Wow, it has been one hell of a ride. Over the past 3 days I have had the chance to speak with some of my favorite artists as well as meet many up and coming acts. For those of you who don’t know, all I have done is take in shows at night and edit video during the day. This hasn’t left much time for sleep, and since I am also a student who was forced to pull an all night on Wednesday, lets just say it all caught up to me on Saturday night.
Thursday night DJ Cal? and I were fortunate enough to see a showcase of up and coming artists in a showcase headlined by Keys and Krates, the Wong Boys and Team Canada DJs at Wrongbar, an unforgettable experience to say the least. Keys and Krates, having seen videos of their shows on Youtube, were everything I anticipated them to be. Earlier that day we did an interview with the Wong Boys who took the stage and brought their unique style to Toronto, this included bringing people up on stage and an awesome show that rocked the house. Look for our upcoming profile that will include this interview and some awesome footage from one of their shows in L.A.
To cap off the night came the crew that is repping Canada to the fullest across the world. The whole of Team Canada and the Eh! Team Canada DJs was in the building. Cal and I were blown away by how tight their set was. Having seen Illo on his own before, it was awesome to see him in his element with the rest of his crew for this night. Grandtheft is one of the best Canadian remxiers today in my opinion and I can’t wait to see what will happen with Last Gang and Tremendous Records. We manged to get some Salacious Sylusts interviews with both Illo and Toronto’s own Tom Wrecks. I made the move to go home around 4am and captured video until I passed out for a couple of hours only to get back on the grind as soon as I awoke.
Friday night I had scheduled an interview with Curtis Santiago; artist, musician and host of the Red Bull 3Style competition at Circa that night. Myself and, the newest member of the SalaciousSound team, J.K headed over to interview him at Ultra Supper Club before the show. That extended interview will be coming up on the site with a full feature on this multifaceted artist and personality. Once the show got started Circa was absolute bedlam. I haven’t seen a crowd like that in a while making it nearly impossible to move if you were in front of the stage. (Look for a more in depth look at the show coming up soon)
A major highlight for J.K was having the opportunity to interview The Hour’s George Stroumboulopoulos backstage at the show. It was amazing for us to interview the interviewer, a man who has had the opportunity to do some of the most balanced reporting on some of the most controversial A list celebrities and politicians of our time. The interview is included in this post so make sure to check that out!
Soon after J.K had the chance to talk to someone who he admired, I was fortunate enough to get a quick backstage interview with one of Canada’s musical prodigies. A-Trak has been part of the electronic music movement that involves a lot of great Canadian DJs pushing musical boundaries across the world. A world DMC champion and Kanye West’s tour DJ he has really helped to expose the world to the our countries healthy music scene. I would write more but why waste your time, just listen to what he has to say bellow!
The night came to a close after a stop over @ The Drake to see DJ Sega the pioneer that took B’More and added his own P’more twist. Eventually it was 5am and we were across the street from The Gladstone with ARock and A-trak having breakfast. I ended up falling asleep fully clothed after capturing the video i shot. I then edited and uploaded the first set of interviews for our Youtube channel.
The Klever show at West was something I was what I was looking forward to the most this weekend. SalaciousSound was helping to promote the event and a lot of close friends and many people who I haven’t seen in a while were all heading down. Unfortunately I fell asleep when taking a chance to lie down while watching a video I had just finished cutting (Keys and Krates Live, it will be up before the end of the day). I hope everyone will forgive me. DJ Cal? will be sure to give you a taste of what happened during the show but after waking up at 3am I got the scoop from a couple of people including Klever himself. When I woke up I headed over to Wrongbar at 3:15 to interview one of Toronto’s best party DJs, the man behind Toronto’s cultural phenomenon DSRNR, MEECH! The one thing everyone was discussing was how great the Klever show was. From Meech hyping up the crowd to Klever killing it, the show was apparently not to be missed (I am still hoping this is all a bad dream). Klever cut his hand rocking out, kept spinning, his Serrato vinyl is now streaked with blood; all in all missing this show is my only regret this week.
Let’s just say it has been a crazy weekend. I am extremely burnt out but it was one hell of a fire. As I sit here watching the sun rise while writing and contemplating what is next, I honest could not say. This is the first of many great festivals that we will be covering over the course of the summer and I can’t wait to bring all of the excitement to our readers!
Thanks for reading. Here are some of the interviews we were able to do. Please keep checking back over the course of the rest of the day and next week as I will be editing and uploading a lot more great features and interviews.
With Love,
The Monarch
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