Interviews Surra Moonstarr Dazikue Guida De Palma Links: PTR Music Bruk Beat Radio Moonstarr Guest Mix Ele-mental	MOONSTARR Moonstarr is one busy cat. ÝIf he's not busy on the phone holding things down on the biz side for his label Public Transit Recordings, the man is hunkered down behind closed doors over his synths, drum machines, and samplers to bang out some killer beats. Citing such diverse influences as Baden Powell, 4 Hero, DJ Premier, and Underground Resistance, Moonstarr's sound can only be classified as DOPE. ÝEverything he touches carries imprints of deep techno, jazz, hip hop, bossa, and broken beat, resulting in tracks that step far into the future. Ý And it's not like people haven't noticed. ÝEver since Moon's dropped the now-classic Dupont EP, he's received love for his work the world over. People like Jazzanova, Recloose, Ivana Santilli, Rednose Distrikt, Povo and others have called up the studio red phone for remixes that have charted from San Francisco to Tokyo, London to Hamburg, and all points in between. ÝBig name DJs like Gilles Peterson, Mr. Scruff, Rainer Truby, and DJ Spinna have mashed out many-a dancefloor with some Moonstarr niceness. ÝJust a little note: TWO of his tracks were selected as "Best of 2004" contenders for Gilles Peterson's Radio 1 Worldwide program (that's the huge "Detriot" tune on Sonar Kollektiv and his remix of Povo's "Uam Uam" on Raw Fusion). ÝHe's rocked parties all over the planet for fans in the UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan, across Canada, and of course, the USA. This interview was conducted in December of 2004 during Moon's first visit to Philly. The connection was formed through internet radio, a common grass roots ethic, and a few shots of Jim Beam didn't hurt... Welcome welcome... Good to be here man, good to be in Philly. Getting filled up on cheesesteaks and Pabst Blue Ribbon... you know how we roll.. Philly style [laughter] What is the purpose of your trip here, i know that you were at Aqualounge last night, and it was ridiculous... so talk about you sound for people that don't know much about you. Well i'm just on a short US tour of the east coast. Started out in Detroit, Clevland, Pittsburgh, Philly was last night, then New York and going to end it off in Puerto Rico. Just doing a little tour of the states and promoting some of the new music on my record label as well as some of the new music i've been remixing. So just holding it down man. Also i spent some extra time here in Philly because i wanted to meet everyone. There's a really cool scene going on here in terms of underground music... BrokeN'Beat Radio, Sun Ra's Arkestra and Dave Davies... i've been talking about linking up with those guys for a long time. Just wanted to put faces to the names and really link with you cats down here. So how would you say philly's vibe compares to Toronto? In terms of the nightlife Philly is definitely a bit smaller. Toronto's really jumping off right now. I'm in Montreal which is about 6hrs away from Toronto where i grew up. One thing thats very similar to Philly in Montreal is the way neighborhoods are set up. I dont know, just from talking to people and just the response on the street is that the club scene is really not jumping off as much as it is back home. People in Montreal go apeshit... yea the nightlife is amazing. Even if its like -30 in the dead of winter people still go out and still have a good time. Yea that's not happening here. What would be the best way to describe your sound? One thing we keep pushing a lot in our press releases is that it's "beat-driven" music. I can't explain to someone the 10 years of my music making and all its influences... its so hard to break it down to just one sentence. I'm influenced by hip-hop producers like Pete Rock and Dj Premiere, but i'm also influenced by Brazilian artist like Baden Powell, or techno producers like Jeff Mills and Underground Resistance ... so its a wide spectrum. I'm a drummer at heart, i can't play the drums but i can play my samplers pretty well. So the breaks kind of define the sound for me in terms of what i'm about. In terms of the label Public Transit and what some of the other artists on the label bring to the table, we all try to be progressive and try to push the sound barriers. We're really trying to do something different and entertaining at the same time. We're really not trying to follow in anyone else's footsteps in terms of style. We'll take a work ethic from people like Reinforced or Underground Resistance, but we'll try to apply that with our own flavor. I know its hard. I often ask people to pigeonhole themselves and classify themselves, because your definition of your sound might different than mine or someone elses... even though we are all hearing the same thing. Talk to us about your progression from your first official track that you ever made to the last track that you made. In 97' i called a record called Hexed. It was a small 10" on What Not records out of Toronto run by this cat Pauly Lopez who was really instrumental breaking the rare groove scene and fusing it with the hip-hop scene in the early 90s. He dropped this record of mine called Hexed which literally sounds like a bunch of typewriters man, the beats are all crazy. I have like three different styles on that record... a drum & bass track, a broken beat track, and i've got a downtempo sort of hip-hop track. My last release, "Detroit" on Sonar Kollektiv i've got a deep techno track, but i also have more of a hip-hop track with this mc named Vandal and a dj named Professor Fingers. They are both all over the map. Even though its one 12" i'm still representing different styles and musical genres. But the newer stuff i have definitely learned the tricks of the trade in the studio and built that up. Yea i think my sound is getting tighter and not so annoying or typewriterish, y'know? What would you say is your best and worst experience in terms of creating music? Some of the best experiences are being able to do the things you love and getting acknowledged for them. Financially its been tough, but we've been in positions where we've been able to help other people out. We've done parties in Toronto called "Raise the Rent" which was for local musicians every Wednesday. We just booked our friends that needed to raise money for rent at the end of the month. There have been times where we've used this scene, not make a huge impact, but to try and create change and i think that is the most rewarding for me. The Detroit record 25% of the proceeds are going to a project in Detroit called Hidleburg which is a local art movement to bring art to the ghettos of that city. Doing stuff like that is really gratifying for us. We did a show in Toronto called fresh air... this was before the smoking ban. But when we did this we just wanted to create kind of a Body & Soul type of vibe where people could dance in a smoke-free environment and people who wanted to smoke could smoke upstairs. When we were flyering for that people were like, "You can't do this" because it was completely unheard of, and people were really upset. But the parties were packed and everyone had a really good time. Now in Toronto there is a complete smoking ban in the clubs. So it just goes to show you that even small movements can create change. Thats the most gratifying thing to me... and also to do what i love. It's a blessing. As far as the worst... just being mis-interpereted. The Detroit record i don't think a lot of people caught on to what that record was really about. It's about the state of Detroit now compared to the 60's when the riots happened. And the fact that Detroit techno artists so important now days is because they came through the worst shit ever y'know what i mean? Some of those neighborhoods are really tough.. I really didn't want that record to come across like i was just jacking their sound. I mean i'm from Toronto... if i made a hip-hop record and called it Brooklyn.. its just... People do that! Yea and i just don't want to be classified with those people and i think thats the worst thing for me. To be mis-classified in terms of what we are trying to do politically and what Public Transit is all about. I really hate the mis-conceptions man. So do pay attention to what people say about you. Do you take it seriously, does it drive you? I'm always checking it out man. I'm always interested in other peoples ideas about tracks i remix. I'm always open to hear critiques. I like getting negative feedback. Its important in all aspects of life... to understand when you are right and when you are wrong. So yeah i'm always checking to see what's going on. I correct people, or just even tell people what we're doing... half the time we're doing it on such a subversive level that its not explicit and its almost better to just talk about it. The famous quote is that we're not treehuggers. My labelmate said in an interview "we're not these hippie treehuggers". But deep down inside some of us are. But yea i'm always out there checking, seeing who's saying what, seeing if i can inject something into the mix. I'm not afraid of criticism but i try to do my own thing, i don't let it pave my future for me. I still try an remain independent of all the noise. I'm sure it's challenging... Yea its really easy to just close yourself off to all that and just live in a bubble.. but the reality is that it's not going to happen. I'm finding that as i travel i'm bumping into so many people. You can't hide yourself from all that, you'll go insane. Now you've said earlier that you've been keeping yourself busy with a lot of remixes. How have you chosen which tracks you remix? Well back in the day when i first started this up i was talking to Marc Mac of 4 Hero a lot on Reinforced. And i was always used to say to him how do you get all these remix offers man? What happens? He was like... they just call you up. And that's what happens. People just call you up. If your music is out there and people enjoy it, people will just call you out of the blue and say hey can you remix this can you do some production on this... So over the past couple years, since i've put out a record called Dupont in 2001, we got it distributed worldwide and that allowed me to get my sound out to places where it was never getting before. It was obviously in tune with other people, like Mad Matts of Raw Fusion in Sweden. If it wasn't for the Dupont record being distributed internationally.. Mad Matts would never have contacted this lanky white boy from Canada [laughter]. Yea i just did a remix for Povo, this track called Wham Wham... and i think its an old Art Farmer track.. but i remixed their cover of this original jazz track. I really try to do justice to the original, but add my own uniqueness to the mix. Also i did a remix for a crew from Scarbourough Toronto.. the group is called Middlefield and the remix is called Incoming... its on Diaspora Records. Have you been in a position where someone has called you to do a remix and you weren't feeling them as an artist... or you weren't feeling the track? Yeah well the classic is Hall & Oats. When they were doing their comeback record, they asked us to do a remix. I tried man, i'll try anything but if i'm not feeling it, i just tell them straight up that i can't do it. I'm a sample based artist so i can take most anything and flip it... but Hall & Oats man.. (whistles) Didn't work out. Besides the remixes you mentioned you were getting ready to work on another album. Talk to us about that a little bit. I'm working on a full length album called "What's Wrong With This Picture". Musically its not going to be much different from my previous releases. Its going to be a match of styles and genres. I've been working with some amazing mcs and vocalists like MC Vandal from Toronto, this cat named More or Less from Toronto, a vocalist named Voice out of LA. I have some tracks up my sleeve, i'm just trying to get it together... its been taking a long time, hopefully everyone can be patient about that. A quarter of the proceeds are going to be going to different organizations like Doctors Without Borders... David Suzuki is a really outspoken environmentalist in Canada. He's a Japanese Canadian who went through all this bullshit in the second world war when Japanese North Americans were put into concentration camps. He went through all that, and yet he's still a very proud Canadian. His organization is going to get some of the proceeds from this record. I just want to paint a picture that small things can create change, and i want that to come through on this album.. musically, progressive sounds... but also subversive political ideas as well. It just makes sense. That sounds like what you've always been about... and that is much appreciated especially in the current times we're living in here in America. I think that it really doesn't matter who is in power, what counts is the people on the ground level and there are some amazing people in the states. It will change man, it'll change for the good. Unfortunately there's going to be a time when you are not here anymore. How do you want to be remembered? Wow man that's a big question. I try not to think about that. Western civilization doesn't really prepare you for that question. I guess just to be appreciated for what i've tried to accomplish. Hopefully i inspire people to push boundaries, like the greats that have inspired me... like 4Hero, Reinforced Records, Underground Resistance... What tips do you have for those individuals who are looking to start producing and working in this industry? Don't be afraid to ask questions Take advantage of your friends if they have equipment you don't have access to. If you really want to check out a certain piece of gear, don't buy it... rent it first or borrow it. Talk people up man. It takes time to build your confidence. My advice to anyone is ask a lot of questions and try and borrow a lot of gear. There's a lot you can do with computers and software programs nowadays, so use it, learn it, and try not to be overwhelmed. There's a program out there called Reason, and basically its an entire studio. You can just take one of those modules... lets say the sampler, or even just the mixing board... and a year of just using that, you still probably won't realize the full potential of what you can get out of that instrument. What are your top 5 albums or artists of all time? I guess earlier Gang Starr stuff, Premo's stuff from Hard to Earn... maybe even before that. Step in the Arena was a huge record for me growing up. Buddy Collette. Any Baden Powell record. He just blew my mind. He was playing classical music but in a rhythmically brazillian style. 4Hero without a doubt, Marc Mac and Dego. Underground Resistance, Submerge Records... and my peeps, like Archetype from Columbus Ohio who produces as ArchTight and Monochrome. There are a bunch of underground cats from Canada coming up next that are really pushing the envelope. How did you link up with BrokeN'Beat Radio... Its the internet man, its changed a lot for up and coming artists and networking in general. I wouldn't be at where I'm at right now if we didn't realize it for the powerful communication tool that it is. Argo has been running the radio show for a while now and he really supports us. We're all about linking with like-minded people... people trying to push boundaries... and we clicked on that level. So we met up and now i'm here in Philly chillin! Please tell people how they can learn more about the label and how to contact you. You can check us out on the web at PTR Records and if you want to contact me directly its code514@ptrmusic.com. We have a web store where you can buy all our records for really affordable prices. Or you can check your local record shops and request them. Yeah so, the website is the best way to get in touch with us... we don't accept rocks with notes attached to them through our window. (laughter) Well on that note i'd like to thank you for taking the time to talk to us! Thanks for having me... and for all you listeners out there, support your campus community radio stations because we wouldn't be where we're at right now if it weren't for all the underground voices and shows like Eavesdrop and BrokeN'Beat Radio. You have to make sure you support these stations because its amazing how much this forum helps us develop and grow as artist. Really appreciate you having me down and hopefully i'll be back soon! Bruk Beat Radio is broadcast Live on CKLN 88.1 FM, Fridays 5-6 PM EST Worldwide it is simulcast live on CKLN.FM Fridays 17h-18h EST (New York Time) or 22h-23h GMT (London Time) Big shouts to Junior from Record Breakin' for conducting this interview. Check his show, Eavesdrop on WKDU here in Philly.
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