by Geoffrey Granka
Noel Cadastre gets happier the harder he works. He crossed paths with Aubrey Graham and Noah Shebib while working at a recording studio in Mississauga. He was the only one willing to work an awkwardly scheduled late shift. Nobody who knew Noel would be surprised he was willing to work a last minute shift. Just as nobody can be all that surprised that he was then asked to go on the road with Drake and 40 to help finish what would become Thank Me Later. A couple million international sales later, he’s very happy these days.
Noel sat down with The Come Up Show to geek about studio gear, the upcoming Take Care, and offer insight to working with one of the biggest artists of the decade so far.
Click below to check out the full interview.
by Kara-Lis Coverdale
Looking back over my original interview transcription, Dan Shore (Toronto/London/Port Perry producer dBiscuits) and I killed nearly 40 minutes bantering back and forth about cross-dressing, the existence of Kalamazoo, and Master P after we finally sorted out Dan’s overt — and painfully hilarious – demonstration of g-chat illiteracy. It’s pretty fair to say that modern lap-top oriented producers are pretty technologically savvy and spend a lot of time in the digital realm, so I couldn’t contain myself when he kept writing stuff like “This is weirding me out hard — I don’t know if my mic is activated or what the hell is going on…” and “How do i get my webcam kicking, like can you see me on your webcam right now???” and “Can you hear me??” while we were being hosted by what is, like, the most simple chat room in existence these days.
Conversation is never boring when Dan is around. He’s full of questions, random facts, stories, unique and esoteric observations, and is also probably one of the plain jolliest people you will ever meet. Yet while you should maybe know this in and of itself — I mention his character here distinctly because I think Dan Shore, as a personality, shines through everything he does musically as dBiscuits. The two — Dan and dBiscuits — are actually inextricable entities, and I can’t help but find it fascinating how I actually hear Dan in the music he makes.
If you keep up with The Come Up Show, I’ve mentioned this transparency in a couple reviews I’ve written of his work, mainly for his first album Biscuits & Logistics Vol. 0: The Medulla Oblongata, a sample-based collage project that oozes humor and surfs juxtaposition in funky ways. Yet figuring character into his music is seemingly a natural affect of learning the craft and techniques of production first. Dan just wrapped up a two year masters degree at UWO, and The Medulla Oblongata is sort-of the equivalent of this program’s thesis. To compliment the record, he wrote a huge-ass paper about the dynamics processing techniques he used to acquire the sounds you hear.
Neat, huh? Read the interview below to read what this always-already student of music had to say about his background, creative process, and hip-hop academia.
by Kara-Lis Coverdale
He’s no spring chicken in the Canadian hip-hop scene, but T.O. based producer Fresh Kils hasn’t really spent much time dancing in the spotlight, and it’s not because he was born with a hideous gnome face or because he’s an ardent agoraphobic or something. No, along with his mountains of production gear, Fresh Kils has simply been dwelling in his studio, grinding hard and banging out beats for artists like D-Sisive and Ghettosocks like he’s the Christmas elf of Northern hip-hop.
But all that is changing. Or, at least the behind-the-scenes part. As a solo act and as 1/2 of the production duo The Extremities, Kils is stepping up his stage game, and he’s doing it by coming hard as one of the most kick ass MPC performers out there right now.
In between Easter egg hunts this past holy Sunday, we sat down to chat with Kils to talk about sampling, the state of “live” hip-hop, and how the MPC has not only brought him from the studio to stage, but has changed the way he makes beats altogether.
Click below to read the entire interview. It’s long, but she’s a goodie.
(Photos: Alex Kamino)
by Harina Mokanan
Performing in Toronto for the second time in less than a year, UK electronic duo Mount Kimbie – made up of Kai Campos and Dominic Maker – recently stopped by popular Queen West haunt Wrongbar to perform a short setlist of tracks from their debut album Crooks and Lovers and 2009′s Maybes EP.
On a weekend when the city was gearing up to celebrate the best in Canadian music for Canadian Music Week, an impressively large crowd packed into the venue and were treated to the sounds of artists ranging in genre and in country of origin. Opening up for the boys on their latest stop were Indie band Meet the Blue. The electronic/rock sound the Limerick band brought onstage was in stark contrast to the music Mount Kimbie unleashed unto the audience. Aside from some sound issues and a late start time, Mount Kimbie kept in line with the musical assortment theme of the night. From the ambient sounds of William to the body moving beats of Carbonated, Kai and Dominic remained deeply focused throughout their set, ensuring the crowd walked away with a favourable experience. Evident by the unanimous cheers from the audience when the first few notes of “Before I Move Off” began, the boys achieved just that.
The Come Up Show had the chance to sit down with Mount Kimbie before the show to hear about their experiences on the road and their musical process from inception to performance.
Click below to read the full interview.
by Geoffrey Granka
If you hang out regularly on The Come Up Show, I promise you’ve heard Ric Notes’ productions. He’s worked on records with Shad, Blake Carrington, Drake, Smile, K-os, and many more. He’s also taken home three titles from the “Battle of the Beatmakers” and has been on the jury with Boi-1da.
We sat down with Ric to talk about about his collaborations with his approach to hip-hop production, making beats on his iphone, and collaborating with artists like Blake Carrington and Shad.
Click “Read The Rest Of Entry” below to check out the entire interview.
by: Kara-Lis Coverdale
Within Canadian hip-hop, there are few who have done it big like producer/emcee Classified has. With a long trail of albums behind him in 2011, Classified is up for “Song of the Year” at the Junos, is about to release his second release Handshakes and Middle Fingers with Sony (and twelfth album overall), and is bound for another cross-Canada tour in a few weeks.
In an extended interview from his home studio in Enfield Nova Scotia, Classified sits back talks about the current affairs of Canadian hip-hop, discusses what it takes to make it as a hip-hop artist in Canada, and shares a lengthy discussion about something too scarcely discussed with this prolific beatmaker: his productions.
Click below to check out the entire interview.
Photo: Robert Michael
by: Kara-Lis Coverdale
When Kobi of Canadian Winter first came to Canada, he wasn’t expecting to end up a musician. But once he was welcomed open arms by the music community in Hamilton, Ontario, things sort of just fell together. Now, a few snow storm seasons later, he and his indie hip-hop group Canadian Winter are set to release their debut album Just Wait Till February, a concept album that vividly narrates his autobiographical experiences in big metaphors and dense literary and musical references over the band’s detail oriented sample/live production style.
With the February first release date just on the horizon, emcee Kobi sat down to tell me about how his book agent back in the UK would kill him if she knew what he was up to, how he found comedy in light of impending doom, and how he made his heart a home in steel town.
Hit the skip to read the full interview.
by Kara-Lis Coverdale
Montreal born and Toronto raised producer Emay, also known as Mubarik Adams, works in the thick of uncharted sampling territory. Whereas the majority of hip-hop productions cultivate the discographies of jazz, soul, and funk for sound sources, there are few producers that have endeavored to work outside these crates by borrowing from other musics to create new hip-hop sounds.
by Kara-Lis Coverdale ……………………………photo: Dave Yan courtesy of amdcollective.com
Almost one month before the release of his sophomore album Runaway Jones, Miles Jones was on stage at The Sound Academy in Toronto, opening for Reflection Eternal. Wearing a Mariners jersey and a black flex fit, Jones traversed the stage, moving, bending and hyping from all four corners, engaging the cheering crowd. Jones’ infectious emcee charisma has probably been shaped by a thing or two he picked up from his Dad, “Deadly” Hedley Jones Jr., an influential DJ in the early Toronto club scene. But more than anything, it is Miles Jones’s own perseverance, hard work, and dedication to his craft that makes Miles Jones a rising Toronto artist to watch.
Just a day before his Toronto performance at the Wrap Up celebration party for Student Hunger Week, we sat down with Miles to discuss his upcoming US album debut, the technology and gear behind Runaway Jones, and details on how his collaboration went down with Black Milk, one of the most talked about producers in 2010.
There are four elements of music: melody, harmony, rhythm, and dynamics.
Yaa I Get It was Shad’s first single off TSOL, with a beat made by internet phenom EOM. The track held it’s own against storied producers Rich Kidd and Classified. His collaborations with rapper Wax have reached hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube, and his RockPaperScissors album (made alongside Emay and Remot) is just good music.<
I got to chat with him over a couple of weeks ago. He's an awesome guy with a huge career ahead of him. Aspiring producers stand to learn a lot from the way he's marketed himself, lovers of music can trust most tracks with his name on them.
GG: Shad is pretty well regarded up here (in Canada). How did the collaboration with Shad and Me&John come about?
EOM: Well, I remixed his track “Quest for Glory” and my manager sent it to him. I ended up talking to Shad via email and sent him the beat for “Yaa I Get It”. A year or so went by and my manager tells me that Shad finished the song but they ran into sample clearance problems.
That’s where Me&John came in. They reworked the drums, replayed the instruments and mixed the track a lot better. The original was all sorts of compressed and raw. Me&John definitely did their thing. They made the “don’t sue me” version of the original beat.
GG: That brings up my next question: most (if not all) of the music you produce is available online for free. How do you monetize your career?
Continue Reading the Interview with EOM.
