As dance music has become increasingly more mainstream, the place of the DJ seems to have shifted from one of tastemaker to placeholder. 

We are now in a time when festival crowds’ attention is held by one dude, pumping a fist in the air to what may or may not be an pre-recorded set of songs. Where promoters are more interested in social media numbers than track selection, and where non-male DJs get added to shows for the sake of fulfilling diversity requirements.

Despite all of that, there are still young DJs like Toronto native BAMBII, who is more concerned with crafting and curating sets that challenge and excite the audience, and who pays homage to the origins of the music she plays. 

BAMBII believes in the power of the club to unite and provide space for those who may not otherwise have a place in society to come together and commune, so maybe it’s not surprising how seriously she takes her craft. 

In this interview we discuss the importance of the kind of well researched and practiced approach Bambii takes and how’s that’s helped her cultivate her sound and following. 

We discuss the optics of gender in club culture and promotion. We talk about DJing vs. Performance and the performance of DJing and how BAMBII uses every opportunity she’s given to improve her craft.

We discuss the sobering realties of night life and the importance of striking up a relationship the social media, whether you like it or not. 

All that and more on the latest Mind to Make.

MUSIC FEATURED IN THIS EPISODE

Music throughout this episode is from BAMBII’s mix Slow Drip, which can be heard on BAMBII's Soundcloud page

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In this time of perfectly branded Instagram accounts, sponsored Facebook live events and heavily curated everything, few artists embody the bravado and brazen attitudes once found to be the hallmark of rock 'n' roll. Though Ali X has chosen not rock but Techno as his central genre, he nevertheless continues to create his music his way, unapologetically coercing his audience to submit to his grimy, funky loops and industrial machine sounds. 

After disbanding his Techo/House super group Azari & III, Ali spent time moving around some of music epicentres to settle in Mexico City, where he has found a new home, new community and new co-conspirator in Ximena. Together Ali X x Ximena are educating Mexico's future generations of electronic musicians about what real Techno music is and why it should be thus. 

In this interview with Ali, we talk about his formative creative pursuits in video terrorism, his experiences with drug addiction and how he now uses that relationship to rekindle his relationship to making his art.

Ali talks about the music scene in Mexico City. The crazy, chaotic atmosphere there and how that chaos translates into a feeling of freedom that feeds his creativity. We discuss the nature of isolation in creation. What it allows for and what it can take away. Ali also talks about the emotional impetus required for him to get into a creative headspace. We talk record labels, PR and having somebody in your corner. 

Finally, we talk about dance music culture now vs. during the early years of techno and rave and about our collective memories of primal and transcendental parties, and why that spirit doesn’t seem to exist so much anymore. 

MUSIC IN THIS EPISODE

Music throughout the show are all upcoming releases from Ali X x Xemena. 

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/thealix/

This week on Mind to Make, I'm speaking with visual artist and film maker Oliver Husain. Oliver is the creator of MTM logo (yeah!) and his pieces involve image, sculpture, movement and textile. In this interview we discuss the importance of training to underscore your practice. We discuss Oliver’s early influences, his humbling and educational experiences connecting with artists in other cultures and how the spaces you create in and show your work in change the context in which you see that work. For Oliver, perspectives ultimately remain constant despite the inspiratory sources we encounter, but technology is a tool he uses to breath new life into his work. Lastly we discuss the importance of not defining what art means and why being sure and safe are perhaps the biggest obstacles to achieving your artistic goals.

Music throughout the podcast was taken from Oliver Husain's films - Green Dolphin and Isla Santa Maria 3D (Sound design/Music by Michelle Irving) which can be found along with the rest of Oliver's portfolio at http://www.husain.de/

If you're in Toronto between May 10th - June 16th, you can catch Oliver's latest show French Exit at the Susan Hobbs gallery

 

OLIVER HUSAIN BIO

Working at the intersection of moving image, performance, sculpture and installation, Oliver Husain has developed a captivating and curious art practice. Oliver Husain (1969, Frankfurt am Main, Germany) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Toronto. He came to Canada in 2006 having completed a short-film trilogy set in Shanghai, Jakarta and Hyderabad. Husain studied fine art at the University of Baroda in India, and holds a BA and an MFA from HfG Offenbach, Germany. Solo exhibitions of his work have been held at Gallery TPW, Toronto; Western Front, Vancouver; Art Gallery of York University, Toronto; and Frankfurter Kunstverein, Germany (with DaGroup). His work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions, including Form Follows Fiction: Art and Artists in Toronto (2016), Art Museum at the University of Toronto; Depth of Perception (2015), Oakville Galleries; Qual und Wahl (2013), Kunstverein Wolfsburg; Blowing on a Hairy Shoulder/Grief Hunters (2011), ICA Philadelphia; and Q (2005), Para Site, Hong Kong. His films have been screened at numerous international events, including Toronto International Film Festival; Experimenta Festival, Bangalore; Malaysian Video Awards, Kuala Lumpur; New Generations Independent Indian Film Festival, Frankfurt; and San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. A monograph on his work, Spoiler Alert, was published in 2012.