5 Questions with Rags #79 - Balkan Bump

Things haven't been great in my brain for awhile and, like a lot of people, I've just been doing what I can to get by for awhile now. Part of that meant that writing about music fell by the wayside. I still like listening to it, but gathering the strength to write about it was just something that I haven't been able to do. But things are slowly moving again and I can feel a bit of rhythm in the air. My friends are going to festivals and dancing and reporting back. And one of the names that keeps coming back in reports is BALKAN BUMP. All these glowing reviews reminded that about a year and a half ago, I tracked him down for one of the best interviews I'd had in a long while. Two music-lovers, talking about music. And as he returns to Vancouver Island this Saturday (August 20 at the fantastic Cumberland Wild in Cumberland) it seems like the perfect time to finally present this interview. This interview is from FEBUARY 2021. I cannot believe it has taken this long for me to share this.

At the beginning of last year, one of the last albums I was genuinely obsessed with was Osmanity by California-based musician and producer Will Magid, better known to me – and many other dancefloor astronauts up and down the west coast – as Balkan Bump. Osmanity, is an immaculately constructed album that works so well on headphones, but also keeps reminding you of sweaty, ass-shaking nights on a dancefloor. It is an album full of fresh ideas, sounds and, most importantly these days, energy. Osmanity is tremendously inventive and deeply fun – the creation of a musician whose love of the craft is evident from the opening notes right through to closing. Osmanity became a daily listen for me. I needed to know more. I needed to talk to the creator of this most excellent album. And lucky for me, the man himself was more than willing to jump on the phone and talk some shit with me. Not only did we cover Osmanity in more detail than I could have imagined, he was also game for a one of the finest rounds of 5 Questions with Rags so far. It's conversations like this that have me keeping music close, still staying at least a little bit in love with it. This shit right here is why I'm back.

Read More
More info

5 Questions with Rags #78 - Kytami + Phonik Ops

There's something about the presence of a live instrument (beyond turntables, which are 100% an instrument and I'll fight you if you say otherwise) in electronic music that immediately grabs the attention of hardcore bass-heads and the uninitiated alike. Undoubtedly there are a few acts on the west coast combining live instrumentation and next-level bass with the ferocity and craft than Kytami + Phonik Ops. Since connecting at a festival here in British Columbia, the duo has become one of the most intriguing acts, standing out in an already saturated musical landscape. I got a chance to talk with the two from their studio, where they've been holed up – in heavy creation mode – during this whole quarantine thing.

“Phonik Ops reached out to me when were both playing Centre of Gravity in Kelowna. We were both playing at the hip-hop stage. He had reached out to me and posted one of my videos, so I looked him up and started listening to all his mixes,” Kytami says, recalling their beginnings as a duo. “At the time he was working with a rapper – Mishap – and I got them to open up for me on a winter tour. We started talking about working on a mix together and then we did it. That led to an EP. When we started working on actual music, we became partners in shows. It only made sense.” Phonik Ops elaborates with a laugh, “I started DJing for her is what she's trying to say.”

While both artists had their own things established, they meshed well right away and began tackling the big work – creating a truly unique sound that is instantly recognizable as their own. Listening to the duo talk about their music, it's clear why they work so well to this shared, and gloriously defined goal. “What these last few years has been about is getting the sound I want, getting it dialed in and getting the catalogue behind us. Really finding the space for my melodic lines against really heavy, fucking badass basslines. Trying to get those two working together, that's been the work. That's what we're really striving for,” says Kytami. “Not just liquid, or pretty, or easy-listening electronic music, we want it to be really badass, dirty but still have these soaring lines that I'm playing or shredding. But I don't want it be an afterthought.” Phonik Ops elaborates on the duo's process, “Part two to that is us figuring out how to write better together. Bass sounds and violin, how we can stack and move together and also what we can get away with frequency range-wise. Taking away frequency so there's that much room for her, versus if there's a more noisy part and balancing it out more. We're stoked with everything we're making right now.”

———————————————-

1. When's the last time you did something for the first time?

Phonik Ops: First time I've been quarantined. Sorry, that's boring.

Nah, that's a very timely answer! Relatable as fuck.

Kytami: This is weird. I've been in this electronic world for so long. I actually rented a CD-J setup over the holidays, around Christmas, and I started trying to actually DJ. I DJed at a little clothing store. I found all my tracks, I DJed and played the violin over it. You think I would have done it by then. It was just for myself.

PO: She headlined her own birthday party! The dope part about that was that I saw it start to make her think about our sets differently. She's always pretty good at coming up with ideas but she's all stoked getting her own tracks and piecing together other tracks now.

Read More
More info

5 Questions with Rags #77 - Deuce Eclipse (Bang Data)

If you're plugged into the West Coast hip-hop scene, there's a good chance you've seen or heard the man known as Deuce Eclipse, whether you know it or not. See, about 16 years ago, I went to my first proper live hip-hop show, a couple of weeks after I turned legal drinking age up here in British Columbia. It was a Quannum Projects tour featuring Lyrics Born and friends. Among those friends was powerful Zion-I. At that time, Zion-I was three people and one of those people was singer/rapper/generally amazing human being, Deuce Eclipse. It wasn't until the summer of last year (2019) - when Garden City Grooves festival here in my hometown announced they were bringing Bay Area groove-monster BANG DATA as part of the years festivities – that I realized that not only had I encountered Deuce Eclipse's captivating talents more than a decade and half before, but he has been (and still is!) putting out ridiculously groovy, thoughtful, passionate music with the powerhouse that is Bang Data.

Paired up with the multi-talented Caipo, Eclipse formed Bang Data and the duo hasn't stopped creating since, carving out a special place in the west coast music scene. “I was working on a solo album and I was working with Amp Live, from Zion-I, at the time. We kind of hit a wall. I was trying to do more singing in more Spanish, so he took it upon himself to reach out to other people and put them in touch with me. That's how I met Caipo,” Eclipse says, speaking to me from home in the Bay. “At the beginning, Amp Live was actually part of Bang Data. He was still in Zion-I and it was taking off, so he had to be there more, so Bang Data ended up being me and Caipo. At the end, we're the ones who stuck it out, stayed in the studio and started creating. Caipo thought he was basically kind of done playing live, but I think the music inspired him in a way that he wanted to start playing again. We started recording and coming up with all kinds of different music, then we ended up staying together as a group.”
—————————————

1. When's the last time you did something for the first time?

I don't know why this is coming up, but when I water-skied, a long time ago. This was years and years ago, somewhere in California on a camping trip. My friend's dad had a boat with skies. I don't know why but the first time I snow-skied as well, I did it the first time. I don't know how I did it the first time but I did. I got up water skiing for the first time with no problem. I think it was for Boy Scouts. That's one of the first times I did something that stands out in my mind. But I've never done it since.

2. If you could spend the day with anyone, living or dead, who would it be and what would you do?

It would be my dad. I would spend the day with him and we would probably catch a Giants game, drink some beer and just talk.

Read More
More info

5 Questions with Rags #76 - Keysha Freshh

2019 has been an incredible year for hip-hop and one of the best rap releases of the year belongs to Toronto MC Keysha Freshh. If you've been paying attention, it's not really a surprise that Freshh is releasing such on-point hip-hop right now. With a slew of other releases and her incredible work with The Sorority, Freshh is a proven veteran. Field Trip is a deep blast of bangers, perfect in the car or on in your room with those good headphones. Talking to me shortly before heading out west to BC for the final tour with her comrades in The Sorority, Freshh explained the genesis of this chapter in her career. “Field Trip was basically inspired by me wanting to tell a story that I felt was necessary to tell about my life at the time and where I was. It also felt like I was going on a journey at that part of my life. Basically writing the music, putting it all together and working on the album and every part of the album really was a special moment for me and that’s what made the whole process important.” The importance of her moment is evident in music. Field Trip sounds vital, important and aware. The sound on the album is a luscious balance of warm and heavy. Freshh's MCing, the main event, is unimpeachable. Check out the bars on “Hero,” one of the most alarmingly honest tracks of the year. Or the relentless battle rap of “Blah Blah.” Even if you haven't heard anything else she's done, a couple of listens through Field Trip and you'd be convinced that Keysha Freshh on the mic is hella serious business. If there's one thing we support over here at Rags Music, it's top-shelf hip-hop. So I was more than a little bit excited when Freshh was able to throw some of her time to answer the latest round of 5 Questions with Rags.

———————————————-

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

The first album that I had was Mecca and the Soul Brother (Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth). The first album that I bought with my own money was Beware of Dogs by Bow Wow, that was on a CD. First vinyl I owned was Boogie Down Productions Criminal Minded. It was given to me by my cousin.

Read More
More info

5 Questions with Rags #75 - Alexis Tucci

A couple of years ago, in the middle of that lull between Christmas and New Years, I saw Alexis Tucci lay down a ridiculous set of disco/house goodness at Lucky Bar here in my hometown Victoria. I knew nothing about her when I got there, but was instantly elated with her DJ ing, her very shiny jacket and, most of all, the very obvious joy she was taking from playing for the sweaty mass in front of her. Since then I've found that she's basically a legend in St. Louis. (And if you want to dispute the use of the term 'legend', you don't make a 30 year career in music, playing or promoting it, without being some kind of legend.) It's taken a couple of years but she's finally back in Victoria (Unless I just missed her some other time in between...) except this time she's here for Halloween instead of Christmas. “I love Halloween. I love the celebration. Everybody gets to act like somebody other than themselves, let loose and be weird,” says Tucci, from her hometown St. Louis. “I wish it was like that every day. But it's the one holiday that really puts the exclamation point on it.”

Usually at this point in the 5 questions I'd present some more thoughts, feelings and/or facts about the answerer. When I talked with Tucci she told me an incredible story about building community through music, that I think really encapsulates what makes the work she's doing, in DJ ing and in promoting, something very special.

“I went to AfrikaBurn, was brought in through a group of South Africans that had met me at Burning Man months prior. I had known since Burning Man that I had this invitation to go to AfrikaBurn to play for this brand new camp. They'd never built a sound camp and were building this camp for my arrival. But I couldn't fully confirm because my father was very ill and he ended up passing two weeks before Africa Burn was supposed to happen. So I decided to pack my bags after his passing and head out there. The people who actually brought me out I had never met before and they had never me but obviously we were connected through music. The camp they had set up for us – the soundsystem, the way that it was laid out – was so perfectly crafted and hand built, small and intimate, very much the way I would have done it myself. Out in Africa. It was just perfect.
After the first night of dropping my first track, the place exploded. And everything that we've been building in St. Louis, I felt reflected by all of these strangers from all over the world in front of me. Because I was basically the only DJ for the sound camp – there were a couple other people they knew of, but in general I held down all the hours. Anywhere from 4-6 hours a night. The last night I played 10 hours back-to-back with this South African DJ. Every night from the second the first record dropped to the second the last record played, I had a totally packed crowd in the middle of the desert, with the wind blowing in this tent. The relationship with these people was unlike anything I'd ever experienced before and it was the best DJing I've executed, ever. Completely free of trepidation, fear or self-consciousness or anything. It was so comfortable.”

1.What's the first album you bought with your own money?
That's a really tough answer. I really can't remember so I'm going to give you a different answer. Thievery Corporation and Dub Syndicate, because those were the records I started buying. I did buy a ton of disco and funk. Disco has been the foreshadowing tone of my entire 30-year career. It makes me laugh, every once in awhile I'll remember another something that happened eons ago when disco music was a priority for me, and I forgotten about it, and here I am making a career out of it. Frankie Knuckles “The Whistle Song” was the very first track that I was really able to identify with and geek out. Once I was going to parties – you know once you get past the point where it sounds like one long song and you really can start differentiating between DJing, what you're listening to – that song was the one. Frankie Knuckles is the godfather of House. He's the man. If you listen to the song now it sounds so dated, but those are the foundations, when disco switched over to house music.

Read More
More info