Wake Up Winnipeg - Episode 73
Hosted Live/Produced/Recorded by: Andru Valpy, Natty Somers
Episode 73, an episode that was quite comical in itself. Packed with zinggy one liners, lame cheesy jokes, and sarcasm galore.
We certainly had a action packed week at
Wake Up Winnipeg, and this episode truly reflects that. On this weeks episode, we started with our usual concert and event listings and educated our listeners on the difference between
The Zoo and
The West End Cultural Centre. . . only those that would have listened would have understood the joke in it's proper context. . .
After a few jokes and giggles, Natty and I talked about some of the shows we had recently seen including Natty's visit to the
Winnipeg Comedy Festival.
We also talked about our weekend visit to see
The Stereos at
The Garrick Centre, in a show that almost didn't happen.
While most fans were lined up waiting to get in, we received information from promoter
representatives who informed us that the show was canceled due to negotiation differences with
James Lee Productions and
Stereos.
This left Natty and I confused as we had only received this text 10 minutes before the scheduled door opening.
Though limited information was available at show time, we did learn that staff at
The Garrick Centre had made arrangements with the bands involved to continue the performance, with the show running only 30 minutes behind production schedule.
We expect to follow up with
The Garrick Centre and
James Lee Productions at a later date as we continue to investigate the show that almost wasn't.
There were approximately 200 to 250 fans that had come to see the tween sensations
The Stereos, with most of the fans recognizing them from
Much Music and other mainstream media outlets.
At one point,
Much Music VJ and Winnipeg native
Phoebe Dykstra was even seen dancing amongst the crowd, and was even serenaded on stage by opening band
Neverest, who seemed to get a very loud reception as they took their places on stage.
Fans were glad that
The Stereos went on with their performance, and we're very pleased with their Winnipeg show.
"
I thought they were pretty good considering I've only recently become a fan. Seeing them in person was better than hearing them on the stereo because we saw their true production talent" says Taylor Mellon who was in attendance at the show.
Though the band put on a great show, the over-usage of strobe lights had Natty and I leaving only after the first three songs.
It was difficult to watch the band straight on as the industrial sized strobe lights were situated facing the crowd.
To put it simply, it was near seizure-inducing.
Finally, on this weeks show we had a chance to discuss my thoughts on another performance that happened at
The Garrick Centre on Friday night, and to help us in our discussion we went straight to the source.
On Friday April 8th, Juno Award nominated artist
Classified took to the stage at The Garrick Centre for his seventh career stop in Winnipeg.
On this episode I had a chance to interview the hip-hop artist to discuss his new album,
Handshakes and Middle Fingers and talk about his recent Winnipeg stop over.
Here's
just some of the conversation:
WAKE UP WINNIPEG INTERVIEWS WITH CLASSIFIED:
Andru Valpy: When you launched Half Life Records, did you think that it would take you as far as you have come?
Classified: "For Me, it wasn't even about Half Life Records, I just started Half Life because I needed a record label to put out my own records because I didn't have anybody signing me or anything. So, it wasn't even so much about the label, it was more so about me trying to push my music as Classified and trying to get it out there. It was just like 'okay well, I have no label let me try to start my own by myself'.
Now, I'm trying to turn it into something where I am putting out other artists and putting out other quality music and kind of looking at that as the plan for the long run. It's great what we've done so far, but I think still as a label we still have a ways to go to be a real force.
Av: You started with your first full length back in 1995 right?
Classified: Yup.
Av: In 2010 you took all of us by surprise with "Oh...Canada", and I wanted to touch on that. There are definitely a lot of stereotypes in Oh...Canada that we all kind of joke about with each other, how did that song come to you?
Classified: I actually made the beat first. I just had a copy of someone singing the national anthem and I took the sample and put it over the drums. I was just sort of playing with it and making some beats, 'my God this is banging, I want to do something to it!'.
This is kind of right when we just started touring outside of Canada more, exploring the rest of the world and stuff, and you know, just kind of talking to people what they think of Canadian rappers...just in general, it wasn't like a big serious thing...you know just seeing where I'm from, and going to the rest of the world and it's like 'yo we do live in a great place, we are proud of where we come from for a reason.' It was kind of part of that as well, but to have more fun of it though.
Canadians are sarcastic, we like to make jokes and shit so I wanted to do it kind of more fun, not so serious, not like 'oh we're Canadian, we're the best, blah blah blah,' but kind of 'we're Canadian, we do some stupid shit, you're going to laugh at it' and we keep moving.
Av: When my American friends heard that song they were like 'Is This Guy Serious?' I was more like, 'nope, that's just how we do it!'
Classified: Straight up, it's not like it's a serious song!
Av: When you started hearing that song on heavy rotation, especially during the Vancouver Olympics, there must have been a sense of pride on your side eh?
Classified: Oh Yeah, Defiently! Even when I made it, when it was a done song, it was like 'yo this is cool man'. It's a cool different song because it sounds like it has it's own kind of style to it, but it represents Canada good.
Just even musically, it has a really epic kind of feel to it. So you know it just worked out great.
Av: What I noticed about your performance on Friday here, is that you bring in and you incorporate a lot of 'old skool' kind of beats. You have that tone of the old skool 90's hip hop, is that part of your influence?
Classified: That's all my influence. That's when I grew up on music when music was my everything. It was headphones, and hitch hiking just out partying doing everything and that was when I came up...in the 90's.
That's when I kind of started making my music, it was that kind of influence, so I think I'll always have that influence as kind of my foundation of my music and stuff.
At the shows, it's always good to throw on those old classic records for those people who haven't heard them for a while, and for some people who've never heard them before and open their minds to it.
Av: "Handshakes and Middle Fingers", you're new album, how long have you been working on that album?
Classified: The first song I did for it was "That Ain't Classy" and that was probably a year and a half ago now. I started working on that album when I was touring alot for for "Self Explanatory", so I was kind of going on the road, come home for a couple of days, work on the music for a bit.
But then back in September of last year, that's kind of when I stayed home for like five months straight and just said 'okay let me just stay at home and focus on finishing it'.
Av: It must feel good to get that out?
Classified: Ah yeah! It feels great to get it out, and just the reception that people are giving me, like, you get a lot of new fans that are hearing it, but just people who have always been listening to me for years and have always been giving me feedback, like real feedback, and they'll say 'oh this is your best your best work in a long time man' and it just feels really good to hear that.
Just for myself, for me to hear it top to bottom straight through, I'm just like 'yo this is crazy'. Music wise, I think it's crazy, just a lot of live instruments, not even on a hip hop level, but just music in general.
Lyrically, I like what I talked about, I liked the personality of it and 'the way it sounds, the way it sounds' at the end of the day that's what it's all about.
Av: Do you find it a challenge Classified? I mean, you're setting pretty high standards for yourself in all of your albums, and there is a noticable progression there. Is it a challenge for you as an artist to keep pulling?
Classified: Definetly! Defeinetly it is, I mean I work my ass off at this shit, it's not like I just go in and express myself and music, beautiful music comes out and it's easy...It's not!
I go in there and bang my head my head off the wall and make a beat, and work on the drums, and get some bass players over, and guitar players and I'll sit there and try different ideas for songs and different ways to rap, different flows. I really beat my head over for every song.
Sometimes, you get that lucky song where you go in and you just start it and you come out and it's done, but it doesn't happen often but..it keeps going and yeah, every album it does get harder because I want to top what I did last time. Hopefully, I'm just doing something new in life that gives me something new to write about and just try to do it.
For more of our interview with classified,
tune into our podcast in iTunes or catch the repeat of this episode on CJUM 101.5 FM on Wednesday April 20th at 6:30 AM. You can also find my review of the show
by clicking here.
With that, we leave you for this week but assure you that we'll be back next week for episode 74. Stay tuned to our blogs and websites for upcoming releases, and be sure to subscribe to our feeds for exclusive online content.
Until then.
-Av.
