When Rags Blake was born, signs and auspices graced the world like none before. The sun composed a song to celebrate the occasion, the four winds conspired to whisper a secret recipe for excellence in his ear, and beneath his crib was found a pair of golden headphones. And from these humble beginnings, he has grown into the man of humble legend we know today: thoughtful and gracious in his friendship, fierce in his scorn of jabronis and pylons alike, blessed with an ear for music most tuneful, and generous in his sharing of said musics. It was with great delight that I recently turned the spotlight of 5 Questions with Rags upon his noble personage, whiling away a pleasant hour gathering the fruits of his wisdom on many a topic, for the personal edification of us all.

1. What's something you wish you'd had growing up?

Wow, that's a good question. Huh, that's hard. I had a really happy childhood. I had parents who loved me, I had friends and grandparents. I had pets. You know what? I used to really resent my mom for not letting us have a computer in the house. I didn't get a computer in the house until I was nearly graduated from high school. I was so jealous of all the kids with computers in there house, talking on ICQ and shit. But in retrospect, I'm really happy that I wasn't allowed to have a computer around all the time until I was 18. I don't think having unfettered access to the internet as a teenager would have been a good idea. I honestly don't know how young people today deal with anything. So yeah, a computer. It seems really superficial, but I was really lucky to have a lot of love in my life as a kid and that was pretty awesome, so it's going to be something like that.

Festival season just won't end. Every year it seems a little longer and every year on the Canadian west coast, Rifflandia is there to usher out the jam-packed nights of summer with four days of ridiculously diverse musicians. This year's lineup is a feast of groovy selections spanning the rowdy (Wolf Parade, Keys & Krates), the soulful (Khari Wendell McClelland, Chance Lovett & The Broken Hearted), the weird (Prozzak, Bomba Estero), the moody (Grossbuster) and everything in between. It's an exhaustingly huge list of performers and looking at it may induce panic. To help ease the burden of research here are just a few of the many acts I'm hoping to check out over this, one of the finest weekends of music the west coast has to offer, right in the heart of my beloved hometown of Victoria, BC.

Get your single-day and full-fest passes here!

DJ Kwe

A few months ago, I didn't know a thing about DJ Kwe. I picked her name randomly off of a list of writing subjects for the Rifflandia festival guide and started my research. Immediately I was drawn to the idea of a female, aboriginal DJ (I later came to find she's half Irish, further adding to the multicultural allure), as both of those traits are something I have very little experience absorbing into my ears when it comes to my DJ music, and like any good music fan, I'm always looking for new avenues and perspectives. Turns out Kwe is doing some of the most original work around the West Coast right now. Her audio stories are unlike anything you've ever heard, built from the ground up, incorporating music, words and the sounds of nature. As she expands her repertoire into original music production and all-vinyl Djing, DJ Kwe promises to deliver something you're not going to hear anywhere else right now.

5 Questions with Rags #68 - Rags

#festivalseason - Just when you think you're done, RIFFLANDIA is there to pull you back in.