NYC Summer 2013 | Week 10 In Photos

Week 10 was super hectic. I went from New York to Toronto to Montreal and back to New York. Such a whirlwind trip, but it was so nice to see a ton of my friends from home. Take a look:

Intern Queen party in NYC

 BEST PIZZA

 Off to Toronto!

Meals & drinks with the BFFs

Osheaga was fantastic

Finally got to explore Montreal!

This exists: The Pizzaghetti Slurpee

The things I stumbled upon in Old Montreal, such a lovely place!

Back it up:

WEEK ONE | WEEK TWO | WEEK THREE | WEEK FOUR | WEEK FIVE |

WEEK SIX | WEEK SEVEN | WEEK EIGHT | WEEK NINE

- Christina

Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28

Osheaga 2013 | Robert DeLong

Photo via RobertDeLong.com

My final Osheaga interview this year was with EDM artist Robert DeLong. This talented young musician was included in Billboard's list of artists to watch in 2013 and has definitely been proving that he has what it takes to make it big time. His unique live performance and cool beats are what sets him apart.

Take a look at his awesome music video for his hit track "Global Concepts":

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Christina: This summer has been pretty jam-packed with festivals…do you prefer sets like those or the smaller shows?

Robert DeLong: It’s totally different. I love festivals because you give people 30-40 minutes of what feels like a commercial for Robert DeLong. It’s cool and fun because there’s just so much energy and you get to play for people who have never seen you before. So I love that. But playing small shows is great too because I have total control and I get to play an hour set or whatever. It’s cool.

C: For someone who hasn’t heard your music yet, how would you describe it to them?

RD: This is always a tough question for me to answer. I usually say indie songwriter meets electronic dance music with a crazy live show involving a Wii remote, joysticks, drum kit, etc.

C: Where did this signature X come from?

RD: My girlfriend just painted it on my headphones one time and my good friend who’s a graphic designer turned it into what it is. Then it was sort of my branding from there on out.

Photo via RobertDeLong.com

C: What was it like getting into the EDM scene and since then, have you noticed any major changes?

RD: I live in LA and it’s definitely grown a lot and changed a lot, even in the last two or four years. It’s cool because there’s a lot more exposure but also it does create the weird thing how it becomes more commercial. I’m glad that people are embracing dance music and getting into new sounds though. Especially the LA people; they were introduced to dub step and now there’s the whole world of electronic music they can get into.

C: What went into the making of Just Movement?

RD: That was an album I wrote over almost four years. I’ve just been writing songs and putting them together and then at some point I realized I had a pretty massive collection of songs. So I chose songs that I thought fit together and then last summer we got into the studio just to do the final mix on it. It was really just a labor of love. A lot of those songs went through multiple iterations. Some of them were on acoustic guitar initially, then I started performing and I’d mess around with doing it electronically and then I’d go back in the studio and take those ideas and recreate the songs.

C: What advice do you have for aspiring musicians?

RD: Work hard. I think that’s actually the most important thing.  Work hard and you have to love it. Those things go hand in hand. If you can work hard and obsessively work on it that means you love it. And be nice to people.

Check out http://robertdelong.com/ for more updates!

- Christina

Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28

Osheaga 2013 | C2C

Photo via Facebook

I randomly came across the song "Delta" by a group that goes by the name C2C earlier this summer and it instantly became one of my favourites on repeat on my iPod. And after looking through all of their other music, I was hooked. Their tracks are so catchy and I can't help but want to dance. So when I heard they were going to be at Osheaga, I got super excited.

Made up of four DJs (20syl, DJ Pfel, DJ Greem, and DJ Atom), C2C is a turntablist band, which means that they use their turntables as their instruments to make awesome music. These guys are champions in the underground turntablism scene, which was fascinating to me. I got to chat with 20syl and DJ Pfel, who gave insight into their debut album, what it's like working together and what makes them happy.

Check out some highlights from the interview:

How would you describe your music to someone who hasn’t heard it yet?

Pfel: C2C music is a mix between vintage sound and more organic music. It’s a more electronic and modern sound in the beats as well. So it’s a crossover between the past and future.

What’s it like working together with the four of you?

Pfel: There are four different points of view but it helps to bring the music to the best level we want to reach. It’s a lot of steps during the creation. The turntable is the second step for example. We make a normal production first and then go to the turntable to make it sound different and we scratch the sounds to make things happen. There are lots of different things and discussions to argue about every little thing for hours. Maybe that’s why it took one year to make this album. It’s a great experience to work altogether. We all learn together.

How would you describe your live performance?

Pfel: It’s about four guys behind turntables. We manipulate the sound and the visual as well, with using video. It’s storytelling all along the show with four different shapes. We manipulate the vinyl and the sound and video real-time, so there’s lots of interaction between the sound and visuals. We also move on stage. We try to break all the DJ codes and not stay behind the DJ tables. We make some very new stuff on stage, plus the light show, which it very tight with the sounds.

I really like your song Happy – what makes you guys really happy?

20syl: To finish something. The creative process is cool, but this moment when you put the last notes or maybe the last colour, the last thing, is maybe the thing that makes me happy.

Pfel: The end of the live show, when you’re happy with your performance and you don’t make too many mistakes because we make mistakes sometimes. You can feel happy when the crowd gives you good feedback and wants you to come back on stage for one more song. That’s a good feeling.

Keep and eye out for my article on www.faze.ca and be sure to find C2C on Facebook, YouTube & Twitter

- Christina

Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28

Osheaga 2013 | FRANK TURNER

One of the performers I was most excited to see was UK rocker Frank Turner. A friend of mine is a huge fan and has been raving about him all summer long so I was stoked to get to experience him live at Osheaga.

And after chatting with him and seeing his set, I've gotta say, I'm a fan. His passion and energy is so awesome and I love how you can just tell how much he loves what he does.

Christina: This is your second time at Osheaga, what’s in store for this year?

Frank Turner: It’s nice to be here with my band The Sleeping Souls. I’m excited for us to do our thing. We’re a good live band and we’ve done so many festivals in our time – I remember one summer we did 27 festivals in the UK alone – we know how to do festivals. Festivals are great because it’s an opportunity to make new friends. You get people who maybe wouldn’t pay $20 to see your headline show, it’ll be like oh I’ll check them out and then the idea is that you wow them. Hopefully we’ll make some new friends today.

C: What would be the highlight of your career so far?

FT: I spent my teenage years telling everyone I was going to be in a band and everybody laughed at me. I’ve been touring since ’98 and this is my fifth album as a solo act. Lots and lots of people want to be a musician but not that many of them get to make a long-time career out of it. I’m still slightly hesitant to say whether I’ll be able to do this for the rest of my life but it kind of feels like it’s getting that way now. I’m proud of it because it’s a hard thing to do and everyone, from my school friends to my parents, thought I would eventually give up and get a normal job. And I haven’t, yet. 

C: When you were a teenager, did you ever think you’d be where you are today?

FT: There’s a difference between daydreaming and rational expectations. One of the weird things about the station I have in life nowadays is that my musical field of reference growing up were bands like Refused, Voiceless Fire, the Descendants, and that was like the summit of my musical ambition growing up as a kid. When we played Wembley, I’ve never actually been there before because I wasn’t really into that kind of bands at that status. What that means is that it’s not that I’m not ambitious; it’s all just so hilariously unlikely that I feel like you might as well try everything because fuck it. If you come across a door, just push it and see if it’s open. We’re doing an arena tour next year in the UK – we haven’t announced that yet, oh fuck it, doesn’t matter – and I’ve never done that before. So we’ll see how it goes. If I like it, then we’ll do it again. If I don’t, then we’ll move on.

C: Over the years, what’s the most important thing you’ve learned?

FT: Self-reliance is probably the main thing that being on tour has taught me. The ability to just land on your feet pretty much anywhere and don’t depend on safety nets or other people. I like the way that on tour if there’s a problem, you have to solve it now. You can’t just go call your mum. It kind of amazes me in a way when I see my friends who complain about the smallest things.

Another thing, my friend Josh who runs a club in DC called the 930 club once told me  the best piece of advice I’ve ever been given. “Try and make sure your head is above your ass at all times.” That’s a life motto to live by.

C: What advice do you have for aspiring musicians?

Work hard and expect nothing from it other than the love of music and you might be pleasantly surprised. But if you’re getting into this game to get rich or famous or laid or whatever, you’re an idiot. You’re also doing it for the wrong reasons, f*ck off and leave it to the people who actually care about the music.

C: What are some of the craziest requests you’ve had from fans?

FT: There are a lot of people who know about my music and some of them are eccentric and some of them are very very into what I do, but at any point, I don’t want to sit here and sound like I’m mocking anyone who’s into my music. They are essentially good people paying me a compliment and enabling me to live the life that I lead. I get given amazing presents on tour by fans, like truly amazing and humbling stuff. From brownies, people give me a lot of brownies. I love chocolate brownies, they’re great. I collect Saint Christophers, this one was given to me by a guy named Dave Kelly who’s a lovely guy in New York. People have given me crazy stuff and I’m always humbled by it. I always have to end up shipping boxes of cool shit back home.

C: And there are a lot of people who are starting to get Frank Turner tattoos…

FT: Yeah that’s kind of a thing now, which initially I was kind of ho-hum about and I just wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I have tons of band tattoos and I think the thing is that I just don’t automatically hold myself in the same head space as Black Flag or The Hold steady or whatever. But I guess people do think that about what I do and I’ll probably get comfortable with it eventually one day. It’s cool because it’s a community thing now. It’s nice.

C: What’s up next for you?

FT: Well I’m a workaholic. We’re on tour for the rest of this year and probably the first half of next year as well, just making sure everyone knows about Tape Deck Heart. I’ve kind of written another album already, which is great, but all the way through my career to date has been bam bam bam. Part of me thinks I should possibly put it on ice and just think about it for a little while rather than diving straight into it. But then again, maybe not. We’ll see.

Keep an eye out for my article on www.faze.ca and check out http://frank-turner.com for more Frank Turner updates. Be sure to take a listen to his newest album, Tape Deck Heart!

- Christina

Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28

Osheaga 2013 | GROENLAND

During Osheaga I sat down with two of the members of Montreal-based band Groenland. Sabrina Halde and Jean-Vivier Levesque were the founders of the group and eventually added four more musicians to make it complete. They incorporate a lot of different instruments, from the ukulele and keys to the violin and a melodica (which is that little piano that you blow into, see images here). I caught their live set and they were great!

Check out their music video for The Things I've Done:

Here's a bit from our interview:

 

For someone who hasn’t heard your music yet, how would you describe it to them?

Sabrina: We often say it’s orchestral indie pop because of the strings, the ukulele and stuff like that.

What was your reaction when you saw your name on this year’s Osheaga lineup?

S: It was hard to believe. I thought maybe if everything went well, maybe next year if we’re lucky. So this was a surprise.

Jean-Vivier: We weren’t supposed to play but then they added us on. We didn’t know until last minute.

You just released your debut album, The Chase - Do you have a favourite song from it?

S: I like "26 Septembre."

JV: I like "Daydreaming." We weren’t too sure what to do with this song, but it came out well.

Groenland @ Osheaga

Being from Montreal, has the city influenced you at all as artists?

S: Yeah I guess so.

JV: Yeah, we know all the bands from Montreal.

S: We’ve been in the scene for a long time and I think it’s cool that Canadian artists come to Montreal. There’s a lot going on for musicians in Montreal.

What pushes you to keep making music?

S: For me, it’s not really a decision.

JV: You don’t have a choice.

S: You know that’s what you do, that’s what you’re good at.

What advice do you have for aspiring musicians?

S: Trust your gut. If you think that’s what you should do, go all the way.

J: Be hard on yourself.

Keep and eye out for my article on www.faze.ca & be sure to visit http://www.groenlandband.com/

- Christina

Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28

Osheaga 2013 | OBERHOFER

Photo via Facebook

My first interview of Osheaga this year was with a Brooklyn-based band that goes by the name of Oberhofer. Formed by Brad Oberhofer and joined by Ben, Matt, Pete, and Dylan (Dylan however was replaced by Marty for this set due to injury), the guys have been playing shows and promoting their album latest album Notalgia. We had a lovely chat about their music, group dynamic, and Matt's eyelashes. It was a lot of fun.

If you haven't heard of them, here's one of their tracks - "Away Frm U"

Here are some highlights from the interview: 

For someone who hasn’t heard of your music yet, how would you describe it to them?

Marty: Well, we could say the good old answer…

Brad: Wait, the good old answer being: Himalayan jump through volcanic lava?

Pete: Or a bowl of blackberries with some vodka in it served over meat.

Brad: There you go.

How has New York influenced you guys as musicians?

Brad: In New York, you meet a lot more musicians every day and you’re exposed to a greater variety of music every day. You’re hanging out with different people and you have a different lifestyle. Everything is a lot more frantic. I don’t think there’s a direct correlation though between any change in sound or change in aesthetic being from Washington State and New York. But there probably are some subconscious affectations.

How would you describe your group dynamic?

Matt: It’s like a three-legged race. We’re all just trying to hold on to each other and get there as quickly as we can.

Marty: You’re amazing Matt.

Brad: I don’t know if you’ve noticed Matt’s eyelashes, but they are exceptionally beautiful. And long. The prettiest eyelashes I’ve ever seen on anyone ever. What do you have to say about Matt’s eyelashes? How do they compare to any other eyelashes you’ve ever seen?

Me: They’re the prettiest ones I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

Matt: Thank you.

Brad: Thank you, interview’s over. You did great.

*laughter

So what’s the most challenging part of being a musician?

Brad: Well it’s trying to get people to support your ideas; logistically, financially, and also to express ideas that are musical and melodic and not written in verbal language, verbally.

Marty: A lot of communication issues. A lot of hands in the pot. A lot of people not always communicating as well as they could be. It’s about getting people to be straight.

How do you guys like Montreal?

Matt: Montreal gets intimidatingly party mode sometimes. We went out last night near where we were staying and it was intimidating. It was a little frightening at first.

Pete: There were several fights at the bar we were at.

Me: Probably because of our drinking age…

Matt: That one bar was kind of a crappy bar and it was amateur hour there, so we felt super old, but we had a couple beers and we settled in and had a great time. This town knows how to have a good time. Thanks for having us.

Ben: And we saw a guy get walloped by a car when we were walking home. He wasn’t wearing a helmet.

Marty: Wear your helmet.

Pete: That way you won’t get blood all over people.

Brad: Ben got bled on last night.

Marty: Ben had blood all over his hands, it was disgusting.

**Then they started listing off things you should always have with you, here’s what would be in their survival packs:

“Bring a pair of doctor’s gloves wherever you go.”

“You never know when you need doctor’s gloves.”

“A roll of gauze, bottle of hydrogen peroxide.”

“Keep an iron lung in your backpack if you can.”

“Stiletto heels.”

“Definitely a mini jaws of life.”

“Space blankets.”

“Fresh pawns.”

“Trench tool.”

“Avalanche radio.”

“Flare gun.”

“Shovel.

“Pike.”

“Pile driver, for driving piles.”

Me: Oh wow, you guys are prepared for anything. And for surviving in the music world, what advice do you have for aspiring musicians?

Brad: Just believe in yourself and work until you have something that you believe in. Don’t let other people influence whether or not you think that it’s good. If your intuition is telling you it’s good, just believe in yourself.

Then I asked who they would love to invite over for dinner and here were their dream dinner guests:

Brad: Andre 3000

Matt: A young Nelson Mandala, Michael McDonald, and Elvira because I love variety.

Pete: Beetle Juice and Michael Keaton. And Alec Baldwin.

Ben: I would put the Twelve Apostles through a Tough Mudder competition and the first three to finish would get to eat supper with me.

Marty: New York public radio personality Brian Lehrer, Michael Jordan, and Bill Clinton. Actually, screw Bill Clinton. Rick Moranis. Actually, Bill Clinton can still come, but Rick Moranis has to come first.

Be sure to check them out at http://oberhofermusic.com/

and keep an eye out for my article on www.faze.ca!

- Christina

Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28

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Osheaga 2013

Last weekend, I got to head over to Osheaga for my second time as media for Faze Magazine and I was super stoked to see some of my fave artists live. From Macklemore and Ellie Goulding to Vampire Weekend and Kendrick Lamar, the lineup definitely had me excited. I also got to throw in some interviews (stay tuned for those) and still have time to enjoy the festival with my friends who made it out to Montreal as well.

Check out some of my pics:

 Poutine.

 VIP area

 H&M DIY clothing booth

Next up: Interviews with Frank Turner, Oberhofer, Groenland, C2C, and Robert DeLong!

- Christina
Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28