums right away. My Shambhala crew came together and re-energized to their music when Chuurch had their Sunday 4am set moved up to Saturday at 8pm in the face of the threatening forest fires nearby. Watching Makemdef on stage pantomiming around like some kind of possessed bass priest, may be the greatest spectacle I've ever seen behind a set of decks. Turns out homie is a hella great hip-hop producer as well, working with some of Canada's finest like Snak the Ripper, Moka Only and Emotionz. Which really, considering the obvious and deep hip-hop influence in Chuurch's ysht, shouldn't come as a surprise. Last week Makemdef unleashed a pretty amazing beat-tape that any head should be putting in their ears. I was lucky enough to grab a few minutes of his valuable time where we definitely talked Chuurch, but managed to squeeze in a quick 5 Questions in which we cover breakfast sandwiches, his greatest fear and the glory that is Nas.

1. Do you remember the first album you bought with your own body?

It was Nas God's Son. It blew my mind, I'd never heard anything like that before. My identity changed after hearing Nas, it was crazy.

2. I think that's the proper human response to really listening to Nas for the first time. <laugh> When is the last time you did something for the first time? (I don't normally comment on how people answer these things, but the enthusiasm in homie's voice for new experiences and new art and the quickness with which he answered this really made me smile and was frankly, just a tad inspiring.)

Oh man, every day. When I'm traveling I see and experience new things all of the time. I think the last time I saw something new, I saw the biggest metal sculpture that emits flame. That's a crazy thing to see. Different scenes everywhere. It's crazy how you can experience something for the first time, but also for the thousandth time. Every day I try to do something like that. There are some pretty significant ones - I wish I knew the very last new thing like that I experienced. Even just new scenes, like when you walk into a carnival or something. Oh! I saw a big bass carnival, this is cool. I was camped next to this giant carnival. There was something like 17 dancers wearing different masks, it felt like a huge circus. I was sitting there while they're getting geared up. It felt like I was going to fight alongside all these dance warriors. It was really neat, they were training around the campsite area. It felt very warrior-style. I'd never sat around a circus while people practiced. That was new and cool.

3. What's the last thing that made you seriously belly-laugh?

Probably some joke my girlfriend told me. She makes me laugh a lot. My girlfriend, final answer.

4. What's your best memory of a teacher growing up?

<laughs> I had a grade 7 art teacher who used to have a little something extra in her thermos of orange juice. Thinking about that always makes me laugh. I went to this prototype high school in Nova Scotia for kids with attention deficit and stuff like that. There was only like 60 kids in the whole school. Kids from the ghetto and rich kids. Kids had ADD, ADHD, Tourette's or sometimes all three. Gym class would get a little crazy. It was cool.

5. You get two guest questions today. The first one comes from the legendary Z-Trip...What is your greatest fear?

Getting comfortable. For sure. That's a silent killer, that one.

6. The other question comes from the homie Flamingosis...If you could only eat one type of breakfast sandwich for every meal the rest of your life, what kind of breakfast sandwich would you eat?

That's deadly, I like that question. I don't eat pork, so I like just a straight-up regular breakfast sandwich. A little cheese and an English muffin and some egg. Totally down with that. I could live off that. In the morning, just basic like that.

You put any butter or mayo or ketchup or anything on that bad boy?

Nah. Just me and grease. Well, I'd go with some monterey jack cheese instead of regular cheese. A nice organic egg just taken out of the chicken coup.

5 Questions with Rags #55 - Z-Trip

October 05, 2017 by Blake Morneau in 5 Questions With Rags

One of the most recognizable names in Djing, Z-Trip's hunger for all of the best music, no matter where it comes from, has made him one of the most accessible Djs around, acting as common ground for all varieties of music fans. The person who has deep respect from serious hip-hop heads and major ravers alike is a rare and wonderful thing and there might be no one who strides through the deep streets those two worlds with such ease as Z-Trip. In the vast career of Z-Trip, bookending a decade of Rifflandia might seem like a small thing. But to me, Z-Trip's name being high up on lineup of this massive festival in my hometown is representative of both the genreless taste of the festival and my own natural disdain of genre labels. I was honoured to get the opportunity to talk to an OG and ask him my silly questions before he lay down the days most exciting and unpredictable set. Despite hearing nothing but stories about how nice and welcoming the homie was, I was understandably nervous coming to the meeting, but within moments we were into the goods, nerding out on music. Once he had his phone out, showing me video of him rocking the night before with A Tribe Called Quest, LL Cool J, Melle Mel and Scoprio of the Furious Five, I knew everything was going to be a-okay.
1. Do you remember the first album you bought with your own money?
It was the Story of Star Wars. It was a narration, long play. Basically it was the movie on an album with a booklet with pictures and shit in it. And I memorized the shit out of it.
Did you buy it thinking it was the music?
I didn't know what the fuck it was. I was just a kid and was like, “Star Wars! Yeah! I'm gonna get it!” I still have that record.
Do you still listen to it?
I've sampled it in things. I haven't sat down and listened to the record in a very long time...but I don't need to because I know it all. I know the sound effects and shit because I listened to it religiously. Back in the day you grabbed whatever media you could that had a connection to the movie or whatever. You couldn't just get Star Wars, you had to go the theatre to see it and that was it. Now everything's just out there. But I had a piece of this movie on that record that I could listen to, close my eyes and envision it. See the movie all over again. It was dope.
2. When's the last time you did something for the first time?
It's probably some stupid, mundane thing like, “Oh, I tired this mushroom or something.” Not mushrooms! I don't like the taste of mushrooms, I'm not talking about hallucinogenics. <laugh> These days, I try to do these cleanses. I'm not 18 years old anymore, just raging and going nuts. Whenever you do anything – I run a lot, and if I'm running and hurt my ankle it takes three weeks instead of three days to heal. So I've been trying a lot of different things. Right now is my first time trying to go vegan. I've been vegetarian in the past. I'm about two weeks into being a vegan.
How do you feel?
I love it. I actually don't miss it. It's harder on the road though. Travelling fucking sucks for food anyway, but try adding these levels of not eating dairy or meat or anything. Oh yeah, good luck, you're just eating french fries. Fucking veggie burgers and french fries. Trying to find the good vegan spots is the thing that's on my list now.

5 Questions with Rags #54 - Flamingosis

September 10, 2017 by Blake Morneau in 5 Questions With Rags

I like funky music, but I also like chill grooves and sometimes those things aren't the most compatible. But once in awhile there's someone – now, I don't wanna say hero but...someone special who can perfectly fit the niche my ears and soul so desperately need filled. Flamingosis is that someone. Purveyor of the some of the tastiest laid-back funk that this planet has to offer, Flamingosis has become one of the main staples of the listening diet over the past year. His albums are an endless stream of blissed out disco vibes (Bliss-co/blissco?) that keep a feeling but change the sound enough to always keep it interesting and familiar at the same time. Chilling in the afternoon sun? Cuddling up with a lover? Having a dinner party? Smoking a spliff on the deck with your homie? Damaging your skin with a day at the beach? Flamingosis has you covered with a soundtrack for all of this and more. Lucky for me, Flamingosis found the time, in amongst his relentless hustlin', to get down with an incredibly thoughtful and freshly honest round of 5 Questions.

Make sure to keep afloat of all things Flamingosis at www.flamingosis.com. And make sure to grab his glorious new album A Groovy Thing (For free, or however much you think it's worth)!

1. Do you remember the first album you bought with your own money?

I believe the first album that I bought with my own money was Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma on iTunes when I was a Senior in High School. I was just pirating music off of Limewire during that time, but for some reason after I discovered FlyLo his music captivated me in such a way I was just like, “Damn, I gotta pay for this,” because I had never heard anything quite like it during that time. He was one of the OGs who helped introduce me to the beat scene and that type of sound. I'll be honest and say I still pirate music digitally, but since then I've started a vinyl collection. I think buying and collecting vinyl is important. I don't care if it's considered hipster to listen to music on vinyl, at least you're gonna be more likely to listen to an album in it's entirety that way because we are currently in a microwave era where a lot of people are listening to playlists rather than full releases.

2. When is the last time you did something for the first time?

I'm kind of embarrassed to say this, but I purchased a new phone and activated it for the first time last week on my own, rather than having my parents help me with it. For some reason I always had a social anxiety with going to a store and talking to a representative who I don't know, about what type of product I should buy and stuff of that nature. So I usually just had my parents help me with it. But now I'm 26 years old and I gotta grow up when it comes to dealing with that kind of shit. It sounds like a simple thing, but I'm proud that I did it on my own.

5 Questions with Rags #53 - WBBL

September 06, 2017 by Blake Morneau in 5 Questions With Rags

“I used to play in bands back where I lived in Dorset in the UK - ska bands, pop cover bands. That's what you gotta do in Dorset to make fun, you gotta make your own fun down there. It's a lovely little countryside area but not a lot going on there at all, nightlife especially. I think there's one club that's only open once a month.” This is where WBBL's music started. WBBL, one of the leaders of the next wave of great bass-masters coming from the UK. Before he was smashing open the ears of clubs and festival crowds around the Europe (And Canada!) the good homie, known in the real world as Joe Gale, was laying a solid foundation for his eventual assault on bass-seekers everywhere. “I went to ACM in Gilford in the UK - Academy of Contemporary Music. It sounds fancier than it is,” laughs Gale. “They're a great school. It's all about the experience you get from going there. I met so many great people there, loads of people trying to do the same thing. People who just want to make their music better, who want to meet and collaborate.” Taking a look at WBBL's output, the collaborative spirit is alive and well, as evidenced by his ever-growing list of tracks with wobbly peers like Slynk, X-Ray Ted, Mr. Switch and Father Funk.

Too many years in the making, a long-established heavyweight of the ever-popular Ghetto Funk label, WBBL made a triumphant Shambhala Music Festival debut on the legendarily funky Fractal Forest last month. A dance floor filled with a couple thousand people was, then and there, turned into a legion of WBBLites. (WBBLers? WBBListas? What's the term we want to collectively coin for the growing mass?) If you want some more in-depth talk of his set, GO HERE, and read the thing I already wrote about it. Earlier today the powerful homie gifted his Shambhala set onto the world, so you don't even have to read what I wrote. You can listen for yourself. Pair up his blistering set with another tasty round of the 5 Questions to get a full helping of wobbly goodness. Here we discuss the Gorillaz, welcoming-ass Canadians and Hendrix's proclivity for plain bagels.

1. What was the first album you bought with your own money?

WBBL: It was the first Gorillaz album on CD. In 2001, or something. It was a good introduction because it was pop but it was dub and reggae and hip-hop and garage. It opened my mind up to a load of different genres. I thought it was such a cool thing to have in the charts that were all bubble-gum pop and you get this dark, awesome album.

2. First time you did something for the last time?

WBBL: Well, this is my first Shambhala. So that's the obvious one. But last year was my first time in Canada, my first time being out of Europe, coming to do international shows. That was a brilliant first time because everyone in Canada is so ridiculously welcoming and nice. That's what Shambhala is about as well. I want to do this first time every time.

5 Questions with Rags #52b - Illvis Freshly (Jesus and Danimal)

July 04, 2017 by Blake Morneau in 5 Questions With Rags

If you've been paying attention to West Coast music at all in the last couple years, you've probably seen the Illvis Freshly around. Legit: They're pretty inescapable and it's easy to see why. Their heavy-hitting, ultra-fun, partyrific electronic rap songs are sure-fire ear-crushers, made for those days and nights with all the friends. As the summer finally taken hold of us all, Illvis Freshly's music is even more relevant, assured to keep you moving in time with all this glorious weather. And as we are now in the midst Festival Season, they're bound to show up in your face and plug your ear holes up with funky rap goodness – having already smashed up audiences at Victoria Ska & Reggae Fest, Tall Tree, KAMP Festival with more to come, including a stop at Legend's Valley in August. In part B of the first ever 2-part entry into the live questions, we get down with the charismatic MC duo Danimal and Jesus.

Check Part A with Doyle and Phil here!

1. Do you remember the first album you bought with your own money?

Danimal: It was basically my own money because I facilitated it happening and got my mom to pay my friend. I got Jam by Michael Jackson. He had a Columbia House CD thing and I wanted one.

Do you still listen to it?

D: Not routinely. But there are times. You can't go out and not hear Michael Jackson, so, sort of.

Jesus: This is pretty tough because when I first started getting music I'd listen to the radio with my tape player and tape songs. I was sneaky like that. In terms of tapes, the first tape I can remember buying and having in my hand is Beastie Boys' License to Ill. It's the first one I can think of that I went out and bought because I wanted to hear all of the tracks.