It has been quite a journey watching Eric San transform love over the years from a scratch DJ/producer to a rounded entertainer traveling the world with family-friendly shows. This production features 14 performers, multiple miniature sets, live puppetry, cinematography, and live music by Kid Koala accompanied by a string trio. Storyville Mosquito is a truly one-of-a-kind live theatre experience.

Our team has an opportunity to visit the set during a soundcheck for a behind-the-scenes look at the production and we’d like to take you along with us. Let’s go!

See the complete list of upcoming tour dates on kidkoala.com/tour and take a look inside San’s home studio here.

The post Behind the scenes at Kid Koala’s “Storyville Mosquito” appeared first on Quip Magazine.

The Festival De Musique Émergente (FME) is unique by its origin and in its nature. Rouyn-Noranda is a small town in Southwestern Quebec, the center of the Abitibi region. The town grew (years ago) around the mining industry and as the mining industry subsided while the population grew, the people in Rouyn-Noranda came up with new ways to occupy their time and bring people into the region – a variety of festivals from music to film and food.

FME was founded 13 years ago by a small, but ambitious group of people. “People used to go to Montreal to see music,” says Sandy Boutin, festival founder, “and it’s a long journey, so we decided to bring musicians here.” The goal was to create a music festival that everyone in the city can be a part of in some way and learn about new and emerging artists. The organizers get hundreds of submissions and a small committee decides on who to invite, but not without disagreements, laughs Boutin. Over the years FME has become a cultural center and a place where industry professionals from across the world network (read: party) and discover new music.

For most attendees, the FME experience begins with a journey. Whether it is a road trip or a suspiciously small plane that makes a stopover, you quickly realize you are about to enter into the “middle of nowhere” – a quote that can be boldly attributed to half of the people that I met that weekend (read: a lot). 

Although Rouyn-Noranda is one of the largest cities in Quebec, it is small and could hardly be called a city (especially if you come from one of those big ones like Toronto or Paris). The entire town is transformed by the FME crew and volunteers: a variety of art installations indicate participating restaurants and pubs, the windows of local shops are plastered with festival posters and people are wandering the town with branded yellow cups of beer, hopping from venue to venue collecting stamps and nothing seems to be further than a 10-minute walk. “So we can just take our beer from here to there!?” –  Yes, yes you can. You can also purchase the said beer at the nearby grocery store and smoke on the patio. To no surprise this freedom of intoxication creates a very civil and friendly environment, no one is in a rush to find the last call and when one comes there are other options.

The heart of the festival is the artist village, which by day is a family playground and by night a hub for all FME activity and a place where you might find people you lost. Working our way through the various crowds, past a rather cheerful metal performance, we find ourselves at the Cabaret De La Dernière Chance for Heat, a Montreal-based, English-speaking quartet who describe their music as feel-good rock. True to that description Heat is a lo-fi rock band performing, in a relaxed attitude, the type of music you could imagine yourself skateboarding to in a sunny park. Susil Sharma’s voice is laid back, almost lazy, but it draws in a large crowd, filling the Cabaret from the back to the front.

Over the 4 days that FME ran, the festival showcased 70 bands and solo artists plus over 15 surprise shows that you learned about an hour or two before they happened. “Pst pst!” there is one in the alleyway on your way to dinner or one in the pop-up record shop near the pop-up bar, and then there was that one in the hotel room you could just stroll into. While 70 might not seem like a particularly large number in comparison to events like SXSW, this festival is not about hustling and the obvious concentration on quality over quantity is one of the things that makes it easy to enjoy.

A handful of shows took place during the day in various cafes and alleyways and one of the biggest standouts for this crew of one was Hein Cooper. A solo performer based in Australia, whose charming looks and voice created a bit of traffic on the sidewalk, but past that face is a very promising artist. Cooper’s music might, at first listen, fall into the folk singer/songwriter bag, but further listening is a lot more complex and more at home within the indie-electronic pop genre. Being an Indica Records artist, Cooper is no stranger to Montreal where he recorded his debut self-titled EP last year. While he has gone through a range of cities across Canada and the U.S. his name is not yet well recognized, but it undoubtedly will be sooner than later.

FME streets don’t really get busy until after dinner, but somewhere out there is a house party, and just nearby there is a pool party, and in half an hour we are invited to the SOCAN BBQ where my dinner date was a 2-hour impromptu conversation with Ken Fox from The Fleshtones. “I joined the band 30 years ago, but they still call me the new guy” he chuckles. “Isn’t this what we’re here for – to meet people?” points out a fellow journalist. Since my arrival, people kept telling me The Fleshtones are a must-see show. The band has been around for a good four decades and has stacks of records and thousands of shows lining their way into people’s iPods. This is an original rock band, with matching (shiny) outfits and riotous, contagious on-stage energy. People who saw them on Friday saw them on Saturday, and it seems like no one had missed a Fleshtones show.

Earlier that night, L’Agora des Arts, a church across from the artist village, filled in for a magnetic performance by Parisian rocker, Jeanne Added. Her strongly opinionated fan base left the venue as soon as Added wrapped up but in no time the room filled with another, equally passionate set of fans for San Francisco’s The Dodos. Meric Long and Logan Kroeber are a progressive indie rock duo, Kroeber on drums/vocal support and Long on vocals/guitar. The band has been around for quite a few years and has developed a distinct sound described by Pitchfork as a “symbiotic back and forth [between] alternately-tuned guitar sounds and insanely intricate drum patterns.” Though they do dance in their music videos dancing is not what you will see on stage, only rocking, lots and lots of subtle rocking out.

Late night Saturday turned into a rave at Petit Théâtre du Vieux Noranda, a concert venue located in the artist village hub. Starting at 2 a.m. with Molly, a rising star in the Parisian club scene, the venue began to fill with deep house and techno. Molly’s music is clean and direct much like her on-stage presence – she herself didn’t move at all behind the decks, but that didn’t seem to stop the crowd from limbering up properly before the highly anticipated Das Mörtal set. Born Cristóbal Cortes, Mörtal is heavily inspired by 90s German techno and that influence is immediately obvious. This is dirty, loud, industrial techno accompanied by seizure-inducing strobe lights just like it was meant to be heard. The evening came to a  withering end sometime before 5 a.m. with IPHAZE. A French duo consisting of Patrice Cadiou and Jean Davoisne, between the two of them, create a visually captivating melodic bass set using analog and digital instruments in combination with mechanically produced samples. And on the way out a stranger (at that time) taught me how to pin my hair with a chopstick. 

Sunday proved to be an incredibly sunny day and after familiarizing myself with the city, I realized that a single street that changes names a couple of times can take you from one end of FME to the other. In less than 20 minutes from the further end, I made it over to a packed and sweaty Café-Bar L’Abstracto for a Chapelier Fou performance. Within the first few strings, France’s Louis Warynski’s solo project became a four-piece ensemble that enveloped the entire audience with its pure charm and instrumental originality. Switching from string instruments to keyboards and a variety of electronic music equipment, the four members were creating songs right in front of the audience, making it a performance impossible to forget. Full disclosure: this is a show that was just short of magical and really should be seen live.

The evening shows were beginning to pop up in smaller venues across town and since Safia Nolin came as a highly recommended performance, I dove into the hot pit of fire that L’Agora des Arts had become to listen to some sad, sad French music. Her lyrics will tear your soul to pieces, but her personality, clearly unmoved by her own sadness, brings vain oddness to her performance: “Hi, I’m 23…I like Harry Potter…and I sorta, kind of like this festival”.

Sunday night at FME 2015 has become known as a metal night. A variety of heavy metal bands had been playing around throughout the weekend, but on this night in particular the Petit Théâtre had been transformed into a metal hub, hosting Canada’s Barricade, Abitibi-native death metal band Abitabyss and one that was on everyone’s list – Fleshgod Apocalypse. If the name does not say enough, synchronized hair flips, black tuxedos, and the opera singer really do get the point across.

To wrap up the festival, Scène Paramount opened its doors to Kid Koala. Wearing a signature Koala suit and surrounded by boxes of vinyl, Eric San went right into his most popular tracks, but as the suit came off San began to introduce new mixes such as The Bug’s “Function” and “Poison Dart” and to my surprise a remix of a more mainstream track, “Goooo” by TNGHT. Having roots in the Toronto music scene, this is the kind of stuff that sets the party on fire for me, it’s the grimy trap that has everyone tucked in their elbows and bouncing, but this crowd, though clearly enjoying the show, was not on the same page. No one else is excited about British grime? Well, all right then…

About an hour later, San had rather abruptly ended his set and the crowds began to wander towards hotels, but that was only Part I of the evening for many. Multi-venue festivals that bring in people from across the world have a tendency to get locals and visitors alike more relaxed and open. If you arrive alone you will not remain alone, and you will likely not leave with the people you came with. Your newly acquired friends will wander off and be replaced by newer friends and those small groups of likely soon-to-be strangers (but not always) become your squad for the night. The after-party turns into the after-after-party while the people in the squad swap in and out as some of them split off home.

As a general rule, this late at night, no one knows what time it is: we’ve been out for hours and 3 hours ago everyone gave up on looking for a phone charger. “Who is this guy, he’s not even breathing!” I ask while watching some dude beatbox on the staircase. In no time the other two newly acquired friends begin to contribute to the tune with vocals and more beats (the trio were members of Mclean, Konflit, and, well let’s just call’m Felix, everyone else did). While I am not a fan of campfire and guitar type of situations this was pretty damn mind-blowing and seemed like a great way to end this already random weekend. The cool thing is that I will have to hold on to that memory, most of the memories from that weekend, like people held on to things in the old days – technology-free, all on my own.

Images: 1, 2, 4 & 7 are by Christian Leduc for FME. The rest are by Kateryna Topol, Quip Mag.

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While the warm sun rays were still fighting their way through the doors Kid Koala (Eric San) entered the stage for the opening show. San didn’t seem to be phased by the thin crowd and went straight into the set with his usual 3-turntable set up. Giving the night a slow and smooth start with older tracks, like “Drunk Trumpet” and “Moon River,” San got most of the room move closer to the stage. In his true tradition (minus the koala suit) following an overly excited 8 o’clock announcement Koala got into the pit for “Yo Gabba Gabba” and to my surprise almost everyone in the room got down to the ground with him. The second half of the set picked up the pace with some new renditions of Beastie Boys, White Stripes, and some classics from the Bug and Outcast.

Within a few minutes of a short break the room filled in and the full Deltron 3030 team (Del the Funky Homosapien, Dan the Automator, and Kid Koala) joined by a couple additional band members, came out on stage. Del, wearing what seemed like a picnic blanket back pack, spared no time on small talk, the beats and the words went flying into the crowd as soon as he got to the center of the stage.

The trio has been touring with Event II since the album came out last year. Despite the over a decade long break since the first album the audience acted like no time had past. There is something about  clean, sharp, thematic hip hop shows accentuated by a scratch DJ that can always get the crowd going. Bopping, thrusting their fists up in the air, and singing along the audience seemed to love it all. Playing a mix of tracks from the first, self-titled, album and and  Event II Del danced while Dan occasionally rapped over in cool composure making eye contact with small bits of the audience.

Event II is a concept album about a hero from the future but something, everything about this show felt more like the past. Deltron 3030 have a fairly distinct sounds and if that sound is not new to you now than it will take you back to the party days of 2001. Lucky for them sometimes nostalgia is just the right thing.

The post The future is now: Deltron 3030 at Tattoo appeared first on Quip Magazine.

Hello world, and welcome to Toronto!

The night started off with our own Turnstylez collective who wrapped up their set with a little two-man tandem routine which was more than enough to set the crowd on fire. By the time Shortkut hit the stage the room was filled to capacity and all of the said friends and fans were ready to cheer with all of their props ready in hand.

“What brought you here?”

“Our friend is one of the competitors, we came here from Sweden”

There is no music event in Toronto that brings this kind of crowd into the city. People do not travel from across the globe for the NXNE or CMW but this, this is an event that even Macklemore showed up to.

The first night’s competitors were Azerbaijan’s DJ Twist, DJ RayRay from Taiwan, Argentina’s Lukas Canaves, and the night’s winner, DJ Byte from Chile. The skill and musical variety that competitors brought to the table was incredibly impressive, but then you don’t make it to the World Finals on just a little enthusiasm.

Kid Koala headlined the evening with Vinyl Vaudeville 3.0. Watching the crowd, both confused and amused by the puppets and burlesque dancers on the Koala’s stage was beyond entertaining. Some people didn’t seem to know what to do with themselves especially when things started to cool down to the sounds of “Moon River,” but in San’s true fashion every song came with a little story and who doesn’t love a good story.

“You know what I hate about Toronto” complained the Swedish, “everything shuts down at 2AM.” Yes, we get that a lot in this town, but nothing is stopping you from starting the day with a “Good Morning!” glass of mimosa.

The puppets went back into the box and all of the super friendly people with various accents went on looking for their way back to the Thompson hotel for the night’s rest. Or the rest of the party.

Image courtesy of Red Bull Canada

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He’s toured with Radiohead and the Beastie Boys, wrote music for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, worked with the Gorillaz and Deltron 3030 (“The hip-hop supergroup,” in the words of David Letterman when they appeared on his show Oct 15). Almost single-handedly, he’s lifted scratching into a new stratosphere, creating the genre “turntable blues” with his last solo album, 12-bit Blues last year. Especially with slower tracks like “5” on bit Blues, the Kid has proven that electricity has feelings.

Reviewing some of San’s quotes from BrainyQuote.com is a nice way of summing up his career up until now. So let’s do it: “Eventually we want to do a puppet musical with turntables in the orchestra pit.”

From a young age, San was not a fan of boundaries. He discovered turntables at 12, a welcome break from the classical music lessons he was undertaking since he was 4.

Instead of focusing all his energy on a degree in Early Childhood Education from McGill University, San spent most of his time playing with turntables or handing out copies of his demo Scratchcratchratchatch.

As an adult, he continues to cross lines. In addition to being a world-famous turntablist, he’s a graphic novelist, a businessman, and a father of two girls.

Kid Koala’s 5^th solo album, 12 bit Blues is named after the main instrument San used to make the gritty, out-of-this-world sound. The E-mu SP-1200 has a 12-bit resolution (thus scoring even more clever points for the album’s title) and was out of this world innovative way back in 1987. It shaped hip-hop music around that time, but nowadays it’s hopelessly out of date. “Your phone has more technology than 10,000 of these SP-1200s,” San said for Interview Magazine. “As far as music technology is concerned, it’s the most obsolete machine you could possibly use.” It is indeed obsolete, but using it is pure brilliance; the album is a jukebox sent from outer space.

“If you can understand the humour in the drawing part you’ll probably get the humour in the audio part.”

San began drawingas soon as his hands could grasp a crayon. As his fine-motor skills developed, he’s published several graphic novels, including the science-fiction graphic novel Nufonia Must Fall, which is apparently one of Björk’s favourite graphic novels. It’s one of the few graphic novels out there to come with a CD by the author.

The description from his website is pure adorable: “This is a 340-page gray scale graphic novel about a robot who tries to write love songs but cannot sing. Accompanied by a soundtrack composed and performed on Wurlitzer and multiple turntables, this romantic story introduces the Nufonia robot and his love interest Malorie.”

San said the visuals and music always worked in tandem with him. He’s drawn to turntables and graphic novels in particular because they are two mediums that encourage the suspension of belief.

“In turntables, you can take a human voice and bend it out of the range of what’s normal, and it’s acceptable, because people are like “Oh that’s a turntable that’s doing that, not a real person. I can listen to it and it’s not going to scare me.” And with comics, it’s the same thing. You can draw a character with a propeller on their head and make them float away and there’s a suspension of disbelief. People say “Yeah, I buy that.” (full interview here).

San is spending the rest of the year on a North American tour. Naturally he won’t wrap that tour up in North America, but in London, on New Year’s Eve at the Village Underground. And in true San fashion, he’ll be working on a “mini-mini opera” in his downtime.

The post Kid Koala, looking back and moving forward appeared first on Quip Magazine.

Rifflandia takes place over four days at venues around downtown Victoria (Vancouver Island’s largest and most populated city), with two main stages at Royal Athletic Park. It’s kind of like a choose-your-own-adventure. Plus, Victoria is so small that you see everyone you know, making it one of those magical, all-nighter adventures you talk about for months afterwards.

A strange mix of old school electro, indie rock, and Canadian talent, this year’s festival also turned out to be pleasantly hip-hop heavy and a little bit nostalgic.

Hot Hot Heat played on Saturday afternoon and sounded exactly like they did on the radio, circa 2004. Stars, Hawksley Workman and Souls of Mischief also graced the festival with their old school ways. (Souls are getting a bit old by the way – wasn’t ‘93, like, twenty years ago?)

But that’s not to say Rifflandia is for the uncool. Oozing West Coast everything – from trendy food trucks to colourful hippie fashions – there were a ton of great acts and, unfortunately, not enough time to see them all, even when running from venue to venue. Kid Koala, Mykki Blanco, and Bosnian Rainbows (Omar Rodríguez-López’s new project) were a few of the standout performances.

St. Lucia was also a breath of fresh air. They were so good live, in fact, they could have converted many a nonfan into die-hard supporters. Despite some technical difficulties, their set ended on a high note with the much-loved hit “September,” which was probably the highlight of the festival, as well-dressed West Coasters swayed in the afternoon sun.

Wintersleep was another highlight, drawing in a more wholesome crowd. They played a tight set, appropriately timed during nice weather, “You guys are fun. This is awesome!” they shouted, after playing their gorgeous new single, “Nothing Is Anything”.

In true festival fashion, rain poured during the headliners on the final night, making the whole experience a little more authentic, if not hardcore. The rain cast a spell on people drunkenly grooving to the last of the live music. Big Boi stole the show as he sat on a throne and pumped out his famous rhymes, including a few OutKast hits, obviously.

Matt & Kim also gave an outstanding performance that could have been hit or miss. Their fun energy in songs such as the brilliant “Let’s Go” and “Block After Block” remixed with hip hop beats, made up for the cold, blustery rain. Finally, it felt like a badass West Coastin’ festival.

Despite seamless vocals by Jade Castrinos, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros delivered an extremely lacklustre close to the weekend, especially in comparison to last year’s performance by Mother Mother, who topped off the festival with an epic, upbeat show.

The rain finally stopped, and crowds tiredly yawned their way home to recoup from four days of hearty fun.

Rifflandia, while still figuring out its direction as a festival, is most definitely the magical, mystery kind, with a little love and nostalgia, too.

The post All the magical moments at Rifflandia Music Festival appeared first on Quip Magazine.

Whatever you’ll call it, 12 Bit Blues, fourth album by Canadian DJ savant Kid Koala is a squirming, filthy quilt of savage, grimy, blues-inspired electronica.

The album is overwhelmingly intimate. For being so heavily chopped and spliced, there’s a frail, humanistic undercurrent running through the twelve somber, skittering tracks. It’s slightly morbid in parts; a kind of Frankensteinian symbiosis of our new technological anxieties, backlit with the ever-prescient fears of morality, depression, and death.

It’s post-modern blues.

And I guess that’s the intent. Kid Koala produced the entire record on an E-mu SP-1200 sampler, a bygone relic of 1987 that was once considered the absolute zenith of beat production. It’s a duality of sorts; new-world sensibilities about old-world turmoil.

In a sense, it’s frail, old acoustic blues for the apathetic internet crowd. It’s all recorded acoustically, in a sense, with a relic of a sampler, and the space, uncertainty, and age are all palpable in the scritching, writhing beats and crackly, low-fi hum. It’s like a warm, hairline-fractured skyline of yellow, blue and gold.

Each track draws from a personal memory or experience. “1 Bit Blues” is a reflection on a young DJ’s life, Eric’s first experience with SP-1200, and “2 Bit Blues” is his take on a party track written in the romantic 6/8 tempo. Track “5 Bit Blues” is inspired by the fierceness of Montreal seasons (both of them), and relies heavily on the dichotomy of absolute bone-chilling cold versus incapacitating humidity and heat. If nothing else, this is a record heavily steeped in contrast and conflict.

Throughout the twelve songs, Koala spins sentiment around with interesting and intricate rhythms through humming, sputtering glitches. It’s gruff and glowering on the surface, a gaunt, bleak swamp swagger, but underneath the muck, there’s a staggeringly beautiful and honest record.

You can’t go home again, but you can put your past to good use.

The post Album review: Kid Koala “12 Bit Blues” appeared first on Quip Magazine.

Aside from being a vinyl wizard, Koala always throws a great show. Entertainment is never lacking, and the good vibes never fail to spread. Space Cadet Headphone Experience, however, is a whole new level of live music performance.

As a part of Toronto’s Wavelength Music Series and the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF), Kid Koala presented his new graphic novel, Space Cadet, in a live, headphone-enhanced gallery performance; in a nutshell, the audience sat on the ground, leaning against “space pods” (cushions) while experiencing the show through headphones. All of it.

Space Cadet is a sad, sad story, but when told in a live setting, it seemed quite comedic. Every frame shown was accompanied by a personal story as told by Eric from behind his turntables. Laughing at his own jokes and mocking his lack of art education, he seemed far removed from the shy and quiet man we spoke with previously in his studio.

Two things we’ve learned about Kid Koala during the show are: 1) The name comes from a childhood trip to the Zoo during which, it seems, his family considered adopting a koala, and 2) the Koala plush suit is not his personal preference, but is the lasting consequence of a lost bet – 100 live shows in a Koala suit. Gambling is a dangerous sport, kids.

Though the suit may seem a little odd in a club setting it was rather appropriate for this particular show. An entourage of 10-14-year-olds had the time of their life jumping around with Eric to Reach Up/Reach High. The adults seemed to enjoy the exercise just as much. Like we said, utterly contagious.

The Space Cadet tour continues through to Vancouver for 2 shows (June 27/28), and following that, Koala’s new project, Deltron 3030, will host their first-ever show in Toronto during the Luminato Festival on June 14 and 15.  Also underway are new projects with The Slew and a new album, 12-Bit Blues, a blues-based production with an exciting new live show in the works.

For more tour dates, visit Kid Koala’s site.

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If you have ever seen him live, you will never forget it. Kid Koala’s shows are filled with contagious positive energy. Last month, with had the pleasure of spending some time with Eric in his studio, and it has been fascinating to get an insider perspective on how his creations come to life. Everything in his space is reflective of who he is as a person: musician, collector, artist, and family man.

Photos by Rodolfo Moraga

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