Blog This Torontoist! Interview
“…every time the media picks up a story that we ran first, or quotes ‘this was said on Torontoist.com’… it warms my heart a tiny little bit.”
We just launched our newest segment on The First Word, and it’s called Blog This! I got the call for Week 1 and looked no further than the go-to for local happenings in our fine city - www.torontoist.com
Editor Ron Nurwisah joined me for a conversation about Toronto, blogs vs. print, some of his favourite posts, and general blog nerdiness!
If you’re a reader of Torontoist, then you’re going to start hearing more about The First Word. We’ll be posting there each week about who we’ve got coming up on the show, so check that out. And this week, it’s part 2 of Blog This Torontoist! ie. more nerdiness from me and Ron, mostly me though.
Big thanks to Ron for the dope interview, and the hook up with TOist!
Low Budget Interview on Higher Learning - Part 1
”..and now they’re making records, Spankrock for one, Amanda, Plastic Little, it all started with us just hanging out together….our whole energy of that party is now being translated into music, which is cool… it’s not just me and Diplo spinning records anymore, people are actually making music based around that energy. “
That’s LB, talking about how the old school legendary Hollertronix parties that him and Diplo put on in Philly, have now created the next movement of club music.
Over the past 3 years, no two DJ’s have created as much hype both in the club and in internet land as Low Budget and his partner, Diplo. Mashups, blending styles - Dancehall, Dirty South, Indie Rock - it’s all happening now thanks to these two Gents.
They’re ruthless on the decks, and they’ll cut anything. When you hear the fader cross, half the fun is the surprise of what they actually manage to mix together. Check Low Bee’s newest mixtape, Snap or Die, for proof (done with his buddy DJ Deluxxx of their new crew the Trilladelphians.) The real fun though is in the energy of the crowd, and how their music makes the ladies bounce.
Toronto was no different, as Low Bee blew up Footwork on April 6th.
On the phone a little while later, we got into those early days of Hollertronix, the current state of hip hop (NY?), and getting rep off the internet.
Hot Interview. A two-parter. Go!
(And watch for this crew’s next gen, believe it or not, they’re already here.)
Low Budget Interview on Higher Learning - Part 2
”..and now they’re making records, Spankrock for one, Amanda, Plastic Little, it all started with us just hanging out together….our whole energy of that party is now being translated into music, which is cool… it’s not just me and Diplo spinning records anymore, people are actually making music based around that energy. “
The Mike Huckaby Interview
“The ability to work with little or nothing, and turn that into something, that’s what makes Detroit.”
Tresor, the Love Parade, M1, Club Yellow, and now Tempo, Mike Huckaby has played the biggest and best techno parties in the world. And each and every time, he represents Detroit to the fullest. Detroiters live and breathe their city, Mike is no different.
His record crate has both soulful house joints, and deep techno numbers. It takes a skillful DJ to blend the two, and on Jan. 29th at the Drake Hotel, he did it with ease and flawless execution. We were lucky to score an interview an hour before he went on, check it out!
Big thanks to Mike Huckaby, Dan the man at Tempo, and Erin Craig for the beautiful photo work!
Leah McLaren Interview
“…I decided to put mine in the world!”
Leah’s a writer for the Globe, and I’ve been reading her column for a while now. She’s also appeared in the CBC show The Newsroom with Ken Finkleman, which I absolutely love. When I heard she had written a novel, I knew it was a great chance to sit and talk to her.
The book is called The Continuity Girl, and it’s as sharp and witty as her column. In the book, the main character is after sperm and she’ll do anything she can to get her hands on it. She’s a raging sperm bandit! It’s craziness! Well, it’s really a baby she wants, but you’ll have to read the book to find out if she has one. (Hint: Page 220)
I was worried that Leah was going to ask me for my sperm, and then I was worried that she would try and steal it anyway. And then I realized, it was just a book. Damn!
Leah is taking her novel across the country, but she’s still in Toronto for a while. You can catch her Wednesday, Feb. 22, 06 at the Harbourfront Centre, if she doesn’t catch you first.
Special thanks to Leah McLaren, and to Melanie Storoschuk at Harper Collins.
Alexandre Trudeau Interview
“The world has become complex and so strategic that peacekeeping is not what it once was. “
Alexandre Trudeau was in Toronto for the University of Toronto’s Great Careers Series at the Career Centre. This was the first ever Higher Learning segment on The First Word.
Trudeau speaks with an incredible amount of passion. He’s a man of ideas, and he uses jounalism and documentary filmmaking as a means to express those ideas to the world.
You can’t help but be drawn into the philosophical way in which he lives his life. He speaks of living your life in the raw, being a risk-taker, and confronting your fears as if it’s the only way to live. And to him, it is.
In 2003, he spents months in Iraq filming “Embedded in Iraq”, a documentary on the US invasion. In 2004, he produced “The Fence” where he documented his stay with a family of Palestinians living on one side of a barrier, and then with a family of Israelis, liviing on the other side of the barrier.
He is a bold and decisive thinker, and one of Canada’s great young minds. The students that braved the cold and made the trip were lucky that day. This is an interview not to be missed!
Special thanks to Alexandre Trudeau, and Mary Giamos at the UofT Career Centre.
Madlib Interview in Toronto
MADLIB aka..Quasimoto, the beat konducta, the loop digga, the tascam villain, yesterday’s new quintet, DJ Rels, and Otis Jackson Jr.
“probably the Loop Digga, my homey…”
This is an interview I did with Madlib way back in June when he was here in Toronto for the Stones Throw 2005 tour.
There’s not a lot left to be said about this guy, but for the most part he remains a mystery. He smokes green, makes experimental, totally original hip hop, is an old school jazz cat, and loves hanging out in record stores. Beyond that, he’s mostly unknown.
He is mean on the drums though, as he showed at the Opera House. And at HMV, he played an instore set of unreleased beats and instrumentals, some of which will likely never see the light of day again. Lowsound was there for the recording and you can hear a sample below.
Special thanks to Madlib, everyone at Koch Entertainment, and Egon at Stones Throw. Be sure to check for Madlib’s new projects - Beat Konducta Volume 1: Movie Scenes and Sound Directions: The Funky side of Life.
